My Map and ideas

With my research study, I want to specifically understand how and what I can do to make art therapy beneficial to the teacher and student in the public school art curriculum. I want to learn how I can prove it can be highly beneficial for the student, teacher, and school. I want to learn how other people have done art therapy in the classroom in the past, and how I can build or improve upon it. I want to know in what ways we can tie art therapy into our art curriculum. I want to know what type of trainings we could form to allow teachers to receive training to administer art therapy in the classroom effectively and to refer the student to the proper people when signs of distress or problems arise in their work.

These questions I want to answer directly relate to my field because I personally work with high school students in my art classroom who suffer from issues with family, self-esteem, addiction, self-worth, depression, stress, and anxiety. I know this affects their grades, attitudes, and overall well-being. With art therapy, I could help them work through these issues and in turn, help them perform better in life and at school.

The goal of my research is to influence and inform my school district and state art education programs of how beneficial art therapy can be to children and how important it is that we begin to include it in our curriculum. With this, I would also work to get training for little or no cost for teachers to be able to implement art therapy in the classroom.