Behind the eyes
The bright summer of 2013 offered a great opportunity of learning, teaching and art. This opportunity was free, local and within my comfort zone. Art fusion was a free traditional drawing and painting class, hosted by a couple during the summer, accepting ages six through ten, held every Sunday. Attendance was no higher than ten. The hosts were not just generous, talented and skilled in the traditional arts, but were also socially and economically upright.
They needed helpers so I decided to volunteer as an assistant. I gave any struggling students a bit of help, and mostly tried to keep them on pace.
After my conditioning of college, I wanted to immerse myself into my local community.
Nearly two years later, Art fusion had grown almost exponentially, including three grade levels, with roughly fifteen students per class. The students always have a snack provided by the hosts, at the end of the class. The class was intended to be forty-five minutes with fifteen minutes snack time.
Some of the projects were somewhat intricate, and may have been too difficult for the grade level learning them, but the kids were always smart enough to complete them. Some students even went beyond teacher expectations, so the projects only became more and more detailed. After one lesson a few students ran up to me and begged me for help to continue working on some of their previous projects. The class was over, but I told them to make sure they joined us for the next class, and to be on time.
In the later classes, there were students that insisted on working on their projects well into snack time, professing that they would rather practice art than have the snack. Naturally my heart was warmed by students' engagement in their learning. Conscious of a student's passion to learn and exceed my expectations, I discovered immense energy and motivation for teaching.
At the start of 2017 I started substitute teaching, and have had both rough and easy days. The roughness of those days, however, dissipated, as I was often thanked by students and other teachers for filling in a teacher's absence. These are only a few things that inspire me.
They needed helpers so I decided to volunteer as an assistant. I gave any struggling students a bit of help, and mostly tried to keep them on pace.
After my conditioning of college, I wanted to immerse myself into my local community.
Nearly two years later, Art fusion had grown almost exponentially, including three grade levels, with roughly fifteen students per class. The students always have a snack provided by the hosts, at the end of the class. The class was intended to be forty-five minutes with fifteen minutes snack time.
Some of the projects were somewhat intricate, and may have been too difficult for the grade level learning them, but the kids were always smart enough to complete them. Some students even went beyond teacher expectations, so the projects only became more and more detailed. After one lesson a few students ran up to me and begged me for help to continue working on some of their previous projects. The class was over, but I told them to make sure they joined us for the next class, and to be on time.
In the later classes, there were students that insisted on working on their projects well into snack time, professing that they would rather practice art than have the snack. Naturally my heart was warmed by students' engagement in their learning. Conscious of a student's passion to learn and exceed my expectations, I discovered immense energy and motivation for teaching.
At the start of 2017 I started substitute teaching, and have had both rough and easy days. The roughness of those days, however, dissipated, as I was often thanked by students and other teachers for filling in a teacher's absence. These are only a few things that inspire me.