JOB SHADOW REFLECTION
Concept
We were required to do a Job Shadow with someone outside of EISD and then write a reflection on it. Each paper had to be at least 1200 words, and because the job shadow that I did with my EISD teacher (which was for my home school) impacted me a bit more, I admittedly had to struggle a bit with this paper. Personally, I think that it's quite "over-fluffed", and I plan to rewrite it some time in the future. In fact, I may just write about the Job Shadow I did with my EISD teacher.
We were required to do a Job Shadow with someone outside of EISD and then write a reflection on it. Each paper had to be at least 1200 words, and because the job shadow that I did with my EISD teacher (which was for my home school) impacted me a bit more, I admittedly had to struggle a bit with this paper. Personally, I think that it's quite "over-fluffed", and I plan to rewrite it some time in the future. In fact, I may just write about the Job Shadow I did with my EISD teacher.
Reflection
For years, I’ve attended Charlotte High School and taken a variety of classes, which were taught by a number of wonderful, dedicated teachers that have had major impacts on my life. Since I was young, however, I’ve always had a particular affinity for artistic endeavors and therefore found myself developing strong bonds with the art teachers above other educators that I’ve encountered. The first three years of my high school career, I was filling every available class block I had with art lessons, hoping to better myself and simply because I found them so enjoyable. For that reason, Ms. Foster, my art teacher, gained a notable amount of my admiration and affection due to the kind, playful way she instructed her classes. I had mostly disregarded the possibility of being an educator for a career once I am old enough to attend college, but I don’t like to write off ideas before I get a chance to fully explore them. Also because I wanted to get experienced advice on managing mass projects and organizing people, I asked Ms. Foster if she would accept me for a job shadow, and she happily obliged.
Though I am quite familiar with the arts classroom in my school--having been enrolled in six different classes over the course of my high school journey--I experienced an interestingly feeling of newness when I surveyed the eccentric classroom from behind the instructor’s desk. Littering the walls, shelves, tables, and floors was a chimerical plethora of incredible projects, and I found myself awed at the incredible talent of some of the students in my school that I otherwise may not have noticed. It occurred to me that perhaps this was due in part due to the fact that I was playing the role of the educator today, or at least observing the woman who was. Names stuck out to me on black-matted labels; we had recently put on our annual spring art show, and I recalled reading the occasional artist’s description tagged to the bottom of a work of art as I hung it on the walls of the cafeteria or set it stylishly atop the cloth-laden surface of an unusually clean-scrubbed lunch table. As a teacher, Ms. Foster most likely has a very unique relationship with her students. I imagine that she remembers them more prominently as the years pass for the work that they made during the time that they had been under her instruction. This kind of relationship was something a bit beyond what I usually considered when pondering sociology and the types of interaction that the average person most commonly experiences. I was, in that brief moment, captivated, and I felt from a deep-rooted curiosity within me that I wanted to learn more about the kind of emotions that a student can evoke in the teacher that led them to produce such magnificent work.
For the purpose of creating masterpieces, an absolutely mind-boggling myriad of colorful supplies were stored in every nook and cranny that the classroom could have possibly possessed. I felt myself reflecting on some of the projects that I’d made in the past with this wondrous assortment of tools, and a sense of longing made my chipper mood deflate slightly. Because I was enrolled in the afternoon EISD Graphic and 3D Animation class this year, I had not had room for any extracurriculars in my schedule with the collection of core classes that I needed to fit in in order to graduate. I remembered moments later though, that with nearly every project that Ms. Foster had us embark on, we found that she would also take part in creating her own kind of project, and sometimes she would even work on the same assignment that we had been given. Part of the reason I am so fond of Ms. Foster is that she never assigns her students work that she herself would find too difficult to complete. I was very pleased to find that part of my position as a job shadow observer was the privilege to create artwork alongside the arts students in Ms. Foster’s afternoon class.
Being able to create artwork again was a definite highlight of my day, but it was only the first of many. The students in Ms. Foster’s class, most of whom I knew personally and were even close friends of mine, were kind and conversational, which made for quite the enjoyable experience when the group was allowed free chatting time while they worked. Ms. Foster herself interacts with the high schoolers almost as if she is on the same level as them, acting like just another student who shares their similar passion for art. That is not to undermine her abilities as an authoritative figure, however. In times of stress, I have known Ms. Foster to be able to stand up for herself admirably, and she does an excellent job of handling unruly or even simply unpleasant students. Though it would have disrupted an otherwise pleasant lesson, I feel that I would have benefitted from seeing my teacher handle wrongdoers in person. She has experience managing children and being assertive, so I’m sure I could have taken a great deal out of what I witnessed when she was handling her students.
A student that I am particularly good friends with had brought in a game board that she had designed, created, and printed through the use of a computer graphics application, which she had brought in with her to her art block so she could make adjustments to it. The entire game and board were a project for another class. Part of the task that I was assigned was to assist this girl with her project while Ms. Foster prepared various plans for the set painting of next year's musical: "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory". I had to memorize where in the room most of the art supplies were so that I could quickly gather materials or direct students to where the tools they needed were stored. Thanks to the maturity of the students that were in the fourth and fifth period classes--they exceeded my expectations, due to the fact that the end of the day classes can often get rowdy--few people needed my assistance. I was quite surprised at how slow-moving the class felt near the end of the day, and how little I actually needed to do to assist them. I spent the majority of my time observing their work and assisting my friend with the development of her game board. In between the times when I was helping her, I also worked on a pair of cardboard and paper switchblades that a student needed for a prop in one of the upcoming plays.
I was quite pleased with my experience, and I think my favorite things about attending this job shadow were being able to work on art projects, interacting with students, and the calm, easy atmosphere of working in an art room as opposed to classrooms that specialize in more stressful subjects. Artistic pursuits in themselves are very cathartic, so being able to work on projects with the students was as demanding as it was relaxing. Since taking part in both this job shadow with my home school art teacher and another job shadow with my EISD teacher, Mr. Chad Bennett, I have started to consider the possibility of pursuing a teaching degree when I get older. Though I would rather devote myself to the creation of illustrated writing, most likely in the form of comics or books, I wouldn’t mind becoming a teacher so long as I was educating students on artistic exploits, and ways that they can express themselves through acts of therapeutic creation. I feel that artistic endeavors and creative exploits are very noble feats, and can change both artists and viewers alike in ways that no other form of self-expression can. Taking part in a job shadow helped me further solidify this feeling, and it also instilled in me a desire to share what I know with future generations. In one way or another, I want to show the world the wonderful things that are produced when creativity and curiosity are properly utilized.
For years, I’ve attended Charlotte High School and taken a variety of classes, which were taught by a number of wonderful, dedicated teachers that have had major impacts on my life. Since I was young, however, I’ve always had a particular affinity for artistic endeavors and therefore found myself developing strong bonds with the art teachers above other educators that I’ve encountered. The first three years of my high school career, I was filling every available class block I had with art lessons, hoping to better myself and simply because I found them so enjoyable. For that reason, Ms. Foster, my art teacher, gained a notable amount of my admiration and affection due to the kind, playful way she instructed her classes. I had mostly disregarded the possibility of being an educator for a career once I am old enough to attend college, but I don’t like to write off ideas before I get a chance to fully explore them. Also because I wanted to get experienced advice on managing mass projects and organizing people, I asked Ms. Foster if she would accept me for a job shadow, and she happily obliged.
Though I am quite familiar with the arts classroom in my school--having been enrolled in six different classes over the course of my high school journey--I experienced an interestingly feeling of newness when I surveyed the eccentric classroom from behind the instructor’s desk. Littering the walls, shelves, tables, and floors was a chimerical plethora of incredible projects, and I found myself awed at the incredible talent of some of the students in my school that I otherwise may not have noticed. It occurred to me that perhaps this was due in part due to the fact that I was playing the role of the educator today, or at least observing the woman who was. Names stuck out to me on black-matted labels; we had recently put on our annual spring art show, and I recalled reading the occasional artist’s description tagged to the bottom of a work of art as I hung it on the walls of the cafeteria or set it stylishly atop the cloth-laden surface of an unusually clean-scrubbed lunch table. As a teacher, Ms. Foster most likely has a very unique relationship with her students. I imagine that she remembers them more prominently as the years pass for the work that they made during the time that they had been under her instruction. This kind of relationship was something a bit beyond what I usually considered when pondering sociology and the types of interaction that the average person most commonly experiences. I was, in that brief moment, captivated, and I felt from a deep-rooted curiosity within me that I wanted to learn more about the kind of emotions that a student can evoke in the teacher that led them to produce such magnificent work.
For the purpose of creating masterpieces, an absolutely mind-boggling myriad of colorful supplies were stored in every nook and cranny that the classroom could have possibly possessed. I felt myself reflecting on some of the projects that I’d made in the past with this wondrous assortment of tools, and a sense of longing made my chipper mood deflate slightly. Because I was enrolled in the afternoon EISD Graphic and 3D Animation class this year, I had not had room for any extracurriculars in my schedule with the collection of core classes that I needed to fit in in order to graduate. I remembered moments later though, that with nearly every project that Ms. Foster had us embark on, we found that she would also take part in creating her own kind of project, and sometimes she would even work on the same assignment that we had been given. Part of the reason I am so fond of Ms. Foster is that she never assigns her students work that she herself would find too difficult to complete. I was very pleased to find that part of my position as a job shadow observer was the privilege to create artwork alongside the arts students in Ms. Foster’s afternoon class.
Being able to create artwork again was a definite highlight of my day, but it was only the first of many. The students in Ms. Foster’s class, most of whom I knew personally and were even close friends of mine, were kind and conversational, which made for quite the enjoyable experience when the group was allowed free chatting time while they worked. Ms. Foster herself interacts with the high schoolers almost as if she is on the same level as them, acting like just another student who shares their similar passion for art. That is not to undermine her abilities as an authoritative figure, however. In times of stress, I have known Ms. Foster to be able to stand up for herself admirably, and she does an excellent job of handling unruly or even simply unpleasant students. Though it would have disrupted an otherwise pleasant lesson, I feel that I would have benefitted from seeing my teacher handle wrongdoers in person. She has experience managing children and being assertive, so I’m sure I could have taken a great deal out of what I witnessed when she was handling her students.
A student that I am particularly good friends with had brought in a game board that she had designed, created, and printed through the use of a computer graphics application, which she had brought in with her to her art block so she could make adjustments to it. The entire game and board were a project for another class. Part of the task that I was assigned was to assist this girl with her project while Ms. Foster prepared various plans for the set painting of next year's musical: "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory". I had to memorize where in the room most of the art supplies were so that I could quickly gather materials or direct students to where the tools they needed were stored. Thanks to the maturity of the students that were in the fourth and fifth period classes--they exceeded my expectations, due to the fact that the end of the day classes can often get rowdy--few people needed my assistance. I was quite surprised at how slow-moving the class felt near the end of the day, and how little I actually needed to do to assist them. I spent the majority of my time observing their work and assisting my friend with the development of her game board. In between the times when I was helping her, I also worked on a pair of cardboard and paper switchblades that a student needed for a prop in one of the upcoming plays.
I was quite pleased with my experience, and I think my favorite things about attending this job shadow were being able to work on art projects, interacting with students, and the calm, easy atmosphere of working in an art room as opposed to classrooms that specialize in more stressful subjects. Artistic pursuits in themselves are very cathartic, so being able to work on projects with the students was as demanding as it was relaxing. Since taking part in both this job shadow with my home school art teacher and another job shadow with my EISD teacher, Mr. Chad Bennett, I have started to consider the possibility of pursuing a teaching degree when I get older. Though I would rather devote myself to the creation of illustrated writing, most likely in the form of comics or books, I wouldn’t mind becoming a teacher so long as I was educating students on artistic exploits, and ways that they can express themselves through acts of therapeutic creation. I feel that artistic endeavors and creative exploits are very noble feats, and can change both artists and viewers alike in ways that no other form of self-expression can. Taking part in a job shadow helped me further solidify this feeling, and it also instilled in me a desire to share what I know with future generations. In one way or another, I want to show the world the wonderful things that are produced when creativity and curiosity are properly utilized.