Teacher's Professional Development in Collage and Three-D Design

PD Workshop in Collage PD Workshop in 3D

One of the more fascinating aspects of teaching art as a teaching artist and as a preservice art teacher in New York City public schools is the great interest in art making that is being shown by other public school teachers. In most residencies I have taught, a teacher's professional development workshop has been built into the art unit as a way of better helping teachers

understand their students' experience when working with similar art materials. These workshops convey some of the form and sequence that takes place in the process of exploring certain mediums and their relative habits of mind that can develop in new and unfolding minds. When teachers are prepared having experienced some of this process, inherent qualities such as making decisions in the absence of rules or sustaining the attention in spite of challenges become aspects that are better valued. They can

appreciate becoming part of the residency itself while supporting it in their classrooms.

This workshop focused on working with paper from collage to paper sculpture. We worked with different kinds of construction papers in two dimensional and three dimensional formats understanding ways the art process can arouse and support language and critical thinking skills. Special emphasis was given to how ELL students can succeed in cognitive and language acquisition skills through the process of making art.