Alma Thomas was an African American artist who created beautiful paintings. With kindergarten students, I taught a watercolor and oil pastel project inspired by her artwork. Students learned about Alma Thomas, like her being a kindergarten teacher. They also learned about all types of lines, for example, vertical, horizontal, dashed, etc.

Every student matters in a classroom, and a project that represents and shows diversity is a must. Students learn from what they see and picture themselves in other people's shoes. I want my students to learn that they can be artists and achieve many amazing tasks. This project fits with the standard 1A, which states "understands the spectrum of student diversity (e.g., race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, special education, gifted, English language learners (ELL), sexual orientation, gender, and gender identity) and the assets that each student brings to learning across the curriculum." No matter the differences, I know all students can learn from the art curriculum and skills they will use for the rest of their lives. 

This project taught me to explore artists I am unfamiliar with and to find artists students can relate to. There are artists from all over the world, coming from a variety of backgrounds, who create amazing artwork. Students need to see the artwork, learn about artists from around the world, and create in new ways.

My contextual factors essay was an assignment I did during pre-student teaching. For this assignment, I had to search for my school on the Illinois Report Card website. This assignment was like a scavenger hunt, finding the data of the school and the district. In my essay, I talked about the diversity, money spent, and my observations from being a part of the art classroom.

Performance indicator 1H states, "analyzes and uses student information to design instruction that meets the diverse needs of students and leads to ongoing growth and achievement." In this assignment, I had to analyze the data and information I found on the Illinois Report Card website. I also had to reflect on what I was noticing in multiple classes. This reflection and seeing the numbers helped me to understand my students and the school district I was a part of.

From writing and researching for this paper, I learned a lot about the school where I have spent a lot of time teaching. This time was well spent, so I got to know about the school. I learned about the school's diversity and spending. I am surprised at how much it costs the school for each student, but there are a lot of available resources for the students. Finding information about any school is important when getting to know a school and figuring out where you can help the students and school improve.