Substitute Teaching

Yesterday, I had my first substitute teaching experience at Hackley School, a private institution in Tarrytown, NY that educates students from K-12.  The school is divided into three sections: the upper school, middle school, and lower school.  I substitute taught for the middle school art teacher and worked with students in grades 6th, 7th, and 8th.

The school day began at 8am, with a Friday morning assembly at which the week's athletic happenings were discussed.  The climate was comfortable, as Hackley is a private school with a moderate population.  I stood alongside the teachers, many of whom I know, who each took role on an Apple iPad, given to them by Hackley's administration.  That is one of the major differences between this institution and the Newburgh school I am doing my fieldwork in- there is no shortage of resources for Hackley teachers.  Brand new laptops are distributed to each faculty member every two years, this year being an off year, they were given iPads.  Each classroom has a SmartBoard, and there are annual bonding trips for each grade, involving overnight trips to camping sites.  Annual tuition to this school is about $20k per student.

It is notably demographically homogenous, though there are students attending on scholarship or special circumstance.  Many of the middle school students have been together since the lower school years, have great familiarity with the faculty, and play for local sports teams.  Some of the students expressed distress over the stereotyping they face as private school students.  When they tell their teammates they attend Hackley, many of them get the cold shoulder from then on.

I subbed for the middle school art teacher, whose classroom is double the size of the Newburgh classroom I am doing fieldwork in.  Work tables allow for 4 students at a time, and generally the students are allowed to choose where they'd like to work.  There are also approx. 20 easels available to the students, should they need.  There are four rooms off to the side of the classroom- one is the art teacher's office, the next three are storage areas with floor to ceiling cabinets for any and all supplies.  One of those rooms contains a barrel kiln, in which handbuilt sculptures will be fired later in the trimester.  The classes I worked with are enrolled in the art class that encompasses a broad range of media exploration.  They experiment with paint, craypas, printmaking, sculpting, and wood-working.  There are other teachers on site who specialize in photography, metals, or graphic design.  There is even a studio solely dedicated to pottery, though that is open to upper school students only.

One of the eye-catching details in my classroom was the poster titled "Elements and Principles of Design."  The projects really focused on these concepts.  One class worked on sketching from nature, which was supposedly to take place outside in the courtyard, but due to the unusually cold weather had to take place from inside the classroom.  Luckily, there are large windows lining the side of the very well-lit classroom, so there was ample space for the students to perch their sketchbooks.  I instructed the 6th graders to record the gist of what they saw outside, and focus on getting the large silhouettes of the trees before putting time into leaf details.  Some students captured a meandering trail and worked with perspective and subtractive highlighting to record the paved areas and masonry they saw outside the window.  One student really stuck out for me, as he asked for a different, softer type pencil to draw with, because his HB was "too hard to capture the trees."  He is the student with the smallest stature, who stands alone in the classroom because his peers don't like him too much.  When I spoke to other 6th grade teachers about him, they were pleased to discover his interest in art because he struggles in his other classes and is unbearably shy.  Many of his teachers smiled and thanked me for sharing this news with him, and they plan to implement some creative strategies to encourage him to come out of his shell.

7th and 8th graders worked with Craypas to illustrate cell drawings, which lead to an open discussion of what the students will cover in Biology class this year.  I shared stories with them about things I got to dissect when I was in middle school, resulting in responses of disgust and intrigue.  These groups were very talkative with each other, and required some reminding of what tasks they were to complete before the 40 minute period was over.  Another 7th grade group painted Piet Mondrian inspired canvases created by their teacher to practice color blending and the use of flat areas of color.  When I asked what background information their teacher gave them for the project, they cited Mondrian as the main source, but knew nothing more than a few examples of his work.  No concepts were discussed, no history was discussed, and nothing more than the final results of the work was familiar to the students.

The last class of the day was the 8th grade honors students, and there was a student absent so it was just me and 6 students.  The other classes had 16 students or less, but this one was almost too small.  It was a double block period, meaning they had a full 70 minutes to work on their numbered projects.  Many had landscape paintings propped on easels that they could work on, or had the option to begin cell drawings. All the classes had the opportunity to put final touches on previous projects, or have "free" drawing time, and this class was no exception.  This group was particularly interesting because they are more mature than the younger middle schoolers, but are still capable of acting very child-like.  Each student showed a balance of both of these traits, as they swapped stories about their lower school experience, but were then able to discuss more serious subjects, such as personal safety and skewed media perspective.  I was careful not to present to strong an opinion on anything discussed, and redirected any negative comments into a more constructive format.  When the students were discussing assemblies they'd had which focused on Facebook as a villain, I asked them what valuable information they had gotten from it.  I agreed with them that maybe a lot of the statistics are sensationalized to get a reaction, but they are based on facts.  Part of these lectures, I explained, are designed to get a visceral reaction from the students so the speaker knows they are actually listening.  They agreed that it is for their own good, as they are easily bored by these types of speakers.

Overall, the day was a success and I had a great time with the students.  I made sure to thank the students for their work and for inviting me into their classroom.  Some even opted to give me a high-five on the way out.  I saw many after school when leaving campus and was greeted in a friendly manner by all.  I think my personable approach to the students and willingness to let them experiment with materials while staying on task was an effective way to quickly forge a report with the students while maintaining a teacherly presence.  I hope to work with them again.