Teaching philosophy
As an educator, I aspire to provide my students with tools that will empower and engage them throughout their learning experience. I desire to create an environment that is safe and inclusive and which encourages dialogue, critical thinking, and diverse ideas. The environment will allow for the flow of creativity and experimentation and will provide understanding and empathy to different ideas and customs. The room will be inclusive, as I will provide tools that cater to student’s different learning needs and abilities. I will create my curriculum based on visual, aural, kinesthetic and verbal learning styles and incorporate flexible materials, strategies and techniques.
As an art instructor, I will help my students develop their art skills by providing them with techniques and information. I will strive for a student directed curriculum by pushing them to be active participators in the classroom through decision making of what they want to learn. This will stimulate student interest in the classroom projects. The projects must demonstrate understanding of technique, but the student will decide how they choose to express the assignments. However, I will not allow my students to perform poorly or fall behind. I will encourage dialogue and critical thinking through critiques of the artwork during classrooms and discussion about projects. Through group discussions and collaboration, they will learn to cultivate relationships and community that can serve for greater purposes in their daily life. If students are shy, it can help develop their social and communication skills, however I will accommodate any challenges they face through the preparation of lesson plans.
I believe in the power of art to heal, educate and communicate ideas. I also believe that access to inclusive and transformative education is vital in our current society. My teaching philosophy is based on Social Reconstructionism. I strive to promote different views through the incorporation of leaders, intellectuals, and artists of color, women, and queer folks in order to stray from the Eurocentric and western art canon. I will review the western canon but will not impose it as fact hence the students will have the back up knowledge. I want to teach my students that art can be used as a means of expression when they lack words or a means of coping. Art can be use as a powerful weapon to show the world what is often ignored, rejected, oppressed or taboo. I believe that is a medium that can be used for political resistance, social awareness and creative expression. As Paulo Friere states, “What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for students to become themselves.” I want my students to find their voice in the classroom, but also in the outside world.