Teaching Statement & Philosophy

My most meaningful learning experiences have been with teachers who made an individual connection with me, were supportive, patient and were passionate about what they taught. My teaching philosophy is led by these principals. I want to have a class that is life affirming, centers empathy, communication, listening and storytelling. I want to give students the foundation and materials to experiment and explore, encouraging mistake-making and discovery. 

Audre Lorde writes, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” As many of us are caretakers in our daily lives, we will center our own nurture care. This will take the form of daily and weekly rituals, performed on our own (and sometimes as a part of class/workshops) as a way to honor our own humanity and to deepen our artistic practices. 

Much of my own art practice focuses on acts of repair through a range of media. Course curriculum would incorporate exploring these themes on personal and global levels. As a result, occasionally class will be spent in non-traditional learning locations as well as using and finding unusual materials. What can we learn outside in the city, in the grass as well as in our homes and shared spaces? With concepts of nurture care and repair as our guides, what can we create from found objects discarded curbside or discovered thrown away on a nature path? 

From the onset, as a learning community we will identify our community norms to create a space of active listening, learning and kindness. My aim is to be attuned to the classroom atmosphere and culture, ensuring everyone has an opportunity to speak and participate. I want us to cultivate creative critical thinking and will use adrienne maree brown’s text, Emergent Strategy, to explore this. 

It’s really important to me that students and I are in open and clear communication in regards to coursework. The experiences of growing up with a learning disability have helped me to cultivate sensitivity to different ways of learning and understanding. I aim to create a space that actively challenges ways of learning and lifts up folx with disabilities (including visible, invisible, learning, developmental, physical, and/or mental health).

For the spring of 2023, I was an adjunct professor for Workshop in New Materials at Brooklyn College. I am an instructor of Visible Mending & Sewing with Earth Church and the Community Church of New York.  I teach foundational crocheting techniques and skills at Sunnyside Arts in Sunnyside, Queens and have taught formerly at World Fellowship Center in Albany, NH, Occupy Wall Street and at King’s Bay Y at Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn. I’ve also been trained and acted as a facilitator for conferences on diversity in education. These teaching experiences have helped me to form a nurturing, student-led teaching philosophy.  

October 2023