Finding Joy in Teaching This Year (Ep. 388)

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the podcast for art teachers. This show is produced by The Art of Education University, and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz.

At the beginning of this school year, we talked a few times on this podcast about the idea of finding joy in our teaching this year. We were asking the question just after a few incredibly difficult years, are teachers ready to find the joy in teaching again? In today’s episode, I want to check in on that. I know it’s still early in the school year, but I’ve been hearing positive things from so many teachers. As you’re listening to this conversation today, I would love hearing from you. Email me timothybogatz@theartofeducation.edu. Let me know how your year is going. Let me know if you are able to find joy in your teaching this year. But I’m going to discuss these ideas today with Kandice Stewart. Kandice is a great teacher. I am thrilled to have her on the podcast today for the first time. We’ve worked together before. She did a wonderful presentation back in the winter conference about reflective teaching. I want to talk to her today about reflection and intentionality and finding joy in what we do in the classroom. Let me bring her on now.

Kandice Stewart is joining me now. Kandice, how are you?

I’m doing great, Tim. How are you?

Also, great. Thrilled that we finally have you on the podcast. I’ve been admiring your work for a long time. We worked together on the NOW Conference way back when we put together an awesome presentation for that. But just excited to have you here. Thank you. We appreciate it. But I guess to begin, can you give us an introduction? Can you tell us a little bit about you, a little bit about your teaching or anything else that you want to share with listeners?

Yeah. Well, one, I’m really grateful to be here as well, to have this time with you. Wonderful for us to be able to connect. Thank you for this opportunity, first and foremost. As you can see my gratitude skills, I’m exercising them, bringing in positive energy, letting out positive energy. Thank you so much again. But I’m a high school AP Art History teacher. I also teach studio art classes in New Jersey. I teach at Columbia High School, and it’s a very weird place, I’ll be honest. My high school’s like lots of artsy people. I’ve got all different kinds of unique and beautiful profiles and attitudes. It’s a diverse space, so lots of people from completely different places and cultures and ethnicities. I just feel like I’ve plopped down in this really cool, weird teen-angsty utopia.

Yeah, love it.

I’ve been there for a few years now, and this is actually my 10th year teaching, so woo-hoo, 10 years and many more to go. I’m happy to be here and I’m happy to share my path and journey. I’m also a doctoral student at Columbia University at the Teachers College program. For anybody who’s studying art education at Columbia and you’re listening in, shout out.

Not sure how big that audience is, but I’m glad we can give them a shoutout.

Yeah. We’re small. Oh, gosh. That’s true. We really are a little small group of people.

That’s good. That’s what our teachers do best. We just have the little niche areas and we do well fitting into those, and I think that’s good. It works. Okay. I really wanted to talk about just reflection. I feel like we talk all the time on this podcast about how important it is, why it’s so beneficial to us as teachers to reflect why it’s so important for us to do that. I think we will ask people listening to do that today as well. But we had you at the NOW Conference earlier this year to speak about that same topic. Honestly, I’d much rather have you talk about it than me. Could you just share some of your ideas or talk about your view on reflection and why it’s beneficial, why it’s important for teachers?

Yeah, absolutely. I can even go over how I’ve been doing it a little bit differently this year.

Oh, yes.

For the NOW Conference, my presentation was on reflective teaching mind, body, and spirit. I just genuinely believe that when we are bringing our entire selves into what we’re doing, we’re able to acknowledge other students’ entire selves too within the process. I’ve been trying my best to center on not just how I’m feeling because if we focus too much on just how we’re feeling, we’re going to feel tired. It’s a hard job. It’s not simple, right?

Yes.

But I’ve been reflecting on my mindset. What am I thinking going into the day? How is my body feeling? How is my body navigating the classroom? Spirit-wise, am I on a high spirit today, or am I a low spirit today? If I just think about that for myself, and then I get kids to think about that for themselves, I’m honoring me and I’m also honoring them while we’re honoring each other or collaborating with each other in this space and trying to create beautiful art. Art is something that’s so personal and so unique, and I just wanted to be more honest in my career and not be static and stagnant and depressed.

I just want to give my 100% self. When I did the presentation at the NOW Conference, I was really heavily focused on something my mom would say. She’s always like, “Treat others the way you want to be treated.” I’m like, “Okay, let’s look at my classroom. Let’s think about my environment. Is this where I would want to make art? If not, then I need to reflect upon that and I need to edit and alter.” Then in intern, I’m also asking them, what’s this space like for you? How are you feeling? Do you like it dim? Do you like it with more lighting? Do you want to sit over here, over there? Would you prefer to stand? All these things. How would you like to be assessed? What content would you like to learn? Which I can get into later on because this year I created a curriculum with my students or I’m creating a curriculum with my students.

That’s awesome. I would love to hear more about that for sure. Then I guess along with that, just thinking about how we create spaces, how we create environments that we would want to be in as well. I’m thinking about taking that a step further and just thinking about how we find joy in our teaching because that’s something on our team. We’ve been talking a lot about that, about how teachers can find joy in what they do. I’d love to just hear your perspective about where you find joy in teaching. What are the parts of the job that bring joy to you?

100%.

Would you like me to go first, so you have a second to think about that?

I got it. But you can go first. I want to hear how are you finding joy.

I don’t know. I think, for me, just connections with students are always a big thing. When you find something that you can connect with, whether it’s through the art making or through just conversations about anything else going on with their life, I think anytime you have a moment that you can connect with them, I think that’s really valuable. I think that’s something to be celebrated. For me, as a teacher and also for my students, anytime there’s an aha moment, we talk about the proverbial light bulb going on. Whenever I see that happen with my students, I try and put that in the memory bank.

So when you’re struggling later on, I’d be like, “But remember when that happened? That was such a cool moment.” Those always bring me joy. I find that happens for me personally too, when I have my own light bulb moments or my own aha realizing why things came together the way they did or why that was successful and really celebrating those moments. So I think for me, a lot of the finding joy is just realizing where it’s coming from and appreciating those moments, even if they are small moments. Just trying to be more present and more conscious about appreciating what’s happening while it’s happening and just spending a little more time paying attention to those moments and helping them bring me a little bit more joy.

Beautiful. Well said too. Excellent.

Thank you.

I think you and I we’re sitting in the same pod. We’re two peas in a pod, Tim. When you said having moments of just silent and just being in the moment and being present 100%. I think that when people hear the word joy, they think of really exciting eyes and big smiles and stuff. But joy can be those quiet moments of reflections and ahas that can take your breath away or bring tears to your eyes. That can happen anywhere, any place, anytime. For me, the joy comes in the parts of life that are unscripted. I didn’t expect this student to do this. I didn’t expect that person to walk through that door. I didn’t expect that person to have that response.

My best friend when I was in high school, her name is Jessica Hoffman. She talked a lot about gratitude when I was a kid, when we were high school, and I was just like, “That’s lame. What are you talking about? What’s this journal? Why are you asking me questions?” But she’s one of the most levelheaded women that I know now. I remember she was counseling for adults who were transitioning and have needs. Since then, she’s always had that premise and that understanding of like, “We are here beyond this year. If we’re going to be here, let’s be fully present, and let’s just be grateful for being here and being together.”

I think I have so many kids from last year or two years ago that still stop in my room. Sometimes my class year, especially during the lunch period, which doesn’t bring me joy because I’m like, “It’s my lunch period, I need to eat.” But they’re in my room and it’s a funny running joke. But I’ll have a student from last year or two years ago come in, they’ll be like, “How many students in this classroom do you actually teach right now?”

I’ll be like, “Two.” “There’s like 20 people in my freaking rooms, not even a class.” But that brings me joy that they found comfort in my space with me or just being around each other’s aura and they’re finding joy with each other. That’s not even an engagement. I’m just over here doing my thing and they’re over there doing their thing, and it brings me joy. Of course, the work brings me joy, and getting a chance to teach art education allows me to be flexible and unique and imaginative and generative. Every year, it can be something completely different. I don’t have to stick to, “This is the map standard, make sure your [inaudible 00:13:30].” It’s like, “No, we’re going to create and we’re going to talk and we’re going to connect.” That ability brings me pure joy definitely.

I love that. I don’t know, I think one more on my list of things that bring me joy are the kids that just show up out of nowhere in your classroom. Because it is. It’s amazing to just see that you’ve been able to build a community in your classroom where kids feel comfortable. It’s a space where they want to be. I feel that any teacher that can do that, that is something worth celebrating. I mean, kudos to you for that. I think for anybody who’s listening that has that in their classroom, which I think a lot of art teachers do and enjoy that, appreciate that. Because it’s a very cool thing.

It’s a good gift.

So as we’re talking about all these things that bring us joy, I want to ask you if teachers are more ready to find that joy this year because obviously, it’s been very trying, very difficult few years for teachers, but feel like we maybe have turned a page now. Do you think teachers are ready this year to talk about joy again? Are they ready to get back into what we’ve called forever saying we have the greatest job in the world? Are we able to say that again, that we’re back to having the greatest job in the world?

I think that it tells you more about who you are and what you care about if you are ready to accept joy and where you are. I am not going to shame anybody for being in a different head space. We’re post-pandemic. The normal issues are still rising. We’re still in high safety hazard awareness in schools right now. There’s real issues that are going on. The economy sucks. There’s a teacher shortage. There’s a teacher shortage. But I will say this, when I went to the conference or whenever I’m in a space with other art educators and I look around, I’m like, “Wow, y’all want to be here and you want to be connected.” That says something. Even if you have that disposition of like, “Wow, the world is coming to an end.”

You woke up, you got dressed, and you made it here. You are a part of something. Not only do I think that teachers are ready for joy, I think that there is an active of support for bringing in more joy. I see it in the type of professional developments that are being available now to art educators, how to infuse joy, shout out to Dana Joy Helwick, who does TASK Parties or expose me to TASK Parties. If you don’t know what a TASK Party is, message me or look out for me. I don’t know, it’s a weird way to say that. But it’s just a collaborative way of getting to know each other and having fun. You can do it at any age or any level. I’ve done it with adults and I did it with my high school students, and I had these girls running down the hallway with their legs taped together.

I’m just saying, “That’s one of the tasks.” I’m saying, “You have to do it. It’s just one of the tasks.” But it’s like, yes, things like that were ready for joy. Jaimie Warren, she does, Whoop Dee Doo. I love got introduced to her this summer as well. The programs that she’s got going on, she’s based here, I think in Brooklyn with a larger program and group, but they go everywhere nationwide. What it is that their program goes to schools or goes with communities, and they just make performances and they make performance art and installations from nothing, from like nothing, boxes of paper, tissue, whatever’s available with students. They bring joy to the community and they connect local artists with the students and make stuff happen. If I’m noticing a lot of people being interested in things like that, because there’s a need for that connection, there’s a need for our community to look forward to something and to be excited and engaged in something that might be really weird.

I love that though. I think a lot of people are just looking for any opportunity to find that and to celebrate that. I think that’s a good thing. Last question for you, I guess, as we’re talking about all of these places that we’re finding that happiness, finding that joy, but what would be your advice for someone who wants to find more joy in their own teaching? What should we notice through the day? What should we think about? What should we reflect on? What are the things where people can focus in or be intentional about if they want to discover that joy again this year?

Yeah. That’s what I made a note about. I love that question. I think if you didn’t pick it up by now, gratitude in the small things. If it’s that person that you don’t teach anymore, and they might’ve even failed your class, they decided to sit in your room and talk to you about, “Yesterday, it was strawberry lemonade from Starbucks.” I was like, “I don’t even teach you. I remember you dropped my class, actually.” But that’s what it was. I enjoyed that person’s presence coming into my life and wanting to share themselves with me and seeing something in me that brought me joy. I think co-creating joy with your students, we don’t always, as art educators, we are the ones that think, “I have the helm. I’m the one in charge. I got to make the assignments.” It’s like, “No, you actually don’t have to make the assignments. You actually don’t have to be the source of everything.”

Relinquishing, sharing that power, sharing that authority with your students to create joy. This past week I have my students presenting skills and artworks and art assignments that they would give each other. It’s been great. The conversations have been tangent. Sparking inspiration and imagination and they’re doing it themselves, and I get to just be a part of it. That’s been really cool. Co-creating joy 100%, being reflective, being honest with yourself, and also being honest with your students.

When you’re not high energy, and you can tell through my personality, I’m like somebody that’s got lots of high energy. But I have my days. They call me my Beyonce days or my Spicy days where I’m just like, “Can you get out of my face? Can you give me some space? Back up.” They’re cool with it. They understand it. It’s not like I’m the first person or first adult that they’ve ever been around that’s got a little that goes up and down that has highs and lows. I’m just a little bit more honest with them of like, “Hey, I’m not feeling it today.” Those actually end up being some really good kids. They behave better when I don’t feel well.

I’ve had that happen for sure. You just go in and like you said, be honest with them. “You know what? I’m not feeling it today. I didn’t sleep well. I’m sick.” They’re good. I remember there was one day I lost my voice and I was like, “I can’t even project, so y’all have to be real quiet when I’m trying to talk.” You could have heard a pin drop the whole day. I was like, “This is amazing. I love this.”

I taught my fourth grade with no voice one time. They were sweethearts. I actually pretended to not have a voice for two more days after that because it was so good. I was like-

I love it.

Then they caught me. It was really bad. But that was a joyful moment. I was like, “I’m healed. Okay, I’ll stop.” Then I wrote them legacy thinking beyond the present moment. What do you want them to know? It’s like you wake up and you’re like, “I don’t know. I want them to know that I’m a good person and I think that they’re good people too.” It could be that simple and something like that can bring joy, just like something small that you hold with you. I just want them to know I’m a good person, and I want them to know that I think that they’re good people too.

That’s awesome. Very well said, Kandice. I appreciate all of that. We’ll go ahead and wrap things up there, but thank you so much for coming on, having this conversation with me. I think it’s an important one, and I really appreciate your perspective. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Tim.

I loved that conversation with Kandice. She had so many great ideas. Honestly, I’m feeling inspired right now. I love to shout out to those teachers that are supporting joy and finding ways to spread happiness from their classroom. Also, the idea of being intentional with your teaching, of creating joy with your students, of finding gratitude in the small things. I want to leave you with that. I hope you can take a moment for yourself to think about where you can find joy in your day-to-day life, whether inside or outside of your teaching. I hope that joy is there for you.

Art Ed Radio is produced by The Art of Education University with audio engineering from Michael Crocker. Thank you as always for listening. Reminder that next week, we’ll have a mailbag episode with Amanda and me. Please feel free to email any questions you have that you want us to answer. Also, Amanda has been working hard on getting a good official sound for when we open up the mailbag. We’ll see if she can come through with that by next week. Stay tuned.