Sarah Fogg

I believe that every student has the ability to excel in art. In grade school, students typically see an ‘artist’ as someone who is good at drawing or painting realistically. This is a limiting assumption about the breadth of how artists work. My goal as an art teacher is to broaden the scope of how children understand art making. I consider every student a potential artist and my role as the teacher is to help them realize their creativity. I want to offer my students many opportunities for them to explore different materials in expressing themselves through art making. so there is growth in their art. I am gratified while observing the growth in my students through their art experiences.
 
As an educator, I want to create an environment that allows creative exploration for my students. I consider the art classroom as a place for children to have ample opportunities for discovery and imagination. Different art mediums and non-traditional ways of using these mediums provide endless possibilities for the students.
 
Even though art is sometimes seen as a class where students get a break from learning, this is far from the truth. The art classroom is a place where students develop cognitively, personally, academically, and socially. It is a place for students to gain confidence in themselves, to learn about their strengths, and to overcome weaknesses. The art classroom provides opportunities to create cross-curricular experiences that enable students to make connections to other school subjects and the outside world.
 
Teaching art is a way of showing students different ways of seeing and experiencing the world around them. I believe in teaching an appreciation for everything they encounter on a daily basis. Art does not always have to be the final product. The process of artmaking is where learning, exploration, imagination, and discovery happen.