Throughout my career I have been active in acquiring knowledge by attending conferences and workshops. One of the exciting aspects of teaching is professional development. During this past year I have been active attending the BC and Canadian Art Educators Association conference. Having taught art before at the West Vancouver Community,  taken art courses, and completed 3 arts methods courses during my B Ed year as well, I am building a second teachable.

I gained valuable lesson plan ideas to integrate into my Home Economics lesson plans and with the collaborating with the art teacher in my new teaching job in Manitoba. I am doing a Food Art Unit with students that blends photography, food preparation and presentation.  During my classes at UBC,  I have learned more about digital and black and white film photography, digital media and photoshop. I will be applying my learning in  the classroom.We will display the end result with in my new school in the Fall of 2010.

ARTIFACT: For a more detailed summary of the Aft Educators conference,  please see link:

Professional DevelopmentOct2010

At the conference, I discovered what I knew all along.  My passion is art, I enjoy bringing out the creativity in others, and hope to find meaningful ways to do this with any curriculum I have the opportunity to teach. I have taken away ideas that I will adapt to the classroom, as well as a sense of purpose and belonging. I see many possibilities for including multiple modes of literacy in the classroom.

During my practicum, I took my work experience and combined it with pedagogical strategies to  bring out  the  creativity of students. This was evident in my fashion illustration unit as well as my pasta by design unit. Please see Standard 5 for more details.

In addition, I have participated in the  UBC IOP Conference presenting a poster called, Local Edibles: Farmer’s Fields and City Schoolyards. The poster presentation focused on inter-generational learning, hands-on learning and local eating. I linked this knowledge in my practicum in the Diet Project, with a look at the  100 Mile Diet. I look forward to exploring  local eating in my new home in Altona , Manitoba.