First Impressions

So for Fieldwork III this semester I was placed at Newburgh Free Academy in a studio art class. Initially I was quite intimidated, Newburgh is a city dealing with a lot of poverty, crime and drugs, the school is also huge and has a bit of a bad reputation. It doesn't help when you tell your friends, "I got placed at NFA," and they simply say "Oh" and give you this sympathetic look. However, I was determined to make the best of this situation, look at the positive side, if I can work at a school like this, I can work anywhere. So I went there my first day, already nervous due to the fact that I was informed that my placement teacher had taken an elementary position, so I didn't even know if I would have a teacher to work with. I walked past the metal detectors (apparently they are only for the students) and found the main office, signed in and waited for my teacher.

The first day didn't go too bad, as I mainly sat off to the side and observed. I was in a studio art class, kind of like a foundations art course and it was required and it was mainly made up of ninth and tenth graders. There really wasn't a lot of teaching going on due to what was explained to me as a Pre-Assessment test that was to be given, only they couldn't call it a test, they called it a "survey". Basically, the state is demanding that art teachers must include the elements and principles of art into their curriculum. They can't teach anything about the elements and principles before they give the "survey" because there needs to be a certain calculated amount of growth over the year to show how much students are learning and how teachers are teaching. This Pre-Assessment is not being well received by teachers and it has only made teaching more stressful and difficult. For most of the day, I watched how the students interacted with each other and their teacher and I listened to a lot of conversations I will never be able to erase from my brain. At the end of the day I had a pretty good feeling that I was going to be ok there, and that I would be able to handle this.