Hi, I’m Sadie Carfagno.
(featuring my little cousins on the homepage)
Here I post my blogs as I get my masters of art education!
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I am an artist,
science is my muse,
and pedagogy is my favorite craft.
Background
I was first around little kids being the eldest of 9 cousins, who I would make scavenger hunts for, draw, explore the woods, kayak, and dance with. In middle school I started volunteering at horseback riding camps, caring for both the kids and horses in Cleveland Ohio and Crozet Virginia. Then I began volunteering at the Crozet Arts summer camp in high school.
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After earning my BFA at VCUarts and gaining work experience teaching filmmaking in a K-12 program for 4 summers, I found I’m most excited by helping students realize their own creative power, guiding them to turn their ideas into something they can see, shape, and share with others.
Lesson Planning
Why include art in education?
I hope when students leave my classroom they will feel like they have more tools to communicate their ideas. Special moments like watching kids connect to others by using their voice through art in their own unique and powerful way gives me a hope and happiness that makes me a passionate educator. I aim to create a strong sense of community in my classroom through art making.
I aim to teach kids that making art means making a practice of introducing yourself to new information and experiences constantly to actively transcribe information or create new designs.
Creating art means enriching your life and learning more about the world. Exploring new places, sharing my art, and asking politely if I could silently sketch has gotten me free access to events, biology labs, robotic labs, an ambulance ride-along, lectures, dance performances, engineers assembling an Archer hovercraft, a personal tour of the GWAR metal band studio, conferences and so much more..
Learning pedagogy and searching for new, impactful ways to present information and engage kids is a puzzle my brain is addicted to. I enjoy building lesson plans where the lessons build on themselves and activities are mapped out to optimize the students’ energy, attention span, and engagement.
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I've taught both in person and on zoom, tailoring lessons for each format.
I love designing lessons to be flexible enough for the day to still run smoothly when the unexpected inevitably happens. My favorite part is the unexpected “X factor” of what the kids bring to class – their great ideas, how they’ll react to the content, how they’ll choose to have fun and use what they learn.
I believe adding more elements of creativity into education naturally rewards learners who think differently and helps kids grow communication skills that help them work in teams. This lets diversity of thought thrive, which is crucial to fueling the process and outcomes of our future problem-solvers.
Kids learn by memorizing the right answers to problems and creativity will one day let them create solutions to world problems with no answers yet. Creativity drives innovation and can also accelerate innovation by mastering how to visually communicate information. My goal as an art teacher is to empower others – especially the problem solvers that will shape our future.
Using My Background In the Classroom
There are many problems in the world, but also a lot of inspiring problem solvers. My aim is to be part of building solutions, and using my skill sets to help the next generation.
My professional practice has been grounded in clear, research-driven visual communication. Whether illustrating for NASA (as a VCU-sponsored project) or collaborating with clients (usually environmentalists) as a freelance/contract artist, I approach every project by deeply engaging with the science and the data behind the story.
I’ve developed a skill set in visually translating complex scientific ideas into compelling, accessible artwork to help problem solvers pitch their ideas to investors—and I want to pass that love for art and science on. Most of all I want kids to realize they can combine art and creativity with whatever their own interests and passions are and have fun!