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Job Title: Middle School Art Teacher
Type of Company: I work for a school district in a suburb of Albany, New York.
Education: BA, Studio Art, Allegheny College •• BFA, Art, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago •• MS, Art Education, The College of Saint Rose (Albany, NY)
Previous Experience: I had done lots of pro bono art jobs including t-shirt design, murals, and house drawings and greeting cards. Also, for about one year I was a free-lance mural artist. In addition I worked in two different art supply stores as a sales person and manager.
Job Tasks: I teach the New York State art curriculum to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders in a public school. I teach five forty-five minute classes per day and monitor a half-hour advocacy group of seventh graders. I prepare the curriculum and materials to teach every day. Most of my preparation time is spent readying materials for class, grading project work, and preparing student work for school district art shows. I assign drawings as homework and grade them on a weekly basis. Once every ten weeks I record and file grades for each of my students.
Also included in my job are faculty meetings and professional growth meetings, where we discuss school business and hone our teaching skills. I also order and stock all materials we use. I run an after-school art club for interested students which convenes once a week. This art club does large size projects and murals around the school, as well as creating and working on sets for the school play.
I am also the girls' varsity soccer coach at our high school. This involves an extra stipend and a lot of extra time commitment in the fall each year. I run try-outs for the JV and Varsity teams and choose the players. I run practices and coach approximately twenty games per year. I also plan and run the end-of-season banquet for the girls' soccer teams.
Best and Worst Parts of the Job: The best part of my job is working with kids. I get to meet hundreds of new kids each year and watch them mature and grow.
The worst part is the meetings, and the times of year when many of my clerical and non-teaching duties coincide. For instance, in late January of each year I am usually involved in grading and report cards for the second quarter, beginning class for 125 new students, ordering supplies for the next school year, and preparing work for a student show.
Job Tips: Work with kids in some capacity before pursuing teaching. I came to teaching through coaching. I also think it was very valuable to me to have multiple degrees in fine art before I took course work in teaching. I feel very knowledgeable and skilled in my area of expertise.
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