Philosophy of Art Education
My teaching practice relies on building strong relationships with students and cultivating an encouraging and open-minded classroom environment. I firmly believe in the importance of seeing every student as an individual and taking the time to get to know their specific learning styles. Every student learns in different ways, and some students require more support than others. It is not the student’s job to adjust to our teaching style, but it is our job as teachers to meet the needs of our students and adapt our teaching accordingly. While planning is an important part of being an educator, you must always be willing to pivot your teaching based on how the students respond. My pedagogy relies on student-driven learning. Especially in the art classroom, teaching should be teacher-guided but student-led. I am committed to learning in any way and from anyone I can, forever pursuing a better version of myself, as an educator and as a human being.
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To me, art class isn’t just about art making. It is “life class” where students learn what it means to be a human being. The art classroom is a place for students to develop an understanding of who they are and how they relate to the world, and my lessons aim to support and encourage that exploration. In my “Happy Place” lesson for middle and high schoolers, students decide upon and collage images of spaces and activities that makes them feel content. They are to reflect upon what brings them joy and consider their “escapes” from the paces of everyday life. They must ask themselves “where do I feel comfortable being who I am? What makes me feel unhindered?”. Through this project,
students learn to take greater advantage of the spaces where they feel most like themselves and will gain a better understanding of who they are. The abstraction aspect of the project demonstrates how abstraction and intentional color-use can communicate complex emotions. Art introduces students to a different form of communication. Some ideas are hard to express with words, or one may not know the right words to say what they want to. What we know and what we feel is not limited to what we can communicate with words. Artistic creation breaks the boundaries of language, and my lessons support students in examining these possibilities.
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Art class encourages boundless exploration and learning from missteps. I’ve learned from my own art practice that failure and trial and error are an important and essential part of art making--and life. Students should take pride in their willingness to try something new, no matter the result. They learn that failure is not something to be feared, but something to be learned from. Art making is not just about artistic skill. It is about introspection, searching for meaning, and developing a growth mindset. Your artwork does not end with the final brushstroke. Reflection is an essential part of the artist's process. Artwork can reveal even more than the artist intended, and evaluating the work once it is complete furthers conceptual investigation. Art making demonstrates to students that there is more than one way to solve a problem and more than one way to answer a question. Evaluating artwork shows the value of different perspectives. As students share their artwork with their peers and see each other's work they learn to celebrate individuality and practice empathy. My teaching philosophy relies upon expanding the ways in which one views the world, the people within it, and themselves.