My Art and Design Teaching Philosophy
It was the sense of achievement in creating a sculpture, drawing or painting that I wanted to share, the feeling of excitement that comes with the process, creativity, new ideas. I became a teacher because I have always been extremely energised by connecting with artists both in the community and around the world. It is incredibly important to share creativity globally; the study of arts from different cultures helps us to make sense of history, politics and society.
The Arts are a fundamental part of an education. They are especially important in teaching students creative thought processing. They cultivate a strong self-belief and confidence. Art in particular teaches students that many approaches are possible in any area of life.
In Africa, I was shocked that the Arts were not offered in the local schools. These poverty stricken societies simply do not have the resources to offer education in the Arts and over time it has come to be thought of as unimportant. I was teaching at a private school in Mwanza, Tanzania and even there I struggled to get parents to see the importance of creativity for development into adulthood. I spent considerable time explaining that a grounding in Art translates into so many professions in our fast changing technological world. I was eventually successful in persuading parents and saw an uptake in my GCSE students. I conducted workshops for street children in an attempt to expose the poorer children to art-they loved it! I continue to try to get parents to see the value in Art as a subject.
Teaching Art specifically can be defined as enabling instruction through pedagogy and coaching with effective lesson objectives and good classroom management. I define teaching Art and Design as the ability to encourage students to become independent learners through the effective critical analysis of theoretical knowledge applied through practical and visual communication. Risk-taking, having opinions, experimenting with materials and processes are the essence of the subject. I like my students to trust their instincts, collaborate with one another, to work on several pieces of artwork simultaneously!
I believe it is important to have an open door policy and to share good practice. In the UK, I passed all the performance criteria at Upper level with a proven history of outstanding exam results and Ofsted observations. I develop new strategies through the evaluation of each lesson. On average, I help my students achieve 55% A-A* grades. In 2013, my Art results were 60% A-A*, and Design Technology marks were 50% A-A*.
In the classroom, I employ different teaching styles .Visual,auditory and kinesthetic styles are used to include more students. All students can identify their own preferred learning style though I firmly believe that most students benefit from a balance of all three. This balance is achieved through delivering my lessons and my planning strategy to each style of learning.
Students can face difficulties when there is something distracting them from their learning. Peer mentoring, teacher coaching and pastoral care are crucial aspects of school life and are fundamental to improved learning. It is important to me to use positive reinforcement, no negativity. Negativity is an obstruction not just to the individual student, but also to the class; it can be discouraged through motivational interviewing. Motivational interviewing is a tool for classroom management that I presented as my Masters thesis. I disseminated this to other staff in meetings demonstrating through role play, and It gently works with ambivalence. It is a quick and effective tool for enabling positive behavioural change in and out of the classroom. A well presented inspiring Art room is respected by students. Differentiation within learning is key to ensuring that students feel positive and confident. It helps with behaviour, and it enables positive steps towards succeeding in Art. It is essential that all abilities are well planned for and encouraged through extension tasks, teaching strategies and clear objectives.
Tutoring is an aspect of my teaching that I particularly enjoy, my awareness of global events is consistently used in my morning activities as well as personality games, quizzes and team building activities. My tutor group love nothing more than putting on an assembly or organising charity events. I have organised trips for my tutor group that were significant in building positive relationships within the group.
EAL coaching allows students to gain clarifying skills to aid learning in all subjects. It is necessary to communicate and work with teachers of all subjects by collecting specialist subject glossaries and determining the needs of the student in each subject. I play games, sing songs and use physical theatre when teaching EAL, for fun, motivation, scaffolding and reinforcement.
In my lessons, I use a mixture of Power-point presentations, practical demonstrations and peer marking techniques, knowledge testing, process activities, open and closed questioning, hot seating, student presentations and risk taking/exploration activities. For example for a lesson on mono-printing I would start the lesson by peer marking the student homework of an arrangement of fruits with assessment criteria. The lesson objectives would be first "Do you understand the pitfalls in the process of making a monoprint?" and then "Can you communicate clearly the process of mono-printing using diagrams?". I would show examples of the fruit-collage print-drawings by Andy Warhol on a Power-point presentation revisiting some contextual information on the Pop Art movement. With a mind map on the board, there would be some open questioning to test their knowledge. I would then demonstrate the process of reworking a drawing to become a collaged mono-print asking some students to get involved and take part in the process. All students would log the process by creating a comic strip animation in their sketchbooks and using their homework task of drawing from observation of fruits, they would create mixed media colour experiments first before embarking on the collage and printing processes. They could then rework their designs experimenting with the collaged areas. Individual students would explain their ideas to the class and articulate their thoughts, answer questions and in doing so gain confidence in using the correct terminology. In another lesson students would give assessment levels to their own work using help-sheets and through discussion of the criteria. Feedback from this allows them to set targets for improvement.
It is important to know the students well to be able to communicate and help them feel confident and safe enough to learn. Many students become very self-conscious in Art, particularly in drawing, and it is important to help them open up, ask questions and try to experiment, without worrying about their peers' opinions. I regard myself as a perceptive teacher with an acuity for reading personalities. I identify students who need confidence building and inspire them. I wish to be remembered by my students as a teacher who inspired them to be individual and confident by being able to experiment and make mistakes.
To help my students learn and develop as individuals, I encourage their imagination as well as their observational skills. To start with I always encourage them to use their own interests and hobbies as starting points in year 10. As well as becoming knowledgeable in Art history they learn to use the information gained through criticism and analysis to reflect upon their own ideas and sense of style. As their knowledge of contextual history develops they become more confident in their unique approach and realize that all art is acceptable and its fine to take risks with concepts and ideas. Art teaching is a rewarding career because it is shaping the individuals of the future to become globally and culturally aware,to become positive, considered and creative thinkers of the universe in whatever career or path they follow.
I find working in the community exciting and have organised exhibitions in several Arts Centres and Community Halls. I feel fulfilled when there is a deep involvement in the community. I feel inspired by being involved with Arts outside school in society. This is also extremely useful for making contacts for the school in which I am teaching; it is how I have established links for residential artists and visits. Since moving abroad, I have established connections with artists in Arusha, Zanzibar and Bangkok. These contacts have led to residential workshops and important visits involving one-to-one workshops for KS3, GCSE and A level students. I have been privileged to have experienced the diversity of teaching Art within rural, undeveloped cultures as well as within a highly technologically modern city.
One of the most important aspects of being an experienced teacher is teacher mentoring; I have found that, by sharing practice, you not only help new teachers improve management skills. They in turn help my professional development. Many of my diverse practical abilities stem from working with new teachers who share with me their latest pedagogical theories and techniques. I have also enjoyed sharing ideas with other staff during the Inset sessions in Bangkok.
Learning Art happens on many levels, emotionally and academically. It is personal, social and global. It is a visual connection with something that has been previously experienced, making significant associations. Culturally relevant and personal learning is often more effective than culturally diverse learning unless meaningful connections are made to stimulate interest.Group activities and activities linked to the community make culturally diverse learning more accessible. International links are essential in global learning. I am keen to establish links with the UK, Africa and other international schools. Interaction between the students from different cultures can reinforce learning of the Arts.
My personal characteristics are;
- Perceptive; I can recognise the right time to give praise so that it is not perceived as patronising, to intervene, criticise, question, consider, time activities in the classroom. I know when to ask open and closed questions and which students need personal help. I support both students and staff, when I notice that someone needs my help I am pro-active in offering support.
- Disciplined; I organise my students through clear deadline setting; I have excellent lesson timing and can set up three or four part lessons efficiently. My schemes of work are thorough, and I always mark work on time and set homework tasks regularly. I can organise trips and gallery visits and residential artists programs.
- Flexible; I am flexible in that I can adapt the program of study to work on cross-curricular projects; I can give time to clubs and community projects, I am willing to help with any visual incentive that CAS students need help with, this year we held a fashion show with student designed clothing made from recycled materials (on evenings and weekends). Recently I made sculptures and a billboard painting for a cooperative project involving local artists for the Charity Ball (a massive event in Mwanza). At Art Club we made giant thermometers for the ‘Buy a Bus’ School Campaign.
- Globally Aware: I keep track of community, world and current affairs. I encourage my students to think outside the box. I ensure they are kept abreast of international/local Art exhibitions. I take time with my tutor group and Art students to learn what is happening each week, we read recent articles. Making the students worldly validates their learning and empowers them for the future.
- Reflective; by nature I evaluate all I do, in and out of the classroom. I adapt my approach from the first time I give a particular lesson to the next. My teaching methods evolve, develop and improve all the time. I consider myself a learner with consistently evolving lessons, schemes. I experiment, take risks, try new objectives, generating ideas and developing my experiences into improved teaching. Having the opportunity to reflect on learning encourages current learning to be retained and built upon.
- Agreeable; friendly and compassionate with students and staff, co-operative and supportive with parents.
- Passionate about Art; It’s the creative process of making through experimentation. Endless possibilities and connections are made every time I visit a gallery, am inspired by another artist or even a student's work. Inventive and curious about the Art world.
- Reliable; I have not had a day off in four years. I am always punctual and put myself forward to help with extra responsibilities.
Go to Julie Brockway's website on her own Artwork
