The foundation of my educational philosophy resides in social and emotional learning to create students who are equipped with the critical thinking skills necessary for navigating daily life. Students must discover themselves by realizing all that they are capable of doing and while doing so will recognize that they and their peers have a diverse set of learning needs. It’s important that students acquire an accurate perception of self by attaining high levels of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-regulation. These can be achieved through high critical thinking skills that are dependent on metacognitive thinking. With constant self-reflection as a teacher and daily formative assessments as guidance for students, mastery knowledge can be achieved. I believe teachers need to reflect on their practice to best help students achieve their goals and that students need to have feedback from their peers, teachers, and themselves to rework projects and recognize their progress. Students will become intrinsically motivated by viewing their progress and consciously advocate for their educational needs.

 

     Because of arts’ interdisciplinary nature and multisensory dimensions, students can learn valuable skills applicable to everyday life. This large range of ideas can be explored in a safe classroom environment that fosters the need for self-exploration and confronting questions that may otherwise be ignored. I want students to learn the value in being flexible and open-minded which will be reciprocated when my students participate in classroom dialogue with me. Given that visual communication is a primary method of communicating, art becomes an agreeable vessel to express ideas and expand knowledge of other senses to convey those ideas. In a safe and accepting art classroom environment, students can learn to enhance their non-verbal and verbal skills to communicate effectively. In an ever-evolving world saturated with visual culture, students need the proper skills to interpret and respond to their surroundings. My mission is to instill the skills intrinsic to the way’s humans interact to create students who are critical thinkers, effective communicators, and compassionate and open-minded citizens when engaging with others.