TEACHING PLATFORM

The Art of the Integrated Classroom

A Teaching Platform
mile Zola stated, If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will
answer you: I am here to live out loud. I, as an artist, am an ever-changing collection of
every painting, artist, and artistic period I love. As an educator, I am an ever-changing
collection of every philosophy I have ever learned, every teaching platform I have ever
written, and life experience in the classroom I have ever had. And somehow, after twentyone years on this Earth, I have to figure out how to take all of these things, and mesh
them into one cohesive human being capable of leading a classroom. How will I do it? A
lot of practice. A teacher I greatly admire once told me that she learned more in her first
week in her own classroom than she ever did sitting in a lecture during college. The point
is, you learn what you can in the class, but recognize that youll never actually stop
learning.
In aligning my own platform with that of Progressive Education (Where I landed
on the Q-sort) I find a lot of similarities. For my own classroom I find it highly important
to align my teaching to students individualized goals as well as my own goals for what I
wish for them to achieve. I feel that students learn better being immersed in the content
through interactive assignments and cooperative learning. I also feel that it is highly
important for the students to be actively involved in the world around them, and feel that
it is best to cultivate this through community service projects both in the school itself and
the community surrounding it.

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Students in todays modern classroom may compare their artwork to great

masters artwork and believe that their own creativity is not worth sharing. They may
believe that because their artwork does not mimic perfectly great pieces of art they should
not continue on with the creative process. However as an Art Educator I believe that this
is not the case, and aim to dispel this uncertainty through positive encouragement and
support.
Creativity can be found in the simplest of forms and the most common of places.
Students need to be taught good self-concepts in their art. Students need to understand
that they should not just make art for the grade. For young children and adolescents it is
the process that truly matters. Allowing the students to make their own creative decisions
can better emphasize how they can create an emotional relationship with their art. The
students may not have a fully polished final product, but what is really important is the
connection they made with the process, and how that affects them emotionally and
educationally.
As an educator it is my duty to encourage students to reach their potential and
strive for what they believe in. In the art classroom I have the ability to show students the
beauty and aesthetics of the world around them. I have the power to lay down
expectations for what the students final artwork should look like without limiting the
students own ambition and creativity. As an educator I can utilize the different
perspectives of my students to form a diverse and interesting environment that students
can thrive in despite any limitation that a child might posses.
It is also important for me to emphasize cross cultural differences, to not only
educate them on the artistic aspects of the world around them, but to also show the

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diversity of society. This will allow the students to be better rounded not only in the
classroom but also in their daily lives.
My classroom will be designed in such a way that all students feel comfortable
and involved in the creative process. There will be ample opportunities for students to be
involved in their own work as well as others, and class will be conducted in such a
manner the entire class is constantly provided with positive and reinforcing feedback
regarding their work from both their peers and myself. Because the class will be designed
in such an open manner, I will expect the students to frequently communicate with one
another regarding art that we are directly involved with in class, and art that they
experience in their everyday lives. I feel as if the only way to get a student to truly
connect to content is to make it important to what they experience on a daily basis. Art
must be lived not just learned.
As a future Art educator I have spent the entirety of my college career learning
both how to teach, and how to be taught, and this is a lesson more valuable than most.
One of the most unique experiences of my college career has been the juxtaposition
between being a student and being a teacher. This lesson has been valuable because it has
required me to look at situations from multiple perspectives and apply how I feel as an
educator and how I feel as the educated. This has given me a great advantage when it
comes to understanding what a student is communicating through actions, words, and
execution of assignments. In being able to look at the situation through multiple lenses, I
am not only attempting to better my students understanding, but improving my own
understanding as a life long learner.

TEACHING PLATFORM