I didn't take many art classes in high school, but I did a lot of art work on my own. I was fortunate enough to participate in many activities in my school. I enjoyed many activities and never had a designated title or category for myself. In the few art classes that I did take, I had a lot of freedom. Our teacher set out requirements for each project, but it was up to us to come up with projects and execute them using the requirements. I feel this is a very usable approach to teaching, in many high school art classes. In my experience, advanced drawing was one of the classes that I learned the most from. I was given requirements, but in all actuality, I had a lot of freedom. This form of teaching worked for me because I was self-motivated and wanted to push myself in my drawing abilities. This could become difficult for students that lack self-motivation or decide to take an art class because they believe it will be an easy A. In the event that a student lacks ambition, more effort from the teacher would be needed to help students. On the other hand, there are also classes that need more direction, whether it be in the development of understanding tools, medium, or gaining an understanding of art. Beginning classes, such as pottery are among the types of classes where the directions given to students by the teacher need to be strong.

A challenge that comes to mind is students taking an art class for the wrong reasons, such as to have an 'easy' class. I have been in classrooms where this is an issue. The students do not understand that art is and can be difficult. Making sure that all students are getting the help and direction they need is also a fear. In elementary and even some middle school lessons, students tends to be working with similar materials and working towards the same idea. In high school, many students will be working with different materials and working in different directions. I hope to meet each student's needs and ensure that they are learning to work with a variety of materials, tools, and mediums. I also recognize that because they are high school students, they will be more able to solve issues in art on their own, with a little guidance from me, and talking with their peers. I hope to learn how to manage my classroom in a way that pushes productivity, experimentation, creativity, little fear of risk in artwork, and fun. I am most excited about figuring out how this balance will happen. I have heard that it takes about 1-2 years to become fully adapted to your classroom, students, school, etc. I like to solve problems and I don't stop until I am satisfied and the issues have been taken care of. In all honesty, it just means that I will constantly be thinking about and trying new things to meet my classroom management goals.