teaching portfolio

“In the creation of their own work and in their understanding of the art works of others, students must apply and develop the ability to imagine. To think beyond the given to what philosophers have called the “what if” (Greene, 1995). What if I move my arm jerkily, how will that affect my dance performance? What if I add a bright yellow background to this drawing, how will it change the mood? At the center of this imagining is the maker of art—the student—whose decisions determine the outcome of the work. And that important decision-making and execution help students realize their own mattering or efficacy.” (Hoffmann Davis, Jessica (2008) Why Our Schools Need the Arts, New York: Teachers College Press.)

“The sense of vitality and the surge of emotion we feel when touched by one of the arts can also be secured in the ideas we explore with students, in the challenges we encounter in doing critical inquiry, and in the appetite for learning we stimulate.” (Eliot Eisner)

My goal as an art educator is to instill a sense of wonder and experimentation within the students that I teach. Someone can master shading with colored pencils, and be excellent at portraiture, but will they enjoy making their art? Will they have a desire to keep learning? To try new things? Art is not only about creating beautiful artwork, but rather the process of creation, and the decisions that are made along the way to bring that work to life. I want my students to take risks in their art, to look at things from a different perspective and surprise themselves with their abilities. Jessica Hoffman Davis’ talks about the “what if,” and that is the question that I want my students to keep asking, and answering, after they leave my classroom. Art can awaken a curiosity for life.

"I see now just how powerfully a moment in the classroom stands apart in a self-portrait of teaching. In clear, specific, memorable ways, that moment can suggest the tone of the classroom, the place of the text, the lessons to be gleaned, and the questions being investigated. It shows the teacher with the students and tells the story of a group of people grappling with uncertainty, creating meaning as a unit, moving together in a rhythm they define and redefine, functioning as several parts of one whole."-Teaching Statement as Self-Portrait, Mary Ann Lewis