Reflections on Pedagogy and Paint

Over the last year, my practice context has changed dramatically. I have started teaching full time at the local Montessori school where I was a substitute teacher for the last school year. I am currently teaching 6th grade ELA and have 2 separate periods for that class. I also teach 7th and 8th grade science. In our small charter school, I have one 8th grade class and our 7th grade class are again split into two different periods. For this school year, the elective that I am teaching is Mythology. I also teach an "intensive" course that changes each month. These classes are meant to be an extra support to students that focus on something that the students might be needing some extra help with. For the month of October, my intensive is handwriting.  We are currently looking for any grants that might help us set up a pottery studio for our students and if and when we are able to do that, I will be able to teach that class. I am also one of the 6th grade advisors and the advisory class meets for 30 minutes as a short 3rd period class each day. That means that I am currently teaching 5 (6 if you count advisory) different classes over 10 periods on an A/B schedule.

My teaching identity has been created long before I became a teacher. When I consider where my teaching philosophies have started, I think of my children. I am a single mother of 5 amazing children. Some of my children that have been diagnosed adhd, autism, and ocd. I have two children that have needed speech therapy services. I have two children with 504 plans at their schools. I have had to advocate for them and collaborate with their teachers for many years. I believe that my experience as a mother has given me a unique experience as a teacher that came into the profession later in life.

The first course I took during the Summer term of 2026 was Reflective Practice. That is where this blog came into play. I began enjoying this reflective practice much more than the first term. I enjoyed the topics and had fun creating new ideas. I do wish that the blog posts could have been spread out over the entire summer instead of just within the first half to give more time to think about things I might want to do or include. Overall, it has been a good experience.

The most common themes I have seen throughout all of my blog posts, papers, and discussions that I am most passionate about are community, culture, and advocacy. Not only are these topics that I was passionate about prior to this program, but I have found that they seem to be interwoven into most courses in one way or another. Whether they are discussed in readings, videos, or stated within the course material to consider and think about through our research, they are important topics to always consider when working within education. 

For this second portion of the series in Contemporary Artmaking, I wanted to continue with the big idea of Community. I think it is important to keep the idea of community and relationship building in the forefront of our minds as educators. As I wanted to focus on community and relationship building, I really wanted to do the interview option of this assignment. I sent messages to a few different artists in my area requesting an interview and giving them the questions so they could decide if they had the time for an interview. 

I have taken 3 classes during Spring term. Those classes were, Reflective Practice, Curriculum Planning & Assessment, and then UDL Disability Studies.

      For the rest of this school year, I am a building sub for a local Montessori school. I have been able to cover grades Kindergarten through 9th grade. It has been a great experience meeting a lot of teachers, staff, and students along the way. For this observation, I was able to observe a mixed age class with grades 1-3. The teacher I was observing has been at the school for six years now and has been a teacher for much longer.  This last week, I was able to be in this teachers' class for the day to help out and observe. We will call her "teacher one". During the middle of the day, I went over to another 1-3 class and observed for 20 minutes to just observe any differences in teaching style, methods, etc. This short 20-minute observation was with a new teacher who had just completed her residency and has taken over this class from another teacher that left. We will call this teacher, "teacher two".

Over the last year, my practice context has changed dramatically. I have started teaching full time at the local Montessori school where I was a substitute teacher for the last school year. I am currently teaching 6th grade ELA and have 2 separate periods for that class. I also teach 7th and 8th grade science. In our small charter school, I have one 8th grade class and our 7th grade class are again split into two different periods. For this school year, the elective that I am teaching is Mythology. I also teach an "intensive" course that changes each month. These classes are meant to be an extra support to students that focus on something that the students might be needing some extra help with. For the month of October, my intensive is handwriting.  We are currently looking for any grants that might help us set up a pottery studio for our students and if and when we are able to do that, I will be able to teach that class. I am also one of the 6th grade advisors and the advisory class meets for 30 minutes as a short 3rd period class each day. That means that I am currently teaching 5 (6 if you count advisory) different classes over 10 periods on an A/B schedule.

My teaching identity has been created long before I became a teacher. When I consider where my teaching philosophies have started, I think of my children. I am a single mother of 5 amazing children. Some of my children that have been diagnosed adhd, autism, and ocd. I have two children that have needed speech therapy services. I have two children with 504 plans at their schools. I have had to advocate for them and collaborate with their teachers for many years. I believe that my experience as a mother has given me a unique experience as a teacher that came into the profession later in life.

The first course I took during the Summer term of 2026 was Reflective Practice. That is where this blog came into play. I began enjoying this reflective practice much more than the first term. I enjoyed the topics and had fun creating new ideas. I do wish that the blog posts could have been spread out over the entire summer instead of just within the first half to give more time to think about things I might want to do or include. Overall, it has been a good experience.

The most common themes I have seen throughout all of my blog posts, papers, and discussions that I am most passionate about are community, culture, and advocacy. Not only are these topics that I was passionate about prior to this program, but I have found that they seem to be interwoven into most courses in one way or another. Whether they are discussed in readings, videos, or stated within the course material to consider and think about through our research, they are important topics to always consider when working within education. 

For this second portion of the series in Contemporary Artmaking, I wanted to continue with the big idea of Community. I think it is important to keep the idea of community and relationship building in the forefront of our minds as educators. As I wanted to focus on community and relationship building, I really wanted to do the interview option of this assignment. I sent messages to a few different artists in my area requesting an interview and giving them the questions so they could decide if they had the time for an interview. 

I have taken 3 classes during Spring term. Those classes were, Reflective Practice, Curriculum Planning & Assessment, and then UDL Disability Studies.

      For the rest of this school year, I am a building sub for a local Montessori school. I have been able to cover grades Kindergarten through 9th grade. It has been a great experience meeting a lot of teachers, staff, and students along the way. For this observation, I was able to observe a mixed age class with grades 1-3. The teacher I was observing has been at the school for six years now and has been a teacher for much longer.  This last week, I was able to be in this teachers' class for the day to help out and observe. We will call her "teacher one". During the middle of the day, I went over to another 1-3 class and observed for 20 minutes to just observe any differences in teaching style, methods, etc. This short 20-minute observation was with a new teacher who had just completed her residency and has taken over this class from another teacher that left. We will call this teacher, "teacher two".

Over the last year, my practice context has changed dramatically. I have started teaching full time at the local Montessori school where I was a substitute teacher for the last school year. I am currently teaching 6th grade ELA and have 2 separate periods for that class. I also teach 7th and 8th grade science. In our small charter school, I have one 8th grade class and our 7th grade class are again split into two different periods. For this school year, the elective that I am teaching is Mythology. I also teach an "intensive" course that changes each month. These classes are meant to be an extra support to students that focus on something that the students might be needing some extra help with. For the month of October, my intensive is handwriting.  We are currently looking for any grants that might help us set up a pottery studio for our students and if and when we are able to do that, I will be able to teach that class. I am also one of the 6th grade advisors and the advisory class meets for 30 minutes as a short 3rd period class each day. That means that I am currently teaching 5 (6 if you count advisory) different classes over 10 periods on an A/B schedule.

My teaching identity has been created long before I became a teacher. When I consider where my teaching philosophies have started, I think of my children. I am a single mother of 5 amazing children. Some of my children that have been diagnosed adhd, autism, and ocd. I have two children that have needed speech therapy services. I have two children with 504 plans at their schools. I have had to advocate for them and collaborate with their teachers for many years. I believe that my experience as a mother has given me a unique experience as a teacher that came into the profession later in life.

The first course I took during the Summer term of 2026 was Reflective Practice. That is where this blog came into play. I began enjoying this reflective practice much more than the first term. I enjoyed the topics and had fun creating new ideas. I do wish that the blog posts could have been spread out over the entire summer instead of just within the first half to give more time to think about things I might want to do or include. Overall, it has been a good experience.

The most common themes I have seen throughout all of my blog posts, papers, and discussions that I am most passionate about are community, culture, and advocacy. Not only are these topics that I was passionate about prior to this program, but I have found that they seem to be interwoven into most courses in one way or another. Whether they are discussed in readings, videos, or stated within the course material to consider and think about through our research, they are important topics to always consider when working within education. 

For this second portion of the series in Contemporary Artmaking, I wanted to continue with the big idea of Community. I think it is important to keep the idea of community and relationship building in the forefront of our minds as educators. As I wanted to focus on community and relationship building, I really wanted to do the interview option of this assignment. I sent messages to a few different artists in my area requesting an interview and giving them the questions so they could decide if they had the time for an interview. 

I have taken 3 classes during Spring term. Those classes were, Reflective Practice, Curriculum Planning & Assessment, and then UDL Disability Studies.

      For the rest of this school year, I am a building sub for a local Montessori school. I have been able to cover grades Kindergarten through 9th grade. It has been a great experience meeting a lot of teachers, staff, and students along the way. For this observation, I was able to observe a mixed age class with grades 1-3. The teacher I was observing has been at the school for six years now and has been a teacher for much longer.  This last week, I was able to be in this teachers' class for the day to help out and observe. We will call her "teacher one". During the middle of the day, I went over to another 1-3 class and observed for 20 minutes to just observe any differences in teaching style, methods, etc. This short 20-minute observation was with a new teacher who had just completed her residency and has taken over this class from another teacher that left. We will call this teacher, "teacher two".