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     In my classroom community, my goal is to have students come to accept one another for who they are, no matter their differences or personal challenges, and appreciate each other for the significant input they all bring to the subject of art that acts as a medium to learning. Teaching in the public schools of Pittsburgh, I have experienced students coming in to school from a variety of family, cultural, and socioeconomic situations; while this is a challenge at times, art offers a safe place where all experiences are welcomed. Specifically at Westinghouse Academy, our school has worked hard create a community among the students original to Homewood neighborhood and the Wilkinsburg neighborhood’s school that joined ours after financial instability. It is critical that all students feel welcomed and safe in order to optimize learning. This sense of community is essential for honest engagement and discussion of art making and meaning.

     In most subjects in school, learning is about memorizing and performing an understanding of information, but in the art classroom, I embrace the opportunity to reach beyond that. Not only can connections be made through interdisciplinary means, the art classroom provides a place for students to explore further-reaching ideas that transcend their educational careers and influence their personal lives in a relevant way. My art classroom is a place where my students are encouraged to express themselves while in other classrooms, the means to do so many feel overwhelming or harshly judged on accuracy to the relevant subject matter. I have found in teaching in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, students can gain confidence in their abilities through the arts in ways that gravitate towards other subjects. In teaching art, I train my students to persevere through failure and take that feedback for the next time around.

     Art is not a fluffy or easy subject; art takes creativity, planning, critical thinking, problem solving, math, communication skills, writing, and personal dexterity. As an essential part of the artistic process, my students keep sketchbooks where they can brainstorm and plan for our creative projects. My way of getting inside the thinking of my students work is asking them to be in constant reflection and critique of their work. In my strategy, I give students prompts to choose from in their reflective writings at the end of each project in addition to asking them to pair with peers to critique each others’ creations. Recording and hearing my students intentions, artistic choices, struggles, and triumphs through writing and verbal critique is proof of their constant growth as artists.

     Studying various artistic mediums informs developing students of their identity and passions; I am the proponent to help them make these connections. In these studies of art history and process, students are asked to mentally, emotionally, and physically act in producing work that reacts to the past and informs their present and future. When students possess the responsibility for their materials and tools in creating, they build structures for practice as well as management capabilities. These are essential for being ready for the world after high school. My passion is to inspire my students to think more critically, to act more progressively, to use materials and art making to create meaningful and relevant connections within their education, and most importantly, to be responsible world citizens.