LEARNING WITH CREATIVITY
My tA EXPERIENCE
synthesizing my arts-based teaching practice
ADVICE FOR FUTURE TEACHERS
*You bring your own voice and spin to the classroom and that is so important. Never back down on your morals.-Roxanna Taylor
*Accept that you are a unique teacher, with your own unique set of skills and
assets, and that it’s okay for you to have spaces where you are less confident. I
have thousands of spaces where I’m less confident! That’s why I love
collaborating with teachers who are the total opposite of me—we both bring our
assets to the table, and our collaboration is so strong because of it. But who you are as a
teacher is enough—it’s incredible, actually.- Courtney
*Take time to figure out why you are interested in education. What makes you excited to facilitate learning with others? How do you learn best?-Katie Dawson
*Use your imagination and creativity in your teaching, and learn about teaching artists.-Rong Ann Chou
About Me
Hello! My name is Stephanie Bode and I am a second year Elementary Education Major at the University of Texas in Austin. I have a background in child-development and general classroom education. I have taken several classes about arts-integration and teaching artistry. While I am relatively new to the teaching artist field, I am excited to continue to explore what arts-based learning will look like in the classroom. I am continuing to develop my teaching identity and hope to bring these ideas into my teaching practice.
Feel free to reach out to me through the contact me page and share your experiences and questions.
Through my field work, I had the opportunity to devise a three part lesson series through Creative Action, a community arts organization in Austin, Texas. I worked with the after-school program, which was a newer context for me. Admittedly, not all of your lessons will ever go exactly as you meticulously plan them, but hey, thats half the fun. As an educator I am also a life long learner. When we take risks and expand our repertoire is when we grow as teachers. I have seen the huge impact art can have on a classroom, a group or kids, or a community. I seek to be a life long advocate for the arts. Their impact is repertoire incredible and quite undeniable.
Below you can explore some arts-based lesson plans, both mine (later adapted to meet AISD and TEKS standards for general classroom setting) as well as a resource for lesson planning.