After reflecting on my experiences in past art classes, I’ve
come to realize that those classes were most enjoyable because I respected my
teachers. I also loved my teachers, but the respect that existed between us was
mutual and I believe that makes all the difference in the world of education.
In eleventh grade I was forced to take chemistry and I hated everything about
it—most specifically my teacher. He was always reluctant to help his students,
and our class as a whole began to struggle intensely. None of us respected the
man, which made us loathe the content he was trying to poorly teach us. To this
day, I couldn’t even tell you what a Reduction-Oxidation reaction is because
the day I asked for help, he was busy listening to music by Diddy Dirty Money
(I wish I was kidding).
On the contrary, even when I was given an art teacher who
was out there or had a very odd
demeanor, they were always right there to help when we needed it. They provided
us with guidance not only in art, but with advice for going off to college and
doing things in the real world. And we listened intently because of the mutual
level of respect that we felt for them. I’m confident that no matter what technology
I choose to implement in my classroom, as long as I earn the esteem of my
students, they will react positively to what I’m teaching. I don’t need them to
love it or approve of it; I just need them to learn about it with an open mind.
This is one of the reasons that I feel like both technology and traditional art
media shouldn't be overly used in the art room. I think that as long as I act
as a means for introducing students to both sets of mediums, they will learn
what they like to use—and I am indifferent if they wholeheartedly love one or
the other. I want to be a liaison between art forms and the minds of my
students, but never a force to push them one way or the other.
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