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While growing up I was diagnosed with anxiety and ADHD. I experienced many teachers who did not know what to do with me. It was not until I was in sixth grade that a teacher influenced my life in a huge way. Her name was Mrs. Monson. She was elderly but still full of spunk and energy. Her classroom was a place where so many students grew and came to life. Learning was not just a chore but an exciting adventure. While in her class we often played games relating to the lessons. I remember making many art projects focused around the Egyptians. One day for history we marched around the halls reenacting the Revolutionary War. Her teaching spoke to me and helped me understand subjects I had never understood before. Half way through the year she was diagnosed with cancer and given a short time to live. As she dealt with hell itself in her own life she showed the most love to a bunch of sixth graders that I never knew possible. She dedicated the last bit of her life to teaching and preparing us for our lives. I decided that I wanted to grow up and teach, I would be a Mrs. Monson in other children's lives. I would hope to make a difference in their life like she made in mine.
I think back on her teaching with fondness. I realize now that she taught in a dynamic style. Johnston (2012) describes this in his book “Opening Minds”. Many teachers have a fixed mindset while others help their students develop and tackle challenges they may never been even given the chance to accomplish. Another educator who I admire lives by a similar concept. Michael Bahr (2013) teaches theatre classes in high school. He gave a TED Talk in Southern Utah where he explains his own philosophy. He discusses how students need to be given a “box” or parameters to work within. The box is merely so that students can then break out of that box. He discusses how teachers need to challenge their students. Give them opportunities to grow and experience learning for themselves. This can only happen if we are letting them create new types of learning and then exploring the world outside of the norm.
As an art teacher I hope to be able to do just that. I hope to come up with new inventive ways of learning. I hope to help students experience the world for themselves with hands on and kinesthetic lesson plans. The classroom should be a place where students are nurtured and cared for. I hope my classroom feels like a natural place to exist, to be oneself, and then be able to express that through an art form. Art is an outlet for myself. Growing up the art room was my secret hide away, my safe zone. No matter what anxiety I had or what hardships were going on at home, I found solace in art.
De Botton & Armstrong (2016) discuss how art can help us through daily life and even psychological difficulties. They say “Art compensates us for certain inborn weaknesses, in this case of the mind rather than the body, weaknesses that we can refer to as psychological frailties.” (p.5) This is my overall goal. I want to help students find a love in art and then use it within their daily life to find peace and inspiration. I hope to have a dynamic free flowing classroom. A classroom where students find peace and joy. A space where students will look outside of the norm and invent new ways of expressing themselves. Where students can develop and conquer new challenges. I hope that students will then leave my classroom with a bright view towards the future, as I did graduating form sixth grade. Within my life I have found joy in Art and Teaching. Now I hope to go forward and share that with others.
References
Bahr, M. (Apr 18, 2013). Michael Bahr at TEDxSUU: Thinking outside the box requires a box [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/5aUJyDC_gT8.
Botton, A. D., & Armstrong, J. (2016). Art as therapy. London: Phaidon Press Limited.
Johnston, P. H. (2012). Opening Minds. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers
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