Teaching Philosophy of a Life-Long Creative Learner
Adjunct Associate Professor & Professional ART TutorCrystal Lyon
I believe in life-long learning. It is a crucial part of my development and growth as a creative professional and a teaching artist. I actively seek out career-building opportunities and creative challenges.
I am a teaching artist and professional tutor specializing in design foundations for ART majors as well as instruction in design thinking, visual communication, and developing a creative practice for non-art/design majors. In both cases, I want students to gain the necessary foundational skills they will need to be successful in their studies as well as in their professional fields. I guide students while they build on this foundation developing competency and creative confidence in their work and abilities. Higher education should be a safe learning place, not only to develop professional capability but also to take risks and learn from moments of failure to persist, improve, and excel.
The learning environment that I have utilized is the flipped classroom which nurtures, inspires, and supports students. A flipped classroom allows students to review information independently before live class to prepare them for applied learning and projects during live class sessions. I believe that this is more engaging than mere in-classroom instruction alone. It allows students to take ownership of their learning, asking questions about the content of course materials that apply to exercises and projects through applied learning. I am able to assess the effectiveness of this teaching style through exercises that assist with the development and completion of core projects with a focus on peer feedback and self-assessment through verbal and written reflections. This practice lays a foundation of creative confidence and encourages life-long learning and overall improvement of work. I use student participation in the classroom and their independent work to assign grades.
As a Professional Tutor for the Graphic Design, New Media, Photography, and Communication programs at Tompkins Cortland CC, I have strived to alter and improve how the tutor interacts with students to increase student retention and overall support. Beginning with being more present in the classrooms on campus, I strive to inform both teaching faculty and students of the digital media and art tutoring services available to them through the Baker Center for Learning. As the COVID-19 pandemic altered our teaching and learning environments, I focused on supporting students with new challenges in the transition to the remote learning space. This experience also helped me to grow as a teacher, developing and collaborating with a human-centered curriculum in addition to reimagining digital media and art tutoring services.
I have since developed a strong digital media and art tutoring team of Para-professional and peer tutors available both on-campus and remotely. Our tutoring team is integrated into the classroom through push-in/linked tutoring to build student trust and confidence by engaging students and increasing familiarity with tutoring services. This practice helps track and support student success by reviewing student progress in a course through one-on-one individualized meetings.
As a practicing artist, I look for and create exhibitions and artworks through my creative advocacy. I link students to opportunities outside of the classroom to build their professional experience, portfolios, and resumes. I believe it is important to seek out learning and experience beyond academia to better prepare students for a successful career upon graduation as well as reinforce the idea of lifelong learning. It is important that students become successful, confident professionals, continuing into their careers with momentum and support from the classroom. Success can only be improved upon a solid fundamental understanding paired with real-life experience. I support and encourage students to get out of their comfort zone. To play and explore through continuous learning, as I do.
Digital Media & Art (DM/A) Tutor at Tompkins Cortland Community College
As an alum of Tompkins Cortland CC's Graphic Design program, I am excited to support students at the beginning of their professional creative journey. I use my professional expertise to guide students in learning how to navigate college learning management systems and other campus applications needed to succeed, help in specific ART courses involving traditional and digital media, give an extra eye and outsider perspective on projects, and how to manage their time to meet project deadlines.
I manage a small team of Digital Media and Art Para-professional and Peer Tutors.
Para-professional Tutors are typically fresh graduates from Tompkins Cortland CC and/or have one or two college degrees from another institution. They have education and are familiar with creative professional fields beyond the two-year community college experience.
Peer tutors are high-achieving and current students. They have a real-time grasp of course materials to give students experience with a knowledgeable peer.
Students are able to book appointments for one-on-one sessions or drop into the Baker Center For Learning Tutoring Center (available both remotely and on-campus) with the Digital Media and Art Tutors. Students are able to search for classes and view available tutoring hours on the college tutoring page. Information is updated each semester.
Digital Media and Art Tutors can assist students with:
Understanding course materials for an ART course
Being a study partner for quizzes or exam
Demo and guide students learning how to use Adobe CC (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere)
Demo and guide students learning how to use free or low-cost creative software (Krita, Inkscape, Affinity Autodesk Sketchbook)
Understanding, developing, and maintaining time management skills to meet project deadlines
Build creative confidence
Tompkins Cortland CC Courses
ART 115: Painting I
This course introduces the methods, techniques, and process of painting through a variety of media, but primarily acrylic painting. The elements and principles of art, color theory, form, light, and composition are explored. Executing conceptual and aesthetic solutions through the creative process, ideation, and experimentation is emphasized. Students are introduced to various styles, techniques, and artists through examples of professional work, demonstrations, and class activities. Students learn the process of developing a painting from sketches and studies to building compositions for final rendering. ART 115 fulfills The Arts SUNY General Education Knowledge and Skills Area. Prerequisites: None. 3 Cr. (2 Lec., 2 Lab.) Spring semester.
ART 116: Painting II
This course is a continuation of Painting I and focuses on the creative use of both acrylics and oils with an emphasis on oil painting. Developing expressive, conceptual, and aesthetic solutions through the creative process, ideation, and experimentation are emphasized. Students will examine various styles, techniques, and artists and improve their use of the elements and principles of art, color theory, form, light, and composition in their work. Mixed media techniques are also explored. ART 116 fulfills The Arts SUNY General Education Knowledge and Skills Area. Prerequisite: ART 115. 3 Cr. (2 Lec., 2 Lab.) Spring semester.
ART 117: Design Foundations I
Collaborated in building course curriculum with Graphic Design Chair and Associate Professor, Christine Shanks.
This course introduces the basic visual vocabulary of the principles and elements of two-dimensional design and provides a variety of experiences addressing the creative application of design concepts utilizing digital media in place of traditional artistic media. Projects, lectures, and critiques address the development of compositional, conceptual, and aesthetic problem-solving. Critiques, written analysis, and class discussions provide opportunities to analyze the design process, principles and elements of design, concept development, composition, color systems, the basics of typography, and designing with type and image. The use of software for the creation of vector graphics is the main application utilized in the creation of student assignments, with an emphasis on building imagery utilizing shapes, manipulating points, and paths, and both freehand and precise plotted points vector drawing. The use of software for the creation of raster graphics is also introduced. Prerequisites: Prior completion of, or concurrent enrollment in, ENGL 100 or ESL 120/121/122. 3 Cr. (2 Lec. 2 Lab.) Fall and spring semesters.
ART 118: Design Foundations II
This course is a continuation of ART 117 Design I Foundations that builds on the foundations of visual communication through digital design and media. The design-thinking process is explored through creative and practical applications of 2D and 3D digital media in the course. Color theory is explored through digital and print media. Course projects focus on concept development and hierarchy. Vector, raster, and layout design software are explored in the course along with the output of digital and print media. ART 118 fulfills the SUNY General Education requirement for The Arts. Prerequisites: ART 117, ENGL 100 or ESL 120, 121, and 122. 3 Cr. (2 Lec., 2 Lab.) Spring semester.
ART 120: Drawing I
This course introduces the process of drawing and develops crucial observational skills required in all of the visual arts. Translating the three-dimensional world to a two-dimensional surface is explored through a variety of media. Conceptual and aesthetic solutions for drawing are explored by utilizing the creative process and analyzing light, composition, the elements and principles of art, and various styles, techniques, and media. Students are introduced to these concepts by examining examples of professional work, demonstrations, and class activities. The course also explores how observational drawing develops relevant skills that apply to other media and creative fields such as illustration, photography, animation, painting, computer graphics, and graphic design. The relationship of drawing to commercial art, fine art, and design and its integration into the creative and design process is emphasized. ART 120 fulfills The Arts SUNY General Education Knowledge and Skills Area. Prerequisites: None. 3 Cr. (2 Lec., 2 Lab.) Fall and spring semesters.
ART 123: Exploring Artistic Techniques
Developed the curriculum for this course created to meet the need for non-design/art majors to develop an everyday creative practice as well as a focus on early childhood development and recreation majors.
This course serves as an introduction to art-making and the 8 Studio Habits of Mind (develop craft, engage & persist, envision, express, observe, reflect, stretch & explore, understand art worlds). The course explores various artistic mediums, techniques, tools, and styles and how the process of art-making can aid in developing craft and attention to detail, expression, focus and persistence, critical thinking, problem-solving, and observational skills. Topics include creating two-dimensional images and three-dimensional forms from materials and techniques such as pastel, acrylic paint, graphite, ink, sun-printing, printmaking, photography, assemblage, papermaking, corrugated fiberboard, and wire. Various styles, movements, and artists/designers associated with the topics will be explored to add context to the historic and cultural significance of the mediums, with an emphasis placed on connecting the medium’s context to current professional applications. The elements and principles of design will be introduced to provide students a better understanding of how to make dynamic compositions and discuss the arts/design. Media and techniques taught may change to coordinate with current faculty expertise and interest from the community. Demonstrations, lectures, and critiques support art assignments. ART 123 fulfills the SUNY General Education requirement for The Arts (Area 8), but is not a Liberal Arts Elective. Prerequisites: None. 3 Cr. (2 Lec., 2 Lab.) Fall and spring semesters.
ART 124: Design Thinking & Visual Communication
Developed the curriculum for this course created to meet the need for non-design/art majors to develop stronger design thinking and visual communication skill that can be applied to their major and professional career.
This course serves as a study of design and visual communication, which can develop better problem-solving and communication skills. Topics include design thinking, which is a human-centered approach to problem-solving, and the concept of the show and tell in visual communication, which is a method of distilling ideas using graphics and text. In this course, students will learn how to use the stages of design thinking to solve complex problems and how to communicate more effectively using visual communication concepts. Students will be introduced to various brainstorming processes, ideation, prototyping, psychological and sociological concepts used within design such as analytical, creative, and practical intelligence, the distilled design principles compositional method C.R.A.P. (contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity), and case studies from global visual communication fields such as user experience and graphic design. Demonstrations, lectures, applied to learn, and critiques will be utilized in the course. Additional course fee (included in tuition bill) required. ART 124 fulfills the SUNY General Education requirement for The Arts (Area 8), but is not a Liberal Arts course. Prerequisites: None. 3 Cr. (2 Lec., 2 Lab.) Spring and fall semesters.