Dear New Art Teachers....

 I wanted speak directly to the new art teachers(or newer).  

PLEASE KNOW YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE!  

WHAT YOU DO IS IMPORTANT! 

YOU CHANGE LIVES!

I am an old art teacher...been doing this job for almost three decades.  I know that you can't have enough cheerleaders around you.  Our job can be hard.  We can feel undervalued. We can feel unappreciated. We can feel the questions rolling around our mind....CAN I DO THIS/CAN I STAY IN THIS PROFESSION. 

Please know you are so very important to students. I have had so many wonderful encounters with former students who have shared how much my class meant to them.  Some I was surprised by!! ha ha  Some I knew in the moment...the art room was their safe place. I'm a dad of three school age kids.  I so appreciate the teacher in the arts spending time with my children.  Encouraging them.  Building in to them.  Someday you could be my kids art teacher.  I want you to know you matter to ME!!!

Keep going.  Keep being your amazing self.  You matter!!  ART MATTERS! 

My Odd Anniversary: Nashville Tornado 1998

Your first year of teaching is never "easy".  People have all kinds of stories from their beginnings in education.  Some funny, some embarrassing, and some are just plain cringey.  

My first year of teaching ended in disaster.  This is not an exaggeration.  There literally was a natural disaster.  A tornado(s) went right through Nashville.  Growing up in Appalachia in the middle of the forest, I had no idea a tornado could hit a city.  It can. It did.  I had left 15 min. before it hit, and had been in my classroom till six at night the whole week until the day of the tornado.  Everyone thought I was still in there, and had the police dogs search my portable to see if I was still in there underneath the debris.  I finished the year on a cart and working from the stage of the cafeteria. I learned a lot about myself & what a wonderful community can do in the face of adversity.