Rachel K. Art Class

The art classes at BFD Elementary School are taught by its "resident artist," Julie Clownfish (the name has been changed to protect the banality of her actual surname). She dresses in cute, fun-pattern skirts, clompy platform sandals, and large hipster glasses. She plays Lady Gaga or Journey on her iPhone while the students utilize their creativity. Ms. Clownfish (this surname seems more befitting now that I think about it) gets the attention of her class by singing, "A-B-C," to which the children chime in, "1-2-3!" For the older classes, she reaches back into one of my favorite rap songs, saying, "Can I get a woop woop?" and the children raise the roof as they reply, "woop woop!" Amazing.

After spending a couple of weeks observing Ms. Clownfish's different classes, I finally got a chance to speak with her one-on-one. She, like me, hails from the East Coast (West Virginia, to be precise). She wanted to live in a more progressive area and Seattle won her over in the end. She told me that she used to teach other subjects besides art. She's taught just about everything, from 5th grade classroom teaching to 8th grade social studies. She told me that after doing middle school for awhile, she had to take a year off just to recuperate. Yipes.

Her advice to me, when it comes to getting certified in either elementary or secondary education, is generally the same as the advice I've gotten from my friend, Natanya, who is also going into the educator certification business. They both have said that it's easier to get a general, elementary school certification for teaching all subjects. After that, it's easier to, "find a niche" and collect endorsements for specific criteria that I'd be interested in teaching: Japanese, ELL, etc.

So, while I'm not interested in teaching elementary school art classes, I'm glad I've gotten a chance to see how they are run: and to meet Ms. Clownfish.