Observing the teaching artist has been a great experience for me. I now better understand how teaching an art works and what it is like to teach in a public elementary school. The students seemed very interested in the subject of theatre which I found particularly interesting because they weren’t taking this class by choice. Even though they were interested, it was hard to hold elementary schoolers attention for an entire hour. The children were particularly interested in me and would to talk to me or play with me while their teacher was teaching. At first I didn’t know how to handle this situation because I did not want to say no and make them angry enough to throw a fit, but also I did not want the student to miss the instructions their teacher was giving out. I learned if you tell the child to tell you their story or play with you later, they will agree and listen to the teacher again. This taught me that even though you may be the one teaching the class or the authoritative figure in the class, it can still be a learning process for you too. You may have to adjust your plan based on something that could occur during the class. And sometimes you can’t always resolve every issue and have to let them resolve on their own. I felt the teaching artist I observed handled every mishap extremely well and calmly. The children would listen majority of the time. Sometimes the class would not listen and would go wild. The teacher tried multiple different ways to get the class to calm down. He eventually gave up, but that is just what needed to happen as the kids ran around enough they became tired after a few minutes. They then sat down and started to listen. I believe the quality of art making was great for the age I observed. I was very impressed at what the children created with their scenes and backdrops. At first I was nervous to see the outcome because I felt the task the teaching artist had given the kids was a bit difficult, but this extra push and trust in their art making was what the children needed. I enjoyed observing Mr. Guidry’s elementary classes so much. I even received my first piece of student art as two little fourth grade girls wrote me a letter and drew me a picture!