Teacher Amber Burks connects with kids through art

Elementary school art is more than coloring inside the lines.

In Amber Burks’ classroom at Lorenzo Smith School, art is resilience. Art is self-expression.

Art is a history lesson. Art is critical thinking.

Art is anything her students want it to be.

“We do a lot with a little and stuff that the kids are really proud of,” Burks said. “We use a lot of recycled materials, and, I don’t know – make ugly things beautiful.”

Burks, a teacher for 14 years, is from Bourbonnais and studied at Illinois State University.

After teaching in the south side of Chicago for 10 years, she decided to move back to the Kankakee area when she became a mom.

She knew nothing of the Pembroke community but soon came to appreciate its rich history and small-town charm.

“Everybody knows everybody; everybody looks after everybody,” she said. “There’s a lot of pride here that you don’t see everywhere in a lot of communities.”

Burks has been preparing for a school-wide student art show, something her students look forward to all year.

She has organized the art show every year since coming to Lorenzo Smith and plans to make it an even bigger event this year for the community.

In addition to showcasing students’ talents, the show helps to raise funds for the arts in the upcoming school year.

For Burks, the lessons don’t stop at art.

Her goal is to reinforce grit, perseverance and a growth mindset – things she hopes stick with her students outside the classroom.

She also confers throughout the day with students who want to talk about things going on outside of school.

Burks simply attempts to provide a space for students to talk things out. She is careful not to react with shock or give advice.

“I try to relate it to things we’re learning in the classroom, or I try to ask guiding questions and let them come to their own decision,” Burks said.

She wants her students to approach life’s problems with the same decision-making skills and self-reliance they use when determining the kinds of art they want to make.

“I don’t really like doing cookie-cutter projects,” she said. “Most of my stuff will have standards, but there’s a lot of student choice.”

For instance, the lesson might cover topics of surrealism and symbolism, but students can select the aspects relevant to their lives that they want to learn about.

“I think that’s why a lot of them do so well in here is because they make stuff that’s meaningful and applicable to them,” Burks said. “They don’t realize they’re learning while they’re doing it.”

Students learn to look at art with the same critical lens needed to analyze literature.

They learn to apply historical context when dissecting an artist’s choices.

They consider in-depth questions about censorship and an artist’s responsibility to viewers.

They discuss how art is a universal language used to communicate thoughts and ideas.

“They still learn the fundamentals, but I focus more on the critical-thinking component,” she said.

One of the most fun parts of her job is seeing students get excited about other content areas, such as history, that they might not usually get excited about.

“I like introducing [history] in a way that gets their gears turning,” she said. “I like introducing other perspectives so that they can see outside of their own.”

It might come as a surprise, but Burks did not always know she liked art.

She graduated from high school early and was fascinated with everything from philosophy to sociology.

She then realized art provides the freedom and versatility to instill her love of learning in others.

“Art was malleable enough that I could incorporate all of those [subjects] and really help kids find what they’re passionate about,” she said.

Her advice to prospective teachers is to push past the difficulty of the first few years on the job and learn to tune out the negativity surrounding the profession.

“You have to continue to grow, because you can’t stay comfortable,” she said. “You have to change every year with the kids that you are teaching and learning from. You’ve just got to stick with it.”