Mrs. Kanak's Art Education Teaching Philosophy:

In Wabeno, students refer to themselves as Rebels or Logrollers, but most importantly they also recognize themselves as Artists. From the first day of art class to the last day of the school year, my role and joy as “Mrs. Kanak the Wabeno Art Teacher” is to build meaningful, lasting connections with students. My artists are confident, mindful, organized, and motivated individuals who I laugh with and learn from each day, but that only comes from vulnerability, empathy, and openness. I make connections with my students to help them recognize the worth in their stories and experiences as well as their interests and goals.

In my middle and high school art room, we work together in the Studio. I ask them what is important to them and what they like to do, while listening closely and incorporating the hobbies and issues they care about into our shared studio curriculum. My individual students take on the weight of helping me plan their classes and projects, so no one class is ever the same in the following year, semester, or rotation. My students make interesting and careful work that fulfills standards and benchmarks but that also fulfills their need for creativity and personal expression as young adults. My students impress me every day with their openness and connections to art in their hearts and minds, and I challenge myself to be a more informed and relevant educator for them each year.

In our elementary art room, we are Positive, Kind, Brave, Creative Artists. Connection begins with that classroom mantra each day and an understanding that if we work together and hold each other up to these agreements we can achieve anything. I believe in my students and recognize their human limitations and challenges - many of them experiencing things I will never understand or come to know. We are mindful of our emotions and classroom climate as a collective group. My younger artists also produce work which is evaluated through standards, benchmarks, and assessment, but their work ultimately reflects the personality and experiences of each individual learner. There are no templates or fully-fledged teacher samples to show the final destination. We take the journey through our artistic processes together and with courage.

Not all of my students love art the way that I do, I will admit. I struggle with some students to teach and to defend the importance of art and its potential significance in their schedule and future. I have students who dislike me and the subject I teach because they struggle to grasp a process or constantly allow comparison to mar their confidence and creativity. I firmly believe that if I can connect with a student through visual language, popular culture, a common interest, or even an artistic media process they randomly spied on Instagram that I can help students learn to at least appreciate what art is and show them a way to make art they care about. I do not worry about “good” or “bad” art - I concern myself with students being confident in their choices and showing me what they know.

I wanted to pursue teaching because I saw the joy that students felt when they learned to do something new, or when they picked themselves up from a failure or mistake to try again, or they recognized that their hard work paid off in something personal, beautiful, and powerful. I began teaching art because I loved to connect with people, to create and to confidently share what I know with others. Education for me is about connecting and recognizing what students value the most and encouraging them to create work that tells their stories. I can teach them how to hold a paint brush, how to throw pottery on a wheel, or how to weave with yarn or paper or grass; hopefully through my practice as Mrs. Kanak the Art Teacher I can also teach them to value their worth in the classroom and in the world by creating something meaningful that they love to share with others.