Teaching visual art to grades 1–6 for over 15 years has been a journey for me. It took three short years in the teaching field to realize that this career would not keep my interest unless I was able to reach beyond the four walls of the art room and build from my own experiences.

A formula that has worked for me over these past years has been to bring in visiting artists from a variety of disciplines. I have worked with sculptors, a musician, muralists, painters, puppeteers, a computer artist, a playwright, an architect, a blacksmith, a playground architect, and literary hundreds of community volunteers and artists. Each time I experience these types of interactions my brain toys with new concepts and my teaching has grown in new ways (not to mention the benefits that others reap from these experiences as well).