Student Teaching

Current Teaching & Education Status

I am currently in the last semester of my art education undergraduate program at Nazareth University, with my teacher certification pending completion in summer 2025.

Teaching Experience: Elementary (K-2)

Big Idea: Empowerment through Storytelling

Essential Question: How can we empower ourselves through stories?

Taught: Fall 2024

Elementary School Unit Plan

In this unit, students created superheroes and short comics based on something that they love about themselves. We explored the word empower/empowerment, and explored the power of storytelling and self in this unit. Students learned about the parts of a story and how to create a story that makes sense.

Teaching Experience: High School

Big Idea: Exploring Transformation

Essential Question: What is transformation, and how is it seen?

Taught: Fall 2024 

High School Unit Plan

In this unit, students explored the topic of transformation and what counts as a transformation. Students were given loose prompts and had to create a visual representation of their response to the essential question using watercolor, colored pencils, and micron markers. This unit challenged students' thinking and stretched their understanding of what transformation can be. 

Teaching Experience: Saturday Art School (8-11)

Big Idea: Visible/Invisible

Essential Question: Why is Visibility/Invisibility important for change?

Taught: Spring 2024 

Saturday Art School Unit Plan

In this unit, students explored the question of how visibility and invisibility relate to change. Students brainstormed and came up with their own ideas of how change and in/visibility relate in their lives. Students used mixed mediums with an emphasis on texture to create their works.

Teaching Philosophy (link)

Incorporation of New York State Standards

I incorporate the New York state learning standards into all of my lessons, and use them to assess student progress and completion in class. 

Elementary Unit:

• VA:Cr1.2.1 a. Use observation and exploration in preparation for making a work of art.

• VA:Cn10.1.1 a. Create works of art about events in home, school, or community life.

• VA:Cr3.1.1 a. Use art vocabulary to describe choices.

• VA:Cr2.1.1 a. Explore uses of materials and tools to create works of art or design.

• VA:Pr5.1.1 a. Explore questions such as where, when, why and how artwork should be prepared for presentation or preservation.

High School Unit:

• VA:Re7.1.HSI a. Recognize and describe personal aesthetic and empathetic responses to the natural world and constructed environments.

• VA:Cn10.1.HSI a. Document the process of developing ideas; from early stages to full elaboration.

• VA:Re7.2.HSI a. Analyze the reciprocal relationship between understanding the world and experiencing imagery.

• VA:Re8.1.HSI a. Construct interpretations of artwork, supported by relevant and sufficient evidence found both in the work and in surrounding contexts.

• VA:Cr1.2.HSI a. Consider a range of materials and methods of traditional and contemporary artistic practices to plan works of art and design.

Saturday Art School Unit:

• VA:Cr2.1.HSI a. Generate and develop artistic work in a self-directed manner.

• VA:Cr3.1.HSI a. Apply relevant criteria and the feedback of others to revise and refine works of art and design in progress.

• VA:Re7.2.HSI a. Analyze the reciprocal relationship between understanding the world and experiencing imagery.

• VA: Cn11.1.HSI a. Use multiple artmaking approaches to begin creative endeavors.

• VA:Pr5.1.HSI a. Analyze and evaluate how decisions made in the preparation and presentation of artwork affect a viewer’s perception of meaning.

My Classroom Visuals (2023-2024)