I chose art education because I have a love for learning and creating art, I want to share that love for learning and creating with students.  I didn't know that I wanted to become an art teacher until I was 2 years into college. The turning point for me was remembering my experience with my high school ceramics teacher and that he helped me understand myself and my art.  There was a moment that I was creating a replica of a Picasso drawing for a play that I was designing props for. I was having a hard time getting it perfect so I asked my teacher to do it for me. I explained that I am the type of person that, unless I was actually Picasso, I wasn't going to be happy with it.  After thinking about what I had said my teacher told me, “It's a good thing you're not Picasso because he couldn’t do the things you can do.” I took that into my art practice and into my life. At some point, it clicked that I wanted to give my students that same confidence in their work that my teacher gave me.  My high school art teacher is definitely my biggest inspiration in how I interact with my students. I hope to encourage my students as much as he encouraged me. As cheesy as it sounds I also find inspiration in Mister Fred Rogers. Growing up I found him to be a great role model in how to interact with others. There is a quote of his that I would like to bring into my teaching and into my life, “We live in a world where we need to share responsibility.  It’s easy to say ‘it’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.” Then there are those who see the need and respond.”

    Giving students a safe space where they are encouraged to ask questions and explore, encourages them to have a lifelong love of learning.  Discussing with students what they would like to learn in my class along with what they should be learning allows them to have a say in their learning experience.  When children have a say they are more likely to enjoy their learning experience and want to continue it into the future. I enjoy giving students prompts that encourage them to think about the world they live in and how to put their ideas and opinions out into the world to share.  

Critical thinking comes along with these prompts that encourage students to think about the world and what they would like to happen in it.  Giving students these prompts also gives them the chance to experiment with materials and skills that they have learned in order to tell the story they intend to.  The critical thinking strategies learned in my classroom are skills that students are able to use in their other classes and even outside of class. In my classroom, I encourage transformational learning by giving students the tools they need to develop their opinions of the world and learn ways to share these opinions. 

I strongly believe in the collaboration between art and other subjects. For many students, understanding is shown through a creative visual that they make, so combining subjects can assure that a student understands and holds the knowledge being taught to them. I enjoy working with peers in order to help children discover how they learn best and how to put their learning style into action.  Through collaborations between art and science, students can learn to create pieces that say something about the world we live in. Encouraging students to think about big ideas and create art about them allows students to create an opinion of their own. The ability to generate opinions is something that many students aren't being taught, the art room is a wonderful place to learn this skill. 

When teaching I tend to use the phrase “ask me 3 questions” as a way to understand where my students are.  When asked if students have questions many of them tend to not ask due to not wanting to be the only one who doesn't understand.  But when they are told to ask a certain amount of questions they are more likely to respond with what they are confused about. If needed I would ask students questions about what we just discussed but prefer to allow them to get to work, if they use the skills that we discussed in the lesson I know I have taught effectively, if not I know I need to adjust how I am explaining the lesson.  Using this demonstration then work way of teaching, I believe in grading a student on their use of the skills and materials we have discussed and worked on. Grading a student's ability to use the skills they have been taught is the best form of assessment in an art classroom. 

I hope to improve my teaching by learning while teaching.  I believe that teachers can learn just as much as students do in the classroom.  While in the classroom I have learned more about myself and how I teach than any other time.  The biggest trait I hope to generate through teaching is how to always respond with kindness.  I am a firm believer in thinking before speaking and I believe that through this I can work on always responding with kindness.  As an artist, I am always working on accepting my own work. I always try to be encouraging to others even when their piece doesn't end up as they wanted but am not as encouraging with my own art.  I hope to work on this because I want to set an example for students to love their own work as much as they love other artists' work. My favorite way to make sure students have an understanding is to just watch them use the skills we have worked on together.  When students can skillfully use the techniques we have worked on together while creating their art I know that they have fully comprehended the skill set and can use it in their artmaking. 

I enjoy learning about many different ways that teachers teach and students learn.  As of right now, I enjoy implementing the demonstration-lecture and students at work strategy.  Through experience in the classroom I hope to learn about different strategies in which I can help create a useful learning environment for students.  A strategy that I hope to learn more about is not giving a specific date that an assignment is due. I believe art is a subject that can evolve over time. If a student feels the need to fix their work a week after they ‘finish’ it, I want to include that passion and care for their work in my evaluation. 

As a teacher, I feel my role is to educate, nurture, encourage and help inspire my students.  I feel that I fulfill these roles as a teacher by creating meaningful relationships between each student and encouraging them to create their best work. By discussing lessons with students they take on the role of student, teacher and lesson creator.  During our lessons, they take on the roles of artists and inventors, curators and custodians. By encouraging students to take on all of these roles they learn about all the roles in a learning environment and in a museum environment. They learn that it is okay to make a mess when they are creating but to clean up their space once they are done. 

 While the demonstration-lecture stage is important in student's ability to master their ability to use materials and skills.  When needed I like to make my demonstrations as short as possible so students can get to work. With certain assignments I like to make the first-day demonstration and lecture heavy, the second day has lighter demonstration lectures as a reminder then use the rest of the days dedicated to the assignment as just students at work days.  Being probably the most important part of an assignment, the students at work stage is when most of the learning occurs. Creating lessons where students are encouraged to experiment with their materials is a great way for them to learn how to use the materials and skills in a way that they enjoy and like the product. For older students, I hope to maintain a level of respect between all the students in each class that everyone is able to critique each other's works in a kind and respectful way.  For younger students, I would ask them to critique their own pieces, something they like, something they would change and if it came out how they expected it to. After pieces are finished I believe that exhibition is a very important step in the art-making process. Allowing students to display their art works gives them a sense of pride in their work no matter the age.