Reflections

After reading Speak, I can say that I can relate to the feeling the protagonist had about high school.  My freshman year, my older brother was a senior.  Yes this did have its perks, like the ride to school and knowing a few familiar faces in the hallways.  I mean, that is other than the teachers I had grown up around. Back in the days of running around the halls playing hide-and-seek and emptying lockers at the end of the year searching for "jackpots," but those days were all over by then.  Freshman year went by fine, then sophomore year I met a boy I dated for two years, he broke up with me once he got to college. Yep one of those stories. Then Senior came!  The best year of my high school years, because I was active, single, and finally had some great friends that I could count on.  But, just like in the book Speak, how the goofy art teacher gave a safe space for creativity...that is the same way I felt, throughout high school.  Every hour i got to spend in the art room, I was able to get away.  It didn't matter if I felt alone walking in, by the time I was in there and had my work out, I was content, and the days I felt on top of the world...it would still be my way of expression and focus.
     I do wish that my teachers were more creative in their lesson plannings and tied the work to "Big Ideas" which I feel are vital, now that I am at this stage in my courses. At the time, I was just happy to have the opportunity to create. 

This I believe...

Ever since I can remember, I have known what it is like to be in an art classroom. There were the times I got to visit my mom's classroom, then in elementary school, I not only took classes at school, but also took my mom's art classes after school.  I remember the closet set in to the right side of the room, right past the metal pencil sharpener (that never seemed to work).  It was packed full of magnificent materials that I only wished that ONE DAY I could get to play with them, but with my mom she always loved introducing new medias to me, that once I got to high school, I was able to bypass Art 1 class and go straight into Drawing and Painting class and quickly fell into my niche. From then on I knew that whatever I did in the future would have to include art.
   Now that I have only a semester left of my undergrad, before beginning my student teaching, the reality of becoming an art teacher is almost here!  I know that no matter where I end up that I want to help kids with creating art. You could say that I'm following in my mom's shoes, and even though I've always fought being a follower, I don't see following in her shoes as a bad thing.