As an instructor, I perform in and utilize a wide range of roles and modes. Teaching moving image and still photography classes has strengthened my relationship to the art forms I am passionate about by making me think about the mediums in a different way, a way in which the technical, theoretical and conceptual aspects can be understood by students. With whatever course I am teaching, I privilege experiential learning on a personal level. By listening and connecting to my students, I am able to understand where they are coming from and what they need. From there I am able to better expose students not only to abstract work that challenges them, but also to an abstract way of thinking about art, their world, and how they interact with it. It is so important to me as a teacher that the work and information shared in class that reflects that of the students in my classes. There are multiple truths in history, and all of those truths need to be shown and explored. There is not one way of thinking in the history of art.
In my undergraduate program I had the opportunity to mentor students with learning disabilities in a digital black and white photography class. As a peer it showed me the importance of communication and collaboration at a young age, which allowed me to think clearly how to be the most helpful teacher for these students. We walked around together; I directed them to light and helped them change their apertures and focus. Within a few weeks they were capable of doing their projects on their own, giving them the tools to continue photographing and making their own work in the future. When I came to the MFA EDA program at Duke, my mentorship was the only opportunity I had before to teach students. By taking the Certificate in College Teaching courses and being a TA for three semesters, I discovered how much work it takes to teach multiple times a week, and the importance of course development. In each class that I have been a teacher’s assistant, I have made sure to come off personable and easily approachable, which has meant that a good number of students come to me for help or to work out ideas. Although there are power structures in being teacher and student, I have found that it has been easy to maintain authority while also being considered someone students feels safe around and can laugh with. I want students to enjoy their time with me, and I have found there is a fine line to walk to insure students respect you and also enjoy your teaching and insight.
When teaching a moving image production course, I have students listen to a song or two in the dark, giving them an appetizer for the screening, allowing them to get into a space in which they are open to the experience the different films will give them, while also readying them to watch multiple films back to back. In between certain films I will pause, read something about the work, and ask student’s specific questions that speak to them theme of the screening that night, while also tying in the readings from the previous weeks. This leads to an open discussion about the concepts and technical aspects within a film, showing students what they are capable of making and the different methods they can use to make artwork they are passionate about. Throughout the course of the semester, projects are assigned that ask students to make work inspired by the artists and ideas they have been seeing in class. For example, in an experimental filmmaking course, students would be asked to make work that is an experiment, and it will be up to them how to define it. There will be a class dedicated to critique and once questions have been asked they will have one more week to finish the project. For a digital moving image course, students are asked to make reaction films each week, which requires the students to make moving image work while responding what they learned in the previous classes.
Since being in the MFA program at Duke, I have been surprised and happy to find that the act of teaching—including planning, research, lecture, exhibition, collaboration with students, and mentorship—fulfills my artistic ambitions. This is all new to me, but I have worked hard to gain the most out of my graduate experience. I now feel confident that I can teach at any age level, and can engage my student’s with art that not only makes them happy, but also gives them a space to work through their ideas, trauma and many other aspects and questions of being a human. Creating a space where they feel like they can collaborate with their instructors and peers, and involve themselves within the community to make an impact on social levels is so critical to my teaching practice. Art can change the individual, a group, a community and even the world. I hope many art professors would agree: I learn so much from my students, and much of that is that optimism and hard work can make a change, even if that change appears to be small it starts a ripple effect. In other words, I consider my practice as an instructor part of my practice as an artist; they are one in the same.
Sample Syllabus:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TZeLdK5isu5oSRySViAZQTjpBvLxnW5k/view?usp=sharing