ArtsBridge was a really wonderful experience for me. I felt like I grew a lot in this semester and that I was more able to find my teacher voice. My cooperating teacher, Mrs. Scharf, was so helpful and taught me a lot about classroom management. She is kind and patient with her students but she maintains a level of strictness in her class directing that allows students to see when they are misbehaving. We did a lot of fun art lessons as a class, and it was good for me to see how there are always adaptations that need to be made. No two classes were ever the same. My students were the best! I will miss them dearly and will always look fondly back at my first official art class.
On our last day of class, students brought in their favorite art work and we went around the room and looked at different projects students had experimented with. Mrs. Scharf brought out a bowl of pretzels and we had each student talk about something they liked in another's students work. The pretzels were a good incentive for the kids to start a discussion and I was really impressed and touched by the thoughtful comments each student made.
The students were very sweet and each wrote me a thank-you letter. Some students wrote how they looked forward to my visit each week and how I helped them see that they were good at art too. This is the reason I love to teach. I hope that I was a good influence for these kids and that they can have confidence in their abilities. I truly believe that all my students had wonderful potential. Any one of them could continue to pursue art seriously. I went around to each student before I left and handed them an art certificate and told them something personal about their art that I enjoyed. I could tell that some of these kids just needed a little encouragement and I hope my positive attitude helped ignite their creative juices.
I'm really grateful that I was able to have such a wonderful teacher and class this semester. Class wasn't always perfect but as we progressed each week, we really learned and grew together.
