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08 December 2004: That's What It's All About (4 of 5)
I think there's another important lesson to be learned from my inexperience. The love letters I received were often glittered, pasted, cut, folded, painted, glued, colored, and embellished countless other ways. What do you think that says about my art instruction? Could one conclude that the students were so comfortable with art supplies from such regular use? Well, one may conclude that, but they'd be wrong. I am ashamed at how little I actually taught art that year. Of course, there were many contributing factors. For starters, I had zero training in teaching art, as it's not a requirement for credentialling in my state. Also, it was far from a priority in my chronically underperforming school. The end result is that I didn't teach it and I didn't feel guilty. At the time. After having pursued professional development in teaching art, it's now something that I enjoy and value in my classroom. But, it turns out to be just one more way that these love letters still are saying so much.
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