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Featured Teacher Jack Stepp

“Art and design is in everything we do and every subject we study. Visual literacy is as important now as it ever was. We really need to take advantage of opportunities to educate ourselves and our children in the arts.” So says Jack Stepp, an art teacher at Creswell High School. Creswell, with a population of about 5,000, is a community undergoing a metamorphosis. “Creswell has been trying to find its place after 20 years of transition from a mill and farm community,” says Jack. “We have survived some deep budget cuts over the years and are beginning to build again.”

At the high school, which boasts around 400 students, Jack also teaches architectural drafting, CAD, and woodshop to students from all four grades who arrive with varied interests and skill levels. He has found VTS an effective technique to get students engaged. “As an art teacher I am used to leading student discussions. With a VTS lesson the instructor acts as the facilitator and allows the student driven discussion to follow a natural course . . . Once the students understand that there is no wrong answer and the momentum gets going, students become so engaged and want their opinions to be heard that they get irritated if you don’t call on them. They almost fight for their turn to speak.”

Given the range of students involved in Jack’s classes, he also finds that VTS encourages students to respect other viewpoints. “The VTS method stresses that there is no wrong answer, listening to others opinions, and if you disagree you do it in a respectful manner that does not belittle those opinions. It teaches students that it is ok to disagree. This can be a difficult concept for adults. The hope is that this will carry over to other classes and even their personal conversations.”

VTS also seems to spur students to be more mindful in their individual work. “One unforeseen side effect of using VTS is that the students begin to build narratives about the work they are speaking about. I began encouraging them to create a narrative before beginning a new artwork. This has increased their interest in completing assignments that may otherwise be routine practice . . . I use VTS mainly in Drawing classes. When we begin a new project, a courtyard drawn in 2-point perspective for example, we will do a VTS lesson that has a variety of courtyard drawings, photos, or paintings. As the students participate in the classroom discussion they naturally begin to form a narrative about the example. Then as they work on their rough drafts for the assignment I encourage them to create a narrative for the picture they are creating. This leads to an increased level of detail and engagement in their own work.”

Of the STELLAR Project, Jack says, “I feel that teachers from all disciplines should try this program. It is a great tool to use in your classroom to encourage deeper thinking. It helps students to be more thoughtful. Most importantly in a time when formal exposure to the arts is diminishing, it teaches a greater appreciation for art, not only among students but teachers as well . . . I went into the program with a colleague that I knew pretty well, one that was new to our building, also peers from our other schools. Those relationships grew much stronger as we went through the program together. It was nice to get to know colleagues who work in our district, but that I only see two or three times a year.”

The STELLAR Project is pleased to honor our outstanding participants and mentors in this Featured Teacher series. Check back soon to learn about more of our fantastic teachers!

Featured Teacher Karen Batten

Karen Batten teaches English and Spanish at Oakridge Junior Senior High School—a district serving about 500 students in a town with a population just over 3,000. According to Karen, “Most classes are open to any grade. For example, in my Spanish 1 and 2 classes, I have students from all grades 7-12.”

Karen joined the very first cohort of STELLAR participants, where she quickly revealed herself as an outstanding teacher and colleague. When the first cohort finished its year of training, she joined the STELLAR team as a mentor, assisting and advising new participants in their training and practice. Her contributions have been vital to the STELLAR Project’s efforts in Oakridge and elsewhere, as having mentors on-site to answer questions and work through issues is particularly useful in remote districts.

“Since STELLAR, I definitely feel an even stronger sense of collegiality, of team spirit, of working toward a common goal,” Karen says. “In our rural town, some teachers are local, and some commute in. Teachers already have very full, busy schedules, and a job where we’re isolated from other adults most of the day, and adding a commute for many of us makes regular professional and social gatherings pretty difficult to schedule. Being able to meet on-line was wonderful . . . You can be in your PJs, but you can access great professional development and contact with colleagues from your school and from all over. STELLAR gave me more time with my colleagues.”

STELLAR provides participating teachers with a free field trip to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, an experience which Karen says she found especially memorable. “It was great to get to take them to an actual museum and have them experience art in person instead of just projected from a computer . . . It’s rewarding, and no extra “trinkets” or “awards” are necessary. Satisfaction and fun are the ultimate reward.”

In the classroom, Karen found Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), which is one of the STELLAR Project’s key ingredients, to be an effective tool to keep students engaged and curious, while encouraging an environment of mutual respect and collaboration. “During VTS discussions, students listen to each other, build on each others’ hypotheses, explain evidence to support their opinions, and rethink and revisit assumptions.” While Karen herself uses VTS with middle- and high-school students, she states that the strategy works with many age groups. “I’ve seen colleagues do VTS at the elementary level. It’s super for all ages, and it naturally lends itself to varying degrees of depth and complexity.”

Though Karen incorporates a traditional VTS session into her lessons at least once a month, she doesn’t just use VTS for visual art. She also uses it in teaching grammar in her Spanish classes, and in literature discussions in her English classes. “I can tell students are more eager to contribute . . . I think VTS discussions help students be more open to being proven wrong, to considering multiple possibilities . . . VTS helps teach students that it’s ok to go through a process, to change your mind, to entertain many possibilities, and to not know.”

Karen believes that VTS builds skills that benefit students far beyond just the classroom. “VTS helps students learn about, practice, and start to incorporate some great life skills: hypothesizing, holding different possibilities in mind, considering others’ views, supporting your opinion, reevaluating, and more. I see students more open to believing that mistakes are welcome, that thinking things through is as important or more important than knowing what some expert says about the theme or symbolism . . . Students are more engaged. Learning feels fun, and the skills we’re practicing are applicable to… everything.”

Now that she is a STELLAR mentor, Karen’s VTS training continues, as does her use VTS in her classes and her daily life. “[VTS] has served as a good reminder to pause, to look deeply, to wonder. You know, it’s helped my communication skills, too, when I remember to use it. ‘What do you see that makes you say that?’ accompanied with genuine curiosity, is so helpful for understanding people in your life!”

The STELLAR Project is pleased to honor our outstanding participants and mentors in this new Featured Teacher series. Check back soon to learn about more of our fantastic teachers!

Category Archives: Featured Teacher

Featured Teacher: Jack Stepp

Featured Teacher: Karen Batten