Teacher Lorna Teeter brings balance and harmony to the lives of students in her art classes at Farrer Middle School.
"I don't feel like I'm really here to teach kids to draw and paint. My role is to teach them to like art," she said. "For a lot of students this is the last visual arts class they'll ever take. I feel like what I ought to do is help them enjoy it and appreciate it because our lives are touched constantly by visual images."And students' lives are touched constantly by Teeter's passion for art and education.
"I guess the thing that strikes me about Lorna Teeter is the excitement she displays as a teacher. It's just part of her personality. Her eyes sparkle," said Robert Howard, vice principal.
Successful teachers, she said, simply do their jobs well. "Society depends on us for a lot of things. Sometimes we get blamed for things that aren't our fault. But we have to take up the slack when we can," said Teeter, who has taught eight years at Farrer.
Two words cut from orange construction paper taped to the classroom's front wall sum up Teeter's commitment: "i care!"
Even though painting or sculpting doesn't come easy for some students, they can learn to recognize art and why it's of value to society. Another sign hanging in Teeter's second-floor classroom reads: "If you want to learn about a culture, look at its art."
"I get a lot of kids who are scared to death. They always know somebody that can do it a lot better than they can. I work to help them overcome that," she said. "I ought to take a student from where they are and make them better. They don't have to become great artists."
Of the all the school years, seventh and eighth grades are often the most trying for students. Knowing that, Teeter tries to create a sense of stability and foster pleasing interactions between teenagers.
"If I had to pick one frustration in middle school it is how kids treat each other. I see my role as more or less helping them survive that time period," she said.
Prints of famous paintings, a Southwestern display, a fish tank, an art history timeline adorn Teeter's classroom, not necessarily for decoration.
"Another thing I believe is students will learn on their own. When they space off and their eyes wander, they find something in the classroom and say, "I didn't know that,' " she said.
Teeter also has what she calls the "career corner," a small room filled with art magazines, books and games. Students are free to use the materials in the room when their assignments are complete. "I believe that anything that stimulates thinking is good for my program and education in general."
Her greatest reward in teaching is "seeing kids succeed, however great or small."