Testimonials about my draw-along assembly from teachers at Valley Center Primary Elementary.
Suzanne Rodriguez – I was impressed with your performance at the assembly at our school last Friday. You kept all students engaged and encouraged the entire time. They came away with some background in drawing cartoons that they will remember. We are all getting ready for Open House this week and several classes wanted to display their drawings for their parents. They are proud of their work!Several teachers would like to have experts come and expose our children to areas of art that we are not expert in on a regular basis. We try to do that with the assembly money we have. We have had ballet and music assemblies which the children enjoy and your cartoon drawing balanced out our year perfectly. What I liked most about your assembly was that the children were 100% participants as listeners and doers. Good job! We hope to see you again.
Marilyn Felfe – Hello Kyle, Many thanks for a great assembly!!! I have taught 1st grade since the dinosaurs roamed the earth so, I have seen many assemblies. I appreciated your approach because you:
- Had great control
- Entertained while teaching
- REALLY understood the age of the children you were talking to
- Broke drawing into memorable little steps they could handle
- Reviewed terms and concepts enough that most children should be able to go home and try some drawing this weekend.
I am trying to think of some possible improvements for your presentation. HMMMM. Can’t think of any. I also honestly appreciated the simplicity of your approach. Too often our children get tooooo much stimulation at an assembly. So much so that they don’t remember a thing. They can get noise and loud music other places. To learn, they need enough quiet to focus.
Susan Barry- What a fantastic job. My class attended the first assembly on Friday. I was so impressed. You engaged the students, you had “hooks” to keep them focus, you were clear in your expectations, your pacing was appropriate and the children were so proud of themselves. I have several second language learners and resource students in my room and they were right with you. You kept one hundred 5, 6 and 7 year olds on track through the whole assembly.
When we returned to class we did a group writing assignment based on the assembly and made a display of the drawings for Open House. I wish you could come and do a lesson every week.
Kirsten Stuckey – I must say going into this that I was skeptical, seeing as how you were going to be doing the same lesson with Kindergarten, first and second graders.
But, you help all of our students attention the entire time, and I was impressed. I thought that all of my students did a wonderful job. I thought that you did a great job. The pictures all turned out great and the kinesthetic involvement with hands and sounds was a great addition. Hopefully, we’ll see you back at our school again!
Barbara Weston – Thanks for a great show! Our kinder, first and second grade students were truly engaged the entire time and left the assembly feeling like artists with drawings in hand.
As a reading teacher I appreciated the language you used to guide them through the activities. Listening comprehension is crucial to early literacy development and many of our students lack this skill because of the amount of TV and media in their lives.