If I Were to Become a Teacher Again

If I were to become an art teacher again, since I have already been an art teacher once, I feel that an effective approach to take, as an encouraging educator, would be one that helped to engage and positively reinforce as many students as there were chairs in the classroom. For, students of all learning levels, disabilities, diverse backgrounds and age levels, have one common denominator, a willingness and need to know more and have meaningful experiences in what they are learning.

The teacher’s role (mine) would be a combination of first, controller of the main content to be learned; second, as coach to bring them through the steps and encourage them; third, as manager of providing instructions and feedback on their performance; fourth, as a facilitator to encourage self-development, freedom and self-motivation; and lastly, as resource for students to come to when faced with difficulty in working out their ideas.

Mine would be a classroom that culminates as a combination of those models listed in this module, of teacher-led instruction paired with student-centered techniques within each art class time, as it would be best suited for every student to achieve to their highest potential. The goal would be to give the students the background information necessary in order to perform the project and then to help students discover more about the world around them and their place in it, while constructing and creating new ideas that would help them further explore the world as they grew.

The students that I serve will be unaware of the cognitive learning that they are engaging in (learning without realizing that they’re learning) while the class time flows with meaningful learning, intrinsic motivation, the importance of their own personal time invested and the result of having self-confidence because they were able to perform the task with little to do with concrete facts, but more with their perception of the world.

The ideas given for sheltered instruction, where all students are non-native speakers, a key element in helping any student learn what is being taught. I have used all of the suggestions, including but not limited to regalia, modeling, teacher-made pictures, timelines and real-life activities, as well as linking up information from other subjects, since these are what has helped me learn as an undiagnosed ADHD student, so therefore will help them achieve success in not only art, but other disciplines as well.

Because I have taught, my students perceive me as not a threat to them, but a helpful reminder that all things were and are made through artistic, creative hands and minds. They understand and appreciate the fact that I am also an artist and that I am passing along the knowledge that I have, of maintaining neatness and exploring ideas to them, that their vision is just as important to the world as mine is and that they are also teaching me as I am teaching them, so it is a partnership of ideas and excitable views of the future.