My Teaching Philosophy

Students are individuals. Although they are grouped together within classes, I strongly believe that it is our responsibility, as teachers, to address them individually and customize our teaching to best aid them. We must not only consider students’ varying strengths and weaknesses, but also vary our instruction in order to target each difference. I believe that teachers have the greatest success with students’ achievement when they teach with diverse learning styles and recognize each student as a single person capable of learning.

I firmly believe that every student has their own strengths and weaknesses and that each individual excels in their own way. I believe that teachers should recognize these strengths and enable students to develop their weaknesses. Popular in education, Howard Gardner also recognized this potential within each individual and wrote about his theory of multiple intelligences context (Gardner, 1983, p9). I support this theory with the belief that everyone possesses all of the intelligences but excels in one or more in particular. I believe that teachers can use this knowledge to help their students excel. By identifying the areas in which students shine, teachers can help them conquer their weaknesses.

Another theorist who recognized the individualism of students is Robert Gagne. Gagne discerned that students tend to learn more effectively through a certain style of teaching. He introduced conditions of learning and proposed that students not only excel in different ways, but also learn in different ways. “It is probably the case that some learners can benefit from less complete instruction, i.e., certain events may be omitted from the stimulus materials without seriously affecting the effectiveness of the instruction,” he theorized, addressing the fact that teaching can be personalized and tailored to each individual (Wager, p8). This supports my premise that teachers will be most effective when they seek to teach students personal and individualized methods that allow every student to find success in their own way.

When we see students as individuals, we must also not forget that learning takes place in a social environment. “One is a unique individual, who still must grow up in a social context-an individual of feelings and striving, who must rely on others to furnish the tasks and to judge one’s achievements,” states Gardner, recognizing that although students are individuals, they must still be related in a social context (Gardner, 1983, p254). Students are collected into classes and classes are paired with teachers. This allows students to communicate with peers and mentors and interact in social activities. I believe that it is through collaborative help that students are best able to learn and grow. Collaboration with others allows them to witness ideas and viewpoints separate from their own and create new understanding. This belief is supported by Lev Vygotsky’s social development theory in which he describes the zone of proximal development. “The zone of proximal development defines those functions that have not yet matured but are in the process of maturation, functions that will mature tomorrow but are currently in an embryonic state” (Vygotsky, 1978, p86). Students are learning in the zone of proximal development when under guidance, in collaboration, or in groups and are able to function at higher levels within this zone. Vygotsky noticed that what children could only do in collaborative efforts at one age, they could do at a later age independently (Vygotsky, 1978, p87), demonstrating that through social guidance, such as the aid of an effective teacher, students inherit and develop skills that they will use later in life.

Teachers are instilled in classrooms to help and guide their students. Through this interactive relationship, teachers are able to create learning experiences in which students are able to succeed. I believe that each student possesses the ability to achieve. By identifying the individual strengths of our students and adjusting our teaching techniques to encompass a variety of learning styles, we can affect all of our students and help them each flourish. We must simply recognize students as individuals and understand that they each have their own intelligence and learning style that will develop when given guidance.

References

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Impressionism: Experienced

One cannot truly experience Impressionism without actually witnessing a painting from the movement in person. This became apparently clear to me after I visited the McNay Art Museum, located in San Antonio, Texas, and found myself before Claude Monet’s Water Lilies painted within 1916 and 1919. This grand piece is a prime example of the Impressionism period and allowed me to truly experience the movement and understand the techniques that comprised it.

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Kay Kahn

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“My work is a mosaic of fragments, collected experiences, information, and images. This mosaic is both ideological and visual. I like to begin with an idea that I allow to develop unhindered to encompass anything from the serious to the absurd. No thought is isolated and the simplest can build upon itself. Layers of connected thoughts revealed in a succession of images link and multiply in evolving variations. In my recent work, for example, I sometimes begin with just a word, but already this word comes with many meanings and connotations. Then I make a connection, a thin bridge, between each word and its images, and other perhaps abstract and veiled yet related ideas. My artworks are often labyrinths of intricate wordplay. I want the words to be read as fleeting and visual impressions that interact with the other stitched images. The figures in my work in combination with the words form a running commentary.”

With so many threads making up an intricate composition, I marvel at Khan’s work and her ability to combine many small parts to create a whole. Her wall works are especially astounding as they combine multiple elements to create an interesting-looking collage, filled with meaning and purpose. I am impressed by the skill and amount of patience it must take in order to create this works of art, especially with a medium that I am not very familiar with. It baffles me how single threads can come together to create what looks like a painting or mural upon a wall.

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End of a Long Semester

So this has been one awful semester full of illness, death, and challenges.

I have been continuously stressed and constantly worked up all season worrying about my grades and attendance and all the difficult assignments I’ve been struggling to keep up with. It’s been really really rough…which is why I haven’t written a post all semester long.

Well, it’s over now…but it doesn’t quite feel like it.

I am so glad that it’s over. I can’t tell you how glad I am that its over, but for some reason it doesn’t feel like it.

I have stayed up so many nights, some in a row, and I feel so sleep deprived. This is finally my time to breathe a sigh of relief and take in the fact that I am done with everything, but for some reason I just can’t.

It’s probably because I am still really worried about my grades. This semester has been very challenging with my photography and printmaking classes. Both classes were not only very time-consuming, but were also very expensive, and very challenging in themselves. They also had very similar processes: both extremely repetition, as you make prints. I now know that I cannot stand making prints. I greatly dislike the process and having to repeat things over and over again to get the same result.

Anyways, those were the two hardest classes I had this semester paired with an art history, digital media, and an art theory class. Those other three were actually pretty easy, but the art theory class took a lot of outside class time and the digital media class was also pretty time-consuming. Since I love digital media and am very familiar with it, I enjoyed it, but I wanted to work on everything so much and make it perfect by really challenging myself rather than taking the easy route out, so that ended up taking a lot of my time, as well. Plus, there were just so many projects in that class…and in all of my other classes.

So I pretty much lived at the art building this semester. Night after night after night after night…I am so sick of the art building!

Yet, after all of the effort and work that I put in, I fear for my grades. I feel like this may be the first semester that I do not get all A’s and I will lose my 4.0 grade point average. I am very distraught about this, but I’ve really tried all I can do.

I’ve talked with my professors multiple times and have another appointment with one later today, so hopefully everything will turn out okay, but like I said, I’m really worried.

This should be my time to relax, yet I just can’t stop stressing.

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Hiroshi Sugimoto: Unmasking Time, Life, and Death

A man intrigued by the capture of time, Hiroshi Sugimoto is a well-known photographer constantly striving to freeze time within his photographs. Through his multiple series, Sugimoto takes several pictures within a common theme, exploring the use of shutter speed, focus, horizon line, perspective, contrast, and lighting in order to emphasis the passing of time or the contrast between life and death. He is most famous for his photos of empty movie theaters and drive-ins, lonely seascapes, posed museum dioramas, and life-like wax portraits and is well-known for using extremely long shutter speeds. Read more

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La Reina Mora: Bold Painting, Proud Dancer

When first viewing Robert Henri’s painting, La Reina Mora, one notices a lone dancer, posing within a bright light emanating from an unseen source. Contrasted against the dark and obscure background, the woman stands boldly with her hands resting on her hips in an assertive stance, the only subject and focal point within the piece. Staring out past the viewer, she bares a complacent look upon her face, appearing as if she is posing for a portrait.

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Film Exposure

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Photography is an art that relies heavily on light. In order to correctly capture the image before the viewer, a camera must successfully capture the correct amount of light. This capturing of light relies on film exposure.

By pressing the shutter button, one allows light to strike the film and take a picture and by setting the exposure, one can control how much light is allowed to enter the camera, therefore influencing the way a scene will be depicted. When too much light is let in, overexposure occurs, but when too little light reaches the film, underexposure results. In order to achieve the correct amount of exposure, one must understand many contributing factors such as subject lighting, lens aperture, shutter speed, and film speed.

Obviously, one must learn to compensate for the amount of light that surrounds a subject. When the subject is dimly lit, more light should be allowed within the camera yet when there’s an excess of light, it should be restrained. This control can be adjusted through the camera’s lens aperture through f-stops, the shutter speed through intervals, or even the film’s speed or sensitivity to light. When choosing an f-stop, one must determine whether a larger or smaller lens opening is required. The larger the f-stop number, the smaller the lens opening. The opposite is true of shutter speeds, however. The smaller the fraction, the shorter the amount of time the curtain within the camera is opened and the less light is allowed to reach the film. While lens aperture and shutter speed are the factors most often considered when dealing with film exposure, the film itself may also play a role as films with higher ISO numbers are more highly sensitive to light than films with lower ISO numbers. All factors must be considered in order to correctly set a camera’s exposure and accurately depict a scene.

By understanding each factor that determines the film’s exposure to light, one can more accurately capture the correct amount of light and more accurately create the scene that is desired. Because light is essential to creating successful negatives, it is important to understand and master the factors that govern it.

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