Meet the Teaching Artist: Kathleen McNamara
Visual Arts
Posted Saturday January 25 2014 at 4:38 pm.
Used tags: art, kids, teacher, vsa
My creative endeavors as an art teacher provide a visual arts based approach to general education that helps students build connections to academics and explore materials to encourage their uninhibited imaginations.
I believe students should feel inspiration, passion and discovery in making their art. In the visual arts, students engage in project based learning which involves the acquisition of problem solving skills, which I think is an integral part of student ownership and engagement. As students create projects and share them with a classroom community they gain communication skills, vocabulary and social skills. The result of student projects is art that reflects ideas and concepts as well as technical art abilities.
My process as a teacher involves warm, friendly and open interactions in order to make connections and collaborate with each teacher and their students. My unit planning corresponds to each teachers' efforts and learning goals for the students. I enjoy developing arts projects with students from elementary through high school. For example, academic teachers are completing a unit on community, and in my art class, we are creating neighborhoods from chip board house constructions that are pieced together, incorporating elements of painting, design, perspective, three dimensional architecture. We are using a variety of papers, creating texture and volume that drew inspiration from Antoni Gaudi and the Boston skyline. We are also learning how architecture relates to community, by working together to identify buildings, community members and the urban landscape.
I have over ten years of experience mentoring and teaching folks with physical, cognitive and emotional challenges. I feel fortunate to have worked in a variety of therapeutic schools, in both private and public settings. I also hold a B.A. in Art and Art History and Master of Art Education from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Teachers say: "Art is going really well." "Students are enjoying their work." "They are happy and engaged." "There is a lot of unprompted, spontaneous language." "I have never seen him so focused."
One of my students has the support of a wheelchair, who is not often able to move around without teacher assistance, independently wheeled himself over to our community work wall to hang and incorporate his art piece. He did so with much pride and determination in order to add his personal touch and work to the community wall. He replied with a spirited and confident, "No" when his teacher went to assist him in the process. He is a student with little speech, so his request was extraordinary and caught the attention of other students. In that moment, it was as if all the boundaries and obstacles were removed, because he was determined to be a part of our art community, independent of any assistance and only reliant of himself. It was a sacred moment that encapsulates the work we do as VSA teaching artists.
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