Teacher Life
This year marks my first time working as a FULL time Art Teacher. I have always believed teaching to be rigorous, but not to the point where all I have time for at the end of the day is laundry, dinner, and maybe sleep. (Maybe)
As a Teacher, particularly an Art Teacher, you are firing on all cylinders - constantly. You are asking yourself, "What should I teach?" "How should I teach it?" "What connections can I make?" "What strategies can I include?"
In this particular job, you are a writer, manager, coordinator, designer, and art specialist.
It's as if you have your own studio practice, but it has now extended to over 488 students. If I could give myself attention 488 times out of the week, I would be the most productive, efficient artist of all time. I'd be Picasso.
My point is this: as a Teacher, much of your energy is spent setting your students up for success - as it should be. But what if you're not "just a teacher." What if you're an Artist and Teacher?
How do you access both sides of yourself when so much of you goes to your students? I think language is key and that what you call yourself is vital to your success.
Art Teacher vs. Teaching Artist
Let's talk about the term Art Teacher. Calling yourself an Art Teacher implies that you teach art (duh). But that has nothing to do with you as an artist. It has everything to do with you as a teacher. It implies that you are a Teacher first, and that you "just so happen" to teach art.
Then there is the term Teaching Artist. This suggests that you are an Artist who teaches. In this case, the Artists comes first. The problem with this term is that it doesn't accurately describe my situation or my qualifications as a Teacher. This term is often applied to Artists who come into schools and share their art practice with students. A Teaching Artist usually doesn't have an Education degree (of which I do) and knows little about theory and how people learn.
Say it... I am an Artist-Teacher
What is left? If I am not an Art Teacher and I am not a Teaching Artist, then what am I?
I am an Artist-Teacher.
This term establishes both aspects of who I am and what I do. I am an Artist. I am a creative who makes things, and I am a Teacher, who brings up artists.
As an Artist-Teacher, you can come home at the end of the day knowing the you have fulfilled your obligations as a Teacher. And now, at 6 or 7pm, it is time to fulfill your obligations as an Artist. It is in your name after all! You are an Artist-Teacher, and it would be a disservice to you as an Artist (as it would be to your students) if you did not fulfill your current obligations.
So get to work.
Be an artist.
Be Pablo Picasso, but with better art and less drama.
A good teacher is like a good artist. They go right to the most difficult part of whatever's going on.
- Bruce Nauman
Very Well written " A Picasso in the making"
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