- mrselizabethbrooks@gmail.com
- (775) 393-9278
-
Education
Elizabeth Brooks
- Visual Arts
Elizabeth Brooks is a multidisciplinary 2D and 3D teaching artist whose work shows deep affection for vibrant color, natural forms, and curved lines. With a Bachelor of Arts in K-12 Art Education and a Master of
Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language, she is passionate about finding the intersections between visual art, core content areas, and vocabulary acquisition.
In spring 2018, she completed an Arts Integration Specialist Certification, further developing her ability to share arts integration theory and strategies with educators and providing students with lessons that access their unique learning styles. Her arts integration teaching approach is the foundation of her work as a teaching artist and arts integration specialist with primary and middle school students. She has presented at art conferences in multiple states on integrating
visual art into science and math curricula. Brooks’ artwork has been featured at galleries in Reno, Nevada, and St. Louis, Missouri. She encourages the presence of art education in local elementary schools
through unrelenting advocacy and funds from the sale of her artworks.
Some of her lessons include Geometric Form Ceramic Pinch Pots, Leaf Imprint Ceramic Pots, Action Verb Figure Drawings, Watercolor Resist Weather Landscape Painting, Chalk Pastel Erosion Landscape, Natural
Resource Landscapes, Tissue Paper Flower Anatomy Sculpture, Symmetrical Mexicans Sun Drawings, and Facial Fraction Self-Portraits.
All the lessons are standards sound, with both the Nevada Fine Arts Standards and the National Core Arts Standards. Additionally, her lessons are attuned to a variety of Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. Custom lesson collaboration is also available and encouraged to meet the precise needs of your learners.
School & community workshops
Sculpting in the Round in a Flat-Screen Based World: In this workshop for all ages, participants experience the basics of sculpting in the round to reverse the effects of “flatness” we develop with our daily interactions with screen-based technologies. We will re-invigorate a sense of three-dimensionality and tangible work with earth-based clay and wooden and metal tools to bring us back to our human desire to create and be present.
STEM to STEAM: In this educator-focused workshop, teachers can upgrade their current or proposed STEM projects by adding the Arts to create a STEAM lesson experience for their students. The focus is on solid, standard-based lesson plan design and plays with a variety of materials to discover which will best support student learning.
Elementary Art FUNdamentals: In this “crash course in art” for elementary teachers, we will go beyond guided drawings and explore simple and effective art techniques for a variety of grade levels that apply to many content areas. In a series of mini-projects, participants will experience for themselves and consider current lesson applications of these techniques that are easily taken back to your classroom. Materials explored will include new ideas using basic “school provided” items such as construction paper, crayons, and watercolor paint, as well as a couple of mediums to add to your classroom wish lists, such as oil pastels and air dry Model Magic clay.
Why? And How? to Hire a Teaching Artist: In this class, participants will become familiar with why it is valuable to hire a teaching artist for a residency at any school and where to seek funding for a local teaching artist. Documents will be provided to support the structuring of collaborating on STEAM and Arts Integrated Lesson Planning, as well as general planning documents that will help the process go smoothly for all parties involved.