The new art teacher, Olivia Hooper explains why she chose Clements and what she’s most looking forward to as a returning ranger.
Q:What were your first impressions of Clements and how have they changed?
A:My first impressions of Clements was when I was a student here in the early 1990s. When I was here it was extremely competitive still, students who excelled at academics. I think that is kind of the case still here. Then coming back, quite honestly i don’t remember a lot. I think that there are things that I do remember about clements that I really loved and so that was part of my reasoning for coming back here to teach.
Q:What are some similarities and differences between teaching at a middle school and high school?
A:Well where I came from, I taught at Fort Settlement Middle School and the students there were very knowledgeable in the content that I taught. I think their former teacher had prepared them really well, but I think that they’re students that really seek knowledge and so they have a good growth mindset about other things. So it’s very much like the same kind of students where they want to learn and they want to apply it to have themselves grow. I think the biggest difference is instead of teaching art two, art three, AP art 2D and drawing, digital media, and AP art history it’s a lot more preps and a lot more work on my end.
Q:Could you share an example of a successful teaching strategy from your middle school experience that you think you could adopt into high school students?
A:I think it’s just building confidence within kids. To art teachers, I’m known as the competition queen. I really believe that competition is actually a good thing. I think it encourages people to try new things. As far as artwork goes, competitions usually provide a theme and so it really forces you not only to be creative with what they’re giving you, you have parameters, but then you also have to have your own voice. And so I do think that it can build confidence a lot. There’s also deadlines so as far as time management goes, it really helps set due dates and deadlines for parts. When I did that with my middle schoolers last year, we probably competed in eight to ten different competitions at the middle school level, and with each one the kids would come back and go, whats next, whats next, because I really want to show that. It also proved to themselves that they were able to compete at a high level.
Q:How will you build relationships with high school students and create a classroom environment where they feel comfortable taking artistic risks?
A:That’s a good question. I think I’m lucky that I came here, I moved to First Colony Middle School, Fort Settlement Middle School, and now here. They’re all feeder schools within this pattern, and even now walking in the halls I see a lot of kids that I know from all the way back to elementary days. I think just that relationship building over the years and having students know that you care about them, number one, is really important. It’s made me really comfortable to be here, knowing that I know maybe 20, 25 percent of the students already. As for the others, I just talk to them. I want to get to know the students on a personal level, get to know their story, what excites them, what’s going to make them really engaged with the content. Because art is all about expression, and it’s all about communicating.
Q:What are some goals for your first year at Clements high school? How do you plan to achieve them?
A:I want to survive. I just want to grow the program. I want students to trust that I am here to support them. If I am tough on them for certain things, it is only because I want to see the growth in them. I always feel like if we don’t stretch students to their potential, we are doing them a disservice. They’re just always at the same level but if we can kind of push them and stretch them to that next level. Part of that is my own kind of learning and growth through this year. It is my first year teaching high school, and I know it’s not going to be perfect at all, and I appreciate the grace that students give me. They should know that I do work really hard. I’m always learning, always learning everyday about something new. I do a lot of professional development on my own. I’m the facilitator for the district for secondary schools, so I do a lot of reaching out to middle school and high school teachers and communicating things. When I do that, I’m also talking to them as a colleague about best practices, whether it’s mine or theirs.
Q:What are some things you are looking forward to as a teacher at Clements?
A:I think a lot of them I’ve already talked about already, like relationship building. I think it’s amazing when students come back and tell you how things that you have taught them have impacted their lives. It’s not about me, but just seeing them and their successes and what they were able to get out of the classes that they have taken is really rewarding to teachers.
