Ms. G's Passion for Teaching

During her prep period, which was about an hour long, my partner and I asked Ms. G what made her decide to become an art teacher. Her answer took up roughly 3/4 of the period. She is anything but concise, but I could tell that Ms. G had a passion for art and teaching that could not be matched. She explained that she originally obtained her degree in commercial art and spent a long time working for companies as an Advertising Artist and Advertising Manager. Once she had her first child, she became a stay-at-home-mom. She then had five more children, which kept her busy, but she said that during this time, she would still create logos and other projects for people. She had a huge love for art, and realized that she wanted to share it, so once her children were grown, she went back to school to get a degree in Art Education, graduating from UW-Stout in 2008. She has been teaching at the high school for the past 8 years, and I was blown away by how thoughtful she was about her students. I could tell when she spoke that she cared about each and every one of them, and this was why she was so tough with them. She wanted them to be prepared for a career and the rest of the world outside of high school, so she made them do their very best work. If they gave anything less than their best, she made them re-do it. If they did not do anything, she said that that was their choice and gave them a zero. But she was also very understanding. She described a few experiences in which students were acting out in the classroom because of issues that were going on at home-- heartbreaking issues that I can't imagine dealing with. When the students needed time, she gave it to them, but also made sure to keep them on track. Those are exactly the kinds of teachers that students look up to, and that is the kind of teacher I want to be.