I am committed to inclusivity, accessibility to art, culturally responsive teaching, and meaning-making. Art has been my passion ever since I could hold a pencil. I feel immense joy when making artwork, and I would not be the person or artist I am today without the help of my teachers.  I was a student who came from poverty, and there were times I thought being an artist was out of my reach because my mother could not afford to buy art materials or even send me to college. My teachers connected me with a prominent art gallery in my community, helped me build my portfolio for college, connected me to scholarships, and nominated me for awards. My high school art teacher even took me on tours to colleges. Without all that help and constant validation from my teachers, I would have never made it to college. But now I am in Graduate School, getting my Master in Art Teaching. I want to give back, especially to underprivileged youth, because of the roadblocks they will encounter in pursuing education. I want to show students that art is accessible regardless of background or origin. Those experiences drove me to become a teacher. The world can be harsh and tell students only certain people can make it in the world because of economic status, race, or gender. As a teacher, I want to dismantle those roadblocks. My goal is to help all my students succeed.  

Every student deserves access to art and all it has to offer, and that is what my teaching practice is rooted in. I show this by basing all my lesson plans on differentiated instruction. Making curricular decisions based on the unique group of students I work with is the best way to teach them. I aim to provide students with individualized instruction and targeted feedback so every student is engaged and passionate about what they are making. While students are often motivated by grades, I prefer students to find meaning in their assigned projects. Finally, I believe it is essential for a teacher to be open and flexible, listen to student feedback, and consider their students’ voices and curiosity.  

I am committed to culturally responsive teaching. This starts with knowing my students and their community so I can teach in ways that are accessible to them. This means working with the community to create opportunities and providing my students with them. I will provide art opportunities to my students by doing community projects, connecting them to other artists, and taking them to art museums. I will expose them to classical artists as well as contemporary. Connection to the community is vital for art teachers because it shows students that art can make a difference in their community. Art is influential, and I want my students to know that it is a tool at their disposal. Art can be used to voice ideas students cannot say aloud or to advocate for themselves and what they believe in, and I have built lesson plans around these ideas, from masks that unmask who the students are to lessons about social activism. Students learn best by exploring. From what I have seen from my teaching experiences, most students are successful when they engage in project-based learning and are given the space to explore a topic. Students are not learning if they just listen to a lecture on what they should know. Students are unlikely to retain knowledge if they are not invested in the topic you are teaching them. It is a teacher’s responsibility to make the subject matter relevant. This connects to culturally responsive instruction because students come from different backgrounds and will learn in various ways. My job is to teach in a way that will be accessible to all my students by knowing where they come from and connecting them to their community.