Fall teaching

The beginning of a new semester is always exciting. Syllabi are in place, readings uploaded, and all is ready for new students and new stories.

This semester at Columbia University Teacher College I am teaching two courses in the Art & Art Education Program: one of them is Art for Classroom Teachers, which I offer every semester; the other one is Artistic Development of Children, a core course in the program.

I love teaching Art for Classroom Teachers. My students are masters and doctoral students from across the university, and most of them have no art background and haven't touched clay or paint since kindergarten. But they recognize the importance of art in schools, and come to me to develop ways of bringing it to their students. Either they teach 11th grade chemistry, 2nd grade homeroom, 7th grade math, Sunday School, or work as occupational or speech therapists, we play with materials and create strategies to integrate those playful explorations in their own professional practice.

Artistic Development of Children is a core course required for all Art & Art Education students. All students have artistic practices and many of them also teach preK-12. Along with artistic development theory (it is a theory-heavy course!) sessions and assignments rely on materials explorations, museum visits, group work, etc. I'm particularly excited about the game we will create - more on that as the game takes shape...

I'm also co-teaching a course at Urban Glass (with the awesome Dorie Guthrie!) and guest lecturing in a number of classes and workshops here and there, on both sides of the Atlantic.

It'll be a particularly busy semester, but it'll give me lots to think about. Stay tuned!