Letter to my students' Parents/guardians
Dear Parents/Guardians,
Hi. I am Mrs. Green, your child’s art teacher, and I want to tell you how excited I am to be teaching your child this school year. I will be guiding your child on a creative voyage. I will be able to see sides of their personality that their other teachers may never see. I will witness them create solutions to open ended problems with no ‘correct’ answers. I will watch him or her struggle with tough concepts and we will celebrate their mastery. It will be amazing.
What Can You Do to Help Your Child Succeed in Art Class? Here are a Few Suggestions:
1. Please don’t tell your child, “I can’t even draw a stick figure” or “I was never good at art.”
The truth is you can draw a stick figure. You can draw more than you give yourself credit for. I am sorry that somewhere on your creative voyage someone made you feel less than confident in your abilities. Please don’t do the same to your child.
2. Please don’t expect your son or daughter to have a 100% in art class because “it’s just art class.”
Art is work. Art is hard work. It might be harder than math or science because there are no right answers. This is a special class where your child has to create the solution. When report cards come out remember that a 100% in art class would be near perfection and that is incredibly difficult to achieve. Sometimes in art, we learn as much from what didn’t work as we do from what did.
3. Please remember that I am human also.
I work with 150 students a week, both middle school and high school students. Each of them is special to me and I try to do my best for each of them, every day, of every week. I make mistakes. I have the same laundry, house cleaning, and grocery shopping that you have and it is a juggling act to keep everything going. I am a teacher, but I am also a mom and a wife. When my sick child preempts the grading of your child’s art project, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to give your son or daughter prompt and thorough feedback, it’s just that my feverish 2-year-old deserved my attention that evening.
4. Please ask your child about what we are learning.
Don’t be afraid to ask them to teach you something, to show you, teach you what they've learned... You never know what you may discover about yourself when you open a box of crayons and create something with your child.
5. Please don’t toss the year-end portfolio of your child’s artwork in the trash.
I understand that you can’t possibly keep everything. Trust me, I know, but I also know that when your child sees you discard their work, it makes them feel like their ideas and hard work just aren’t good enough. Take a minute to look at their creations, have your child save their favorite one or two. Save your favorite one and talk to them about why we can’t save everything. This simple act goes a long way to boost their confidence in their ability to be an artist.
6. Please treat art class with the same respect as any other class.
Don’t downplay the value of art or art class. Artists play a part in the design of everything we use throughout the day. From our morning coffee cup to our new outfit, from our homes to our office buildings and schools… an artist made all those things or, at least, made them better. The chances are pretty good your child will be employed in a creative field and the skills they learn in art class will help them succeed. Meeting deadlines, research, planning, and dedication to the task are all non-art skills reinforced in art class and used daily in the workforce.
What does art education teach? It teaches students how to observe, experiment, self-evaluate, reflect, persevere, innovate, envision solutions and problem solve, appreciate, craftsmanship, and, yes, even how to clean up.
Thank you for your time in reading this. I truly am excited for this year and I am looking forward to all the creative solutions your sons and daughters will share with me.
Warmly,
Mrs. Green
Hi. I am Mrs. Green, your child’s art teacher, and I want to tell you how excited I am to be teaching your child this school year. I will be guiding your child on a creative voyage. I will be able to see sides of their personality that their other teachers may never see. I will witness them create solutions to open ended problems with no ‘correct’ answers. I will watch him or her struggle with tough concepts and we will celebrate their mastery. It will be amazing.
What Can You Do to Help Your Child Succeed in Art Class? Here are a Few Suggestions:
1. Please don’t tell your child, “I can’t even draw a stick figure” or “I was never good at art.”
The truth is you can draw a stick figure. You can draw more than you give yourself credit for. I am sorry that somewhere on your creative voyage someone made you feel less than confident in your abilities. Please don’t do the same to your child.
2. Please don’t expect your son or daughter to have a 100% in art class because “it’s just art class.”
Art is work. Art is hard work. It might be harder than math or science because there are no right answers. This is a special class where your child has to create the solution. When report cards come out remember that a 100% in art class would be near perfection and that is incredibly difficult to achieve. Sometimes in art, we learn as much from what didn’t work as we do from what did.
3. Please remember that I am human also.
I work with 150 students a week, both middle school and high school students. Each of them is special to me and I try to do my best for each of them, every day, of every week. I make mistakes. I have the same laundry, house cleaning, and grocery shopping that you have and it is a juggling act to keep everything going. I am a teacher, but I am also a mom and a wife. When my sick child preempts the grading of your child’s art project, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to give your son or daughter prompt and thorough feedback, it’s just that my feverish 2-year-old deserved my attention that evening.
4. Please ask your child about what we are learning.
Don’t be afraid to ask them to teach you something, to show you, teach you what they've learned... You never know what you may discover about yourself when you open a box of crayons and create something with your child.
5. Please don’t toss the year-end portfolio of your child’s artwork in the trash.
I understand that you can’t possibly keep everything. Trust me, I know, but I also know that when your child sees you discard their work, it makes them feel like their ideas and hard work just aren’t good enough. Take a minute to look at their creations, have your child save their favorite one or two. Save your favorite one and talk to them about why we can’t save everything. This simple act goes a long way to boost their confidence in their ability to be an artist.
6. Please treat art class with the same respect as any other class.
Don’t downplay the value of art or art class. Artists play a part in the design of everything we use throughout the day. From our morning coffee cup to our new outfit, from our homes to our office buildings and schools… an artist made all those things or, at least, made them better. The chances are pretty good your child will be employed in a creative field and the skills they learn in art class will help them succeed. Meeting deadlines, research, planning, and dedication to the task are all non-art skills reinforced in art class and used daily in the workforce.
What does art education teach? It teaches students how to observe, experiment, self-evaluate, reflect, persevere, innovate, envision solutions and problem solve, appreciate, craftsmanship, and, yes, even how to clean up.
Thank you for your time in reading this. I truly am excited for this year and I am looking forward to all the creative solutions your sons and daughters will share with me.
Warmly,
Mrs. Green