Reflection on my teaching experience

Reflection of my teaching experience-III

A case for visual art in APS

“Art is the pivot around which all subjects revolve” This was one of the most inspiring quotes I heard when I was in college studying art education. This statement has been my source of inspiration as a teacher all through my teaching carrier.

When I joined the staff of my school in January, the school is half way through the school year. It was therefore a big challenge for me to catch up and adjust to my new cultural environment coming from outside. It was a real cultural shock. The behavior of the students towards a teacher and their mind set about art was my worse night mere. I was charge to let the students produce some quality work in four weeks for the Black History month thematic unit. By the end of February, I was able to get the students to create some master piece and displayed them on my class window. During my planning time the Instruction liaison Specialist call me to congratulate me and enquirer about my teaching experience. As soon as I told her I was teaching before I came over, she took me off the first year teacher program. This was just the beginning of the more recognition to come.
By the end of my second year the Concept Base Unit was introduce to replace the thematic unit and visual art became more relevance to the learning community in APS.
The end product of the concept base unit was expected to be a tangible product or hands on creative product to demonstrate understanding of the concept learnt. My services or assistance in my school community was over whelming. My principal who like aesthetic pleasing environment immediately took advantage of my artistic capabilities to transform the school during the culminating activity of the concept base unit. All the hall ways are transformed to depict the theme for the semester. The theme for first semester was culture and that of the second semester was systems. The concept base unit brought me to the front light in the school. Every teacher in the school came to me for advice, assistance with the students or to help with the decoration of their hall way.

The end result was my nomination as teacher of the year 2005 – 2006 within two years of teaching in my school. A strong reason for visual art in the school system. In addition to all that I do during the concept base unit my artistic skills have also been employed to decorate various teachers’ classroom, cafeteria, hallways and gymnasium. I have also been designing and creating back drops for every occasion in the school, to name a few annual winter and spring concerts, black history month culminating activity, annual national BETA club induction service, 8 Th grade dance and school award ceremony and many more. These and many more that we have done for the school goes to testify that “art is the pivot around which all the subject revolve” I therefore can not see how any school can function well without the arts. I will therefore like to call on all art teachers to go beyond the call of duty to make a case for the art in their school. This is the only way to make no one dream of cutting the arts even if there are no funds. In the process of doing all these work I do work with student volunteers who also take pride in helping and being part of the transformation of the school. With the display of my artistic skills around the school, I have won the respect of the faculty, administration and especially the students I teach. I therefore have absolute control over their mind in the classroom as an experience and a practicing artist in addition to teaching in the classroom.
To add injury to insult, The After School All Stars program has employed me to teach art after school and during their summer camp. Some faculty and students have also commissioned me to design and create various works for them. I can therefore with these experiences say that the fine arts are a very important component of the school system and should never be thought of being cut of during thought economic times just as mathematics or science will never be thought of if we are to prepare our future workforce to be ready for R-Directed brain as Daniel Pink theory claims.