Teaching Portfolio

Keep scrolling to see student art examples, discover how I create an engaging curriculum, and read a reference letter from my former superintendent.

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Student Art & Curriculum

Creating and teaching visual art curriculum based on student interests, emerging curiosities, and the world around us is my passion. I love collaborating with other teachers to implement cross curriculum lessons and hands-on learning activities. My curriculum focuses on Discipline Based Art Education (DBAE) and Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) instruction. DBAE focuses on four main disciplines of the arts: aesthetics, art criticism, art history and art production. I engage my students through aesthetics practices by asking higher thinking questions like “What is Art?”, “Why do people make art?”, “What do we benefit from looking at or creating art?” As artists, we learn from each other by critiquing and observing art daily. We observe and discuss art made by peers, contemporary artists, well known artists, and local artists. I promote an anti-racist learning environment by teaching comprehensive multicultural art history lessons. My students learn about Black artists, Native American artists, Female artists, Latino artists, Asian artists, Folk artists, Indian artists, and artists from other countries and cultures. I curate my art history lessons to expose students to a comprehensive canon of art history, not just the Western, White, Male perspective.

TAB instruction is lead by student choice. By weaving opportunities for students to have full choice in my curriculum, they build confidence in their creativity and skills. I aim to cultivate curious, engaged, confident artists that can self-advocate by communicating their ideas well, encouraging their peers through conversation and collaboration, and that have a love for artmaking. TAB lessons allow students to choose how they create artwork by selecting what material they use, what subject matter is important to them, and how it should be displayed.

—ELEMENTARY—

Preschool

Preschool students collaborated to create a large-scale mural depicting the Canadian Yukon. Our class studied the Arctic Climate’s landscape and animals, the Indigenous Yukon cultures, and the artist Ted Harrison. Students chose the colors and subject matter of our mural, then helped Mrs. Choe use pencil to draw curved lines to separate the sections. Students then worked together to decide which section should be filled with which color, marking it with a crayon. Preschoolers then took turns painting in pairs to fill the paper with color. Lastly, each student chose an object, person, or animal to draw and add to the foreground of the mural. Students observed and drew inspiration from the animals we studied, Ted Harrison’s paintings, and images from our Yukon research. Students finished this collaborative project by cutting out and gluing their drawings to the mural’s foreground.

Preschool and Kindergarten students created Abstract Paintings inspired by Wassily Kandinsky. We spent two class periods listening to a variety of instrumental music from classical strings and broadway interludes, to Harlem Jazz and contemporary RnB beats, Bollywood and Italian film scores. Students painted the colors, lines, textures, and feelings they derived from the music. I collaborated with the music teacher and Librarian for this lesson. Students listened and critiqued the songs in music class and read “The Noisy Paint Box” by Barb Rosenstock during their library time.

Kindergarten

1st and 2nd Grade

First and Second grade students created expressive dinosaur paintings in the style of Jean-Michel Basquiat. We read the story “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” by Maya Angelou. We observed and critiqued Basquiat’s art on the book’s pages and made a list of words that came to mind. Students used one of the words for inspiration as they created their dinosaur designs. This lesson was accommodated for students to challenge students to draw their own dinosaur body from their imagination, use a reference photo to assist drawing, or a template to trace.

3rd and 4th Grade

Third and fourth grade students studied Yayoi Kusama by observing and critiquing her artwork. We worked together to write a working definition for the word pattern based on prior knowledge and new information gained from Kusama’s work. Next students created their own pattern filled hearts using paint, sharpies and oil pastels. 3rd graders used rulers to divide the hearts into multiple sections to fill with their original patterns.

3rd grade learned about the life and art of Frida Kahlo by reading “Little People, Big Dreams - Frida Kahlo” by Isabel Sanchez Vegara. We learned that Frida was confident and self-assured even after enduring many struggles in her life. Students created large self portraits starting with pencil drawings of their features, adding color with liquid watercolor, and outlining with india ink. Students had the option of adding a flower crown or a regal crown to their portrait using tissue paper transfer.

5th and 6th Grade

Fifth and sixth graders created a collaborative mural to celebrate earth day. Students worked together collage together several pieces of recycled newspaper to create a surface for the mural. Next, using a projector they drew a large earth and cut the collage into a circle. Then worked in pairs to paint sections of the large earth blue and green. We used recycled painted paper collected in our scrap bins throughout the year. Students chose a plant or animal to draw and cut out for a collaged heart. Lastly, students took turns outlining the continents using india ink.

—SECONDARY—

6th Grade

Fifth grade students individual earth prints to add to the earth day display. We started by creating leaf rubbings using crayon and leaf monoprints using acrylic paint. Next, students cut out and collaged their leaves along with other recycled scrap papers to cover their circles. Lastly, each student screen printed the contour lines of the continents onto their collage. Students helped install this display in the main hallway.

Fifth grade students created monochromatic self portraits as a diagnostic project at the beginning of the year.

7th and 8th Grade

Middle School students completed a portrait unit at the end of their “Advanced Art” semester. Students completed several sketchbook studies of each feature of the face, a full face line drawing, and an expressive contour drawing. We practiced many techniques for drawing the human face like blind contour drawings, proportions, and the geometry of faces. During this unit we also studied how portraiture has evolved throughout art history from hyperrealism, cubism, post-modern, and contemporary portraiture.

8th Grade

8th graders created ceramic chia pets by using pinch pots and handbuilding techniques. In order to reduce waste students drafted their designs from a sketch, practiced their forms with modeling clay, then executed their plans on the final projects. We studied methods of product designers and completed research on drafting techniques used by REI, and Honda. Once their ceramic pets were complete, we planted and watered chia seeds. In their science class, they recorded their growth and studied the properties of chia plants.

Letter of Recommendation