Teaching

My teaching practice centers around the idea that everyone can create art. I have noticed that as children get older and begin to enter adulthood, i's much more common to hear the phrases "I can't draw" or "I'm not a good artist." I believe these concepts are taught to children from a very young age. I aim to deconstruct popular notions of what makes art "good" and what is categorized as art through my teaching practice in order to encourage freedom of expression and raise students' self esteem. I am dedicated to providing my students with a positive and open classroom culture based on mutual respect so that they feel comfortable to take artistic risks and express themselves. Culturally responsive teaching, anti-racism, and feminist pedagogy are all pillars of my teaching philosophy. I believe the role of art education in a school is to empower students to express themselves visually, to teach about the impact of art on culture and history, and to improve students' critical thinking skills.

My lesson plans are often based on a model of experimentation followed by guided practice. Students will learn about new materials through self-driven play and idea generation and then synthesize their learning in a more structured project. I believe in creating projects with enough instruction to support students while leaving a certain degree of openness to allow for individual expression. I assess students using visual evidence of learning in their work. My rubrics are written in a way that ensures that every student is capable of meeting the expectations, but also challenges them to push their creativity and apply new skills. Visual literacy is an important part of my lessons, and I utilize a variety of methods to engage students in writing about art, both their own and that of other artists. I also emphasize the role of art history and contemporary art in my lessons, using examples from a variety of time periods and genres by artists with diverse backgrounds. I engage students in discussions using Visual Thinking Strategies to encourage them to share their own interpretations of works of art and learn from their peers' comments. In these discussions, students identify specific visual evidence to support observations they make about artwork.

In this lesson segment, sixth grade students learned different methods of contour line drawing. They began with blind and modified contour drawings of shells done in their sketchbooks. We looked at blind contour drawings by Alison Kunath to discuss the benefits of blind contour drawing and how artists use blind contour to develop their observational skills.  

Students created a final drawing using cross contour. They prepared with four thumbnails using different types of compositions. The drawings are done on 14x17" bristol board using either graphite and ebony pencil or graphite and sharpie. We looked at work by Louise Bourgeois and Henry Moore to discuss the ways artists use cross contour to show form, depth, and surface texture.  

In this lesson, first grade students worked on preparatory sketches for a wearable piece in which they transform themselves into imaginary flying creatures. The focus of the lesson was on creating visual texture and adding detail to a sketch. The students were given images of a variety of animal textures and parts such as fur, feathers, scales, horns, and claws. We looked at work by Eric Carle to discuss about the creation of visual texture and combining elements of different animals to create something new.  

In this lesson, students worked on developing a visual texture using pastels. They were again given reference images of various animal textures. They had to create four visual textures to practice and then make one larger drawing on colored paper in which they could combine multiple textures. This was another preparatory project for the wearable flying creatures project which students completed with my mentor teacher.  

In this lesson, fourth grade students experimented with using a variety of materials to create collagraph prints. Students were given cardboard, popsicle sticks, foam shapes, feathers, tissue paper, and scrap paper which they glued to cardboard plates. Students learned about the process of creating and printing a relief plate. We discussed how and why artists make prints and looked at some examples of printmaking, including Andy Warhol, Shahzia Sikander, Glen Alps, Jorge Pardo, and Akiko Taniguchi.  

I taught Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking to students aged 11-14 at Pratt Institute's Saturday Art School program. Over the course of 10 weeks, students developed a final piece incorporating a variety of media.

Students created still life drawings of flowers which they then turned into relief prints. They created sticker designs based on something they considered to be opposed to nature which we then printed onto sticker paper. They combined the stickers and prints, layering and altering them and adding paint. The final pieces were symbolic of the environmental crisis facing humanity, something the students expressed as being very important to them.  

In this video lesson, I demonstrate how to create an observational drawing of an arrangement of cups and use imagination to add plants to the composition. This project focuses on drawing ellipses and using a combination of observation and imagination.