Becoming an Art Teacher

Maybe you are thinking about becoming a teacher or more specifically, an art teacher. Maybe you are already in a teaching program or perhaps you have just started thinking about your future career plans. Do you know what it’s like to be a teacher? What are the best ways to prepare yourself for the job? I was invited to write a blog post about my story of becoming a teacher and to give advice to someone transitioning into a teaching career.

My story: In grade school and high school, I loved creative writing and art. I also worked on the yearbook staff and newspaper in high school and loved designing the layouts (it was all crop and paste by hand at that point.) After high school, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to pursue. I really liked working on the design aspects of publications and I always enjoyed babysitting kids, but the pieces of the puzzle didn’t come together until later. Throughout my first year of college, I moved between majors, but always envied the art majors who would walk to class with their huge portfolios. After taking a general studies art course as a requirement, my professor encouraged me to join the art department. I debated between an art therapy or art education path. After doing some research and visiting people in the field, I decided that I would like to become a teacher. As I continued through my college program, art education became more and more my passion. I loved learning about cultures and history through art.

A Day in the Life: Art teachers have many different schedules and a day in the life of one teacher can be very different from another teacher. I wrote a “day in the life” post last year which you can read by clicking here. Besides actually teaching, some of the tasks you might have as a teacher include: ordering supplies, cutting paper and other supply preparation, attending weekly staff meetings, photographing artwork to share online, writing long-term curriculum plans, assessing students and writing reports, recess duty, hallway duties, collaborating with other teachers, discipline and follow-up, preparing artwork for display (mounting, labeling), hanging bulletin boards, extracurricular activities (I do Student Council and Yearbook) and organizing school-wide special events. I know it sounds like a lot, but obviously you won’t be doing all of these tasks every single day. I am lucky to have had ample prep time (at the 3 different schools I’ve worked at) to get a lot of the work done during the school day.

Education and Preparing to Find a Position: To become a teacher, public schools will typically require a teaching certificate or background in the education field (although the exact requirements vary from state-to-state, so look into your state requirements.) Private schools don’t always require teaching certificates, but when hiring, administration will take into consideration the applicant’s educational background.

1. Developing your artistic skills: As an art teacher you should have a wide range of artistic skills and knowledge. Whether through classes or self-study, as a prospective art teacher you should learn how to use materials that are typically taught in K-12 schools (such as clay, photography, watercolor paints, acrylic paints, oil pastels and so forth.) When I was in college, I chose to take studio classes that fit these criteria. In the summers, I took additional non-credit wheel throwing and watercolor classes to get more experience.
2. Develop your understanding of educational theories and practices: Your coursework in education will prepare you for things like developing curriculum, understanding state/national requirements, classroom management, special education, differentiation and so forth. While many of these are general education studies and you might not think all of the required content is directly applicable to your field (for example, I took a math for teachers course), in the end, all of these courses will help you to develop a well-rounded knowledge base of how the educational system works.
3. Visit classrooms: Whether you are taking a traditional route (and student teaching) or have found an alternate program, it is so important to visit classrooms to get ideas and to see what teaching is like. When I went to college, we were required each semester to have a certain number of “observational and practicum hours”. I visited classrooms in many different subject areas and grade levels. Doing this helped me to confirm that I wanted to teach art and also showed me that I preferred the younger/middle level grades. The teachers were also very willing to share with me their curriculum, handouts and teaching secrets.
4. Tips for Preparing to Find a Position: As you work on your coursework, save projects (curriculum, rubrics, lesson plans) that you create. These will be valuable when putting together a teaching portfolio. Gain experience by seeking out local teachers to work with. Perhaps you can volunteer to come in to teach a special project. When I was in college, I set up an “internship” where I visited a middle school classroom once per week for the whole semester. Another way to set yourself apart from other applicants is to seek out volunteer opportunities OR paid positions that either are directly related to your subject matter (such as a job at an art gallery) or working with kids (such as a day camp counselor). The local library is a good place to look for short term opportunities. I did a “reading buddy” volunteer program one year. You could also volunteer for local churches (if this fits with your beliefs). A friend of a friend was looking for someone to lead art projects for their Girl Scout troop and for their Vacation Bible School. These were all experiences I included on my resume when looking for my first teaching job. Don’t try to do everything at once, but take baby steps to build up your experiences working with kids.
5. Get involved! If your school offers a student chapter of an education association, join it! If they don’t, join one on your own. Attend workshops and conferences. Besides learning a lot, you will meet other teachers and just have fun!

I hope this post has given you some good advice or encouraged you to think about how you would transition to become a teacher. Do you agree with what I have written? Do you have any opinions or advice to add? I’d love to hear from you!  This was a sponsored post, but the story and advice is all my own.

 

 

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