My first full day work experience at DACA...

Tuesday 30th April was my first full day of work experience at DACA and even though I was nervous, I felt eager to get started. We all started the morning helping and working with a Year 10 class in Photography and I was surprised by how quite they were. We all chose a student in which we would work with for the morning, I worked with student whose interests lie with Photoshop and capturing images. I was astonished with her Photoshop skills, they are way ahead of mine. She told me she "likes using Photoshop because it betters an image", she believes editing a photograph "gives a different story to a picture". With this student I found her submission presentation and e-books interesting and a lot of thought went into her contextual research, presentation and photographs but she lacked in her journal area, this is where she could improve and she agrees.

I swapped over with Denise and worked with another student whose worked focused on the idea of being 'trapped'. She found it difficult writing down her concept and reasoning's to why she had photographed and edited certain images. She knew why because she explained it to me but she could not explain it in words, so  I began helping her evaluate her submission presentation and before the lesson was over she had half of her evaluation typed up. I found most students to be willing to talk and explain their work but they had difficulty typing it up, this student needed constant encouraging to carry on and be confident with what she was describing.

For the final 20 minutes of the lesson after a 20 minute break, I swapped over with Aalie who told me she had difficulty with one student because she was not responding to her advice. I found this student challenging, she was lazy and was not interested in applying the changes I recommended. In the end, I told her step by step, in what to change about her layout, she would then do it and I would ask her did she understand why and she would explain why but I felt no commitment from her. 

After seeing 3 different students, it became clear how diverse a class can be and how challenged the teachers must be when having to deal with it all at once. The chance to improve a students education encourages me even more to want to become a teacher or assistant teacher.

The afternoon lessons in comparison to what we did in the morning was different. I found the afternoon sessions to be fun and exciting. I did 2 sessions, both Year 7's in making 'pinch pots' and turning them into fantasy heads that the students already designed. I find that with each session I do, my confidence grows and in these sessions I felt like I embraced this opportunity and really enjoyed myself.

I got physical into it by actually showing the kids how to mould the clay into 'pinch pots' and how to attached the clay together using the 'Velcro technique'. Students began calling me over for help and they wanted me to show them how to do certain things and I felt honored to be able to assist them. I think teaching would be an awarding job, I can see myself being able to teach this Year group. 

There was a challenging young girl that was easily distracted and found it easy to distract others. The teacher moved her to the opposite side of the room, onto another table and that is the one I joined. Once I began talking to her and encouraging her work she began to settle down and focus on what she was mean't to be doing. I would argue she craves attention and with a little extra help she becomes more focused.