Philosophy of Learning

My philosophy of learning is that every student is capable of improving through trial and error. As an art
teacher at the middle school level, students have no say in whether they take an art class or not. I have many,
many students who feel they “are not good at art” or “cannot draw” so they refuse to try. I explain constantly
to my students that I do not grade them based upon if their work looks pretty or terrible, I grade them on
meeting a set of established criteria, working hard each class, and improving throughout the project. Every
single student can try their best and working each class period, and if they do that they are naturally going to
improve throughout the project. All the failing grades in my class are due to students who refuse to try (or
incomplete work), none are due to having an “ugly” project.

I do not really know how I learn anymore. As a K-12 student I could learn from watching someone do
something, from reading it, or from hearing it verbally. I preferred when things were combined either by
speaking and demonstrating, or by reading and seeing a diagram. I guess this means that I’m a visual learner
primarily, which makes sense since I teach art. In college I learned best by rehearsing. I would make
flashcards or read my notes repeatedly. I’m not sure that that information was retained quite as well though.
As an adult I learn best through hands on experiences, when I have to experience or handle a situation myself,
I remember how to do it much better. I have a feeling I would have learned well this way as a younger student
too, if that had been a more available option.

My students are all very different, as most people are. Right now, I have 274 students, this number goes up
and down constantly as students move and leave and enter our school on a daily basis. These students range
from incredibly gifted and can complete any assignment I give them above and beyond in half the time I
provide the rest of the students, all the way to students who do not speak a word of English and have not
been to school since they were in 2nd grade, and everywhere in between. Every single one of my 11 classes
have students that are in our ESOL program, have an IEP, or 504, or a behavior intervention plan (BIP). Some
of my students love my class and want to become artists themselves, but the majority of my students think
my class is a waste of time because they think that since they were not born with artistic talent, they cannot
improve.

My students seem to learn best by seeing lots of examples and lots of clear specific instructions. I can give
instructions verbally 5 times and have them written on the board, but very few students will understand
what they should be doing. What works best is showing lots of my examples, and student examples as often as
I can. Even if I am assigning just a written worksheet, I show the worksheet on the board and point to each
question, underlining words I want them to pay attention to, as I describe the assignment. Most of my
students are below grade level so I try to simplify everything as much as possible and I think photographs and
showing very clear demonstrations help my students the best.

The way my students learn, and my philosophy of learning is reflected in the way I teach by constantly
encouraging my students to try. If I can get my students to try, they will improve. Every day I wonder if I’m
doing enough, if I’m explaining this the right way, and I honestly don’t know if I am. But the only way I’ll know
what they need is if they try and ask questions. So I encourage students to try, to make mistakes, to improve
on their mistakes, and I strive to answer every question they have as clearly as I can, so that they can keep
trying.