My philosophy for art education and classroom teaching is to build a foundation, in every student, for understanding and expressing the thoughts, feelings, and circumstances which they deal with as a young adult. The art classroom serves as a vehicle for liberating a student's individual expression and creates a unique dynamic for communication, literacy, and problem solving. Working with the students, educators can create a curriculum structured to enhance individualized learning modalities. The students at the secondary level should be involved in planning how they will be learning, collaborating with the teacher on their continuous learning path. One of the most valuable and important skills one can teach a student is how to learn. I want to give students the tools to understand the content, rather than memorize it. As I believe that students should learn to seek answers and problem-solve, guiding them toward mastery of these skills would be one of our important responsibilities as educators. 

         To encourage engagement, my class time will be carefully structured to include a variety of learning activities. Lessons will incorporate whole- and small group discussions, which will strengthen the students’ communication skills, oral literacy, and social confidence. Exchanging thoughts and ideas between peers builds not only the students’ knowledge, but also their empathy. With an added focus on sharing, and having a safe space in which to do so, the students are better able to bring forth a part of themselves and begin a journey of reflection and self-reflection through their art making.  

         My philosophy is that the art teacher is a guide for students to unravel the meaning behind art itself through the practice of research and art making. While the classroom will maintain student creations of tangible object art work, we will also explore conceptual art work which highlights the idea as the artwork itself. The students should be using the art classroom as their research center, where they work on questioning the meaning behind topics such as relationships, social justice, and art itself.  

 

 

Weschler, L. (1982). Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees: a life of contemporary artist Robert Irwin. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Hoffman Davis, J. (2012). Why Our High Schools Need The Arts. New York, NY: Teacher College Press.