SETTING/CONTEXT AND CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT
Setting and Context
Demographic Details
Arvada West High School (Arvada, CO) is a 9-12 public high school in the Jefferson County Public School District. According to its mission statement, A-West is committed to preparing all students with the skills needed to think critically and interact responsibly in a diverse and changing world. Its vision is to graduate students with the skills to make choices, contribute positively to society an be prepared for opportunities of the future while maintaining respect for self and others. There are 1,740 students and 88 teachers. There are 53% Caucasian students, 34% Hispanic students, 5% African-American students, 3% Asian students, 1% Native American students, and 4% mixed race students. 43% of students are on free and reduced lunch. |
Culture and Community Context
Arvada West's schedule is run on a seven-period block system, with Wednesday and Thursday having extended class times. On Thursdays, students are assigned to an advisement teacher that runs group discussions on community concerns within the school. Depending on the grade level, specific skills might be discussed such as time management for freshmen vs. post-high school transition plans for seniors. After advisement, there are three twenty-minute rotations for students to visit teachers for extra academic support. Social workers run social skills groups during this time. While sophomores through seniors earn off-periods, freshmen get study hall.
Arvada West encouraged vocal inclusion from various parts of the community (students, parents, and staff) by sending out surveys to assess satisfaction on the learning environment (these are usually done through Google Forms). They also host events that welcome the larger Arvada community such as Trick or Treat Street. Student organizations like National Honors Society and National Art Honors Society do activities that "pay it forward" to the Arvada community. To address the feelings teachers had of being "siloed" in their own departments, professional development trainings required teachers to go observe each other in different departments based on curriculum themes (differentiation, technology integration, formative assessment, etc.). Cross-curricular collaboration was encouraged, though not applied across the school. Arvada West has a PTCO that collaborates very closely with staff and provides food during all teacher work days. However, this is the only time that parents make a deliberate effort to volunteer at the school. Overall, parents seem invested to communicate with teachers about student learning needs online or over the phone.
Though Arvada West High School is a traditional feeder school to Drake Middle School and Oberon Middle School, Choice Enrollment nights are offered to students transitioning out of K-8 charter schools such as Mountain Phoenix Community School.
Arvada West's schedule is run on a seven-period block system, with Wednesday and Thursday having extended class times. On Thursdays, students are assigned to an advisement teacher that runs group discussions on community concerns within the school. Depending on the grade level, specific skills might be discussed such as time management for freshmen vs. post-high school transition plans for seniors. After advisement, there are three twenty-minute rotations for students to visit teachers for extra academic support. Social workers run social skills groups during this time. While sophomores through seniors earn off-periods, freshmen get study hall.
Arvada West encouraged vocal inclusion from various parts of the community (students, parents, and staff) by sending out surveys to assess satisfaction on the learning environment (these are usually done through Google Forms). They also host events that welcome the larger Arvada community such as Trick or Treat Street. Student organizations like National Honors Society and National Art Honors Society do activities that "pay it forward" to the Arvada community. To address the feelings teachers had of being "siloed" in their own departments, professional development trainings required teachers to go observe each other in different departments based on curriculum themes (differentiation, technology integration, formative assessment, etc.). Cross-curricular collaboration was encouraged, though not applied across the school. Arvada West has a PTCO that collaborates very closely with staff and provides food during all teacher work days. However, this is the only time that parents make a deliberate effort to volunteer at the school. Overall, parents seem invested to communicate with teachers about student learning needs online or over the phone.
Though Arvada West High School is a traditional feeder school to Drake Middle School and Oberon Middle School, Choice Enrollment nights are offered to students transitioning out of K-8 charter schools such as Mountain Phoenix Community School.
School-Wide Policies
Management: All teachers are required to have students put their phones in phone racks during class time. Phone use of any kind (social media, texting, contact with parents with the exception of emergencies, and listening to music) is not allowed. Any digital work required for the lessons should be done on the students' chromebooks--which every student is given on loan at the beginning of the year. Due to attendance challenges, students have a bank of seven tardies and unexcused absences that they can use until they are forced to do detention. Bathroom trips are limited to five minutes or else the student will be marked tardy. They must carry a pass with them. |
Safe Schools: Jeffco Public Schools strive to mitigate safety challenges with robust training, technology, and thorough and well-developed protocols and plans. The principals, facility managers, security and emergency management team, and first responders work together throughout the year to identify risks and put measures in place to reduce these risks. Buildings are equipped with secure entrances, access control systems, intruder alarms, and video surveillance. Security measures include annual "lockdown/active attacker" student and staff training and practice, monthly school drills, and extensive security staff training. In addition, each school has a threat assessment team that receives training annually. The district security and emergency management department includes the office of threat management, which is responsible for all district threat assessments. That team works with the District Attorney’s office, Jeffco Mental Health, local and county law enforcement, school staff, and other district personnel. The program also includes a crisis mental health team that responds to students in crisis, and the most robust Safe2Tell program in the state - a program that ensures every tip received is reviewed by the school principal, district security, and local law enforcement. Sources of Strength was another resource that students could be part of to learn self-empowerment skills and support their peers. Arvada West employs six security guards and one SRO. All doors are locked with sensors with the exception of the main office doors.
Conflict Resolution: Due to the increasingly diverse and transient demographic of inner city and rural students, one of the community challenges Arvada West faced was bullying against students with sensitive identities (ethnicity, socioeconomic, religious, and LGBTQ+). Students felt safe around teachers to transparently address these issues, which were quickly passed down to administrators. Assistant principals, counselors, social workers, instructional coaches, security guards, and deans were frequently in contact with teachers to quickly address behavioral issues. If a behavior or threat assessment was high, assistant principals, security guards, and the school resource officer were quick to address it. Arvada West did not have a collective value when it came to conflict resolution. Teachers were given the freedom to handle things the way they saw fit while also getting support from the administrative team.
Students with Special Needs: JeffCo's website has a tab that lists all of the logistical and legal information related to students with special needs. This includes IEPs for ESL differentiation, students on the autism spectrum, students that are deaf or hard of hearing, students that are learning disabled, students with significant emotional disorders, and students with significant support needs.
Classroom Environment and Art Classes Taught
Arvada West's visual arts department consisted of four subjects: drawing/painting, ceramics/jewelry, photography/digital arts, and wood shop. One teacher commanded his/her subject of expertise. Therefore, I was the only drawing/painting teacher.
The classroom was spacious and could fit roughly 30 students. Advanced Drawing/Painting, Painting Studio, and AP Studio were combined into their own class periods. Beginning students had their own devoted time. However, advanced drawing/painting students that did not have the schedule availability to be in the advanced classes could register to be in their own section of Advanced Drawing/Painting during a beginning class. Materials that students got specific technical training on were graphite, pen/ink, and acrylic paint. Watercolors, colored pencils, and chalk pastels were accessible, but students did not get specific training on refined technical skills using them. Oil paints and intaglio printmaking were not options for students due to the lack of proper ventilation in the classroom. All paintings were done on 15"x20" hot press illustration board. Students did not work on canvases unless they were donated by the community. A couple of students were taught how to stretch and gesso their own canvases. With the exception of AP Studio, digital integration was not implemented unless a document camera was used for demonstrations.
Students with Special Needs: JeffCo's website has a tab that lists all of the logistical and legal information related to students with special needs. This includes IEPs for ESL differentiation, students on the autism spectrum, students that are deaf or hard of hearing, students that are learning disabled, students with significant emotional disorders, and students with significant support needs.
Classroom Environment and Art Classes Taught
Arvada West's visual arts department consisted of four subjects: drawing/painting, ceramics/jewelry, photography/digital arts, and wood shop. One teacher commanded his/her subject of expertise. Therefore, I was the only drawing/painting teacher.
The classroom was spacious and could fit roughly 30 students. Advanced Drawing/Painting, Painting Studio, and AP Studio were combined into their own class periods. Beginning students had their own devoted time. However, advanced drawing/painting students that did not have the schedule availability to be in the advanced classes could register to be in their own section of Advanced Drawing/Painting during a beginning class. Materials that students got specific technical training on were graphite, pen/ink, and acrylic paint. Watercolors, colored pencils, and chalk pastels were accessible, but students did not get specific training on refined technical skills using them. Oil paints and intaglio printmaking were not options for students due to the lack of proper ventilation in the classroom. All paintings were done on 15"x20" hot press illustration board. Students did not work on canvases unless they were donated by the community. A couple of students were taught how to stretch and gesso their own canvases. With the exception of AP Studio, digital integration was not implemented unless a document camera was used for demonstrations.
All academic departments at A-West were required to integrate the JeffCo Generation skills into their lesson plans. The visual arts department focused specifically on communication and critical/creative thinking. Our belief was that these skills (which could be measured during the ideation and critiquing processes) would have the most cross-curricular benefits. Otherwise, there was no defined curriculum the four of us were required to follow. I tried to break up my beginning classes with two monochromatic and two color projects. My advanced class (particularly during second semester) was planned as a semester long unit focusing on figure drawing skills (drawing hands, painting portraits, and drawing full-bodied characters). This was based on student feedback during first semester that they wanted to learn these skills but lacked the in-class time to do so. Once students took beginning and advanced, they could either redo the lesson or do a series of independent projects in painting studio. Many students wanted lessons with lots of conceptual options and technical training. Others wanted complete freedom to explore their own artistic voice. Our department tried to advocate for drawing and painting to be two separate beginning classes (drawing at level 1, painting at level 2), with painting studio turning into an advanced creative arts class before AP Studio. However, our administrators did not approve this choice due to enrollment numbers.
My grading was based on four components: thumbnails and artistic research (20%), final project (60%), studio habits (10%), and critique/final exam (10%).
My grading was based on four components: thumbnails and artistic research (20%), final project (60%), studio habits (10%), and critique/final exam (10%).
Management Approach
As stated on my lesson plans page, I gave students the opportunity to evaluate the strengths and areas of growth for my lessons and my instruction. Not only did this give me opportunities to grow as an educator, but it also gave students a voice to shape the art curriculum. This is a form of critical thinking that I felt supported the critique skills that I was evaluating for my IEG.
After I graded the students' projects, I gave them one week to continue working on their projects to improve their grades. If they had questions or concerns about their grade, I would let them talk to me about it during office hours as long as they handled the conversation in a calm, adult manner. Students that addressed their grade in a confrontational or passive-aggressive manner during class would receive a 0 for their studio habits grade that week. I am currently working on using conflict resolution strategies suggested by the Conscious Leadership Group. One of their suggested strategies was shifting out of the drama triangle into the empowerment triangle.
The studio habits aspect of their grade assessed their time management skills, how effectively they cleaned up their materials, appropriate phone use, and leadership/collaboration initiative (helping other students in case I was busy). Their studio habits were graded weekly. Going into second semester, I decided that I would develop learning targets for cleaning skills, especially when working with paints. We reviewed cleaning expectations at the end of each month to determine what our strengths and areas of growth were keeping the overall classroom clean.
I strongly advocated for safety and inclusion in my classroom when it came to students' sensitive identities (ethnicity, gender identity, socio-economic identity, and neurodiversity). I invited students to hold me accountable for having the right inclusive language and for including culturally diverse professional artists as examples for our lessons. My LGBTQ+ students strongly resonated with this expectation. They considered me an ally, and they were transparent with me about some of their struggles at school. Towards second semester, two of my Painting Studio students created art that focused on LGBTQ+ Pride. Neurodiverse learners, particularly those from special education, were included as equal members of the classroom in critiques and casual social situations. IEP students were able to get their learning needs met without any self-consciousness about what their peers thought of them.
Even though Arvada West's school policy was not allowing ANY phone use in the classroom, this because a practical challenge in my class. Students wanted to use their phones because it was a back-up device in case their chromebooks died. They could zoom in on details with higher resolution in a reference image more successfully than they could using a chromebook (with the exception of the freshmen that had touch screens). And using their phones gave them unrestricted access to pintrest and instagram, where they may have a school-appropriate reference picture for their images (their school computers would ban this access). I decided to invite the students to democratically make a decision of what they thought appropriate phone use looked like during art class. We collectively agreed that phones were appropriate to use in class as long as they were only used for reference photos. Listening to music on their phones was also appropriate as long as their phones were not out in the open. We unanimously determined that any sort of social media use that did not involve artistic research (such as snapchat with friends and texting parents) were inappropriate during class. They understood that if they made this decision, I would confiscate their phone.
As stated on my lesson plans page, I gave students the opportunity to evaluate the strengths and areas of growth for my lessons and my instruction. Not only did this give me opportunities to grow as an educator, but it also gave students a voice to shape the art curriculum. This is a form of critical thinking that I felt supported the critique skills that I was evaluating for my IEG.
After I graded the students' projects, I gave them one week to continue working on their projects to improve their grades. If they had questions or concerns about their grade, I would let them talk to me about it during office hours as long as they handled the conversation in a calm, adult manner. Students that addressed their grade in a confrontational or passive-aggressive manner during class would receive a 0 for their studio habits grade that week. I am currently working on using conflict resolution strategies suggested by the Conscious Leadership Group. One of their suggested strategies was shifting out of the drama triangle into the empowerment triangle.
The studio habits aspect of their grade assessed their time management skills, how effectively they cleaned up their materials, appropriate phone use, and leadership/collaboration initiative (helping other students in case I was busy). Their studio habits were graded weekly. Going into second semester, I decided that I would develop learning targets for cleaning skills, especially when working with paints. We reviewed cleaning expectations at the end of each month to determine what our strengths and areas of growth were keeping the overall classroom clean.
I strongly advocated for safety and inclusion in my classroom when it came to students' sensitive identities (ethnicity, gender identity, socio-economic identity, and neurodiversity). I invited students to hold me accountable for having the right inclusive language and for including culturally diverse professional artists as examples for our lessons. My LGBTQ+ students strongly resonated with this expectation. They considered me an ally, and they were transparent with me about some of their struggles at school. Towards second semester, two of my Painting Studio students created art that focused on LGBTQ+ Pride. Neurodiverse learners, particularly those from special education, were included as equal members of the classroom in critiques and casual social situations. IEP students were able to get their learning needs met without any self-consciousness about what their peers thought of them.
Even though Arvada West's school policy was not allowing ANY phone use in the classroom, this because a practical challenge in my class. Students wanted to use their phones because it was a back-up device in case their chromebooks died. They could zoom in on details with higher resolution in a reference image more successfully than they could using a chromebook (with the exception of the freshmen that had touch screens). And using their phones gave them unrestricted access to pintrest and instagram, where they may have a school-appropriate reference picture for their images (their school computers would ban this access). I decided to invite the students to democratically make a decision of what they thought appropriate phone use looked like during art class. We collectively agreed that phones were appropriate to use in class as long as they were only used for reference photos. Listening to music on their phones was also appropriate as long as their phones were not out in the open. We unanimously determined that any sort of social media use that did not involve artistic research (such as snapchat with friends and texting parents) were inappropriate during class. They understood that if they made this decision, I would confiscate their phone.