TEACHING PORTFOLIO

The documents provided here demonstrate just a few of my efforts to develop art lessons and curricula for a wide range of learners, from elementary to undergraduate aged. Follow the links provided to learn more about each lesson, view photos and videos, and more.

ELEMENTARY LEVEL

Lumia Light Painting
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This museum-based lesson introduced learners to the kinetic work of Earl Reiback, Lumia Interplay (1968) on display for the Krannert Art Museum exhibit Light and Movement in Sculpture. By examining and discussing the exhibit, students discovered the ways that artists in the 20th century began to use elements of light and movement in their work. Learners discussed the possible mechanics that made this piece possible, the colors used, and described the movements seen. In response, learners worked as teams to make their own lumia-inspired work using their bodies, colored flashlights, and a long exposure camera.

Table Manners
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In this lesson, students viewed and discussed selected artworks from the exhibit Did You Know We Taught Them How to Dance? by Zina Saro-Wiwa at Krannert Art Museum. In particular, students focused on the video artwork, Table Manners, and discussed the cultural practices, traditions, manners, and mannerisms of eating in their own families and communities. In response, students learned about each other by playing a pantomiming game in which they chose a family memory of food or a favorite meal and performed it in gestures while the rest of the group guessed the act being performed.

Un-Breaking Medieval Manuscripts
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This lesson was designed to introduce grade school learners visiting Krannert Art Museum to a special exhibit, Making and Breaking Medieval Manuscripts. Learners were led in a brief discussion about the history of illuminated manuscripts, and the various processes used to create the text and images seen. Students also learned about the concept of “book breaking”, and how manuscript collectors like Otto Ege dissected and distributed elements of many unique manuscripts out to all corners of the world. To demonstrate the challenge of piecing these manuscripts back together, students were led in a card-matching game using images from some of these texts, and worked with other learners to trade cards until their book page had been pieced back together.

In Our School
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In this project, I worked hands-on with small groups of third grade students to develop an inquiry-based video making curriculum. Students in each group decided on a topic to investigate by brainstorming people, events, and other aspects of their school that they wanted to know more about. Using this topics as a jumping off point, I guided each group through the basics of how to research a chosen topic, devise lists of questions for interviews, different types of shots and visual material, and how to compile all that they have learned about the topic into a short video piece. On their own, students conducted interviews with peers and others, shot their own footage, and composed documents of their learning together, based on their chosen topics of "Fish Facts", "Secrets of the Teachers", "Minecraft", and others.
 

Ceramics in Latin America
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In this lesson, fourth grade students examined the many uses for ceramics in the Latin American world, including wares such as bowls or plates.  Through our studies of these ceramics, students examined and discussed examples provided by authentic Latin American artists and talked about the use of symbols such as the sun, moon, and plant and animal life indigenous to Latin American places.  By creating their own plates through hand-building ceramics techniques and adorning them with their own compositions, the students spoke about their own time and place in the world, using pictures and symbols to explain something about their life, identity, or personal connection to nature.

Dia de los Muertos: The Art of Tony de Carlo
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In a curriculum designed to teach about Latin American artists and cultures, 3rd grade students learned about and responded to the artwork of Tony de Carlo, a Latino American artist whose work addressed many aspects of his cultural heritage growing up in Hispanic communities in Los Angeles, particularly the holiday Dia de los Muertos. After learning about de Carlo’s art, students learned about basic skeletal anatomy, and responded by creating their own oil pastel drawings that folded in elements of de Carlo’s work with skeletons, celebrations, and cultural traditions.

Alebrijes of Oaxaca
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In this project, fifth-grade students explored the function of form and shape in creating a wooden sculpture based on the craft of alebrijes from Oaxaca, Mexico.  We studied how the artists who practice this craft utilize simplified forms and bright colors in creating representations of animals indigenous to Mexico. Keeping with the Latin American curriculum of the other classes, this project studies a craft native to Mexico, the Oaxacan Alebrijes and the artist Manuel Jimenez.  Students explored the concepts of how artists began to create these sculptures, what they represent, and how they are used to help aid the people of Oaxaca through the sale of these sculptures.Using this knowledge and motivation, the students assembled their own animal sculptures using wood scraps of various shapes and sizes and hot glue, then painted them with tempera paints.

MIDDLE SCHOOL + HIGH SCHOOL

Digital Arts Workshop
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The Digital Arts Workshop was a project that I designed and directed independently as a “third space learning environment, that connected students in-school and at-home art educations. By reaching out to area teachers and schools, I invited students interested in digital photography and image-making, video, web design, or any other form of new media to join a group of peers with shared interests. This free 9-week workshop was offered to high school aged learners in the Champaign area and met each Saturday afternoon at the University Media Commons. As a facilitator, I introduced a few small projects, tips, and tricks each day, but for the most part this workshop was learner centered and project-driven, and an effort to explore new models of pedagogy outside of schools. Much of the time, participants were able to decide what they wanted to work on. The workshop’s central goal was provide participants with access to helpful resources, technology, and peers to collaborate and brainstorm with. Over the course of the 9-weeks, participants experimented with digital collage through tools like Polyvore, created custom "skins" for characters in the game League of Legends, explored video special effects, and sharpened their photoshop skills by learning with peers.

Interstellar Messages

In this short lesson for the Summer Art Experience, Grade 7-12 students were introduced to and discussed the Arecibo Message, a digital 8-bit image that was created by scientists to communicate important aspects of the Earth and human culture. This image was then beamed by radio signal into space, as a symbolic effort to represent our world to hypothetical extraterrestrials who may eventually receive and decipher it. Using this topic as springboard, students created simple "8-bit" styled mosaic works from paper that represented an aspect of Earth or their own lives they would want to include in the Arecibo Message if they could. Some students chose geographical elements of the Earth to depict, others drew maps of our place in the solar system, and more chose elements from their personal lives that they found meaningful. In the end, students reinforced their skills in design and composition by simplifying those elements, and understood more about the convergence of science, technology, and the visual culture of our world.

In the Picture

During this class activity, students learned about the physics of photography, how lenses work, and how an image is captured on film by a camera. Students explored these concepts by working together to transform our art classroom into a camera obscura, which projected the view outside of our window onto panels inside our classroom. The process of creating this installation allowed students a firmer understanding of how the science and art of photography go hand in hand.

Motifs and Music

In this project designed for 7-12 grade students enrolled in the Summer Arts Experience, we explored the processes of pen and ink drawing such as stippling, line variation, and others through a compositional challenge. Students were asked to select a favorite piece of music, and to interpret the mood, rhythm, and character of this music by creating a composition that responded to it. Using pen and ink techniques, students would then attempt to create a piece that used all of the square frame and challenged to use negative and positive space creatively.

Real Heroes
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In this project, students examined the roles that heroes play in our lives and began to work on their own ceramics project inspired by the roles of heroes in art, action figures, and other forms of visual media and storytelling.  Using handbuilding techniques, the students were asked to construct a figure of a hero they identified with, paying special mind to what battles many people may fight even in everyday life. Students then attempted to create their own figures through learning clay building techniques of pinch, coil, and slab building while exploring the principle of form.

UNDERGRADUATE

Rhizomatic Research Project
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In this project for ART 202: Art in the Elementary Grades, undergraduate student teachers took on a group research project that examined and deconstructed a piece of popular culture relevant to contemporary elementary-aged students. While this course aimed to teach the fundamental theories and practices of teaching art in elementary classrooms to student teachers, this project in particular introduced these students to methods of researching and designing student-centered curriculum that expands the scope of what is taken to be "acceptable" art in the classroom to include all forms of visual culture. Beginning with a popular culture site such as Toy Story 3, students collaborated to build a digital map that investigated the deeper social issues and themes embedded in the film (such as childhood, coming of age stories, heroes and villains, ecology and toy culture), then branched off of those themes to investigate connected artworks, artists, and research. This research culminated in a written lesson plan by each student that addressed their chosen topic through a short art-centered lesson geared towards elementary students.

This I Believe

In this project for ART 350: Writing with Video, undergraduate students learned how to create, present, and discuss the role of personal manifestos (aka credos) in artistic works. Building on this groundwork, students identified a social issue with strong ties to their values and manifestos. After identifying a subject, students followed a four-stage video production process (pre-production/brainstorming, production, post-production, reflection) to create their most ambitous and polished effort of the semester, that spoke about or arose from a personally held belief.

The Art of the Real

In this video project for Art 350: Writing with Video, students were instructed to select a person and/or topic that they found intriguing and interesting, but that they didn't already know a lot about. Students were then asked to research their subject, think carefully about why it interested them and what they wanted to learn, engage and interact with their subject through interviews and other situations, collect data (footage), organize their findings (visual evidence), then synthesize the raw materials into a 3-5 minute video. As a result, students produced fantastic documentary shorts that allowed them to explore the community on and off campus.

Motifs in Motion

In this introductory project for Art 350: Writing with Video, undergraduate students were given a survey of the use of motif in visual media and film, from the early work of Dzhigo Vertov in Man with a Movie Camera to the modern work of directors like Wes Anderson. Using this as an inspiration, students were asked to create a short 1-2 minute piece that explores an everyday ritual through the use of the temporal visual language of film. Students videos did not require a literal narrative, but instead emphasized about how the camera can be used to enliven the senses and give us an experiential account an experience.

Art & Social Awareness

In this project designed for general curriculum undergraduate students enrolled in ART 140: Introduction to Art, students examined the role that art has had in effecting social change, and how artists speak about social issues through their work today. In league with lectures, discussions of art works, and writing activities, students were asked to choose a historical painter who worked in the 20th century, and interpret how this artist might address 21st century issue through their work today. Students designed compositions that reflected the original artists' style while also making a statement of their own on 21st century issues in medicine, politics, and popular culture.

Self Portrait Stories

In this project designed for general curriculum undergraduate students enrolled in ART 140: Introduction to Art, students examined how artists use rudimentary elements like shape, color, and line to build up complex works of art. Students studied the history and traditions of portraiture in art during lectures and discussions, and learned about facial proportions and basic life drawing techniques to help inform a final collage self portrait. Students were instructed that their self portraits should reflect a story about themselves through their composition, as opposed to focusing on achieving a perfect likeness.