Mr. Dave Shaw!

Teachers are the most important assets a social system can have, because education is the only soil from which a society can grow. Everybody in a community benefits from a rich and fertile education system. Teachers are the human botanists, tending to the soil of education; and in doing so, they sustain the blossoms of civilization.

Art teachers are important ‘botanists’ because art plays an integral role in our lives. My teaching explores how art appeals to our thoughts, needs, and desires. I provide students with the opportunity to develop a meta-cognitive awareness of how art affects our decision-making, and how we can use art in kind. By the end of their learning experience, students under my guidance develop an ability to communicate intelligent, mature ideas through visual media.

I am a practical person who teaches with a bigger picture in mind, and my approach to instruction is concrete. Each assignment given in my classroom is geared towards preparing students for the world beyond institutional learning. I enforce the notion of making connections between school curriculum and applied skills in the workforce. In one of my units, for example, my students and I spend a week exploring figure drawing, and find examples of how figure drawing is used not only in fine arts, but for scientific and illustrative purposes, forensic studies, and concept art for film production.

Art history is an important component to understanding contemporary art and our place within it, but I do not place great emphasis on rote memorization of artists and dates. I supply my students with a broad understanding of how and why instead of when. Each student under my guidance has the opportunity to explore in depth any period of art history. By pursuing their interests, the intrinsic value of learning is never lost to them.