As an educator, it is important to understand your audience, the very things they

need and adapt to that. Being an educator is not just teaching your curriculum, yet

cultivating the mind of the learner. I believe if we ignore the circumstances that our

students go through daily we will never truly learn how to educate them in the capacity

they need us to. As an Art Educator, It is my belief that through art we can break down

barriers that other subjects/areas may not be able to cover, ultimately helping to

holistically develop the learner creatively, socially, and mentally. Art has a way of

tapping into the areas that we often aren’t willing to go to, but will allow our art to go

there.

In my classroom before we can go anywhere into the curriculum I need my

students to understand, like them I am a person too, and just like them I’ve been through

some things, and I’ve overcome some things. I feel this is an important aspect to

educating students because it allows them to see you as a person they can come to, and

that you are not just their teacher but you are a support system. Fostering a relationship is

vital to me in educating students when you’ve built a relationship with your students you

begin to know how to address their issues, how to teach them, and you no longer are just

a teacher but you’ve become the educator that made a difference in their lives. When you

think back on all the educators that you’ve had in the past, ask your self what was it about

them that made me love them so much? What was it about their class that I was able to

get what I was learning and excel? What you will begin to realize is it had a lot to do

with the relationship you had with your teacher.

As an Art Teacher, I foster a positive relationship with my students, and I choose

to remain honest and true with my students. Having a relationship with them allows me to

call them out on things, speak to them about negative situations, and turn them positive.

Having a relationship allows me to teach them how to channel their emotions positive or

negative in their art. In my classroom art is so much more than just the elements and

principles of art, yet an access tool to teach the students how to build and sustain

themselves, not just as an artist, but successful functioning young adults. It is important to

remember that art is therapeutic and having a group of students in a classroom that

you’ve connected with individually allows them to utilize art to express themselves in

their own therapeutic ways. I truly believe “art is a way of life” and have used art myself

to help me to make it through a dark period in my life, which helped me hone in and

focus to move forward. Art is forever changing and growing, as an educator I aspire to be

like art, evoking change and growth in my students and myself.