Jill Palumbo, MAE 1 N. Mulberry St. Apt. A. Richmond VA 2322 ! 1"#$!"%&2$ palumbo'()cu.

edu Teaching Philosophy I believe the purpose of art education is to help people learn to become creative thinkers and makers by developing the ability to solve problems in a way that produces beautiful and thought provoking results. I strongly believe that public education must be accessible to all students and must focus not only on the cognitive development of students, but as economist James Heckman puts it, the development of persistence, motivation and achievement. Education must aim towards developing the whole child, and learning about the arts provides a natural bridge between intelligence and imagination, which results in shaping life long learners and innovative leaders. In art, students consistently display an intrinsic motivation to create, shape and to share in their own educational e perience. !he student in my classroom is not only a learner, but also a co"teacher and designer of a fle ible, personally relevant curriculum. #art of my aim in art education is to encourage my students to become autonomous leaders, who are capable of making responsible choices within my classroom, but more importantly, within our community. It is my desire to facilitate an e plorative classroom e perience that fosters visual research and process oriented art making that knits interdisciplinary sub$ects seamlessly into each unit of study. In my years as an educator, I have learned that all academic sub$ects can be taught within the conte t of an art classroom, and that cross"curricular collaboration between students and teachers can yield some of the most memorable learning outcomes. %ieldtrips, community outreach, service learning, and even studying abroad are all fruitful areas to e plore in promoting such e periences. &s such, we, my students and myself, all must wear many hats in and outside of the classroom' that of the planner, the guide, the leader, and of course, the maker of art. I place importance in educating my students about the conte t of art in history, science, mathematics, language arts, and literature, as well as ethics and philosophy. In short, I take an e periential (enaissance approach to teaching, and as a result, my curriculum is fle ible and will often reflect what my students are learning about in

other areas of their schooling, and life. In order to teach in such a way, I incorporate many different methodologies into my pedagogy, such as) *iscipline +ased &rts Education, aspects of ,isual -ulture, the use of +ig Ideas, a primer of &rt History and &esthetics mi ed with an introduction to contemporary artists, current trends in art making, history of craft in art, all the while learning about purposes and careers in the arts. I believe it is important for my students to learn how to see things from another.s perspective and I desire for my students to learn not only how to become great artists, but great thinkers and empathetic citi/ens within our global community. I am a firm believer in promoting studio habits of mind and I spend time creating a constructive classroom with clear routines, all built upon the foundation of mutual trust. It is important for my students to develop process and cumulative portfolios based on their learning in the classroom. I assess my students in a variety of ways) using formative and summative criti0ues, guest artist feedback, student self checks, blogs, individual reflection, in class observation, e hibition, process and product oriented evaluations, and portfolio review. I handle 1pecial Educational inclusion with modified lessons and accommodations based on the unit.s big ideas and I believe in having clear and open lines of communication between family, coaches, and colleagues within the school community. &s an artist, I believe that creativity can be taught, however I know that it can be a frustrating process for one to learn how to see things in new ways. &s such, I am an arts educator that strives to foster grit and rigor through clear instructional strategies that never undermine the spark of passion and interest ignited in the pleasure that comes from playing with ideas and materials.