My name is Sarah Webb. I grew up in a one square mile town in Long Island, Sea Cliff. As a kid I couldn’t wait to graduate High School and get out, but it’s the kind of place that draws you back time and time again. I am currently working in the same school district I attended as a child, often working alongside teachers who I once had, and sometimes their children. Life really comes full circle sometimes.
In what feels like a former life, I received my BFA in Graphic Design from Boston University. I remained in Boston for 2 years after graduating before realizing that while I will always love design, I just didn’t love being a designer. So here I am, in my final year at CCNY on my way to becoming an art teacher. When I’m not in the classroom, I am likely baking, shamelessly watching Gilmore Girls and recently rediscovering my love for painting. This weekend you’ll find me helping all of install your work at the annual art ed grad show where you’ll be able to see my most recent paintings (the show will be in the Compton-Goethals gallery and the opening reception is Thursday Oct 5th at 6pm, come join us!).
As I transition from art student to art teacher, I find myself constantly reflecting on my experience as a student as I try to understand what works and what doesn’t. All of this reflecting brought up a memory I had from my sophomore year of high school in an advanced drawing and painting class: we were working on a drawing intended to be a self portrait through objects. I sat next to a boy we’ll call Joe. I can distinctly remember that one of Joe’s objects was this teddy bear, and Joe wasn’t what we might call “naturally talented” but he worked tirelessly. We would go to the art room together after school or during our lunch period. By the end I had a drawing that my teacher used for the annual student exhibition, and Joe’s teddy bear just never quite looked like a bear. This memory made me wonder, how would I grade a student like Joe? A student who isn’t necessarily a great artist, but is trying harder than every other student in that classroom.
I think most of us art teachers would agree that we would prefer not to grade our students, but unfortunately we live in a world of high stakes testing, state and national standards, and district mandates, so we are forced to assess student work in a quantitative way. I am working to discover what this looks like, and more specifically how do our assessment systems impact students? Much of the research related to art education and assessment discusses how one might assess student work, but what isn’t talked about is how this affects students and the ways in which they engage with their teacher or artwork.
I intend to interview teachers, survey their students and observe their classrooms in hopes of understanding a variety of assessment systems, how they came to be and what they look like in action. Hopefully my research will give art teachers a glimpse at what assessment systems other teachers are using and help them realize the implications of assessment on student engagement. Wish me luck!
