I was born and raised here in the Hudson Valley! Growing up, I regularly participated in the various arts programs that the valley had to offer, starting off as a learner and since I was 14 gradually began to transition into the role of an educator. I received my initial certification in Visual Arts Education from SUNY New Paltz in August 2015 and my professional certification in Visual Arts Education in August 2017. In 2018, I earned my second graduate degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in STEAM. In my spare time, I enjoy painting and listening to music that inspires me. My biggest inspiration would be the imaginative minds of our youth!

Creating a Culture of Thinking

Art serves as a channel of expression to release, elevate, and understand our inner conflicts, fears and tensions as well as our aspirations, hopes and ideals.”–Sanderson Beck 

I find myself asking students to think beyond what can be seen or known. The arts are essential in building confidence, cognitive ability, and critical thinking. In a broad sense, art expands students’ ability to use it as a tool for deconstructing the world around them but to also explore and reflect on individuality and the role they play in the world. I encourage students to learn from the inside out. By contemplating and examining their own personalities, interests and relationships, they may better understand the world around them. 

Community Building 

The arts are both the manifestation of culture as well as the means of communication of cultural knowledge.

 The acceptance and celebration of differences is a lifelong skill that is cultivated in early childhood education. As a professional educator, it is expected that we rise to the challenge and give these students the best education possible. Acceptance from peers and acceptance from self, I feel, are heavily reliant on each other in a lot of ways. We learn more and more about ourselves through both our interactions with others and reflection on ourselves. The arts are a great platform for teaching openness toward those who are different from us. My own creativity helps me develop highly engaging lessons that bridge different cultures and express a sense of community and ethnicity. Most of all, it is important for me to build trusting and respectful relationships with the students that I work with because I am an active listener who demonstrates compassion and lets students know that I am genuinely interested in their success. I like to create lesson plans that include elements of community building, whether it is a group critique, class projects or even projects that extend out into the actual community.

Interdisciplinary Value

Art is an integral part of the academic curriculum. To accomplish this, I try to integrate the language arts, social studies, science, and math concepts into lessons while inspiring and fostering each student’s artistic expression. More than this, I believe that an effective art teacher today understands the importance of the core classes and knows how art can play an active role in helping foster those standards. It is important for me to implement evaluative criteria that also serve to benefit student’s growth in areas outside of the art classroom. For students to be able to talk in a critique, defend their artwork, learn to write about their artwork, provide constructive criticism, and presenting their work are all steps towards college readiness and practicing literacy.