My Art Room
As an art teacher I strongly believe in allowing students to having the freedom of creativity and exploration in their project. I want students to feel excited about their artwork by providing freedom to personalize their own learning. I try to make my projects much more student centered. When students are learning on their own, it gives them the opportunity to make decisions, demonstrate their skills, and explore concepts that they find interesting. This makes room for expression which helps children improve self-esteem and have a healthier state of mind.
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Celebrating student growth by providing opportunities for both success and failure is crucial because it allows students to reflect and develop from mistakes.
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In my classroom I encourage students to work
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together and help each other build skills through critique and team building. My goal as an art teacher is for students to feel safe and comfortable in the classroom. Cross-curricular and multicultural lessons are a critical part of my curriculum because it helps students become well rounded active members of society. Also, I strive to allow every student to succeed in my classroom by providing proper support and modifications. To best support my students who are differently abled, I meet with the Special Education department to learn about the best teaching practices and lesson modifications that help every student succeed in the art room.
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To learn more about what I teach in my classroom, please check out my news letters. These are emailed to the students' families. Click here to read some of my previous articles.
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One of my teaching goals is to find more ways to incorporate technology into the art room. It is critical for students to learn about digital art mediums, as well as traditional art mediums. In a 21st century education, students should explore digital art tools to help them develop creative and critical thinking skills in a technologically driven society. In my classroom I regularly incorporate technology through presentations, demonstrations, activities, and digital art making. Additionally, I encourage students to document their artwork and write artist statements on the iPads using a program called Seesaw. This has been a wonderful tool for students to learn the process of creating digital art portfolios. I feel that it is important to start building these technical skills at a young age to help improve students' critical thinking and creative writing in a 21st century classroom.
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Please click on the links below to learn more about my cross-curricular lessons, multicultural lessons, modified lessons, supporting multilingual learner lessons, and library experience.
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-Cross-curricular Lessons -Multicultural Lessons -Modified Lessons -Supporting Multilingual Learners
Collaborative Art
Below are a few examples of collaborative art lessons. I frequently incorporate art lessons that tie all grade levels together. I believe that it is a great way to build a stronger community within the school.
Collaborative Cubes
'Collaborative Cubes' was a project that I put together to unify grades 5 through 8. I was inspired by the artwork of ThankYouX. He is an artist who gained​ fame through Los Angeles graffiti art and continues to create work all around the world. His street style has transformed through the years, and he is known for his geometric mixed media cube paintings. For the 'Collaborative Cubes' project each student designed their own cube, which were combined to create this mural.
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This project was a big success and I plan across grade level collaboration projects to my future classes.
Collaborative Flags
'Collaborative Flags' is an all school art project for elementary through high school at Ayeyarwaddy International School. to complete the project, each student was given a flag to decorate. They were able to fill their piece with lines, patterns, or illustrations that reflect interests and hobbies. The students initially drew their design using pencil and then incorporated color pencils or markers to add color to their flag. Once all of the flags were completed, they were strung together using white yarn.
Collaborative Paper Mural
Students in Kindergarten through 5th grade worked together to create a collaborative mixed media mural. Using paper, pencils, markers, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, and glue, students illustrated something that they did over the summer. These individual pieces were put together to create one collaborative landscape.
