Let's Talk About Art!: A Visual Thinking Skills Course

I hold my MS in Early Childhood Education from Wheelock College at Boston University, and I am professionally certified in Early Childhood, Moderate Disabilities, English as a Second Language, and Sheltered English Immersion in the state of Massachusetts. I have ten years of teaching experience at the early childhood level in a wide variety of racially, ethnically, linguistically, and neurologically diverse settings--lab, private, public, home-based, non-profit, co-op, and virtual--throughout the Greater Boston area.

During my time teaching in the Boston Public Schools, I had the pleasure of completing coursework on Visual Thinking Strategies through a partnership with the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. From their site: "Thinking Through Art is a graduate-level course on teaching and learning that uses a student-centered discussion method called Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). By prioritizing students’ observations and prior knowledge during these conversations, students of all ages and abilities measurably improve their ability to reason with evidence and think flexibly. They build confidence communicating in conversation and in writing, develop cohesion as a classroom community, and an appreciation for the unique perspectives that each individual brings to a work of art. Thinking Through Art uses culturally and linguistically sustaining practices and art from around the world to empower students to explore visual art and make meaning on their own terms."

As co-founder of the National SEED Project Emily Style so adeptly summarized in her 1988 essay "Curriculum as Window and Mirror", curriculum should function "both as window and as mirror, in order to reflect and reveal most accurately both a multicultural world and the student herself or himself". This means that it is intrinsically important for ALL educators--including those who may not be members of a marginalized group themselves--to expose every student, regardless of their personal identity markers, to a multiplicity of cultures and ways of being in the world. To ensure that I am up to this crucial task, I have continuously pursued and successfully completed the following graduate-level coursework related to multicultural, multilingual, inclusive, and antiracist instruction over the past seven years: 

* Racial and Cultural Identities-Wheelock College at Boston University
* Introduction to Inclusive Early Childhood Education Settings-Wheelock College at Boston University
* Effective Sheltered English Instruction: Second Language Acquisition-Wheelock College at Boston University
* Impact of Special Needs: Early Childhood-Wheelock College at Boston University
* Mathematical Learning for Diverse Learners-Wheelock College at Boston University 
* Becoming a More Equitable Educator: Mindsets and Practices-Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)