Art Blog - Tales from the Art Side

Of the countless duties and responsibilities a teacher must address on a daily basis, the most frequent would undoubtedly be the task of answering questions. This is, after all, an extension of the fundamental role of a teacher; to convey knowledge, to relay information, and to resolve uncertainty. In fact, the volume of queries that are proposed to a teacher on any given day can be remarkably overwhelming. There have been numerous occasions in which I felt as though I had to consciously strain to keep my own eyes from crossing by the end of a class, simply because of the barrage of questions I had sustained. As teachers though, we must be incredibly cautious about how we endeavor to address these requests… Continue reading… 1 comment

I had been waiting my entire career for the chance to teach a painting class and it wasn't until last year that I was finally presented the opportunity. The same was true for a colleague of mine, Cindy, who had been waiting for her chance even longer than me. Needless to say we went into the assignment with a great deal of enthusiasm and anticipation about how we would teach the course. I've seen painting classes taught before that were very prescriptive in the projects that were required of the students. Each student, for example, might be expected to paint a still life, followed by a landscape, and then a self portrait. There is nothing inherently wrong with teaching a class in this manner; in fact, a majority of the classes I teach myself follow a curriculum of assigned projects… Continue reading… 13 comments

I was informed a few months ago by a colleague at the local university that there was a chance I could be supervising a student teacher this coming fall. Initially I was very intimidated by this prospect as it would be my first occasion hosting a student teacher and I was uncertain if I was ready for the responsibility. I've always strived to be very personally reflective of my teaching style and have functioned under a credo of never teaching a class the same way twice. I challenge myself to try and constantly be tinkering, tweaking, and adjusting my instructional processes and aesthetic motivations. Being one of five art teachers in a single school has undoubtedly made these efforts much easier by providing a wealth of influences and inspirations… Continue reading… 3 comments

There are two distinct areas of study to focus upon when teaching kids art production: the technical, and the analytical. The far easier of the two is the technical aspects of whatever media is being explored in a given project. Demonstrating and familiarizing student s with the various processes and procedures associated with a specific medium is always fun and relatively straightforward. Typically the students are excited to get to work and dive into their projects eager to make a calculated mess with the newly discovered materials. It is only then that a majority of them realize they lack the second and more important ingredient of art making: the ever illusive idea… Continue reading… 6 comments