#teaching art

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I mean me. I do this.

I start my very first class in 16 days. I should be excited. And I am, I guess. But I'm also second-guessing myself and well on my way to convincing myself that I don't have a heckin' clue what I'm doing.

In response to this ridiculous notion (because deep down I know it's absolutely ridiculous) I have been devouring every basic tutorial and making what feels like a mountain of notes and small sketches of pretty much everything I know. Just to try and convince myself that I actually do know how to make art - and teach it.

As well as all that, I'm finalising (or trying to. I keep changing my mind about costume and choreography) my burlesque act... Which I'm performing on the 10th April. The day after my first class. I know, my timing is terrible and a little hilarious. Because, if you actually know me in the real world, you'll also know that I have zero concept of time, more specifically, the passing of time. Honestly, I don't think I could have possibly made anything more stressful for myself than this, right now.

Sometimes I amaze myself. And not always in the best way.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in incorporating visual arts into various facets of education. Among these is the integration of visual arts in teaching ethics within elementary school curricula. Here are some potential benefits and drawbacks of this approach, considering its implications for the holistic development of young learners. Pros: Engaging and Stimulating Learning…

In recent years, the field of education has witnessed a paradigm shift towards inclusivity, recognizing and valuing the diverse abilities, learning styles, and needs of all students. This shift is particularly crucial in the realm of arts education at the elementary level, where fostering problem solving through creativity, expression, and a love for the arts lays the foundation for lifelong…

On the third day, I arrived in the teacher’s room with my little sandwich, and an older teacher stood up and came over to me. “You’re in the wrong place,” she said, smiling coldly. I looked confused. The other teachers were all eating, too, so it wasn’t the wrong place to eat, clearly. The older woman said, “Follow me. I’ll show you where you are SUPPOSED to be.” I packed up my sandwich and followed her. She led me across the hall and down a bit, to a storage room where the printer and construction paper was kept. There was one tiny child’s chair in there and a milk crate set in front of it. “This is where YOU eat lunch,” she said.

I figured that I wasn’t going to be there for very long and anyhow it wasn’t very much fun in the teacher’s room. For the remainder of the two weeks I was there, I went dutifully to the supply closet, sat on the tiny chair by myself, and ate my sandwich. Sometimes a teacher would come to retrieve their copies and get startled by my presence there. But really, no big deal, I could listen to my audiobook on headphones and finish my lunch in peace.

On the evening of the last Thursday that I was there, a television special about me aired on the local PBS station. It was something they re-ran every once in a while, talking about the lack of arts education in Oregon and how schools made up for it by hiring real artists to come teach little two week long programs, and sometimes those two weeks were all the students ever got for the year for art. It was a good show, about fostering creativity in students and how that helped them to apply critical thinking skills to other areas in life. They followed me through a class at a different school and interviewed me at my studio.

The next day, my last day at that school, I was walking through the hall, talking to a couple of the little girls from the class I was teaching in, and one of the teachers from the teacher’s room stopped me. Oh no, I thought. I’m probably WALKING in some spot I’m not supposed to be in now. “I SAW YOU,” she said. My mind raced, going over any transgressions I might have done that morning and coming up blank. She said, “I saw you on TELEVISION last night.” I said, “Oh. Yeah, that was me.” “The kids are all EXCITED! Everyone is talking about how they saw you on TV and you’re here now!” she said, beaming at me. I said, “oh, good, yeah, it’s a good show, I’m glad you saw it.” She said, “You should join us in the teacher’s room today at lunch! We’re all really SO happy you’re here!”