Teaching Philosophy

Art holds the potential to create new worlds; to bring into being that which may not exist.  In times of destruction, we need creators and builders.  We need transformative-minds, people who problem-solve and generate ideas and new paradigms.  We need artists.  

When scholars seek to understand a society of people, a time period from the past, or a different culture, we look to the arts.  I believe creative expression, self-reflection, and the ability to connect with others is central to what it means to have a full and rich life, and art teaches these things.

I am, by nature, a collaborative person.  Within my classroom, each student is a member of a community; their role is fluid and changing.  They are artist, listener, participator, creator, critic, helper/mentor, and mentee.   The student is on a journey to be independent and be able to reflect and self-evaluate. 

My approach to teaching is a living approach; a collage that is never glued down.  I’ve cut the shapes of what I can teach (studio art and design techniques, some art history and aesthetics) and selected out the pieces and parts of art education’s pedagogical lineages (DBAE, PROPEL, Studio Thinking, inquiry-based and Teaching Artistic Behavior).  But how these elements get arranged together changes as I respond and adapt to the needs of students and as I learn things by teaching in new contexts. Giving students choice in what they make always has been and always will be dominating the foreground of my pedagogy.  Discipline-based pedagogy is still part of the picture in my classroom, however.  I want students to be prepared to encounter and know how to work within the rules and expectations of this approach because there are areas of the mainstream art world dominated by it.  I don’t want them to be shut out of certain corridors of power should they want to pursue them.  

In my classroom, every student is an artist.  I want them to understand there are many ways to be an artist.  In my classes, students play with ideas, not just materials.  I’ve observed that students learn content more deeply through an inquiry process. That depth is accentuated if the student has a role in defining the inquiry and there is structure and opportunity to collaborate and learn from peers. 

At the end of the day, as a teacher I am a real human being who models care for those around me. Building positive working relationships and getting to know each student is important to me. In terms of my role as an art teacher, I am part atelierista, part tough-love mentor, an orchestra conductor, an air traffic controller, a facilitator, and an adventure guide.