Lessons and Student Stories

Friday, November 14th

During my time at this school, my teaching schedule has looked quite different from what I am used to seeing in the United States. I teach in two parts of the same school that operate very differently.

One part of the school is the traditional school. Here, students learn in the format of hour-long classes that are taught in the instructional style I am used to. The teacher gives a lesson, and the students complete work that practices and shows their understanding of the new concepts. Teachers move from class to class as well, based on the availability of space.

The other part of the school is called "Agora." In this part of the school, students direct their own learning. They must study to pass large exams at the end of the year, but how and when they learn the information is mostly up to them. The teachers offer study sessions and lessons that students can attend to expand their knowledge of the content.

My role has been to go between the schools to teach "inspiration sessions" in Agora and more traditional lessons in the main classroom. During this time, I have been inspired by the ways I could run my own classroom.

As I've watched how the school runs and worked with the students, I see the benefit of students having more freedom to choose what work they do in the classroom. I've seen how students can thrive when they are working on something that is meaningful to them and drives them to more thorough and intentional work. When I think about applying this concept to the art room, I see a lot of potential. As the teacher, there are certain standards I need to ensure my students fulfill through their artwork and my lessons, but it makes me wonder if having a class with more open-ended projects could be beneficial to students. This kind of class could allow students to plan their own projects and work with me to develop a plan for accomplishing them. I believe this could lead to more engaged classes and inspired students. Of course, there would need to be some more structured classes for students to learn the fundamental skills of art, but I wonder if these could be introductory classes. Then, students could move on to more self-guided work. All these ideas about curriculum and teaching style are swirling in my head now, but I will have to see how they fit into the school and classroom that I teach in in the future. I believe the time here has shown me that my classroom and teaching style could be different from what I've seen from other teachers. I can build it based upon what I've learned in classes, seen from other teachers, and how I can best meet my students' learning goals. Pulling these pieces together and refining them over time could create a healthy, productive, and inspiring environment.

Lessons Learned

When thinking about what I've learned during my time here, it can be difficult to put my finger on what those things are. I feel as if I'm always learning and adopting new perspectives on teaching, life, and myself. However, articulating those moments can be difficult. It seems to be more about changes in my way of being and thinking than lessons I actively define. Here, I will try to define a few of these:

Teaching —

To me, teaching has always looked a certain way, but as I discussed above, the school here has made me think more about how the profession is changing and how I can adapt my own style to be effective in today's classroom.

From what I've seen here, students are much less managed than they are in the United States. While this can be frustrating as I look at the classroom in the way I have always understood it, I have begun to see the benefit as well: student engagement. Rather than take what the teacher says and move forward, I see students asking great questions and boldly sharing their opinions. As I said, this can seem disruptive, even disrespectful to my eyes, but I'm learning the value of having respect from students without demanding too much authority over them.

Life —

One of the things that comes to mind here is a continued reminder that things are always changing. Accepting each week, day, and moment as they come is important because even if you think you know what's ahead, there may be a different plan.

Since I arrived here, there have been several unexpected changes. Just when I get comfortable, or on the other side, discouraged, I have been surprised by a flip of things the next week, day, or hour. I suppose the important thing for me has been to keep faith as well as take each opportunity and experience as it comes.

Now, I'll tell you a bit about my time with the students.

Impact on Students

This is yet another topic that can be difficult to write about. You spend time working and talking with students, but it can be hard to know what your actual impact is on them. I'll name a few ways I've seen students grow.

English —

One way I've been able to help students while I'm here is with practicing their English. Many students know English very well, and it can be hard to see how I can actually be helpful here. However, I have gotten to talk to a lot of students, helping them expand their art-specific vocabulary and adjust their grammar. Being in the classroom as a non-Dutch speaker also helps encourage the use of English in the bilingual classes.

Art —

I have been able to teach students techniques and offer advice for how they can improve their work. Students have been very receptive to my advice, and sometimes I bring different techniques than students are typically taught here.

Worldview —

One very fun part of being in the school is conversations with the students. They are interested to hear what things are like in the United States and ask sometimes silly, sometimes great questions. There are a lot of misconceptions about the United States and our people, so it's been interesting discussing these things with the students. I've also learned much about the Netherlands through the students.

This is a much longer post than usual, so thank you for reading through how I am processing the trip!

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