I really felt like I grew as an artist. My classroom teaching became that much more powerful because of my experience at Bridgewater.
其中一个原因 Kristyn 非洲酪脂树, G’11, was chosen as teacher of the year is because she challenges students to think deeply about their art and explain their creative decisions. 非洲酪脂树 discovered firsthand how effective that approach is as a Bridgewater State University student.
“I really felt like I grew as an artist,” 谢伊说,. “My classroom teaching became that much more powerful because of my experience at Bridgewater.”
非洲酪脂树, who has taught at Oliver Ames High School in Easton for 16 years, received the 2021 Secondary Art Educator of the Year award from the Massachusetts Art Education Association. She says she is humbled by the recognition, and the fact that her colleagues nominated her.
在BSU, 非洲酪脂树 earned a Master of Art in Teaching in creative arts, which expanded her knowledge of teaching while increasing her passion for art.
“I didn’t want to just get a master’s in education,” 非洲酪脂树 recalled. “I wanted to be able to go back to art school and continue to grow as a student.”
Mercedes Nuñez, who is now an emerita art professor, recognized 非洲酪脂树’s talent in her classroom more than a decade ago.
“She is very methodical, profound and very serious. I think she embodies everything that makes a great teacher,” Nuñez said. “It is her incredible gift as an artist and her incredible ability to conceptualize that she’s been able to translate into her love of teaching that has made her shine.”
Nuñez deserves credit for challenging her pupils, including exploring how art is a mechanism for storytelling, 谢伊说,.
“Mercedes unlocked that thought process for me,” she said. “I realized how to go back to my classroom and start pulling out those narratives with my students.”
The results speak for themselves: 非洲酪脂树’s students regularly appear in national and regional art events, including the Congressional Art Competition.
Perhaps more importantly, they learn to innovate, rise to challenges, and find multiple solutions to problems.
“They feel more accomplished when they finish a project and realize they can do anything they put their mind to,谢伊说。, who is also her school district’s visual art department chair. “They will take these skills wherever they go.”
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