Teaching Philosophy

As a teacher, my goals are to create a supportive environment where students can build strong relationships, freely express themselves, and cater to diverse learning needs.

Building strong relationships with students is crucial in the classroom. As an educator I first focus on understanding their interests and backgrounds. I do this by implementing identity and interest-based lessons that allow them to share themselves through their artwork. By allowing students to create artwork about themselves I develop a better understanding of them. It also gives their classmates a better understanding, and establishes a classroom community based on comfort, compassion and trust.

In my teaching I emphasize the importance of artistic thinking among students by offering choices and encouraging them to generate their own ideas. As an educator, this idea demonstrates my ability to cater to diverse learning needs within the classroom. It encourages students to make mistakes and explore different ways of creating. It focuses on teaching students to think and understand the artistic process. I believe giving students choices, at any age, brings out more imagination, problem solving and critical thinking. Having a learning disability myself, I have identified my strengths, explored and adapted to various learning methods. By bringing in scaffolding, visual vocabulary and clear directions this helps students move throughout the classroom more independently. 

As an art educator it is my responsibility to ensure each student is given equal tools and opportunities to achieve their maximum ability to learn.