My goal is to add technology to the art classroom to give students a new way to create art, to make learning art more fun, to keep students more engaged, to integrate formative assessments, and finally to promote collaboration.

After the COVID-19 pandemic turned our classrooms upside down, and we educators were forced to learn the new technology to teach and engage our students, I realized that I needed to be more proactive in teaching students skills for the 21st century. When students began to use more digital art applications such as Ibis Paint and Medibang, I knew that I had to get on board with finding a balance between technology and traditional art processes.

My goal is to continue to teach traditional art, but I would also like to teach important visual arts software such as Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and others relevant art apps. Even though our school has computer and media classes, none of them teach any art software. Those classes are more geared towards writing, slides, and presentations. Teaching them art technology will only help to make them more proficient and successful in creating their digital projects.

Because I have not used these software programs in many years, I will commit to independent study with Illustrator and Photoshop over the two months summer holiday so that I may be able to create lesson plans for next school year of 2021-2022.

During this last pandemic year, I created a website to display successful works of art both traditional and digital. Please see https://sites.google.com/k12.hi.us/mrsfitzgeraldsclass to see various forms of art. I will continue to put student work on the site for all to enjoy.