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Mr. Keith Rosko
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Chenango Forks High School
Hometown:
Binghamton
Class Information:
Room Number: 127
Students per Class: 85 - 100
Class Description:
Our Arts program at CF has roughly 18 elelctives in cluding the state mandated art course needed for graduation. I teach half of the advanced program and my course load includes a college level Drawing Basics course, Animation, Cartooning, Computer Art, Concepts in Design, Printmaking, Creative Crafts, and Mosaics.
Position:
Visual Arts Teacher
My Philosophy:
My philosophy of both general education and Arts education has changed radically over the years (as I believe it should). Perhaps the greatest change in the way I approach my job took place with the birth of my children - for perhaps the first time in my career I began to see students not as students, but as other peoples sons and daughters. It is this monumental change in the way I perceived what I did, and why it was important, that is primarily responsible for the way I view Art and its place in the classroom, the building, the district and the community, and most importantly - your children's lives. MY PHILOSOPHY OF ARTS EDUCATION Art Educators are in the unique position of teaching the subject that can, when properly administered, touch on and integrate almost every aspect of the curriculum and can touch on nearly every subject area. The Arts can expose students to cross curriculum connections allowing them to see the larger educational picture, to see how each of the fractured parts of the curriculum interlock and connect. The Arts, when properly administered, can teach young students many of the skills they will need to succeed in today's media based global culture. Skills like self-discipline, patients, self-introspectionand healthy self-expression, cooperation and tolerance of others (other ideas and other cultures). In addition the Arts can and do teach the important high end thinking skills in such demand by employers in today's work force. These skills include, but are not limited to such concepts as analytical thinking, lateral thinking, creative problem solving and critical thinking. In addition, the Arts help to increase literacy. In art classes, we make visual images, and we study visual images. Increasingly, these images affect our needs, our daily behavior, our hopes, our opinions, and our ultimate ideals. We live in a multimedia world where individuals no longer access information (or have information thrust upon them) through the written word alone. People get information via images (still and moving) and sound on television, the Internet, movies, blogs, emails, e-books and comics to name a few. That is why the individual who cannot understand or read the language of images is incompletely educated. Complete literacy needs to include the ability to understand, respond to, and talk about visual images. Art is a language of visual images that everyone must learn to read. Therefore, to carry out its total mission, Art Education stimulates language - spoken and written - about visual images. The Arts can be a means to enhance a students learning, their world-view, increase their sense of self and the quality of their daily lives, and help foster a connection to the world around them. By giving students a creative outlet, a means to express themselves (even when they think no one is listening) and a way to look at the world around them in new and exciting ways, we give students the ability to lead a more satisfying and rewarding life.
Personal Information:
About Me:
I consider myself lucky to have been a part of the Art Department here at Chenango Forks since 1988. I began as the Studio Art specialist and moved into the Advanced program in 1996. During my time at CF I have coached football, wrestling and lacrosse and enjoyed each, but eventually wanted to devote my full energy to teaching and work as a freelance illustrator. I was born and raised in the city of Binghamton, New York and had my undergraduate schooling at Kutztown University in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country of Kutztown Pennsylvania. I received my Master of Studio Arts degree in Illustration at Marywood University, in the coal region of Scranton Pennsylvania.
College and Degrees:
BS in Art Education from Kutztown University - 1988 MA in Illustration from marywood University - 1995
Activities:
I work as a freelance illustrator as well as teach.
Favorite Books:
Alice in Wonderland The Lord of the Rings
Favorite Quotes:
"I can accept failure, everybody fails at something. What I cant accept is not trying."-- Michael Jordan "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams
Interests:
Sci-fi, animation, cartoons - general geek stuff.
Employment History:
I was very pleased to be able to return to Binghamton to begin my teaching career and doubly pleased to be able to get a job at a district like CF right out of college. I began as the Studio Arts specialist in 1988 and in 1995 moved into the advanced program, where I have taught ever since. In addition, I work as Adjunct faculty in the Art Department of Broome Community College and have taught adult classes there as well.
Why Do I Teach?:
The future our not only our country and society, but of the world lies in the hands of the children we are raising and educating. Educationis the most important calling one can have.