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ART EDUCATION
since 2014
MEQ teacher certification

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TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
&
ONLINE RESUME

TeachingPhilosophy

I love to rouse every new academic year of an art class with an open-ended question, “What is Art?” Invariably, the query stirs up an entire classroom of pupil reactions. Most often students mull it over quietly or will answer with juvenile jeer. Back in the 80s, my high school art teacher asked something similar. I don’t recall my initial response, but do recall how it had been a catalyst that led to a raison-d'être unto limitless possibilities.

Today, as an art educator I often begin a module or lesson by listening to students' concerns and queries to prompt self-awareness. Thus enabling me to gain insight and feed discussions when making art alongside students. Exchanges often hover around otherness, relationship, belonging, community, equality, justice, current affairs, and imagined futures to name a few. So, with carefully directed stimuli the art process will become an impetus for communicative expressiveness beyond that of mere aesthetics.


Learning objectives are designed with the intention of prompting youth to broaden their perspectives. As such, modules are carefully developed to meet academic criteria in a manner that considers divergent learning alternatives for all type-learners. Through scaffolded guidance and motivational ploys, I foster conditions to meet overarching learning objectives. Subsequently, gifted, challenged, anxious and disengaged learners are encouraged exploratory options that challenge and support authentic self-expression.

When assessing intention over technique and genuineness over fakery, I weigh a range of assessment markers to set an objective evaluative portrait. Valuation targets may include a combination of oral explanations, gestural acknowledgments, and individual art journal entries. These can then be amalgamated into an assessment that both student and myself validate jointly.

My teaching approach is one that seeks to provoke and deepen original thinking. When addressing contemporary issues, social conventions, community awareness, and inclusiveness, art-making then becomes the foundational structures that are built with and for students to construct and create personal concepts. Subsequently, when youth express themselves artistically on an issue, an event or a topic they activate deeper responses. Through art education there is the potential to nourish the human experience by engaging all five senses. This then incites self awareness, empowers a healthier ego, promotes self-esteem, reveals possibilities and provides fresh outlook.

 

My rationale incorporates formative pedagogy, coupled with thirty plus years of real world multidisciplinary and media arts experience. My cosmopolitan perspective is sourced from four decades of extensive world travels, international journalistic investigations and a wealth of cultural exchanges and experiences. Today, as a qualified art educator that also teaches History, as well as French and English Language Arts, I’ve found that teaching Visual and Media Arts are ideal programs of study to promote self-awareness and self-esteem. It is then that Art becomes an exploratory processes that stimulates independent thinking and idea making beyond the proverbial box.

Resume

TeachingExperience

Click .PDF to download a printable resume

2020-23 (Aug-Jun)

CREE SCHOOL BOARD (CSB)

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JAMES BAY EEYOU SCHOOL (JBES)

FULL-TIME (Secondary II-V) Chisasibi, QC

(206 students-12 groups)
Multimedia Arts (Eng.) / Arts multimédias (Fr.), Sec. IV and V
History Sec. III, (Canadian Indigenous History)
Visual Arts, Sec. II & III (drawing, painting & art appreciation)

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Click button to access Multimedia course site

Examples of student website projects with permission to distribute

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2019 (Sep-Dec)

ENGLISH MONTREAL SCHOOL BOARD (EMSB)

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MACKAY CENTRE ELEMENTARY

(Grade 3 - Special Education), Montreal, QC
(9 students with physical and/or cognitive special needs)
English, Math, Social Studies and Art

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Click .PDF to download STORYBOOK animation unit plan

Grade 3 collaborative animation project

SUPER HERO DANCE PARTY (1-minute), 2-D animation short video

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2018-19 (Nov-Apr)

RIVERSIDE SCHOOL BOARD (RSB)

SAINT-LAMBERT INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL (SLI)

(Sec. I thru V), Saint-Lambert, QC
International Baccalaureate (IB) Program
Animation Arts & Robotics

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Click .PDF to download STORY unit plan

Secondary I-V, collaborative fictional and stop-motion animation projects

Video projects: Lupatek & Down River

Secondary I-V, short fictional film  (5-min) & Stop-Motion Lego animation (20-sec)

2018 (Jan-Apr)

RIVERSIDE SCHOOL BOARD (RSB)

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2017-18 (Nov-Apr)

RIVERSIDE SCHOOL BOARD (RSB)

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SAINT-LAMBERT INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL (SLI)

(Sec. I thru V) Saint-Lambert, QC
International Baccalaureate (IB) Program

Visual Arts, Sec. IV & V

COURTLAND INTERNATIONAL ELEMENTARY
(Grades 2 thru 4, Visual Arts), St-Bruno, QC
An Elementary International Baccalaureate (IB) Program School

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Click .PDF to download SPIRIT ANIMAL & LEGENDS LESSON plan

Student art projects

2015-18 (Aug-Jun) Summer School

CREE SCHOOL BOARD (CSB)

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WOODLAND INSPIRED ART: (Grade 3, cycle 2)

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INUIT INSPIRED ART: (Grade 2, cycle 1)

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WEST COAST INSPIRED ART: (Grade 4, cycle 2)

JAMES BAY EEYOU SCHOOL (JBES)

PART-TIME (Summer & Winter) Chisasibi, QC

History Sec. IV (English & French)

Multimedia Arts, Sec. V (English & French)

English (First Language), Sec. V

French (Langue seconde), Sec. V

Art, Sec. IV and V, PHOTO HAIKU Projects,Photo by JMD

2014-17 (Aug-Jun)

CREE SCHOOL BOARD (CSB)

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JAMES BAY EEYOU SCHOOL (JBES)

(Secondary II-V) Chisasibi, QC

150-175 students (8-11 groups)
Visual Arts, Multimedia (YouTube channel), Music, English, French, Geography, World History, ERC

Arts Concentration Program (MikW’ Chiyâm)

Member of the School Leadership Team

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Stencils on lockers project, Photo by JMD
MikW' Chiyâm-Arts Program: music session. Video: JMD
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JBES Media Arts / arts multimédias YouTube Channel
White Branch

TEACHABLES

Digital Arts (Multimedia)

Video (production to post), photography (studio to editing),

web design, makerspace (fab lab), music creation.

 

Visual Arts

Drawing, painting (oil, watercolor & spray Paint), printing, sculpture & installation art.

 

History

Art, Canadian Indigenous, Renaissance, Roman & Geography.

       
French & English languages

First and Second language learners, Secondary school Cycle 1 & 2

Entrepreneurship

Secondary V

Black Background

EDUCATION

2017-21 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

Montreal, QC

BFA, Specialization: Art Education

Graduate with Distinction

The Chadha Family Scholarship Excellence Award

1984-85, 1989-92 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA (UCLA)

Westwood, CA

BFA, Specialization: Cinematography

The Walt Disney Scholarship Award

1986-87 CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

Montreal, QC

Major Fine Arts: Film Production

specialization cinematography

1982-84 CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE

St-Lambert, QC

D.E.C. Creative Arts, 1982-84: Champlain College


—All references and additional information available upon request—

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