Liam Loveday

11/18/2019
EDU 1010
Philosophy of Assessment

The aspects of becoming a teacher that draw me so closely to the profession lay in the

notions of community and somewhat responsibility to future generations. My ambition to

become an art teacher routs itself in my highschool experience. The most eye opening class I

ever took was a secondary drawing class taught by Mr. Whiteman, it was the subject of

observation that caught my expectations off guard. As Whiteman taught us about abstraction

and the ability to separate an object from its essence, so you can draw the shape its making

from your perspective. My perspective on life as a whole made a big shift in understanding, I

had a lot less existential dread when turning my attention to art, as it provided a lot of stability in

what I could relate to as a human. A lot of things just started to make sense to me that

semester, It felt like unlocking a new ability and perspective of life. I formed a close bond with

Mr. Whiteman and was a student assistant for him my senior year. After graduating highschool I

knew becoming a secondary school art teacher was what I would be most happy doing. The

thought of spreading my experience to students, and sharing skills that can be used to create

beautiful creations is something that makes me happy for the future.

While taking notes on the four different teaching philosophies we learned about I found

that essentialism, and perennialism are what I recall being taught in my art classes, but not so

much of my other humanities classes such as english. I think it is usually harder to apply

progressivism to an art class environment. Unless it's an art history class which many art

classes apply. It was also surprising to me as essentialism and perennialism were tied for the

lowest score on my green paper. However, I also argue that these two philosophies are not a
 Liam Loveday
11/18/2019
EDU 1010
Philosophy of Assessment
requirement of learning art. Abstraction can be interpreted in many different ways, and the

elements of art are not static.

The main form of assessment Ms. Perry (the teacher II observed for 20 hours of

classroom experience) was based off of student progress. This system worked so that students

were graded based on the improvements made in not just the quality of their work, but also time

management and ability to stay on task. The assessment worked on a scale from 1 to 4, with 3

being the standard, 4 indicating the student went above the standards, while 1 and 2 were used

to assess if students were taking the project seriously or not. This system was only recently put

in place on the middle school / junior high level, and Ms. Perry thinks that soon they will move

this form of assessment to the Highschool level. I think that this form of evaluation is very

important to art class environments. As a lot of students don't go into highschool art classes

with the same level of specific skills and knowledge, which makes the aspect of grading

students off of participation and self improvement. As far as I could tell, my art classes in

highschool level were also graded off of participation however there was more emphasis on

following certain important steps in the process of drawing or painting.

I’m excited to start attending art classes as I finish up working on my general ed’s at

SLCC. These classes will not only be useful in acquiring new skills and knowledge for creating

art, but also learning how to communicate and teach these ideas to people.