AED 495: ART EDUCATION STUDENT TEACHING PRACTICUM

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In the Fall of 2013, I completed the final step of my Bachelors of Science in Art Education through my student teaching practicum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I was placed in two different schools to give me a true K-12 expereince so I would best be prepared to work in any school community. I worked with middle school students at the Fanny Edel Falk Elementary School (a K-8 private laboratory school connected with the University of Pittsburgh) and elementary-age students at Colfax Elementary (a K-8 neighborhood Pittsburgh public school). These two setting gave me expereinces with children of all ages and varying economic and cultural backgrounds. I planned vigorous curriculum that met the district and state standards while managing classrooms with two drastically different schedule types and class sizes. I worked to make close relationships with my students while planning and instructing art projects that connected in a meaningful way to my students' lives. I worked to integrate myself into the schools by attending faculty meetings, observing master teachers at work, seeking feedback on my personal teaching strategies, collaborating art projects through multiple grade levels, and even organizing an after school event for a project that has made its way out into the Pittsburgh community. The eighth grade yarn bomb suit from Falk was featured in both the First Night Parade of 2014 and within/on the cover of Davis School Arts Magazine in October of 2014.