Educator Audrey Brown Consults on New Classroom Presentation
Recently, FIDM consulted Audrey Brown, former Art Department Chair & Teacher at San Leandro High School, on the development of a new classroom presentation, Designing Successful AP Art & Design Portfolios. With her decades-long career in education, Brown provided invaluable insight to improve the presentation and meet the new AP College Board requirements.
Audrey Brown joined California’s San Leandro Unified School District in 1988, and started teaching at San Leandro High School in 1996. San Leandro has been one of the most diverse schools in the United States since the late 1980s and houses an extremely successful art program where Ms. Brown became department chair in 1999. The department houses four full time teachers with a curriculum that focuses on AP Art and Design, Fashion, Multimedia, Character Design and Concept Art, and Sculpture. The school’s gallery also hosts regular exhibitions where her students showcase their work.
With the development of COVID-19, the staff, students and parents were completely surprised by the shutdown, receiving the news of school building closures at lunch in the middle of March. The school district responded with a quick transition to emergency online teaching, issuing over 3,000 Chrome books, and providing emergency online training to staff. Brown delivered art supplies to students, on request, doing driveway drop-offs for students preparing portfolios.
For other classes, their assignments were designed to be created without specific supplies, emphasizing use of materials that could be found at home. The Getty Instagram Challenge, for example, invited students to examine famous art works, then recreate them utilizing household objects, family members, and even pets.
Brown feels her biggest challenge teaching in an online environment has been locating and communicating with all students to make sure they were safe, and that she was available to help through an online classroom, virtual meetings, emails, text and phone apps. The emphasis was on providing creative assignments and focusing on student needs, rather than grades. While connecting with her first year students had its challenges, she found that close to 100 percent of her AP students responded well. For those creating college portfolios, weekly phone call appointments and virtual meetings resulted in all but two meeting their portfolio deadlines.
“Art is the key to expressing and sharing emotions in difficult times,” said Brown. “Design can be the door we create to get us through it. Keep on expressing yourself and creating new doorways.”
The educator shares a long history with FIDM. Years ago, she entered and won a makeover contest sponsored by FIDM, and was invited to attend the FIDM DEBUT Runway Show, in a VIP experience. FIDM felt like family for Brown and she joined the Education Advisory Board. Her department at San Leandro High School has an active FIDM Fashion Club and several of her former students have attended FIDM.
Photos | In order of appearance: Art by students Cheyenne Lim, Bitaniya Sileshi, Jennifer Mijares, Jacob Morelas, and Christina Yang.
