teaching and an artist

There is a mutal respect that comes between you and your students when you are an artist that continues to work and develop your own ideas and projects. As a teacher I hope to share with students my love and passion of art. I feel that showing that you are working and developing your thoughts helps connect and contribute to "teaching" students about art. I could connect to them just teacher to student, but sharing your talents becomes more a connection like artist to artist. It can be scary to some people to conncect personally to students, but that is what students will remember and reflect upon more, you teaching them on a personal level, not a curriculm level.
I don't know how I will incorporate the "art" I am making in my classroom, but maybe my passion and excitement about a project. Explaining and talking about itdeas that I could be working on, and asking for input and discussion could spark interest for other projects. It is very inportant to me to make art and I hope to do it as part of my class time schedule. But...my students and their needs will come first. I have to rethink when I will work in my art but I have never not had some project that I am working on. It is a good habit that I hope will continue.

Relationship between teaching and art making is based around pushing the boundaries and ideas for each project. It is ok to present a project of social, cultural, and personal concerns. The balance between technical skills and student making meaning art will reflect on how I set up the lessons. I plan to have a skill that we develop, but the project is based around a bigger theme. Skills take practice but developing inner and personal thoughts through visual art will be my biggest challenge as a teacher.

I went to a larger high school and had two very talented art teachers. They both operated their classes in different ways and I enjoyed and will hope use some of their strategies when I am a teacher. It is tough to get high school kids motivated to continually stay focus on one piece of art for multiple class periods. In my classroom I remember a lot of complaining and sleeping. It was sometimes not the most friendly environment but I was one of the few students who stayed on task and worked hard. One teacher was very strict about what we could and could not do with out art, which, towards the end of high school, made me really not like this teacher. Yes, we could present ideas or try something different once in awhile but the teacher would comment about how he did not like it or it was not what he wanted. I felt like most of my art I was making for him and not for myself. The other teacher loved it when you came up with something unexpected out of the realm of the original project and kept us busy but not overwhelmed. I am worried that it will be hard to find a good balance between objectives and allowing students more freedoms. I am also worried about management of my class but I think that will come after more practice in a classroom. I hope to learn more about adolescence in general and how to handle their issues productively. It was not that long ago that I was in high school myself so I think I will be able to relate personally, but how as the authority? It will be interesting.