Art education students reach out to adults with special needs
October 13, 2011
Outside the classroom, art education students are reaching out to the community by teaching art lessons to adults with special needs.
The Kent State chapter of the National Art Education Association will team with PowerCorps, a Ravenna-based community service program, to teach formal art lessons.
“Our students are certified to teach in alternative settings,” said Robin Vande Zande, coordinator for art education. “They (the NAEA) has arranged for extra teaching experience outside of coursework. We really get involved in a lot of community outreach.”
“The department as a whole doesn’t think that because someone has special needs that they can’t comprehend a lesson. Part of the training is that they’re really not that different.” – Matthew Morbach
Art education majors are required to learn teaching skills for students and adults with special needs as part of the major’s experiential learning program. NAEA goes beyond classroom requirements to volunteer and connect with the Kent community, Vande Zande said.
NAEA approached PowerCorps and asked if they could help teach art to adults with special needs. Any art education majors who want to be involved with NAEA can find information on the third floor of the Art Building.
NAEA President Matthew Mohrbach said adults with special needs would visit the Art Building Mondays starting at 6:45 p.m. Oct. 17.
“Since we have training with students with special needs, we can use lesson plans and skills we already have to better serve the community in a way that hasn’t been done before,” Mohrbach said.
Mohrbach, a senior art education major, said students would teach lessons to two groups of 16 to 20 adults with special needs. The teaching experience will be beneficial for newer art education students to gain practice teaching.
“It gives students who may not have had teaching experience a dry run to be actually in the classrooms,” Mohrbach said. “But we’re also trying to give (adults with special needs) that formal art education experience while being fun, playful and relevant in everything we do.”
NAEA chapter developer Carolyn Lindsay said art education students learn how to create adaptive materials for those with physical and mental disabilities.
Lindsay, a senior art education major, said adults coming in would have mild to severe disabilities.
“The department as a whole doesn’t think that because someone has special needs that they can’t comprehend a lesson,” Mohrbach said. “Part of the training is that they’re really not that different.”
Contact Brittany Nader at [email protected].
