I chose secondary education and art as my degrees because I realize that learning art is only half the battle, teaching is the other half. I believe that teaching art to children is my lifetime profession. I want to teach children art so that those creative children can learn how to make art effective in daily life. Children can learn how to be visual through art. It helps them boost their reading skills in other courses. Children need to express themselves in positive ways through art of all kinds. They should be exposed to creative thinking and given the knowledge of what art means to mankind. Art inspires children to think. I want to encourage children – to explore the world around them. My beliefs about teaching and learning art is that people throughout all stages of their lives should be creative and have self expression, while at the same time learning the basic skills and concepts of art.

I believe that teaching children will create better adults in society. The role of “teacher” is a hard job in life but very important - when done in the right way. I will teach with all the knowledge that I learn from my experiences at college. “My” role of teacher is one of compassion and understanding for all my students to the best of my ability. Children need to be inspired, and I want to inspire all my students to learn and to continue to learn the rest of their lives. As hard as life can be, children should know that there is always more to life and that everyone can accomplish goals no matter how long it takes them. All children are willing to learn new things, even if it is instructional, as long as it is made fun for them. If any subject can be taught or experienced it is art. This is a subject based on individuals and sadly parents cannot do much to help their children in the learning process. The curriculum depends on the grade level being instructed/taught.

I am taking into consideration teaching middle school grades 7^th and / or 8^th.  I think that children of this age group have a vested interest in learning what art is and how it associates with society. Children tend to be very expressive at this adolescent stage of their lives. They have difficulties with social issues, which I believe that artistic expression enables them to release some of the stresses in their lives. I am sympathetic to their feelings. I have raised two daughters with two very different personalities, and their adolescent problems have given me some experience with handling different adolescent issues. I believe it takes a special kind of individual to appropriately handle art aspects and adolescent hormones at the same time. I believe that I am one of those individuals. I have always been good with children no matter their age. In the course of personal experiences, I have risen to beautiful girls, drove a school bus full of very active children for two years, and I am working on my two degree’s in college.

As a future educator in Art, I want students to experience the hands-on approach to learning. The students should at the very least know the basic skills it requires to know what Art is and what it represents to society and their personal views. I will expose students to creative thinking, inspire them to think critically, encourage them to explore the world around them. They will learn the concepts, elements, vocabulary, techniques, principles, process, and disciplines of Art. I will motivate and encourage the students to use open discussion in the classroom. They will have the satisfaction of learning, while at the same time making something they will be proud to call their great work of Art. My beliefs about teaching and learning Art is all about people being creative, thinking critically, learning new things, and having self-expression throughout the rest of their lives.

I have also given myself new goals; to write children’s books. I have a very creative mind and can illustrate them myself, since I am an artist. I do not want to limit myself in a certain genre, so I will not say what type, yet. And last but not least I want to write a couple of cookbooks from my lifetime-acquired knowledge in the kitchen. I have already given names to them; one will be “No Salt, but Taaastie” and “Cookin’s not Hard.” These are my professional goals, for now.

To develop literacy, children need to enjoy reading. What I have learned over this course in LI 243, are some of the important factors in that development. Not to mention I bought the book, Children’s Literature in the Elementary School, because I found so much information, I could not copy all of what I may want to refer to as an educator or have everything I might need for the students to use in a class project. Even though my class is not literature-based, I think that literature can and will be used in my class as an instructional guide for my students.

Children will read if the story is interesting and age appropriate. Parents and teachers need to show children how much fun they can have learning to read. Children need to know the different genres of literature and how personal values, critical thinking, the imagination, real life, and educational values are all part of developing literacy. Children should be encouraged to read aloud, it helps them with oral communication skills and positive attitudes toward reading. Hearing stories read aloud motivates them to begin to read and enjoy it themselves.

This course has helped me in so many ways it is hard to express in words, but I will try. Though I have not read a lot in my life, I have enjoyed reading in this course. I never thought about how much books meant to a child’s well-rounded education and personal life. In order for anyone to communicate in real-world situations they must be able to read, write, speak, listen, view, and think about how to solve it. I can bring in a concept or idea appropriate for the age and design an activity for the student. I also learned that reading builds the vocabulary of the reader. I am a hands-on person and I have my “hands-on” the LI 243, Children’s Literature in the Elementary School.