TEACHING TECHNIQUES

My teaching frameworks are based on culturally responsive teaching, studio based teaching, and creative art based inquiry. Culturally responsive Illustrator and Designer Maria Kalman says, “To be able to talk about content, to break apart what you normally expect, to use humor and surprise, elegance and humility in your artwork is really important to us” (TED, n.d.). Breaking apart the content is what happens in a culturally responsive art room. Art projects are planned for discovery and self exploration and they relate to larger subject matters in student lives. Kalman states, “I am open to the possibilities of not knowing and finding out something new” (TED, n.d.). The role of a culturally responsive art teacher is to be knowledgeable about student experiences and student perspectives and plan for discovery. I may not know where a student is coming from, but I listen to incorporate their perspective into the learning.

In a Studio based teaching, the studio environment has a direct effect on how students conduct themselves and view the creative process. My background as an atelier painter for five years at the Art Students League of New York has given me the skills to set up the classroom as a location of experimentation, process, and refinement. In the article Freedom to Create, Freedom to Teach: Lessons from a Liberatory Artmaking Practice, artist Mahbube Parnian mentions “Our house was filled with materials” (Parnian, 2025). With these materials, and with the dedication to create, she was able to reflect on her identity. The article states, “Playful experimentation with materials and ideas is essential to fostering a classroom environment that encourages self-expression and creativity” (Parnian, 2025). At the Art Students League it was my role as a monitor to set up the easels before class. Adult painters brought their own materials. Now as an educator it is my role to set up the classroom in a way that best allows my students to access the studio. Each year I meet each class once a week which adds up to 31 days in the school year. After taking out our art projects we have 35 minutes to utilize the studio to the best of our abilities. I understand that each week children need to build their skills with scissors, paint, and clay.

The Philosophy of Creative based Inquiry welcomes spontaneity and unexpected results. Each year in my classroom elementary aged students create a piece of artwork about a role they would like to have as a community helper. First, students look at the illustrations of Italian illustrator and cartoonist Istvan Banyai and paintings of Harlem Renaissance painter Jacob Lawrence. Students choose their role and select a setting for their drawings. This project has always resonated with me because I held a Teaching Assistant Position at an Expeditionary Middle School before becoming an Art Teacher. The mission of this school was to bring students into the community. Integrative lessons were shared between social studies, ela, math, science and art and they culminated with field trips to apply learning. Not all schools are able to facilitate an integrative learning model, but creative based inquiry relies on asking questions to students to connect their learning across their curriculums. Creative based Inquiry is a nonlinear process that relies on student connections to learning. “Creative Inquiry is the interpersonal interaction within social, cultural, and historical context” (Vygotsky, as cited in Marshall, 2012).

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TED. (n.d.). Maira Kalman. https://www.ted.com/speakers/maira_kalman

Parnian, M. (2025). Freedom to Create, Freedom to Teach: Lessons from a Liberatory Artmaking Practice. International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education, 8. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vQlhJHkbbPH8SrAmoamDQ74oW8noEm5w/view

Marshall, J. (2012). Learning through creative art‑based inquiry. Art Education, 65(5), 14–20.

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