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Sarah McNutt | Episode 448
I was born in Buffalo, NY and am currently living in San Francisco. I use art and education as a platform in which to observe, comment on, and engage others about the intersection of disciplines. I have worked as an artist since 2009 and has been a educator in a range of capacities since 2012, teaching undergraduate classes at KSU, workshops, and art education in schools across the country. My artistic research leads me to exhibit nationally, write grants, and author for publications such as Ceramics Monthly.
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What makes a good teacher?
I think just being engaged with your students and also being able to connect what your trying to teach with the things that are relevant in life. You know, using that building block that is already there with the knowledge that already exists and building on top of that. Finding a way their life is connected with the art world already and they are just finding a different way to acknowledge it.
What makes a good teacher culture on the staff level?
In school we try to connect what is happening in the classroom to what is happening in the art class as well. It is the same idea of making it relevant to something that they already know. So I think having the time and the space for teachers to meet together and being on the same page about what is happening. You see it when you have collaborations at University level between disciplines. Like when the artists gets together with the biologists and they make some kind of magical project. It think having the community open for those conversations to create interdisciplinary projects.
How does a teacher hold a student’s attention?
I think if you are a good teacher the material and how you planned the lesson does that for you. Teachers sometimes come off as the entertainer but if you have a really engaging subject and you have done your homework about what materials they are interested in and things that are going on with your students, even socially or culturally, I think once you hit those sweet spots you don’t have to be so engaging for your students and it kind of does it by itself.
What does a good lesson plan look like?
That is a great question. Not a lesson plan in the physical sense but I think a really great lesson has room to respond to the direction that your students want to take. There is a certain amount of intuition that is required to really be present with the students and find a way to acknowledge that they may be interested in an aspect that you were not anticipating and that you can give them the time and space the pursue that.
We talked about how teaching and creativity are somewhat opposite, so how do you switch gears?
I think it is a physicality thing for me, I have to be in a different space. I can’t always be creative in the same space that I teach. Which seems stupid right?
No.
Because you think, Yeah, this space is perfect for facilitating other people’s creative endeavors but it is not necessarily good for me.
Do you have a making uniform or something to help you, if I put this on, now I am a maker?
No. As an art teacher I have given up on differentiating between my work clothing and my life clothing. I get everything honestly from the Goodwill and if it gets covered in paint and in irreparable I put an end to it and just put on the next thing. It is too hard and too quick of changes for me to really differentiate that. I have a smock I wear and I commit to looking like a ceramics instructor when I leave and I get weird looks but it’s worth it.
As a school teacher what is your favorite thing to do with summer?
Recover. Collecting overtime. Teachers get a lot of heat if they are on a 12 month salary and they don’t have to work through the summer. But really it is recharging the battery. I call it refilling the bucket. So having experiences over the summer that you can pull from to feed into what you are also doing in your classroom in the coming year, because if you are not feeding off of anything you have nothing to really give your students.
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