About Teaching...

This is my first formal frustration in teaching art. This week we began a new unit on perspective drawing. Although I needed a little brushing up on my own technique, I never thought it would be so difficult to learn...and even more difficult to teach.

Perspective it like math, and in some aspects it is very mathematical. There are very specific steps to take in a very specific order. Every line must be very precise and deliberate in the drawing, and it cannot be a rushed drawing. Each concept in perspective drawing builds on the last, and keeps building and building. As a teacher, it has been difficult to see so many students not understand.

As I have been chatting with my lead teacher about my frustration, I have been debating if it is me or the students. I feel as though I am the lousy teacher, and that this is why my students do not seem to learn how to draw using perspective. What is it that I am not saying right? What part am I not demonstrating clearly enough? Where am I moving too fast? Along with these questions, I struggle with the pacing of each individual student. Some students catch on right away how to draw with perspective. They finish the assignment in two days, while it may take others a week. When and how do I decide to move on? And what about those students who are not understanding? If I have some student who does not understand the first assignment, then they will not understand the next. I rove the classroom to help individual students, and when the bell rings I see student's hands who have been waiting all hour, and I am not able to get them. I never feel as though I have enough time.

I talk often with my lead teacher. She models for me, then I teach and she observes. We talk about questions I can ask, and new ways to organize what I am saying. Finally, at the very end of the last period of the day, I feel as though I may have made a dent. But what kills me the most is that I know that some students just will not be able to understand perspective drawing, and essentially I am leaving those students behind.