When imagining myself teaching in 10 years, I picture myself in a large classroom in an elementary school with a lot of big windows in order to allow as much natural light as possible. Out of the windows, there are beautiful rural views of trees and nature surrounding the school. Students look out of these windows and feel a sense of calmness, relieving them from their busy day. The students can even look out of these windows for inspiration for projects if we are doing a lesson about landscapes. My classroom is an outlet for students and everyone feels comfortable to express themselves, just like the art room always was for me in school. I have a large wall that is covered with large sheets of cheap paper that the students can feel free to go to any time that they are having artist’s block. Here, they are allowed to doodle, scribble, or draw anything they want on the wall and in the end it’ll be a huge collaborative art project that students from each of my classes will have worked on. A corner of my art room has a big carpet and a chair for me to sit on where I will introduce the students to artists, read books and talk to the students in a more intimate setting than if I am at the front of the room, while they are all sitting in their desks. In this area, I also have a bookshelf with a lot of children’s books about art that they can look at closer if there is ever down time or they get finished with a project.
There is also a space for students to display their work inside the classroom as well as space in the hallway outside of my art room so that the rest of the school can see what we are up to. The space inside my classroom is a very white, clean space so that the students’ artwork is the main focus. There is a cluster of desks in one area of the room where students can use the computer. This way, if there are students that are interested in doing a project on the computer, rather than drawing, painting, or ceramics, they are free to do so. I also have a smart board at the front of my classroom where I can display images, students’ digital work, and other presentations when teaching my students. It’s also important to me that I have a small printing press or another way of creating printmaking projects with my students because it’s something that I didn’t get much experience with in elementary school art classes. I also have one potter’s wheel that students can take turns experiencing throughout the school year and I’ll fire the piece they create in a kiln in order for them to keep their first wheel-thrown pot they ever make.
One big lesson that I want my students to take away from my class is how to work collaboratively with others. This is a skill that I find extremely valuable throughout school, the workplace and life in general. I also want my students to find their voice. Learning what their values are and staying true to those values early in life is a way to boost confidence and allow the students to figure out who they are. It is also important that my students learn to respect the values of others. One reason that I want my students to be very open about expressing themselves is so that they can see the point of view of others. I want my students to figure out early in life that other people have different beliefs than them and that it’s alright to disagree with someone else as long as they show respect to the other person. My students will learn how to step out of their comfort zone. I will try to have students work with others that they might not know very well in order to get to know each other better. I will also teach them to use materials that they might have never worked with before in order to show them that they have options other than just drawing in order to create art. Lastly, my students will learn that art is something that affects the lives of everyone whether they are aware of it or not. We will talk about the fact that art is all around us. It is very important to be able to analyze visual culture in order to reject or welcome subliminal messages within images. Overall, my students will learn more about themselves and what is important to them and their peers.
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