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Art education is a means of teaching communication, culture, diversity, history, math, philosophy, religion, science, and technical skills.  Art education combines creativity, communication, imagination, and problem solving, in a way other subjects can not.  Additionally, art education creates Studio Habits that follow students for life: develop craft, engage, and persist, envision, express, observe, reflect, stretch and explore, and understand art world (taken from Studio Habits of Mind by Lois Hetland and Project Zero). 

 

My classroom is a safe place for students to communicate, experiment, share opinions and understand diversity.  I place myself as the teacher-facilitator, teaching what I know but accepting, there is still more to learn (from life, others, my students).   I am happy and excited to experiment and learn alongside my students.  I follow the premise of 'Create, Relate, and Evaluate.' Each student creates their art, by using skills gained by experimentation and scaffolding.  They relate their art not only to their personal ideas and culture but also to the existing world, society, and the past.  Additionally, the student evaluates their art to decide if they met their personal goals, the assignments goals, the skill set, and communicates their expression.

 

I believe every student (and person) is an artist. Making art is not only a highly technical skill, that can be taught, but also personal expression of the emotions, the self, and society. As an art teacher my role is to support, facilitate and assist all students to realize how they are artists and how their art and the art of others relates and effects the world around them. Annually I supervise the Make a Mark – DOT exhibition to celebrate International DOT Day.  The art making and sharing experience is open to all at the university to make art and exhibit it. We have dots in a variety of sizes and colors that participants can choose to represent themselves.  Every year the number of dots has increased exponentially. 

 

Students come in a variety of backgrounds.  Acknowledging and celebrating the differences is a part of pre-service training, as teachers they will also have a variety of students. I support placing my pre-service teachers in diverse placements to experience the wide range of educational options and students. The lesson plans that they create include the elements that identify how they are reaching out and meeting the needs of all the students. 

 

The Art Education courses that I teach include a wide variety of teaching theories and methods that I first model.  During practice teaching opportunities I challenge students to use a variety of pedagogies, additionally in reflections students respond to hypothetical scenarios as to how they would modify had a student with different needs. Often I implement peer to peer teaching which allows pre-service teacher to bring their context and experience to the forefront to help others understand other cultures and backgrounds. 

 

I have traveled the world (from Tokyo, Budapest, Melbourne, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Morocco, Mexico, Canada and many countries in Europe) to learn not only about the art that is there but how they make their art and how it represents their culture.  Sharing that experience not only educates students, but it also breaks down barriers, and opens students up to diversity of art, materials, meanings, cultures, languages, symbolism, and religions.