Home

Hi, I'm Amanda.

I am an art teacher, art student, and artist living in Northern Virginia.

I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Media Arts and Animation from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

I am a candidate for a Master of Arts in Teaching at George Mason University.

And I am a FCPS Art Teacher.

My philosphy about art education is this: I do not believe in talent. Some of us are just born with a more discerning eye or stronger fine motor skills. But practice and a good teacher are the great equalizer in the end. Both as a student of the arts and as an art teacher, I encourage hardwork, exploration, and joy.

Yeah, that's me --->

My artistic practice

Sometimes, I draw the projects my students are working to show them that we are in this together! This project features a lesson on one-point perspective.

Student Work & Teaching Portfolio

I love witnessing students joy as the engage in art marking. Hearing "Art is my favorite subject" always makes me giddy. Tangibility and the "ah-ha" moment of creation sets art apart from other subjects in K-12 education. As a teacher I try to mix demonstation, material exploration, and student-interest to create lesson that foster both skill building and engagement. By providing student choice, I aim to foster a sense of agency and ownership in the art room.

When it comes to lesson design, I enjoy creating lessons that help build skills while also allowing students to infuse their artwork with their own personalities. The following lessons focus on individual artworks. Currently, I am expanding my pedagogy and curriculum to make the lessons more collaborative, so the final works feature both individual and group-driven components.

View samples of my lesson plans here and here

View my resume here 🎨

Interested in seeing how I would approach teaching portraiture to secondary students? I am developed this lesson to teach secondary students how to draw portraits. You can check it out here .

As a response to a prompt from my Secondary Education class at GMU, I developed a middle school unit focusing on the intersection of art, creative writing, and technology. You can view the overview of the 3-lesson unit here.