Mr. Rosko
Mr. Rosko Page
Hey - welcome to my section of the Visual Arts Department website.
On this set of pages you will find information about me and the specific classes that I teach within the high school section of the Visual Arts Department by checking the menu at the left (in the Document Manager).
You can also see what new events are being planned in and around my room, within the department and any new information that may impact your child. Slide shows and movies of student work and class trips will be made available as soon as I can get them on line and running.
In addition, I have taken advantage of this page to give you a bit of information about myself, my personal philosophy of education and why I believe the Arts to be an incredibly important part of any child's education.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if I can be of service or if you have any questions regarding the department (and please check back periodically for new items).
Studio Art Overview and Philosophy
The short movie below will give you a brief overview of the Studio Art 2D and Studio Art 3D courses, as well as my philosophy when teaching them.
This philosophy is very different from my philosophy for the advanced level courses.
PLEASE NOTE:As of 2012, Studio Art 2D, Studio Art 3D AND Photoshop, Contemporary Crafts 1, Contemporary Crafts 2 and Video Production all meet the NYS graduation requirement for the Arts!
Philosophy of Arts Education
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-introspection and 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.
In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.
- Lee Iacocca
A little 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. There I received a BS in Art Education. I received my Master of Studio Arts degree in Illustration at Marywood University, in the coal region of Scranton Pennsylvania.
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.
CF has become a family affair for the Rosko's as well, my wife and I were both passionate enough about the distric that she now works here and both our children attend the district.
I was also both excited and humbled to be selected as the 2009 New York State Art Educator of the year for Region 9 as well as being named by PBS as one of the top 12 Innovative Educators in the US in 2012 - and doubly pleased that this has taken place during my time at CF.
Rosko's Portfolio sampler
There has been some interest from the students about exactly what I do as an artist, and it seems a fair question, since I am asking them to trust me enough to teach them about art.
And so, here is some stuff. Enjoy guys.