Cynthia
Millikan Middle School
Ms. Poncin’s Class, Per. 3
03-08-07
After class Ms. Poncin and I had a good talk about some of the kids.
Ashley. I’ve always had a difficult time remembering this girl’s name in class. She is always the shy one, but she’s always eager to learn. Her reflections in class are always well thought-out and respectable. She should be in eight grade, but something happened in her family that made her have to live and care for her grandmother. She had to repeat a grade, which places her in 7th grade as of now.
Karla. I have mixed up the names of Ashley and Karla in my head, because they are both so quiet (aka, they’re normal and the other kids talk way too much.) So in class I never call their names out loud, in apprehension that I’ll call them the wrong name by mistake. Karla has “the thing”—the artistic edge that places her just a little bit ahead of the others in class. She painted a blue sea landscape on her own time by taking one of the pieces of canvas paper I brought for another activity and then brought it in to class informally. It was very simple but also very rich in content; she used a variety of blue tones in tandem with a variety of horizontals melting in to each other. It was very beautiful, and she didn’t even know it. Ms. Poncin said “Oh my gosh! How beautiful!” Karla just looked at her in disbelief and with a confused look peeped back, “Really?” She used a lot of concepts we’ve been learning in class about color schemes and composition. She didn’t know that either.
Today we did a critique and historical context of our color wheels. It went ok. The kids talk too much. Most of them are in this class because they have ADHD or some other condition that is preventing them from focusing, which is almost impossible for them to do for a whole class period. Ms. Poncin agrees – with fervor. In addition there are a lot of external distractions that I can avoid. People are always knocking on doors and walking in and out of class. The kids are always finding a way to get up out of their seats. Also, today Ms. Poncin slipped on a chair when she was trying to close the blinds. She hurt her wrist and knee from falling, and it was really hard to concentrate on the lesson when she was in pain. The kids were naturally concerned as well and offered her help, but she refused and said she was fine and that they should concentrate on the lesson. Even I couldn’t concentrate with her sitting on the floor and hurt.
Christian refuses to do anything, and preferred to do his math homework. Ms. Poncin is going to keep his math book and tell both his teacher and his mother that he won’t be able to do his math homework tonight for the reason that he was doing during art class. Gladys and Josh were laughing at nothing, and continued laughing throughout our critique. Half of the class period is spent asking the kids to show some respect and be quiet.
Jasmine always volunteers in discussions. I asked them to describe the color in some paintings according to the things we learned in class. She could talk on and on forever about how it makes her feel or about what she imagines is happening inside the painting, but she can’t answer the question. Ms. Poncin says that she tries so hard to get it right, but is always wrong.
I looked at Ms. Poncin today after class, and noticed that she looked so drained from the kids. Not only does she teach two DRW classes, but she has two regular eight grade classes. She doesn’t have a conference period, and she does tutoring after school. Of everything she does, her DRW classes are the most demanding of her – both physically and mentally – and she will not be doing the program next year. I’m thinking really hard about the teaching profession and how much work it really is. It’s tough just going in once a week for fifty minutes.
Aside from all that serious stuff, I’m glad that I made the kids laugh today, and that I’m at least comfortable with being myself. I always try to start off the lesson with a personal story that connects to the lesson to get the kids engaged in the beginning. Today it backfired because they couldn’t stop laughing at my story about the day I found out my boyfriend is actually a little color blind. But, overall, I think that those kinds of things really help the kids enter a mental space that is conducive to learning the material more.
