Mr. Manders
"I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit."
John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
Summer Break 2017
Current Resume
| resume.pdf |
Career
Teaching is the greatest job on Earth. I have been blessed with the ability to collaborate with young minds and educate students about art which I am extremely passionate about. Teaching is highly challenging and each day comes with new problems to solve and rewards to be had. I have always been drawn to thinking about, looking at, and creating art. I can say that I am extremely fortunate and blessed to be apart of the Crimson family here at Maple Grove Senior High. The staff and student body are truly extraordinary.
In 2003-04 I was hired as one of the art teachers at North View Junior High School in Brooklyn Park and was there for 7 years. I began at Maple Grove Senior High in the fall of 2010.
I didn't start my career off as a teacher however; I was hired and worked as a production artist for a company called Amscan (Anagram Balloons) where I was on a team of designers that produced graphic art for trade-shows and the company website. I was also a part of the team that traveled and set up trade-shows. After 9/11 the traveling was put to a halt and the company laid off some employees. Luckily, I was one of them. Working and staring at a computer screen all day, I found, wasn't really what I was called to do. Being laid off from my job was a fortunate mishap.
I love the reward of being part of a young person's success and life. There's no greater reward than that of helping others.
Interests
I have to say my main interest in life is my family but I also enjoy making Art, traveling, being active in sports and outdoor activities, Philosophy, Criticism, Listening to All Types of Music, Visiting Art Galleries and Museums and designing the occasional tattoo.
Education
Masters of Education, Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2001 - 2002
Bachelors in Fine Arts, Minor Art History, Concordia University, St. Paul, MN, 1998 - 2000
North Hennepin Community College, Transfer credits. 1996 -1998
Philosophy of Art Education
How do we get students to think creativity? How do we enhance this type of thinking within each students' capabilities and experiences? Art education teaches students about themselves and the world around them in ways that go beyond rote learning. It engages analytical decision making, original invention, and aesthetic communication. Art helps give students an identity; it allows them to express their emotions, communicates things about their lives or experiences they've had with the outside world, and helps them form and discover their own personalities. Small children have an inherent ability for creating art. Art is one of the most important ways people tell us how they view the world and what it means to be experiencing it. Children's natural aptitude can be lost when art teachers impose only adult-centered concepts and artworks. Art education should initially focus on children's ideas because their experiences must be valued and built upon. In this way, art lessons can be not only successful, but relevant. Art education encourages the ability to value oneself and others, and to approach the world with a desire to understand.
Exploring the contribution of diverse artists to the world community opens children's beliefs and encourages pride in being an artist. Art should be studied and made for both its expressive power and its possible social meaning. Art is a language of thought which must be accessible to all students, not just the talented or well-connected few. It is essential for teachers and artists (including student-artists) to work together to explore their own stories and dislodge the ideologies that sustain the practice of exclusion and marginalization. This can be achieved through critical multicultural art education. Teaching non-Western art, European art, and contemporary art is important because, in some way, it is part of everyone's story and survival.
As children age, it is important for them to begin to understand aesthetic issues and art history. Like any type of curricular area, like math or reading, there are important concepts to be learned. Without knowledge of formalism and art history, students creations may be viewed as superficial, cliche, or copied. That being said, however, formalism and art history is of course not the be all and end all to making and understanding art. At the high school level we strive and continue to encourage and develop creativity and expression within the students, in addition to the development of skill within different art media. Without skill and development of technique, intent and meaning in artwork could be lost from lack of aesthetic quality. If art isn't engaging, it won't often times be noticed. I personally believe that there is an artist somewhere in everyone; however, it must be nurtured and practiced upon.
My job in my classroom is to be a creative facilitator. Through posing problems, teaching concepts, and promoting "outside-of-the-box" thinking, my goal is to inspire my students to express themselves through creative lenses that they have yet to explore. Through a community of inquiry, students learn to investigate, question, and judge art (including challenging my own ideas). In my class, I want to invite risk-taking in art making and art thinking that questions the status quo and searches for personal or social truths. Ideally, art should be connected to other academic disciplines. With interdisciplinary studies and collaboration between teachers, students can explore the concept of a cohesive community interweaving the arts with literature, history, the environment, and much more.
A wise and talented artist by the name of Pablo Picasso once said, "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk, "How Schools Kill Creativity," portrays this topic very eloquently in regards to our current public school system and why the arts are a vital curricular subject area to continue to fund and support.
Teaching is the greatest job on Earth. I have been blessed with the ability to collaborate with young minds and educate students about art which I am extremely passionate about. Teaching is highly challenging and each day comes with new problems to solve and rewards to be had. I have always been drawn to thinking about, looking at, and creating art. I can say that I am extremely fortunate and blessed to be apart of the Crimson family here at Maple Grove Senior High. The staff and student body are truly extraordinary.
In 2003-04 I was hired as one of the art teachers at North View Junior High School in Brooklyn Park and was there for 7 years. I began at Maple Grove Senior High in the fall of 2010.
I didn't start my career off as a teacher however; I was hired and worked as a production artist for a company called Amscan (Anagram Balloons) where I was on a team of designers that produced graphic art for trade-shows and the company website. I was also a part of the team that traveled and set up trade-shows. After 9/11 the traveling was put to a halt and the company laid off some employees. Luckily, I was one of them. Working and staring at a computer screen all day, I found, wasn't really what I was called to do. Being laid off from my job was a fortunate mishap.
I love the reward of being part of a young person's success and life. There's no greater reward than that of helping others.
Interests
I have to say my main interest in life is my family but I also enjoy making Art, traveling, being active in sports and outdoor activities, Philosophy, Criticism, Listening to All Types of Music, Visiting Art Galleries and Museums and designing the occasional tattoo.
Education
Masters of Education, Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2001 - 2002
Bachelors in Fine Arts, Minor Art History, Concordia University, St. Paul, MN, 1998 - 2000
North Hennepin Community College, Transfer credits. 1996 -1998
Philosophy of Art Education
How do we get students to think creativity? How do we enhance this type of thinking within each students' capabilities and experiences? Art education teaches students about themselves and the world around them in ways that go beyond rote learning. It engages analytical decision making, original invention, and aesthetic communication. Art helps give students an identity; it allows them to express their emotions, communicates things about their lives or experiences they've had with the outside world, and helps them form and discover their own personalities. Small children have an inherent ability for creating art. Art is one of the most important ways people tell us how they view the world and what it means to be experiencing it. Children's natural aptitude can be lost when art teachers impose only adult-centered concepts and artworks. Art education should initially focus on children's ideas because their experiences must be valued and built upon. In this way, art lessons can be not only successful, but relevant. Art education encourages the ability to value oneself and others, and to approach the world with a desire to understand.
Exploring the contribution of diverse artists to the world community opens children's beliefs and encourages pride in being an artist. Art should be studied and made for both its expressive power and its possible social meaning. Art is a language of thought which must be accessible to all students, not just the talented or well-connected few. It is essential for teachers and artists (including student-artists) to work together to explore their own stories and dislodge the ideologies that sustain the practice of exclusion and marginalization. This can be achieved through critical multicultural art education. Teaching non-Western art, European art, and contemporary art is important because, in some way, it is part of everyone's story and survival.
As children age, it is important for them to begin to understand aesthetic issues and art history. Like any type of curricular area, like math or reading, there are important concepts to be learned. Without knowledge of formalism and art history, students creations may be viewed as superficial, cliche, or copied. That being said, however, formalism and art history is of course not the be all and end all to making and understanding art. At the high school level we strive and continue to encourage and develop creativity and expression within the students, in addition to the development of skill within different art media. Without skill and development of technique, intent and meaning in artwork could be lost from lack of aesthetic quality. If art isn't engaging, it won't often times be noticed. I personally believe that there is an artist somewhere in everyone; however, it must be nurtured and practiced upon.
My job in my classroom is to be a creative facilitator. Through posing problems, teaching concepts, and promoting "outside-of-the-box" thinking, my goal is to inspire my students to express themselves through creative lenses that they have yet to explore. Through a community of inquiry, students learn to investigate, question, and judge art (including challenging my own ideas). In my class, I want to invite risk-taking in art making and art thinking that questions the status quo and searches for personal or social truths. Ideally, art should be connected to other academic disciplines. With interdisciplinary studies and collaboration between teachers, students can explore the concept of a cohesive community interweaving the arts with literature, history, the environment, and much more.
A wise and talented artist by the name of Pablo Picasso once said, "All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."
Sir Ken Robinson's TED Talk, "How Schools Kill Creativity," portrays this topic very eloquently in regards to our current public school system and why the arts are a vital curricular subject area to continue to fund and support.
