Course Description: The session is designed for educators from all content areas. This session will explore road-tested success strategies for nurturing student agency in the art room while empowering students to get excited about creating art in authentic ways with their own artistic voice. To be effective we will consider how the art teacher can structure lessons to offer student agency while providing the instruction necessary to support diverse student goals. This approach reveals intrinsic motivation and true creativity and unleashes the influence that comes with discovering and expressing artistic voice can make for a very successful art room experience, and gain you repeat customers.

Facilitator: Andrea Schulte

Bio: Andrea Schulte has been an educator in Queen Anne’s County Public Schools since 2001. Schulte began her art teaching experience at the American Foundation School in Guadalajara, Mexico prior to moving to Maryland. Since coming to QACPS, she has taught grades 6-12, including AP 2-D Art and Design and AP Drawing this past year. As the 2-D Studio Art teacher at Kent Island High School, Schulte has focused on student choice to express artistic voice with an aim to have art be therapeutic, authentic, and personally purposeful for every child. While this approach has produced countless award-winning student artists and art school alums—more importantly, the majority of her students go on to become lifelong art lovers and express a sincere appreciation for the life lessons they learned and continue to utilize through their artmaking.

Key Teaching and Learning Strategies explored in this course: 

• Perception - SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING: With intention, model and develop social-emotional learning competencies. (Self-Management)

• Artist Communities - VOICE & AGENCY: Integrate authentic opportunities for participants to share their perspectives and experiences, make choices, and provide and receive peer feedback.

To download the full MSDE Fine Arts Office Professional Learning Framework, please click here.