Welcome all to West Charlotte High School , Visual Arts Department. I am Ms. Clark and I am brand new to Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. I have seven years of experience in art education.
Creativity breeds creativity. Being a graduate of the University of North of Carolina-Greensboro and having a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Art Education, I truly believe preparing our youth to think as an artist is vital for success in the 21st century.
I am a strong advocate for self-expression and sharing because each and every individual are unique and contribute to the world in their own special way. I believe school and education is a vehicle that should used as a safe space to be who you are, learn from different people, gain how to appreciate alongside celebrate diversity and commonalities.
Some insight to my goals for the 2023-2024 school year are: student participation in national art competitions, cohesive classroom clean-up process, support my students more by providing necessary art materials to explore with, and also mental health practices implemented in weekly art routines.
Please feel free to support my students through Donors Chose the link is here.
Any classroom supplies or donations are welcomed!!! We do not turn down paper towels, sanitizer, clorox wipes, or snacks!!!
Philosophy of Education:
The purposes of education are to teach valuable principles and information to individuals. Alongside encourage and provide them with the skills to independently and collaboratively think critically, evaluate problems, and to ultimately use their consensus of knowledge to draw from and solve problems.
This is just the beginning of forming my personal philosophy of education. By utilizing the social justice pedagogy, I do think this type of framework reflects my personal beliefs and mirrors my character as a creative and equity-based individual. At core, my personal philosophy of education exemplifies self-love. Teaching youth to think critically and for themselves is so important to me, often times I feel as though the education system in America dilutes creativity, silences individual thought and creates cookie cutter students who cannot process and create ideas independently. In this digital age students need to learn how to love themselves and understand that being the same as everyone else is absolutely absurd and does not help ameliorate society. I desire to encourage my students to think innovatively, to think the impossible, to visualize/draw/create what you desire to invent, cure, or be if it’s not a profession yet imagined. When you as an educator take full responsibility to relay knowledge to youth, essentially the new world we have to take time to get to know and respect the diverse heritage(s), culture(s), and perspective(s) of various peoples.
“Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and by the same token save it from that ruin which except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and young, would be inevitable.” Hannah Arendt