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Teaching (MAT)

Donna Basik

My work in education and art revolve around an interest in the themes of dialogue, connection, and the mutual creation of meaning.

 Holistic education is about the art of cultivating meaningful human relationships. I am intrigued by the challenges and subtleties of this dialogue between teacher and student within a community of learners. As a coach and mentor to rising artist-teachers in MICA's MAT program, I endeavor to dig and probe and discover where my student's strengths are and then get them to buy into that brilliance they possess. Hopefully, they in turn will encourage their students in the same way.

After a decade of visual and intellectual investigation through 16mm film as a documentary and public affairs film editor, my attention turned to human development and the arts, and current pedagogical issues and choices. I felt compelled to build upon my personal interests and roots in the visual arts (BA in Studio Art, University of Maryland, 1977), and to extend them into the realm of teaching and service.

Graduating from the MAT program at MICA in 1998, I have taught in a variety of elementary, middle, and high school settings, both public and private, as well as maintaining an ongoing relationship with MICA's Young People's Studios program as a regular teacher. I currently teach in the Master of Arts in Teaching program at MICA, team-teaching the internship program and supervising student teachers.