About arted4kiddos: Doy Gilbert

I am Doy Gilbert. I am a retired elementary art teacher. There is nothing I love more in my job than planning and preparing lessons. I loved writing curriculum, which mystified my fellow art teachers to no end! Lessen and curriculum development over the years became my creative outlet. If my students would ask me what kind of art I made, I would say "You are my work of art!", and I meant it.

I could see how my efforts to present them with meaningful, engaging art learning made a huge difference in not only how they thought about art, but also how they thought about themselves. By taking on challenging art tasks, my students came to see themselves as the capable people they were and are. Human beings are amazing! Our ability to adapt and create is endless. The potential of even very young learners to think deeply, solve problems creatively, and express themselves uniquely is boundless.

Teaching art is difficult, messy, and labor-intensive:

I hope you have taken a minute to look over our products. I have researched the status of art education on a national level and came to realize how many elementary students do not have access to an art specialist. I know how difficult teaching art to young learners is! I taught for 12 years before I felt like I knew what I was doing!

There are projects I taught and then retaught, improving them as I went along. Sometimes I would change what I was doing as one group walked out and the next walked in. Some projects were just clunkers (quickly ditched), but some I came to look forward to teaching every year. I have a pretty good idea of how daunting the process of putting together a comprehensive art program is. With that in mind, I created these products.

If you are here, you must care:

There is a temptation just to put out art materials and let your class/child go wild.

To be honest that was my art educational experience as a child. I pursued what interested me, and it worked out okay. I was first introduced to quality art instruction for the first time as an art major in college. I will tell you, that was a lot to take on. I was blessed to have a patient and gifted professor who believed in me. I was eventually given a full scholarship in art after two years in the art program. I wish I had started college with a better footing, academically and financially. When I started teaching, I promised myself that my students would have the learning they needed to do whatever they wanted creatively.

A Creative Mind is a Gift to the World:

In other blogs, I will dive deeper into creative thinking, but for now, suffice it to, say art education is valuable for every learner. Most children love to create art and know on some intuitive level its value. In this program, I did my best to recreate my art curriculum for you. I thank you for taking an interest and hope we can work together to allow your class/child to explore art and themselves as makers of art.