Inspired Teaching

Inspired

Teaching

Todd Bartel Earns the RISD Art and Design Educator Award

ON FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, VISUAL ARTS TEACHER

Todd Bartel was honored by the Rhode Island School of

Design (RISD) Alumni/ae Association with a newly

established Art and Design Educator Award. Todd is

the inaugural recipient of the award, which is given to

RISD alumni/ae “who demonstrate exceptional skill as

an educator or a clear commitment to the field of art

education, and are recognized by their peers and

“I feel so humbled and honored to be the

inaugural recipient of the Art and Design Educator Award,” Todd shares. “It is wonderful but also overwhelming. This acknowledgment and celebration of my skills as a teacher means a lot to me personally.”

It was during his sophomore year in high school when Todd knew he wanted to make a career of teaching, a desire he expressed in his application to RISD. He remembers saying he wanted to paint and to teach — plain and simple. He attributes his interest in teaching to the many great educators that guided and inspired him throughout his own journey as an artist.

“I did not get a degree in teaching. I learned the art of teaching from a great many excellent teachers I have had over the years.”

Todd came to CSW in 2002. He has since taught a variety of courses in drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, installation art, design, and conceptual art. He is also the founder of the IS (Installation Space), CSW’s proposal-based installation gallery, and founder and Gallery Director of the Thompson Gallery, a teaching gallery dedicated to thematic inquiry.

“Each and every day, during each and every conversation, I work to bolster students’ innate strengths appropriately, while holding the high bar of honing weaknesses into skills,” Todd shared in his acceptance speech. “I know of no other greater classroom success than the student who falls in love with the thing they did not have in their suitcase when they first entered my classroom.”

As a collage-based artist, Todd says that his experience with collage, assemblage, and installation taught him “how to listen — to find, to mind, and to bind. Anything and everything tangible and intangible can be combined if you figure out how to listen.”

Over the years, Todd’s profound patience, sincere encouragement, and sage advice have proven invaluable to countless CSW students.

“Of the many teachers I have had in my academic studies, both at CSW and at RISD, in the undergraduate and graduate level, none have made as large an impact on my life as Todd Bartel,” adds Max Pratt ’15. “In the formative time of one’s life which is high school, Todd pushed me to become a deep thinker and a serious creative. I can certainly credit my success in an arts college, as well as my early development as a designer, maker, and artist to Todd’s unique pedagogy. I am sure I would not be alone in saying that Todd was, and still is, my favorite teacher.”

Great teaching inspires great teachers. We asked alumni/ae educators Anna Logowitz ’03 and Raekwon Walker ’13 to reflect on the impact CSW and its faculty have had on their careers and their decision to dedicate their lives to education. What does good teaching look like? And why does it matter?

Being a TA was an amazing advantage of attending CSW, as was Alorie Parkhill’s “Advanced Writing Practicum” class. In it, I wrote my first curriculum, which tackled a topic that I still engage with daily: how to teach organized writing in a way that nurtures the terrified writers while still challenging the confident ones. I still use many of the methods I proposed in that project in my current work. I remember coming out of the Elephant House into the cold air after teaching a writing lesson to the freshman as part of an AWP assignment and thinking, “I never want to do anything but this!”

Anna Logowitz ’03

Anna Logowitz ’03 Creator, Integralis pedagogy Head Teacher/Director, Falcons Integralis Learning Community

It is difficult to pinpoint exactly when I shifted from never wanting to see a school again to aspiring to spend the rest of my life in them, but I know that both occurred during my time at CSW. CSW expanded my idea of what education could be. I learned that education could be art, music, discussion, relationships. Above all, I learned that it could be life, rather than in competition with life. This is still the core of my pedagogical work today. Students deserve a life well lived during their education, not held out like a carrot on an infinite string. I design classroom communities where the act of living requires the same skills that we wish to teach. CSW showed me that education, including the awful mix-ups and mistakes, can be a joyous adventure, alive with metaphorical dragons and comrades and triumph over our fears. I TAed at least two classes with Joanie Bernhardt, and I fell in love with, of all things, editing essays. I loved helping students dig for their own truths and shape them into words so strong that the world had to listen. In addition, because I went to CSW, I saw methods of education work that many of my colleagues have never heard of and have trouble imagining. The result is that I can think outside of the many many boxes that the educational field is full of to teaching approaches or solutions to teaching problems that I see others struggling to grasp.

From the Mod System I learned the power of time and space as tools in shaping the educational experience, and this has become the crux of much of my work as a pedagogue. Many of my curricula begin by looking at the resources available, including time and space, and then shaping them to support the educational needs at hand. CSW gave us time and space that we could live in, not just perform in, and that is something I aspire to with all of my program designs.

Lastly, the ups and downs of project-based learning have been invaluable in every aspect of my life, both in the classroom and out of it. From it I learned tenacity, creative problem solving, and the ability to see the beauty in the journey — both when things go as planned, and, most importantly, when they don’t. I am often asked how on earth I came to start a one-room schoolhouse, usually quickly followed by how I manage to teach all ages simultaneously, and the answer lies completely with the creative problem solving inherent in a CSW education.

Raekwon Walker ’13 Teacher, Baltimore City Public Schools Doctoral Candidate, Johns Hopkins University School of Education

I knew that I wanted to become an educator after graduating from CSW. I was born to be an educator. Working with young scholars is my passion. Education needs me: I am a proud Black man.

I am Newark (NJ) bred. I attended Newark Public Schools through eighth grade and CSW changed the trajectory of my life. While at CSW, I knew that my time there was utopic — there was a disconnect between the life I lived in Weston and the place I called home back in Newark. For this reason, CSW helped to shape my pedagogy and life’s work. I firmly believe that every young person is deserving of access Raekwon Walker’13

to a quality education regardless of their zip code. I am grounded in understanding that highly effective teaching is dependent on authentic, meaningful relationships and culturally relevant practice.

My teachers at CSW cared about me beyond my academic achievements. They cared about my development inside and outside of the classroom and at the same time were able to hold me to high expectations.

I failed a math course with Agnes Voligny, who never gave answers but supported my mathematical thinking by asking me critical questions that supported my understanding of process over product. I have embedded this approach to teaching and learning in my classroom in an effort to support and develop my scholars’ creative and critical thinking skills.