Blur of a First Day

My first day of teaching was a learning curve. An undulating, shallow and then steep, up and down learning curve.

For somebody who had never taught Visual Arts, I had really thought I had hit the mark with my scope and sequence and lesson plans for my two Year 7 Visual Arts classes. I honestly thought that Picasso himself would have been proud of what I brought to the table for the kids to work on and learn. I ensured that the lesson content covered all areas of the Professional Teaching Standards such as subject/curricular knowledge, varying approaches to learning, linking assessment to learning and even the incorporation of ICT into a number of the lessons planned (NSW Institute of Teachers, 2005).

My 7ART3 class ate the lesson content up as if it were a New York cheesecake. They engaged with the SMARTboard content, were creative in their logo designs and even went so far as to present their designs to the rest of the class. I decided that I would continue the design route by allowing them to design their own movie posters, flyers and media releases in order to portray how logo’s and design are used in advertising and Visual Arts.

My 7ART7 class did not accept the lesson content with open arms. I was warned by my supervising teacher that they were notoriously known as a ‘troublesome’ class. With one child (‘Jeremy’) having just been released from juvenile hall and a few others close to facing expulsion, I knew I had my work cut out for me. As I started the lesson, the kids were more interesting in playing with the SMARTboard than what was displayed on it. Several kids ripped up their pieces of paper when it came to designing a logo and sat there refusing to do work. When the bell rang for lunch and I instructed the kids to remain seated, ‘Jeremy’ and ‘Alan’ walked out of the room. The only plus side to the lesson was that a few of the kids who were utterly obsessed with graffiti and ‘tagging’ objects around town were able to come up with clothing design labels using their graffiti tags. As soon as I indicated this to the rest of the class, even ‘Jeremy’ decided to attempt some sort of work before running out of the classroom.

I knew that I had my work cut out for me with this class, but eventually I would establish rapport with the students, with even ‘Jeremy’ attempting classroom work. Considering it was so close to the end of the school year, I couldn’t help but feel a little proud of myself.