How have you grown as a teacher from this experience so far (skills, understanding, or knowledge gained) (lesson planning, classroom management, demonstrations, etc…)?

I would say that I have definitely grown as a teacher in lesson planning and classroom management. While teaching this class, I have noticed that I got much better at being able to clearly demonstrate projects as well. When working with younger children, I learned that if I was able to over-explain steps to complete a project then I was doing just what I was supposed to because they need to have the projects explained over and over in order to understand how to complete the task.

What new understandings do you have about children/education/your role in the classroom?

New understandings that I have gained would be how to be extremely flexible while teaching. Not all students are going to like the projects that we have planned, so we got very good at being able to switch some things around to make the project seem more appealing to the children. I also got better at planning ahead of time for things to do if we had extra time at the end of class.

Has this experience made you more confident as a teacher? What made you happy about teaching this semester? Are you finding joy in this experience? (describe/explain)

I would say that this experience has made me much more confident as a teacher. PAINT experiences always make me happy about teaching throughout the semester and happy about teaching in the future. This experience allows future educators to get more practice in and allows us to become more confident about teaching through hands-on experiences. I also love that we get to teach by using the arts because it makes future teachers aware of how simple it is to incorporate art into lessons. I would recommend this experience to anyone!