My Philosophy on Teaching ArtTeaching the Visual Arts has an incredible amount of importance and meaning to me. I believe that learning and practicing art as a young adolescent helped forge me into the creative and resilient adult I have become. I also believe that when I teach my young students the value and importance of art through the ages, as well as the relevance of being able to communicate and express themselves visually, I am helping to mold them into their future selves. This rings true whether they go into the arts as an adult, or pursue a completely different profession.
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Relevance |
There are many important lessons I believe it is my duty and joy to impart on my students when teaching art. A few of those would be to instill the desire in my students to look at a problem from multiple view points, nurture creative problem solving, as well as to develop a sense of resilience and self confidence. This sense of confidence will allow them to realize that just because they may fail at something the first time, all is not lost, but instead important learning has taken place. One of my favorite mantras in the classroom is to "think like an artist, and make it work." After a few months of having me as their art teacher, my students can describe the exact meaning of this saying, that being: if you mess up your drawing, you don't throw it away. Instead, you "think like an artist" and find a different solution for your "mistake".
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Connections |
Another extremely important lesson for me to share with my students is the ability and sensibility to achieve and recognize high quality and craftsmanship in the arts. This is accomplished by developing keen observation, practicing skills, and just plain hard work. By participating in the creative process, students' views on what it takes to completely develop an idea to maturation widens immensely. Not only do they begin to expect higher standards of their own work (art related or not) but they also recognize and expect high levels of quality from others' work.
Lastly, I believe the arts teach students about their personal connections to the past, how we have gotten to where we are as a society, but also what part we can each play in this intricate and sometimes complicated world. The visual arts have always, since cave paintings were scrawled, been a way to both record the happenings and developments of our society and aid in the actualization of current thought and belief systems. Guiding them to understanding this sometimes overlooked power of the visual arts, will only help empower and prepare my students for their progression through their academic pursuits. |