Family Day was literally a whirlwind of chaos and fun. It was wonderful to partner with the sciences and the Gregory Allicar Museum on this event. Curiosity guided the children and parents alike around the quad, like a giant choice-based classroom, until the wind eventually blew them our direction. Once the children made their choice to sit at our table it became time for them to listen to our instructions and try to mimic what we were showing them.
In the past I have represented the Dallas College Photography Department at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden Arts Festival in Dallas, Texas and many arts and literary festivals in Irving, Texas. At the botanical garden I taught a cyanotype workshop with kids and adults. Like Family Day, my past experiences were hard work, but very rewarding. I love interacting with the community and sharing art with the children and parents.
One of the differences I noticed immediately was that the children were more attentive and eager to learn on Family Day. I feel like they were more interested in the activities because they got to choose which art activity they wanted to do as opposed to BRAINY when they were told which activity they were doing. I also found that the students were better behaved in the company of their parents and with shorter activity times. Having a better student to teacher ratio helped as well. With that said, there were some similarities as well. For instance, the children frequently surprised me with thought provoking questions and were so creative and imaginative with their art creations. Overall, I feel like Family Day and BRAINY had more differences than similarities.
I honestly feel that these three days were all excellent teaching practice exercises. Both BRAINY days and the Family Day offered different and rewarding challenges. I feel like these informal experiences helped me to have a much better understanding how difficult and inspiring teaching children can be. Learning how to put together a tour plan with preformulated simple questions to spark the children’s interest in the art was new and informative for me. Going forward, I believe I will build on these informal learning experiences and possibly use some of the projects. Each time I teach, I feel more confident in my ability to work with children.
I feel that both my art piece and Family Day were refining activities. As we near the end of the semester I find myself looking back and reflecting on where I’ve been and where I’m going as an educator. My image is close to what I want it to look like, and Family Day wrapped up our informal teaching experiences for the semester. This week I further refined my overall exposure and added some complementing color.
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