Matthew Ollendick

Hometown: Dyersville, IA
Birthday: October 9, 1985
Major: Art Education

Autobiography

Born on October 9, 1985, I am centered equidistant by ten years to my younger brother and older sister.  I was raised in Dyersville, Iowa my whole life till I started college and was allowed and encouraged to expand my creative mind by the exterior environment and create a working view of the self by the interactions of my interior environment.  My current beliefs, theories and ideas are the product of my own motivation and a continuation from the open communities I was a member of.

There are in my life few things that I have had set in stone since my childhood.  Those were the basal imaginative and creative/artistic interest and my immediate inquiry to teach art since second grade.  The only amendments that were made to that inquiry were the grade level that I wanted to teach, which always the immediate grade in which I was in.  My self motivation throughout my schooling placed me in a College for Kids program for most of my elementary years, TAG, band, jazz band, soccer, private music lessons, National Honor Society, the Dubuque Youth Leadership Council as well as nominations for other leadership and ambassador programs and volunteer opportunities.

My career goals as most life interest have been roughly placed out for the next 15 years of my life.  My hope is to teach secondary or elementary art for at least a decade, by then have reached a masters of fine arts and social work degree, perhaps inquiring about a PhD; move to another location of the country and continue to teach in the same settings and attempting to access a post secondary position.  With a passion to work for and with students in my past and present with groups like Alliance, Band, Student Senate, Political Action Community, Residential Life, Campus Appeals Board, work-study and several outside positions, I am a positive candidate for student teaching. 

Philosophy of Education

Education has remained the means for progression and understanding within the human existence for its entirety.  This passing of knowledge is not wholly accomplished by the family and peers alone, but reinforced by the active participation in a school setting.  Through the inclusion of the Wartburg Teacher Education Model, I have had the opportunity to acquire the skills necessary to communicate effectively the ideas, concepts, and inclusive and respondent personalities that is required of effective and reflective teachers. 

Within the art classroom, my main and ultimate goal is to motivate students to not only see and produce art, but to be able to talk about it.  By being able to talk about art will allow the students to make personal choices that are reflective of their ideas and feelings in an ever growing understanding, success, and appreciation of art.  The most effective way to achieve this goal is by first modeling appropriate criticism of art and then by motivating students to talk about each others art.  This basic and largely overlooked piece in art will be the starting point to thinking about art and improve their perception and language skills.

I understand through my experiences thus far, that a career in education will be both challenging and rewarding career.  It is necessary to be flexible to new techniques, laws, students, content, and environments.  It is the active and reflective interaction with the environment around us that allows us to grow and learn; my students will be a proponent of my learning for my whole career in education.  Lastly, the arts provide the necessary skills that allow students to be successful in all subjects.  The arts teach that there is no right or wrong answer and integrate all subjects within itself.  My professional career goal is to push the education field to understand the arts importance and how it closely relates to being the core of education.