Teaching Philosophy

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Each individual is unique. 

We are unique in how we define our identities regarding age, race, gender, ethnicity, and background.

We are unique through the way we express ourselves - whether that be how we dress, create art, listen to music, or start conversations. 

We are unique in how we set goals, take on habits, and navigate life experiences.

I strive to create learning environments that support all students’ individuality because I believe it is important to their academic, social, and emotional learning experiences. I will set learning environments by building a community within the classroom that is based on trust, safety, and diversity of ideas, identities, and experiences. I will communicate my expectations to students and as a classroom we can establish expectations as a class together. Group tables are strategically placed for flow, collaboration, and independent work. Student artwork as well as artful and influential quotes decorate the walls. I will provide opportunities for exploration, experimentation, and play by supplying a variety of materials such as paints, pencils, markers, ink, papers, canvases, panels, and so on. Physical structure of the classroom is essential to my students’ learning so they can get to know their peers, share artwork, and have the space that is needed to reinforce their art-making. By displaying student artwork around the room, I want to encourage student confidence and engagement as students look at what themselves and others have achieved. I want students to build relationships with each other, so we can support, inspire, and experience art together. Most importantly, we can cultivate a creative space together.

Art is a universal language. As students and I cultivate a creative space, I will integrate and provoke emotion, interaction, and connection within our classroom community to understand the power of art. Through art-making, students and I are able to communicate ourselves, ideas, and emotions that can expand each other's knowledge and perspectives. I want to connect real-world and relatable topics to learning content to develop student skills in ways that are relevant to them as well as organize critiques and content discussions for critical thinking and analysis. These learning opportunities will allow students to connect art to conceptual, cultural, and social ideas that are explored in class and support their social emotional learning.

I will be present for my students emotionally and intellectually by prioritizing student needs as it is essential to their progress and growing as learners and individuals. I aim for my students to develop critical art-making skills, essential knowledge, and personal successes to accomplish goals in their now and future educational experiences.