As an artist and art educator, I believe in fostering a classroom that empowers students' learning. My philosophy is greatly influenced from the works of Paulo Friere and Myles Horton’s, We Make the Road by Walking. I view myself as a facilitator of learning rather than a dispenser of knowledge. Education is a transforming force that has the power to break down barriers, confront injustices, and promote a more inclusive and positive world.

Collaboration is a key tenet of my teaching philosophy: mixing students in random groups to create shared works brings students out of their chairs to engage with new classmates. By sharing interests with this new group, students find commonality and compatibility where they otherwise would not have. I hope to promote a feeling of shared accountability throughout our class community that will pour out into the school, family unit, community, and further. I believe educators, students, and community members will collectively cultivate a feeling of agency, purpose, and belonging. This spirit of collaboration will allow students to strengthen ideas, create meaningful experiences and bring new perspectives to our learning exploration.

I am committed to creating a brave and supportive space for students and teachers: where individuals feel comfortable taking risks, expressing themselves, and creating works emulative of their individual creativities. I will aim to adapt my teaching strategies to the classroom-community, ensuring that every student has the opportunity to voice their interests, concerns, or whatever may arise; our curriculum will follow their voices and opinions while pushing their technique and discovery. Students will be welcomed and encouraged to share their personal interests and goals to lead the group’s curriculum.

I will encourage students to hang their work around the classroom throughout the year, creating a simulated gallery of their work and the work of their peers in a space dedicated to their pursuits. Students will act as their own curators, critics, and audiences, learning — even passively — from each other in a living, collaborative space. Students will regularly engage in exercises of group-critiques: explaining, presenting, and standing by their work to peers, who will share their felt-emotion reactions as well as praise and criticism for technique. Since the role of the artists is steeped with emotion and personal expression, these activities will be undertaken with the utmost sensitivity and care, fortifying the brave and supporting space of our gallery-classroom.

Art became a means of self expression for me at a young age when I struggled with traditional academic subjects. In one particular class, “fake it ‘till you make it” was posted in large printed out letters on the walls. Here, stray marks became new brush strokes and differing interpretations of an assignment became creative unique perspectives. My teachers guided me, allowing me to communicate my thoughts and emotions in a way that felt natural and liberating, providing me with a palpable sense of accomplishment. The art room was where I felt brave and supported, extending my education past the walls of a classroom, as I would rush home to show my parents what I made on a given day. Extending my positive experience in art classrooms to the future, I will create a classroom environment where students check in on one another, in a dense network of mental health and social wellbeing.