Art Education and Staying Creative

Teaching art is an art in itself, and when the school day is done, a lot of art teachers find it hard to go home and create, something that got them into their profession in the first place. During student teaching, I too found it is hard to create after a full day of using my creative and problem-solving skills, but I think it is important to keep creating. My creativity is why I decided to be an art teacher in the first place. I soon came to realize during student teaching, that I can use my experiences in the classroom as inspiration for my own art, which gave me the motivation to create. I first collected ideas, art, lists and inspiration in an art journal about my student teaching experience. From this art journal I pulled inspiration for an illustrated book. I could pull motivation from my classroom, but it also gave me my own creative outlet at night when students were gone. This illustrated book allowed me to explore the idea of staying creative while teaching, by using teaching as my inspiration.