Before becoming a teacher I held several jobs: climbing instructor, photographer, handyman, camp linehead, even casting concrete lawn ornaments. What does all this have to do with teaching? My disparate past, coupled with my undergraduate education in the liberal arts, gives me a diverse set of examples to draw upon. This allows me to break down complicated concepts into meaningful analogies. When teaching students to MIG weld, I allude to Chinese calligraphy and Classical ballet in describing the correct hand/body position to lay down a good welding bead.

Teaching is the synthesis of practical skills, conceptual theories, continual investigation, and most importantly self-reflection. To no one’s surprising there is direct link between learning and teaching, but what is often missed is the opportunity to critically analyze our own teaching pedagogy. Missing a chance to refine the way we disseminate that knowledge. When as for advice, we should not dogmatically repeat the same list of blue chip we were taught. Implied in this statement is the need to stay current not only in our field, but find its relevance in contemporary culture.

I intentionally start a project with a vague sense of direction. The challenge starts with having students define new vocabulary and concepts in their own words. This new path is devoid of the standard guideposts—google, wikipedia, textbooks—without these familiar aids many students are in a state of semi-confusion/frustration.

That is not to say that I let student wander around aimlessly without parameters or guidance. Setting boundaries can focuses their ideas and allows them to work within a support system. This scaffolding system sets up students to succeed, while encouraging risk taking. To encourage autonomy in my classes, one of my critique styles is to have students interview each other before I look at the work. By default they are now the experts on that particular piece, they use this knowledge to give a brief introduction of the work and run the critique, answering all questions while the artist and I are observers.

In practice I teach concept and technique simultaneously. I challenge students intellectually by questioning basic assumptions about their work and initial concepts; pairing this with an understanding that students have different learning styles and need to be approached on visual, auditory, and written levels. My grading policy considers formal, conceptual, and intrapersonal growth of a student. For example, I have a very detailed grading rubric that shows students exactly which aspects of their project were successful and which aspects needed more attention. This moves students closer to understanding a project’s intent and shifts the focus toward applying that knowledge to the next project, discouraging working solely to get an “A”.

To move students away from staying passive observers, in every class students are required to make decisions integral to their project and the direction of the class. For example, to demonstrate the importance of hierarchy and perspective, I had the entire class put their chairs on top of the drawing tables and have a discussion while I participated by sitting on the floor. This inverted the normal dynamic of the classroom and forced to students to take responsibility for the direction of the discussion and their balance!

True art escapes our definitions, it resists attempts of formalization and standardization; it is elusive. To that end, art is not at the core of my classes. I use the format of an art course to teach critical reasoning, a skill that enables students to not only create art, but also understand their culture and by extension question the world they inhabit.