The idea of what makes a good art teacher has really been weighing on my mind recently, because most of the time I feel like I don't know how to be a "good art teacher." I feel anxious approaching the classroom because I don't want to teach something that isn't worthwhile and I don't want to teach it wrong. I think I read all of the articles through that lens. I was asking "what makes a good art teacher?"
The first article about Graphic novels lead me to believe that good art teaching is challenging leads students to relevant discoveries about their own lives. Graphic Novels fit well into the context of Contemporary Art. They are very postmodern. They take something like a cartoon and turn it into a tool for expression about important social, historical, and political issues. They are also very relevant to students' lives and the creation and study of them is helping students to explore their own lives in a significant way. That seems like an important part of art teaching.
The second article about the Teaching Artist was so interesting to me. I've read it before but it has a whole new relevance for me as I'm getting ready to student teach. Things that stood out to me. I need to be a teaching ARTIST. Right now I'm so busy with school and work that I feel like I'm not really an artist. I still don't feel confident in my own abilities to make art and so the teaching that I think probably flows from that work is struggling. I love the idea of a flexible and playful environment in the classroom. I also love the idea of enabling constraints. I think I learned from this one that your art teaching has to come from YOU. I keep trying to force the art teacher out of me, instead of extending myself as a teaching artist. The environment that we create is important, and so is the relationship that I have with my students.
I loved the last article about copying. Copying isn't always bad. I love the way copying was framed though. It's a way of learning how to be something. It's giving you an opportunity to understand how the person you are copying was thinking and working. Copying gives students something to link into, if they have nowhere to dig their heels in they might not be able to get very far.
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