The Art Teacher
Teaching in Children's development center.
Morogoro, Tanzania
Arranging student art exhibition.
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Teaching has always come naturally to me. Already in Primary school I helped and tutored both my younger siblings and my classmates and was often given positive feedback over my ability to explain things clearly and make them more easily chewable for others. Personally I only paid attention to these skills in High School, where my art teacher recommended I consider a career as an art teacher myself.
As a newly graduated teacher, the internships have naturally been the most important and notable chances of personal growth as a teacher. My skills and authority have been challenged by students, yet after every single challenge it has only became clearer to me – yes I am a teacher. Alongside my studies in the University of Lapland, I’ve also run online-art lessons as a volunteer teacher through Deviantart online gallery to students all over the world. The courses have been hobby-based and unofficial, but they have played a significant role in my journey of growth as a teacher. They have helped me keep up with teaching and course planning routine outside the internships and also offered challenges such as teaching pupils in a foreign language and organizing topics and courses remotely. Every child is an artist.
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My strengths as a teacher
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My greatest strength as a teacher is definitely a diversity of expertise and skills. I have a long history of art schooling from since I was a child myself and I master extremely vast range of different techniques and materials. Generally it’s hard to find a topic or a technique I haven’t ever used or tried. I also haven’t stuck to just one or two techniques to use in my own art, but I explore and try different things constantly. This helps me to view art more objectively and also understand different pieces of art beyond my personal interests.
I am also a “modern” teacher. I’m very active online and familiar with several different sites and online art galleries so I have a solid understanding what’s going in the art world my students are involved in and what’s cool in the popular culture at the moment. As a digital artist myself I also know the newest software and techniques that I can easily embed in my own teaching. |
Everyone knows Kari Grandi! Right? Lecture of visual advertising and characters in the media.
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Personal Philosophy
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As a person I’m highly practical and theoretical, which shows in my teaching as a rather technique-based approach. This helps me to divide and categorize topics into smaller pieces that are more illustrative and hence easier for students to understand and learn. I appreciate art as it is, but I think foremost art is about skills and knowledge - through which the creativity and ideas get to shine.
Personally I also think it’s difficult to learn creativity and quality of being artistic without knowing the techniques and the tools first. If a child can’t hold a pencil, becoming a self-aware artist is going to be difficult. I consider compulsory skills in making art as an important part of conventional wisdom that every child is entitled to. Knowing how the images are made also helps children to learn how to read and analyze images. On the other hand I also emphasize finding one’s own ideal of art and acknowledging one’s own artistry. One doesn’t need to like all art, but one must be able to read and analyze it and also put it in the right cultural context. In the world where media plays such a significant role in everyone’s lives and we’re surrounded by visual imagery knowing how to read images is crucial. For children and teens arts is the only subject in school that offers the tools and skills for that. |
I see students are creative individuals, each of whom brings their own ideals and morals into the class room. Many students seem to feel like they don’t learn anything useful in the art classes, so as a teacher I aim to view the subject from student’s perspective – asking what I would like to learn should I be sitting in their place. I always focus on seeing students’ strengths and let them know there’s something good in every drawing if love and effort has been put into it. I believe every child has a potential of becoming an artist once they are helped to find the medium and ways that suit them.
In the art teaching in general, being artistic and knowing of modern art seems to be emphasized. However I think there’s no need for the art teacher to teach about what art is – she simply opens the conversation and helps the students to think themselves and find their own ideal of art. The teacher also offers the tools for this. While learning about the skills of how to do art, one often learns about the very essence of art the same.
In the art teaching in general, being artistic and knowing of modern art seems to be emphasized. However I think there’s no need for the art teacher to teach about what art is – she simply opens the conversation and helps the students to think themselves and find their own ideal of art. The teacher also offers the tools for this. While learning about the skills of how to do art, one often learns about the very essence of art the same.
High-school Photoshop course