The Quest's Finale

This experience has been wonderful. I have learned a great deal about teaching and how to interact with students in meaningful ways. Working with the Arts Bridge Program has given me the opportunity to gain insight into how a classroom can be run in order to maintain order and foster learning.
When I first set out on this expedition, I had no experience with teaching in a classroom. I was anxious, to say the least, and wanted to do a good job. The lesson that day went alright, but Mrs. Black was able to help me improve by pointing out areas were I was lacking. Her advice and counsel helped me avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. It also gave me opportunities to see how I could alter my teaching strategies to best fit the classroom's environment.
One technique that really helped was getting the students more involved during the instruction portion of my lessons. In my first lesson, I seemed to bore the children because I was just talking at them and their attention spans are not the same as college students. Mrs. Black mentioned that I need to get the students involved, so I tried that with all of my subsequent lessons. With that new approach, the students were much more enthusiastic about my lessons and were excited by the art principles being taught as well as the general knowledge associated with our lesson.
Because I was getting the students more involved, there was a new issue created. How do I maintain order and stay on course with the lesson. This I was able to solve due to my classes I was taking at BYU. I learned that you sometimes have to cut off the comments by stating that you will only be taking one or two more comments before moving on. That way the students know that the time to transition is coming up and not everyone can comment. For those students that really want to share, I also thought up the solution to give them the option to share their comment with you later during work time. This really worked well with the last lesson on Fables.
Mrs. Black also helped by sharing with me her hand clapping rhythm that she uses to get the students' attention. With that aid in place, I was able to quiet the students and explain portions of the assignment that I had forgotten to mention earlier. I was also able to use the technique so that I could mention something that I noticed that would benefit the whole class, such as a frequently asked question or an action that I noticed multiple students performing.
Some other aspects of my teaching that improved were my lesson plans. I became much better at laying out the procedures and remembering all of the steps. I was able to think ahead about the types of problems I thought my arise and come up with solutions beforehand. As I became familiar with the students and their level of experience, I was also able to adapt my lesson material so that I could effectively communicate what I wanted them to know.
I will carry these experiences with me into my student teaching and continue to improve my teaching practices as I gain more experience and enter new realms of teaching. Each classroom is different, so I will constantly be adapting and learning. With the lessons learned in Arts Bridge, I know that I can rise to the challenge and be the best teacher I can be.