teacher instills passion for art

By Brooke Stevenson
brooke@seymourherald.com
    Seymour High School teacher Tami McCroskey has always had a love of art, and for the last five years she has been sharing that appreciation with her students.
    She taught at the elementary level for several years, and although she thoroughly enjoyed it, she now is teaching what she has always dreamed of.
    Her passion for art can be seen throughout her classroom with students’ self portraits hanging on the wall, their clay creations sitting on selves, their Pop Art sculptures displayed around the room and with the eclectic assortment of painted ceiling tiles created by McCroskey’s former students.
    McCroskey graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1982 with an art degree, has an elementary school certification and is also certified to teach health and wellness for grades seven through 12.
She taught second grade for 20 years at the primary school and taught third grade at the intermediate school for one year and has been teaching art at the high school for five years.
     “I just wanted a change and I really wanted to teach art,” McCroskey said.
     Another reason she wanted to make the move to high school was that her own children were growing up, and she felt she needed to grow up along with them.
     “I was nervous at first jumping from 7-year-olds to 17-year-olds,” she said, “but then you realize that kids are just kids.
     “With art the kids have the opportunity to be unique and creative in what they do. I feel like it is very therapeutic in that students can come in, they are more relaxed and less high strung.”
     McCroskey prides herself on letting students express themselves and takes a hands-on approach to teaching.
     Her Visual Arts 1 class is more structured than her advanced classes, but she rarely uses text books, normally explains elements of projects to students herself and helps them step by step throughout their projects.
     With up to 35 students in each of her classes, her teaching technique is no easy task, but she finds it to be more rewarding and productive.
    Many of McCroskey’s students are Visual Arts 1 students who take the class to get their fine arts credit for graduation, but she said that about half of them come back to take her more advanced classes, Visual Arts 2, 3 and 4.
    Several of her former students are currently going to college to become art educators, and McCroskey said she couldn’t be happier about that.
    “I’m glad that those kids were inspired enough to do something with their artwork,” she said. “My number one goal is that the kids leave me with the knowledge of art and an appreciation of art.
    “I like them leaving here feeling like they can go out and do things and not be afraid to do them.”
    In that same fearless spirit, McCroskey requires her advanced students to enter at least one piece of their original artwork in the annual Sevier County Juried Student Art Show at the Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts.
    Many of her students go above and beyond her requirements, submitting two pieces, including ones they may have done at home.
    McCroskey is so passionate about her job that she often eats lunch in the art room so students can come in and work on their projects.
    “I eat my lunch where they are and they can come in and work if they want to and they can kind of come and go,” she said.
    To commemorate her students’ hard work and to give her a constant reminder of previous students, McCroskey has her graduating seniors paint a ceiling tile in the art room.
    “I prefer that they do something that will remind me of the style of artwork they did and the subject matter is wide open,” she said. “They can do whatever they want.
    “I want them to paint something that they are really passionate about.”
    After five years of having students paint the tiles, McCroskey’s ceiling is slowly running out of space. She is confident that she will have enough for this semester, but is unsure about next year.
    “I’m not sure what I am going to do after there isn’t any more space, but I will figure something out,” she said. “I actually refer to them a lot when I’m teaching and use them as learning tools.”
    Through all of her teaching methods she encourages her students to pursue whatever type of medium intrigues them to showcase their true creativity.
    “A lot of times I feel like I am being too generic, but the kids just shine through,” she said. “I try to instill a ‘can do’ attitude.”