Thursday's Teacher

From Teacher Magazine

Here is a really nice little article on teaching art and the importance of art.

Published: August 26, 2009

Engaging Students Through Art

WENATCHEE, Wash. (AP) — Lighten up! That's was art teacher Terry Valdez' message to a group of teachers who work with children in kindergarten through second-grade.

Teachers used white charcoal pencils to sketch on black paper the highlights of popcorn viewed through a jeweler's magnifying glass. The exercise was a way of seeing things anew and putting them on paper with more dimension than a flat outline, said Vargas, a local artist and Eastmont High School art teacher.

It's important that grade school teachers be fluent and knowledgeable about art so they can better engage young students, who are all natural artists, he said. Today's students, in particular, are very visually oriented and technology connected.

Art, he said, is an important, but often overlooked, tool for communicating with kids in all kinds of teaching. Engaging students through art and creative teaching methods helps make student feel comfortable, he said. Art and music can help create an environment where students are more apt to learn, he added.

Teachers can't do that, however, unless they are comfortable and confident in their ability to be creative, he said.

"We're all pretty artsy until we reach about sixth grade and then start having it drummed out of us," Valdez told the teachers, who came from several North Central Washington school districts for a workshop hosted by the Wenatchee Art Education Consortium.

"Adults are really scared. They're afraid they're not good at art. It's not a question of being good or bad. It's whether they're open to art," Valdez said during a break in the class. "If teachers don't feel comfortable with art, they're not going to use it."

Julia Cantrell, a second-grade teacher at St. Rose of Lima Catholic School in Ephrata, admitted to being a good case in point.

"I'm here to learn how overcome my fear. I'm afraid of art," she said. As a teacher in a private school, Cantrell said she should have more freedom to come up with original ideas to connect with students and help them be creative. "But I'm not taking advantage of that."

She had teachers in school who were always very regulated and didn't allow that artistic side to come out, she said.

"It's an important part of teaching and I want to make sure I offer more than I was offered. Who knows, the next Picasso might come from my classroom."

Brooke McPhee, who will teach first grade at Lewis and Clark Elementary School this fall, said the sketching exercises helped her reconnect with something deep inside that is better expressed with pictures rather than words.

"It brings me back the love, the core spirit," she said. "Art is an important way to engage all kinds of learners."

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Information from: The Wenatchee World, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com