A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

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S. Bailey Jacobson

Lecturer

she/her

Contact

Bio

Education: BFA, Intermedia Art, Art Education and English, University of Iowa; MAAE, Art Education, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Positions Held: Visiting Artist, United Action for Youth; Art Teacher, Sigourney Community School District; Visiting Artist, Iowa Fiber and Arts Alliance; Art Teacher, Springville Community School District; Family Programs Assistant, Art Institute of Chicago; Teacher Institute Evaluation Assistant, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Family Day Assistant, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Lead Teaching Artist, Art Institute of Chicago; Continuing Studies Instructor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Education Program Fellow, Elmhurst Art Museum; Lecturer, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Personal Statement

Teaching Philosophy

An effective and productive educator is also a lifelong learner. I emphasize a process-driven pedagogy which prioritizes personal meaning making with art objects, flexible material play, purposeful dialogues, and critical reflection. In this praxis students are encouraged to create consequential artwork from deep inquiry and exploratory studio encounters. This is most impactful when the learning environment is cooperative.

Critical pedagogy teaches that students are not empty vessels awaiting the input of data. They enter with prior knowledge, goals, and diverse backgrounds which are assets to be considered and utilized. Students are more likely to be active and committed participants in their own instruction, when seen and supported as respected individuals contributing to the wider learning community. I believe the classroom culture is as important as the curriculum. I treat learning as a collaborative endeavor and consciously work to get to know each student. With this knowledge I adapt my teaching strategies to be more comprehensive to meet students’ specific needs and curiosities. In this framework of safety students can investigate the status quo, advance artistically, and feel nurtured holistically.

From my own studio practice, I counsel students to welcome discomfort and embrace mistakes on the dynamic path of making art. Students evolve more through challenges than through ease. Compelling artwork flourishes when students feel safe to take chances beyond their comfort zone. My own creative fulfillment comes from research, analysis, and taking risks. I strive to emulate this framework for students and mentor them to recognize the art making process as equally important to the final result.

 

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

In this course we will focus on disciplinary and interdisciplinary art and design practices of contemporary art production. This team-taught, year-long class explores the materials and techniques of surface, space, and time (2D, 3D, and 4D), as well as the connections and interplay of these areas. Core Studio integrates the formal with the conceptual, traditional with the contemporary, and makes visible a variety of approaches in current cultural production in order to foster the development of students? emerging practices as makers and thinkers.

In this interdisciplinary studio course students will be authorized to use a variety of school shops, materials and equipment; including the woodshop, plaster studio, digital lab, sewing machine, hand tools, sound and video production, digital workflows and principles of visual fundamentals. This is a hands-on making class, faculty present artists and content related to a particular toolkit and, or project theme. Every section of Core Studio has shared learning outcomes which are uniquely realized by each Core faculty partnership.

Students should expect a fast-paced studio environment. In Core Studio students will complete short assignments as well as longer multi-week projects. Assignments are designed to help students develop their own ideas in relation to the materials, processes, and themes presented by faculty.

Class Number

1247

Credits

3

Description

This course provides teacher candidates with opportunities to observe, analyze, teach, and evaluate in elementary and secondary settings. Teacher candidates build constructive relationships with K­12 students, faculty, staff, and community members at two fieldwork sites through guided observation engagement. They develop and teach curriculum projects and learn methods of non-punitive classroom management. This experience provides groundwork, connections, and continuity to apprentice teaching. Apprentice teachers will complete a 5-week elementary/middle school placement and a 5-week high school placement as well as attend a weekly apprentice teaching seminar at SAIC.

Students will study examples of curriculum and pedagogy that cover all Illinois state mandated standards as defined by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE): NASAD Visual Arts Standards; Illinois Professional Teaching Standards; Social and Emotional Learning Standards; Literacy Standards. In the process, students will learn to create original art curriculum that encompasses these standards, and how to implement these standards in their pedagogical practice.

The course includes observation/teaching days at elementary and secondary school placements, as well as weekly seminars at SAIC. During each of their two 5-week placements, students spend the school day at their respective assigned school placements before attending the evening seminar at SAIC. Time in seminars is spent developing and critiquing curriculum projects, exemplars (teacher project samples), instructional materials and assessment strategies in preparation for teaching in practicum placement schools, and later in apprentice teaching.

Class Number

2125

Credits

3

Description

The Apprentice Teaching course continues learning experiences begun during practicum placements in the fall semester. This course provides licensure candidates with experience investigating significant, contemporary concepts and themes within a contemporary art and design context in elementary and secondary Chicago-area schools. Apprentice teachers will complete a 7-week elementary/middle school placement and a 7-week high school placement as well as attend a weekly apprentice teaching seminar at SAIC. Apprentice Teachers will be challenged to maintain high ideals of creative, critical, and relevant curriculum as they engage the complex realities of public school teaching.

Students will read a selection of texts that ground curricular theory within teaching practice. This will assist them in learning how to translate their curriculum development knowledge into pedagogy.

Apprentice teachers will plan, teach, assess their students¿ work, and evaluate the effectiveness of their lessons and teaching strategies. Apprentice Teachers will teach a culminating curriculum project, video-record their instruction of this project, and submit these videos along with written analysis to the nationally standardized, Illinois State Board of Education-mandated edTPA assessment.

Class Number

2099

Credits

12