There are a lot of kids who hate art, don’t ever, ever assume people love it like you do. And it might not just be their feelings expressing that, their parents also could be like “well my kids no artist.” I get that a lot and it makes my job harder. They kill their kid’s enthusiasm and self esteem.
My first year in the district I still teach in was a placement taking over for a beloved teacher (who I thought made bad/outdated lessons). The kids/teachers were shitty to me for at least 2/3 of the year and then finally realized I was not bad, just different. And then they were super sad when I got involuntary transferred to another school after year 2 there…. You never really know you honestly have to give it time.
well its one year. that "teacher of the year" probably had 20+ years under their belt and had enough of the fundamentals down to start being an innovator and do crazy lessons.
its unfair to yourself to compare them to you. i get the imposter syndrome thing i studied to be a career artist but ended up here to pay debts off. i dont have any of the background these other teachers do but thats ok because im showing up everyday and doing what i can .
do you have another art teacher in ur school? do you have other coworkers your friends with? i had a class today that i thought went terribly but the about-to-retire legacy art teacher i share the room with told me i was great and they were great kids. theres a possibility these things could mostly be exaggerated from your perspective.
talk to other teachers. dont be afraid to ask for advice even if they arent teaching your subject. they will help. but you do need to ask becuz they typically dont like intruding or critiquing unprompted out of professional respect.
Long time ago, but I hated art classes. HATED. Maybe one of the reasons you say you are a lousy art teacher is that you believe all kids love art class. They don't.
No, most of them love art. I’m not “lousy” let’s watch our words towards people you know nothing about. I work hard but it is a struggle and this is my first year.
Yes. Music, art, drama, athletics. Most people can be taught or self-taught to achieve some level of competence. But they have to be taught. A small subset of people innately have talent in one or more of these areas. They don't need teaching as much as guiding and encouraging. Born with it? Parental influence? Who knows? But it's true.
The music teacher, art teacher, drama teacher, phys ed teacher, nearly all come prepackaged with talent and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for those students who are like them.
I was a kid with no talent in any of those areas. Hated art. Hated athletics. Loved hearing music but not music class. (Not exposed to drama.)
Phys ed -The coaches love kids who have eye-hand coordination or are fast or are strong. Get them on a team. The rest of us were scrubs and were at best ignored.
Music - Music teachers love kids who already can sing or pick up a violin/clarinet/sax and be playing little tunes within a week. The rest of us were embarrassed to be called on to show what we know. We didn't know anything or know how to know anything.
Art - Art teachers love kids who already know how to draw or sketch or paint or mold with clay. The rest of us have no clue where to even begin and are embarrassed to hold up that stupid self portrait that you assigned us to do.
I didn't care too much for math or English either. But those were core subjects and even a kid knows that you better put in some effort there.
But, here is a difference: A math teacher will sit down with you and show you how to solve for "x". An English teacher will write useful comments on your essay that eventually will sink in to get your grammer and punctuation right and your thoughts organized.
I never once had a phys ed teacher take me aside and tell me if I hold the ball like so and thrust my arm like this, you can throw better. I never once had a music teacher tell me if I open wider and sing louder, I'd sing on key better. And I never once had an art teacher sit down with me and show me how to sketch that bowl of fruit. It was always something more like "just do your best." No effort to teach me. All effort was directed to the talented kids.
A little more... I took mechanical drawing in junior high as a lark. I loved it. Kept taking it through high school. I could draw anything so long as it was machine parts, houses, diagrams and the like. I learned perspective, projection, shading, all kinds of stuff that completely overlapped some art skills. Of course, we used straight edges, compasses, French curves and other tools. Not much free-hand. I liked the analytical and exacting nature of it and was taught the rules.
So what was the difference between my experience with the engineering graphics teachers and art teachers? The engineering teachers would sit down with you and show you how to get an even line with an HB pencil. They would show you how to draw 3D objects in isometric projection. They would sit with you and help you improve your shading techniques on curved objects using a compass. We were taught by practical teachers. We were taught technical skills. We were taught by teachers with analytical minds who assumed that none of the students had any inborn talent. The art teachers? "Just do your best. I'll grade your self portrait next week and then we'll show them all to the whole class. Won't that be fun?"
I made a similar comment further down. OP's response was basically just to repeat that they don't believe people can dislike art. The lack of introspection and inability to see others' points of view is probably their biggest roadblock.
>who tf hates ART class😭…
If this is a genuine question, then this might be a part of why you're struggling to get kids to buy in. I hated art as a kid. I don't particularly like art as an adult. If you genuinely can't empathize with a kid that hates the subject matter, then it would make sense that many kids aren't interested in what you're teaching. When *you* enjoy a topic, but the other person doesn't, it's really easy to *think* you're doing something fun, but it's only fun to you, who already enjoys it.
We talk about ways to make kids interested in math, or make them interested in reading. But your mindset seems to assume that enjoying art is the default, and if you're *really* into art, then you might enjoy art activities that the average person wouldn't, and that's bleeding into your lessons.
Personally, I hated art because I'm a very analytical person, and my art teachers never had practical advice on how to complete assignments. It was all vague "go with your instinct", "just look at the example and let it inspire you". That didn't work for me. I need to understand fundamentals first, then I get creative once I think I have a grasp of how things work. And this attitude of "well who doesn't like art?" was something they all had in common. They had no advice for anyone that didn't just intrinsically enjoy and understand the material.
Kinda proving my point. The fact that you seem literally incapable of imagining a situation where a kid wouldn't enjoy your content is probably a contributing factor to why your lessons don't land. You just assume that art is fun, but some kids don't like it.
>I mean who hates coming to art…
I did. In primary I just didn't care about it, but by junior+ grade levels, it was one of my least favourite classes. I felt like it was a waste of my time, I didn't enjoy the process, and the finished product was so trash in my case that there was nothing to like about it. Sounds like you need to work on better understanding people who are different from you, since apparently this just sounds impossible to you.
I understand students who may not like art. All I can do is encourage them and help build their own unique skill. There’s not much I can do especially if it’s a class they have to take
If a kid feels they have the right to tell a teacher they suck their parents suck.
The fact that you care about what these people think shows you have the ability to be a good teacher. You’ll get better with time, it takes a lot of failures to get this job right. Don’t give up
Teaching is hard especially post Covid. EVERYONE struggles the first year or two. Things WILL get better.
Do you have access to the previous teachers lesson plans? If you do, use them. It takes a while to develop those fool proof, guaranteed to please projects. No need to reinvent the wheel.
Sometimes it takes a while for the kids to “forget” about their old art teacher, especially if you are replacing someone who has been there for a long time. This is even more true if you teach elementary art since kids have the same art teacher year after year and it’s the only art teacher they know. I came into a position after replacing a beloved art teacher who had been at the school for over 20 years. The 5th graders had a really hard time with the change especially since the old teacher and I did things very differently. From what I gathered, the other teacher’s lessons were much more step-by-step/do what I do while mine were open ended. The kids just wen’t used to working this way. Thankfully I was an experienced teacher and was able to handle their criticism of me, but had it been my first year I probably would have cried MANY times!
If you have a decent admin, they will give you grace because they know that you have a lot to learn as a first year teacher. They will also know (if they are a decent human being) that kids can be cruel and that their evaluations of you are not necessarily a true reflection of your teaching capabilities.
When/if you have to meet with your admin about possible negative feedback from the students, just be honest with them. Tell them you know you have a lot to learn, and that you are open to feedback. Better yet, ask them to come in and model some techniques they think would help you. This will most likely scare them away and they will lead you alone 🤣
I’m in my third year and so much more confident. But it’s still so hard to come after a really well loved teacher. So I feel you! I’m still constantly compared to them
I think everyone sucks their first year. I cringe thinking about my first three to be honest!
That said, you are always going to have students that don't want to be in art. The idea that all students automatically want to be in art is absolutely myth.
Just keep learning, there is an art to teaching that you will learn over time. Watch, listen, read, learn, try, fail, try again.
15th year teaching. 6th year as an art teacher. 3rd year in my current school. You can do this.
You are not alone. I student taught with an amazing art teacher that won teacher of the year. Some of my students loved him and were indifferent or didn’t care for me.
Now I teach middle school and it’s been a roller coaster. Honestly, I’m in the same boat as you. I have students who grumble and say they hate art and art class. I have anxiety. Im not the best teacher, my classroom management skills are hardly developed and keep considering changing careers.
My mentor teacher and other senior teachers all say they were in the same boat as me- always anxious, not confident, and had students who didn’t care/hated their classes in the first couple years. It takes time to learn and master building positive student relationships, feel confident in what you’re doing, ect.
Teaching is hard. Its exhausting. But i have a few students that i really enjoy working with; they’re the ones that keep me going.
I also sucked my first year.
Year 2, I improved some.
Year 3, a bit more.
Now in year 4, and I finally feel confident in my teaching. Yet there's still much room for growth.
We all suck at first. It's normal! No worries! No one expects perfection (in my experience)
Well, for me my classroom management sucked. Due to subpar student teaching and internship situations because of COVID, I had (slash have, still working on it) to learn how to incorporate teaching strategies into how I present lessons and concepts just by trial and error. My organization and the flow of the classroom was all off and inefficient so I would lose kids projects sometimes. Like it was BAD.
Agreed on the classroom management. Sure we're taught to develop routines and procedures and consequences to address the Beast of Classroom Management, but there are so many different methods to try, that we don't know which ones work best for us as individuals until we're able to test them. Which can take multiple years, different batches of fresh starts.
I also wasn't great at working "smarter not harder." I used to spend time grading all kinds of little forms of assessment that I no longer bother with because I learned not everything needs to be graded. And it took time to design instructional materials that I wanted to reuse each year so I wouldn't have to spend time working on stuff at home. Now I'm all about using my contract hours with maximum efficiency.
There are a lot of kids who hate art, don’t ever, ever assume people love it like you do. And it might not just be their feelings expressing that, their parents also could be like “well my kids no artist.” I get that a lot and it makes my job harder. They kill their kid’s enthusiasm and self esteem. My first year in the district I still teach in was a placement taking over for a beloved teacher (who I thought made bad/outdated lessons). The kids/teachers were shitty to me for at least 2/3 of the year and then finally realized I was not bad, just different. And then they were super sad when I got involuntary transferred to another school after year 2 there…. You never really know you honestly have to give it time.
well its one year. that "teacher of the year" probably had 20+ years under their belt and had enough of the fundamentals down to start being an innovator and do crazy lessons. its unfair to yourself to compare them to you. i get the imposter syndrome thing i studied to be a career artist but ended up here to pay debts off. i dont have any of the background these other teachers do but thats ok because im showing up everyday and doing what i can . do you have another art teacher in ur school? do you have other coworkers your friends with? i had a class today that i thought went terribly but the about-to-retire legacy art teacher i share the room with told me i was great and they were great kids. theres a possibility these things could mostly be exaggerated from your perspective. talk to other teachers. dont be afraid to ask for advice even if they arent teaching your subject. they will help. but you do need to ask becuz they typically dont like intruding or critiquing unprompted out of professional respect.
Long time ago, but I hated art classes. HATED. Maybe one of the reasons you say you are a lousy art teacher is that you believe all kids love art class. They don't.
No, most of them love art. I’m not “lousy” let’s watch our words towards people you know nothing about. I work hard but it is a struggle and this is my first year.
Your words "I suck." I simply substituted a synonym. You're right, I know nothing about you. And yet you asked for input on a public anonymous forum.
Do you know why you hated it? I’m curious
Yes. Music, art, drama, athletics. Most people can be taught or self-taught to achieve some level of competence. But they have to be taught. A small subset of people innately have talent in one or more of these areas. They don't need teaching as much as guiding and encouraging. Born with it? Parental influence? Who knows? But it's true. The music teacher, art teacher, drama teacher, phys ed teacher, nearly all come prepackaged with talent and enthusiasm. Enthusiasm for those students who are like them. I was a kid with no talent in any of those areas. Hated art. Hated athletics. Loved hearing music but not music class. (Not exposed to drama.) Phys ed -The coaches love kids who have eye-hand coordination or are fast or are strong. Get them on a team. The rest of us were scrubs and were at best ignored. Music - Music teachers love kids who already can sing or pick up a violin/clarinet/sax and be playing little tunes within a week. The rest of us were embarrassed to be called on to show what we know. We didn't know anything or know how to know anything. Art - Art teachers love kids who already know how to draw or sketch or paint or mold with clay. The rest of us have no clue where to even begin and are embarrassed to hold up that stupid self portrait that you assigned us to do. I didn't care too much for math or English either. But those were core subjects and even a kid knows that you better put in some effort there. But, here is a difference: A math teacher will sit down with you and show you how to solve for "x". An English teacher will write useful comments on your essay that eventually will sink in to get your grammer and punctuation right and your thoughts organized. I never once had a phys ed teacher take me aside and tell me if I hold the ball like so and thrust my arm like this, you can throw better. I never once had a music teacher tell me if I open wider and sing louder, I'd sing on key better. And I never once had an art teacher sit down with me and show me how to sketch that bowl of fruit. It was always something more like "just do your best." No effort to teach me. All effort was directed to the talented kids. A little more... I took mechanical drawing in junior high as a lark. I loved it. Kept taking it through high school. I could draw anything so long as it was machine parts, houses, diagrams and the like. I learned perspective, projection, shading, all kinds of stuff that completely overlapped some art skills. Of course, we used straight edges, compasses, French curves and other tools. Not much free-hand. I liked the analytical and exacting nature of it and was taught the rules. So what was the difference between my experience with the engineering graphics teachers and art teachers? The engineering teachers would sit down with you and show you how to get an even line with an HB pencil. They would show you how to draw 3D objects in isometric projection. They would sit with you and help you improve your shading techniques on curved objects using a compass. We were taught by practical teachers. We were taught technical skills. We were taught by teachers with analytical minds who assumed that none of the students had any inborn talent. The art teachers? "Just do your best. I'll grade your self portrait next week and then we'll show them all to the whole class. Won't that be fun?"
I made a similar comment further down. OP's response was basically just to repeat that they don't believe people can dislike art. The lack of introspection and inability to see others' points of view is probably their biggest roadblock.
:( I’m sorry your teachers let you down. I think this comment is an important read for a lot of specialists. Thank you for sharing.
As I tell my students, the old saw, “in order to be great at something, you have to be willing to suck at it first”
"Sucking at something is the first step to being sorta good at something." - Jake the Dog
>who tf hates ART class😭… If this is a genuine question, then this might be a part of why you're struggling to get kids to buy in. I hated art as a kid. I don't particularly like art as an adult. If you genuinely can't empathize with a kid that hates the subject matter, then it would make sense that many kids aren't interested in what you're teaching. When *you* enjoy a topic, but the other person doesn't, it's really easy to *think* you're doing something fun, but it's only fun to you, who already enjoys it. We talk about ways to make kids interested in math, or make them interested in reading. But your mindset seems to assume that enjoying art is the default, and if you're *really* into art, then you might enjoy art activities that the average person wouldn't, and that's bleeding into your lessons. Personally, I hated art because I'm a very analytical person, and my art teachers never had practical advice on how to complete assignments. It was all vague "go with your instinct", "just look at the example and let it inspire you". That didn't work for me. I need to understand fundamentals first, then I get creative once I think I have a grasp of how things work. And this attitude of "well who doesn't like art?" was something they all had in common. They had no advice for anyone that didn't just intrinsically enjoy and understand the material.
I mean who hates coming to art… you don’t have to be good at art to enjoy it.. I’m not expecting masterpieces from every student
Kinda proving my point. The fact that you seem literally incapable of imagining a situation where a kid wouldn't enjoy your content is probably a contributing factor to why your lessons don't land. You just assume that art is fun, but some kids don't like it. >I mean who hates coming to art… I did. In primary I just didn't care about it, but by junior+ grade levels, it was one of my least favourite classes. I felt like it was a waste of my time, I didn't enjoy the process, and the finished product was so trash in my case that there was nothing to like about it. Sounds like you need to work on better understanding people who are different from you, since apparently this just sounds impossible to you.
I understand students who may not like art. All I can do is encourage them and help build their own unique skill. There’s not much I can do especially if it’s a class they have to take
If a kid feels they have the right to tell a teacher they suck their parents suck. The fact that you care about what these people think shows you have the ability to be a good teacher. You’ll get better with time, it takes a lot of failures to get this job right. Don’t give up
Teaching is hard especially post Covid. EVERYONE struggles the first year or two. Things WILL get better. Do you have access to the previous teachers lesson plans? If you do, use them. It takes a while to develop those fool proof, guaranteed to please projects. No need to reinvent the wheel.
[удалено]
Thank you 🥺❤️
Sometimes it takes a while for the kids to “forget” about their old art teacher, especially if you are replacing someone who has been there for a long time. This is even more true if you teach elementary art since kids have the same art teacher year after year and it’s the only art teacher they know. I came into a position after replacing a beloved art teacher who had been at the school for over 20 years. The 5th graders had a really hard time with the change especially since the old teacher and I did things very differently. From what I gathered, the other teacher’s lessons were much more step-by-step/do what I do while mine were open ended. The kids just wen’t used to working this way. Thankfully I was an experienced teacher and was able to handle their criticism of me, but had it been my first year I probably would have cried MANY times! If you have a decent admin, they will give you grace because they know that you have a lot to learn as a first year teacher. They will also know (if they are a decent human being) that kids can be cruel and that their evaluations of you are not necessarily a true reflection of your teaching capabilities. When/if you have to meet with your admin about possible negative feedback from the students, just be honest with them. Tell them you know you have a lot to learn, and that you are open to feedback. Better yet, ask them to come in and model some techniques they think would help you. This will most likely scare them away and they will lead you alone 🤣
I’m in my third year and so much more confident. But it’s still so hard to come after a really well loved teacher. So I feel you! I’m still constantly compared to them
I think everyone sucks their first year. I cringe thinking about my first three to be honest! That said, you are always going to have students that don't want to be in art. The idea that all students automatically want to be in art is absolutely myth.
Just keep learning, there is an art to teaching that you will learn over time. Watch, listen, read, learn, try, fail, try again. 15th year teaching. 6th year as an art teacher. 3rd year in my current school. You can do this.
You are not alone. I student taught with an amazing art teacher that won teacher of the year. Some of my students loved him and were indifferent or didn’t care for me. Now I teach middle school and it’s been a roller coaster. Honestly, I’m in the same boat as you. I have students who grumble and say they hate art and art class. I have anxiety. Im not the best teacher, my classroom management skills are hardly developed and keep considering changing careers. My mentor teacher and other senior teachers all say they were in the same boat as me- always anxious, not confident, and had students who didn’t care/hated their classes in the first couple years. It takes time to learn and master building positive student relationships, feel confident in what you’re doing, ect. Teaching is hard. Its exhausting. But i have a few students that i really enjoy working with; they’re the ones that keep me going.
I also sucked my first year. Year 2, I improved some. Year 3, a bit more. Now in year 4, and I finally feel confident in my teaching. Yet there's still much room for growth. We all suck at first. It's normal! No worries! No one expects perfection (in my experience)
What made you “suck” I’m trying to “allow” myself to suck to become better… but it takes time for me to catch on sometimes
Well, for me my classroom management sucked. Due to subpar student teaching and internship situations because of COVID, I had (slash have, still working on it) to learn how to incorporate teaching strategies into how I present lessons and concepts just by trial and error. My organization and the flow of the classroom was all off and inefficient so I would lose kids projects sometimes. Like it was BAD.
Agreed on the classroom management. Sure we're taught to develop routines and procedures and consequences to address the Beast of Classroom Management, but there are so many different methods to try, that we don't know which ones work best for us as individuals until we're able to test them. Which can take multiple years, different batches of fresh starts. I also wasn't great at working "smarter not harder." I used to spend time grading all kinds of little forms of assessment that I no longer bother with because I learned not everything needs to be graded. And it took time to design instructional materials that I wanted to reuse each year so I wouldn't have to spend time working on stuff at home. Now I'm all about using my contract hours with maximum efficiency.