In my 75 hour clinical I have been observing a 7th grade child that seemed to be falling behind. He has an incredibly unique personality and creative mind. When he is engaged and participating he’s a successful student. He seems to get stuck on a certain tasks or problems though from time to time. He gets too focused in on one problem and sets himself back from moving on to the next step. While observing my host teachers lessons I realized that if he wasn’t interested he was in his own world. He doesn’t cause any problems or class disruptions; he’s just simply not listening. I recently started my own Problem Based Learning activity on printmaking with the class and was worried about him in particular. He completely proved me wrong though, which was very exciting to see. I allowed the students to choose their own theme or images to work with for their final prints. He chose his favorite cartoon character and came in a day before the rest of the students with his image drawn up and ready to start the project. He has listened and been engaged throughout the whole lesson. I’ve even overheard him giving other students directions. He is so excited about the new assignment and opportunity to create his own artwork. Every day he comes into the art room and goes straight to work. I believe that because I gave the students the freedom to choose their images and themes it made them feel in control of their artwork. I have seen a significant amount of confidence in this child that I didn’t observe a few weeks ago.
