New art teacher on board in Troy

TROY - Wayne Beeman, the new art teacher at Troy Middle School, loves his new job.

"In my life, I've heard about others expressing their feelings about how they are working their dream jobs," he said. "I didn't know if such a thing would ever happen to me. Today, I can honestly say that I'm in a position of my dream job. From the first day, I've had a blast. Three of my most passionate endeavors are drawing, computer technology, and kids. On a daily basis, I'm able to be active in all three of these areas. On my worst day, it's still a great day at the Troy Middle School."

After substituting at the school for nearly four years, Beeman, 32, accepted the full-time art teacher position in July.

All through the school, evidence of Beeman's talents can be seen. In addition to creating life-size cardboard figures of super heroes and historical figures for the hallways, he's created signs for the various offices in the building. The school office has a sign with Goofy while the library sign has a bookworm, just to name a few of his creations.

"He's an extraordinarily talented art teacher," middle school principal Rebecca Stanfield said. "The students really respect his talent. I really think they appreciate his contributions to the school here."

Beeman said he believes in "teaching art with a purpose."

"I don't want students to walk away from my art class just learning how to draw, but how to be creative problem solvers. I like to have projects that students can create and apply to their world. I want them to know that we face problems everyday, but there are creative solutions that will help us overcome any problem we face."

Continuing his comments, Beeman said he also believes that art is a catalyst in which students can constructively communicate their feelings whether they are angry, sad, happy, confused, or are having unspecified feelings that can't be necessarily expressed in words.

He noted that he's giving the students a spectrum of assignments.

"Being a first year teacher, I'm trying a variety of projects. Students have created coil pots, masks, clay forms, jewelry pendants, political cartoons, watercolor landscapes, and computer graphics. Though these are just a few projects students have done, I'm still developing lessons that will effectively help students answer the essential question, 'How can I express my identity through different art mediums?' This question should be answered before their time ends in the art room."

In the digital media class for eighth graders, he said, students are responsible for creating videos that contain educational content.

"Each week student videos range from the vocabulary word of the day, concept videos that involve math, science, art, going green, and commercials to promoting upcoming activities at Troy Middle School," he said. "Once students have finished shooting a video and editing it through our school's editing software, we upload it to our school server to be viewed for the next day's Morning Show program."

"This class is a lot of fun. We deal with a lot of planning steps. Students create storyboards to clearly communicate with their group about how videos will be shot and what dialogues will be used in the video."

"What is really exciting is getting students involved with 'green screen,'" he said. "We have a room at the Troy Middle School that we painted a bright green for this effect to work with our video editing software. Students are able to produce videos that can put students in a different environment by changing the background. Students can be placed on the moon, fly like Superman, or create basic effects like in the movie, 'The Matrix.'"

"I feel very privileged to have access to the technology that is available at the Troy Middle School, but I have to give credit to Mrs. Davis, the previous middle school art teacher, for building up the technology aspect at the middle school," he said. "I hope to continue what she started and strive to keep the digital media class up to date."

He also thinks words are important.

"I think using words and writing about their projects will give more credibility to their pieces of work and build their self-confidence. I want my students to realize that words are a privilege and using words effectively helps each of us make connections with others. In most of the projects I present to students, they are to write a five-sentence paragraph sharing their feelings, thoughts, and reasons about their projects and themselves in relation to their projects."

Beeman said that teaching art will prepare students for the real world.

"Throughout their lives, students will need to design, create, develop, and visually recognize any possibility in any situation. By teaching students how to use art as a means of creating opens doors and windows and will encourage them to not only be successful with daily challenges, but also develop healthy confidence to approach any challenge with success."

Eric Hrin can be reached at (570) 297-5251; e-mail: reviewtroy@thedailyreview.com.

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