My Aspirations on becoming an Educator
Looking back at what I've gone through in school and comparing that to what I have been learning in the Education Program at Western Washington University, I have ambition and passion towards my future as a teacher. I've only had the privilege of working with children the past two years, but in that short period of time I have become more of the person I want to be than I thought possible. The experiences I have gone through so far working with the Boys and Girls club and spending time with students through WWU courses, have provoked so much joy in my life and has given me a sense of meaning to who I am as an individual. I got to go through the experience of working with special education students when I took I compass to campus class at Western. That opportunity taught me to look at people as individuals instead of seeing the disabilities. These students were brilliant in their own way, funny, adventurous, and some of the kindest students I've ever met. I really appreciated that moment to get to know students in a different light. I also got to work with many different students at the Boys and girls club. I come across students with disabilities and even just the regular drama that elementary girls come to me with. I find great passion when I work with children, I feel a sense of duty and believe I can make a great difference in someone’s life just from listening to them.
While doing some research in my classes, I have come across a few authors who have inspired me with their written word on the meanings of being a teacher and providing a sense of social justice within one’s teachings. I always thought the rules of human life and equality were something that we all learned as we grew up, from our parents and how we live our daily lives. I never even thought of providing the context within school lessons to contribute to students learning. One of the authors, Elizabeth Garner, wrote a wonderful article on the overview of social justice within educational theory emerging in art education. The article basically talks about the education system teaching students to use art in service of bettering people’s lives and understanding the world. This theory is exactly what I want to build from and bring into my classroom. I want to get my students involved in their communities and learn about the world around them, using art as a medium to help them understand their thoughts and feelings. I believe from personal experience and stories I've heard growing up, that being able to express yourself through creativity can offer so many resources. Art can be used to manage stress and anxiety, it can be used to express one’s thoughts in another form rather than words, it can be used to explore the ideas of perceptions and beliefs and ideals. Art is limitless.
History is also a context within learning about art, as well as how art has been formed over the years. So many different cultures have formed the way art has been throughout time. Without the Renaissance we wouldn’t have had a major shift in art from religious paintings towards the interest in humanist ideas. There are artists such as, Van Gough, who have changed the views on art and the world. The dawn of impressionism changed the way that artists created paintings. Rather than simply capturing what they saw, they added feelings and sentiment. Starry night captures Van Gough’s emotions and feelings at the time. He didn't simply draw what he could see but used his imagination to exaggerate it, letting the viewer enter the inner dreams and nightmares of the painter. We can change views and ideas with a simple painting. Showing that diversity is strength and there is no one way of being that is normal (Garber, p.9). Something I got from a class reading was; don’t let negative emotions block your growth, use them to gain greater knowledge (DiAngelo, p.9).
I want to teach students so that they may use art to explore other cultures, eras, and even dimensions. Being able to understand one’s self and the world around them can provide students with the means to go about life and fit into society. Which is the goal of every teacher, right? That is my goal, my wish, and my dream; to provide students with the knowledge they need to better fit into this world. As well as provide them with the ideas of creativity and passion to add to the world’s beauty.
Sources:
Garber, E. (2004). Social Justice and Art Education. University of Illinois Press
Visual Arts Research, Vol. 30, No. 2. 4-22. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20715349
DiAngelo, R & Sensoy, O. (2014) Radical Pedagogy. Retrieved from: http://www.radicalpedagogy.org
