Subs with Suitcases

Contact

Email: patbenard@gmail.com

Phone: (828) 766-2728 (please try this number first)

Cell: (828) 467-7350

Availability

I am registered to sub in Mitchell County schools.

I am currently working part-time at the Toe River Arts Council in Spruce Pine.

My schedule changes from week to week, and is flexible. For a same day assignment, call me, and if I’m not scheduled to work that day, I’ll be happy to come in. For longer-term assignments, with advance notice I can usually rearrange my schedule to accommodate you.

Teaching Artist Statement

Art is essential to learning – not just an educational frill. Learning about the visual arts gives students a window onto the rich and interesting world around them, teaching them about their own history and culture, as well as those of other people. It cultivates self-expression, imagination and creativity as well as critical-thinking and problem-solving skills. Students who learn about art develop their capacities to weigh meanings and make evaluations and judgments. Understanding and making art can teach students how to work cooperatively in groups and how to work hard to achieve a goal.

The development of all of these skills and attributed not only makes students better learners but it also helps students feel good about themselves-it builds self-esteem. And in a world in which ideas and information are often delivered visually, children need to learn how to analyze and judge the meaning of images and how to use them to communicate their own ideas.

Areas of Interest

As a clay artist, I particularly enjoy introducing students to clay, but I like to do projects in a variety of 2-D and 3-D media. I try when possible to base projects on lessons being taught in the classroom. I also like to do projects based on art history, that is, art of a particular period or a well-known artist from the past.

Reviews/Recommendations

“Ben came home excited each day – and would go to bed early so he could go to morning class!” – parent of Penland Kids Camp student

Resume

click here to download a PDF of my resume

What’s in My Suitcase?

• clay
• wooden skewers
• paint – tempera & watercolor
• paint brushes
• drawing paper
• poster board
• Sharpie markers
• scraps of material
• magazines for collages
• newspaper
• Elmer’s glue
• scissors
• sequins & beads
• glitter
• colored paper
• construction paper
• pencils, pencil sharpeners, good erasers
• styrofoam plates
• sewing box
• yarn
• cardboard
• string
• wire
• scraps of cloth
• Mardi Gras beads

What Might We Do with All This Stuff?

• If you’re reading a book in Reading Class, we can make clay models of scenes from the story, or we can do a painting of a scene, incorporating lessons in proportion and perspective.
• Likewise, if you’re studying history, we can do 2-D and 3-D scenes from the lesson.
• We can also do collages with paper scraps, pictures from magazines, and scraps of cloth.
• For science, we can do large scale drawings of insects for science class, with permanent sharpies, then adds leaves and vines and paint them with watercolors.
• If a Poster Project is coming up, I can demonstrate how to center and arrange lettering and art work for an effective poster, and we can do a poster based on a lesson.
• If you’re studying the environment and recycling, we can make art projects from a variety of recycled materials.

What can I do if you give me a heads-up?

With advance notice, I can plan an activity to specifically complement most lesson plans.

If you can schedule me for at least 2 days within a week or month, we can make clay projects which I’ll fire at home, then the next time we can glaze or paint them. We could make mummy cases and a mummy to put in them, paint the mummy case and wrap the mummies to go inside.

Or we can do black glue drawings with wrong-color chalk color and varnish, or colored tissue paper with black silhouette figures.

For 3 or more days, we can do extended projects such as papier mache figures or masks, or African masks from plastic water bottles.