TEACHING STATEMENT

I choose to teach because I want to be of service to others. I am both an educator and an artist. These are congruent and embedded practices in my life. My aim is to prepare all students with the skills and wherewithal that will lead to long-term success. Visual Art Education is a powerful tool and a vital experience for 21st-century learners.

As a teacher, I choose to focus on critical thinking, creative problem solving, and placemaking skills. The goal of art class is not to make beautiful things. However, beautiful things are a wonderful byproduct of art class. My hope is that through process, courage, and practice, all of my students will craft a powerful sense of self-worth and agency.

Enthusiasm is contagious. I allow light-hearted humor, experimentation, risk, and failure in my classroom. I find many students mistake accurate rendering and draftsmanship as the pinnacle of fine art. While such skills should be acknowledged I believe notions of concept and process are the secret sauce of art.

I strive to be inclusive and remain present with my students. I do not teach a group but rather a group made of individuals. Understanding the difference is the baseline to successful teaching. I appreciate that each student has endless potential as well as a current place of knowledge tied to their personal experience.

Diversity is an asset. Everyone has the right to feel welcome and respected and part of the community. What makes my students different also gives them the very perspective that can make them wildly successful. I choose to base my lesson plans and examples around the work of contemporary artists and minority artists. I want all of my students to have access to relatable role models and to know that careers in art and design are inclusive and can reflect their own culture and identity. I love to organize field trips to local museums and art exhibits that reaffirm such connections.

I work to develop activities that foster a genuine sense of community. I find that fostering conversation from day one establishes a safe community and leads to more productivity. My intention with critiques is always two-fold, to gain feedback but also to develop vocabulary and the ability to articulate ideas effectively.   
 
I provide information about local resources and encourage my students to be self-directed learners outside of the classroom. I provide supplementary resources beyond what we have time to cover in class. 

I also make the effort to stay abreast of teaching pedagogy via professional development. I push myself to try new lessons and new ways of doing things. I tell my students to “consider everything an experiment” and I aim to show them that with my own actions. My lessons embody a variety of learning styles by incorporating readings, visual references, discussions, demonstrations, short-term exercises, and long-term projects.

I plan accommodations for my students who use Special Education services, English Language Learners, as well as students who lack support for learning. On this latter note, I try to be present and observant of the small things and the unsaid things. I find this to be simultaneously the most difficult and most important quality for a teacher to possess. That is, to teach a group but at the same time be in the present and really “see” every individual. Somedays I feel this quality is elusive and downright impossible... but I’ll never stop trying. I know the energy I give as a teacher equals the experience and knowledge I gain.

-Audrey Zofchak