One of the greatest challenges I have faced so far as a teacher, is proving to the students that I am commitment to them. I know, that the reason I am teaching is because I believe in them, but they don’t know that. It can take months to reach a level of trust and communication and it usually takes baby steps. Each child is so different. One may tell you their life story, while another will not even make eye contact. One way to start building this trust is asking questions. Find out what they are thinking and encourage their feedback. Letting them know that everyone makes mistakes can really go a long way. I find that when I share with the students my hopes, dreams and my weaknesses, students are more apt to share theirs. Making students feel that not being perfect is a good thing and that they will learn from others around them, are keys to building trust and community in the classroom. I encourage this mutual cooperation – whether it is with me the teacher, or with another student in the class. Once you have built this classroom trust and community, together you can reach new heights.

Artifact 9 Multiple Intelligences

For example, in Photography we had a unit on “Street Photography.” Throughout that unit, the students focused on taking shots that were not “set up” and experimented with many different camera angles and shooting techniques. Students were told to go to the top of tall buildings to get shots or lay their cameras on the ground to see different angles then they were not accustomed to seeing. They were also encouraged to get close to their subject and even hold their camera in front of their bodies instead of their eyes in order to take candid shots. These students were introduced to a new urban environment when we went to Portland, and in many cases, they encountered hostile subjects who did not want to have their photos taken. This could not have been a successful trip if the students did not have trust in their teacher and in each other. In one of my groups, a person approached us from a homeless shelter. She wanted to share her wisdom by handing out condoms. For most of my students, who came from a rural background, this was a new encounter and were not sure whether to run and hide or appreciate the moment. Sensing their concern, I didn’t hesitate to ask her if we could take her picture and she happily insisted we do. The experience turned out to be a memorable one and the insight that they gained from the interaction will hopefully help them appreciate differences in others and add more passion to their artwork.

Artifact 11 Recycled Group Sculpture

I have come to notice that they are basically two different kinds of people. Those who work from the “bottom up,” and those who work from the “top down.” I am a person who works from the top down. If you can, visualize a graphic organizer with a large circle in the middle that branches out to many smaller groups of circles. This is similar to the way that I organize my thoughts. I feel that I need to know the main circle (the concept that I am trying to teach) and I will have a few ideas about some of the other main branches (examples in the life that students can relate as similar to the concept), but the small groups and branches will be filled out through experimentation. I like to see what the students are thinking, and sometimes do not know how the lesson will end up, but I lead them down a path that I know will be able to relate back to the original concept. I believe that this need for cooperation accounts for the flexibility that I have in the classroom. I am genuinely interested in other people’s input.

I also try to teach to my student’s strengths. Children are social beings and want to interact with each other and explore their own interests. A wonderful aspect of the art classroom is that it has a lot of energy and activity. I find that control over my classroom does not come from rules that I have instilled, but from the students being absorbed in their work. I am able to keep this level of focus by having the flexibility meet their needs and interests and fit them into a plan that meets my overall objectives. This includes having a curriculum that can adapt with students of all development levels, the accelerated ones and the ones with special needs.

An underlying quality that makes a curriculum more flexible is the ability to react to student’s interests and what is going on outside the school. To paraphrase John Dewey, the reliance on tradition and old-fashioned customs and societal norms distract us from truth and that the alternative is experimental inquiry. (Dewey, 1938, 73-88) Art is a vehicle for experimentation and as Nel Noddings, a philosopher on education says, “There are few things that all students need to know, and it ought to be acceptable for students to reject some material in order to pursue other topics with enthusiasm”. (Noddings, 1992 p. 19) I believe that cooperating with your students and creating lessons that combine your objectives with their interest is essential for being an effective teacher.