Artist & Educator
As an art educator, my goal is to empower students to express themselves and find joy in learning new things through engaging with art, their peers, and the world around them.
I strongly support engaged pedagogy in my teaching practice, presented by bell hooks (1994), which expresses that when students are engaged in learning, they are being provided with ways of knowing that enhance their capacity to live fully and deeply. I use engaged pedagogy in a way that both engages students in learning through their personal interests, and recognizes individual students as independent, unique beings to create a classroom space where students know their well-being is prioritized.
I strive to create a safe learning space for students in which they feel encouraged to take creative risks and persevere through new artistic challenges, so that students feel confident to dive into their creative abilities and discover the power of artistic expression. I promote students' creative risk taking and perseverance through empowering student choice within the art room in order to provide students with autonomous decision making and art making.
By creating space for student choice and independence in their art making, students begin to take ownership over their learning in addition to recognizing their flourishing abilities within art. In turn, this creates a learning community in which students feel capable, respected, and confident in their ability to make meaningful creative decisions, and fully understand that they have equitable opportunities to reach their creative goals in my classroom.
By embracing engaged pedagogy in my classroom, my role as an art educator expands beyond instruction to nurture the well-being, confidence, and individuality of each learner. This approach allows students to feel seen, valued, and supported in the art classroom, fostering not only artistic growth but also a deeper self-awareness, joy in learning, and meaningful connections with the world around them.