"The Art of Teaching" Significant Person Blog - Garrett

    Mr. Joel Ryder works at Warrior Run High School as the art teacher. He's a quiet, wise, well of creativity, who constantly inspires his students. In his two part segmented room, he teaches a wide range of techniques from oil painting, to charcoal drawings, to pottery. In his free time, he continues his passion by teaching pottery after school at his own art studio.

    Mr. Ryder himself is about a middle aged man who stands with a tall, heavy set stature. Grey streaks decorate his beard and nearly bald head. He alternates between a collared shirt and khakis, and t-shirts and shorts depending on how ruined his cloths would get from the medium he would be working in for that day.

    The room he teaches in is split into two rooms with a segment of the adjacent wall missing to allow students to walk from one room to the other. The walls are decorated with art from previous students, and there is rarely a time where one of the two rooms are not dedicated to the current ongoing project. In the front of the second room sets Mr. Ryder's desk, and a desk immediately off to the side that sits to AP art students who often spend their entire day in the room. 

    In the artificially lit basement classroom, as students waited for the school day to begin, Mr. Ryder carefully came in holding a box almost as big as his torso. With a grin on his otherwise stoic face, he set it on the table he keeps to the left of his desk. I asked him what he's got today and he explained "This is a 3d printer. We're going to get to play with making models for a while." 

    And with tempered excitement, he began unboxing the machine. The bell rang, the day continued on, and upon returning to the art room, the ceiling around Mr. Ryder's desk was littered with suspended plastic printings. With the machine, still whirling away on the next test print, he sat at his desk contently working away at finding his next print when he noticed his afternoon students enter and began to go on about what will be done with the new tool. "I'm thinking we do some kind of stop animation using figurines we print from this."

He pulled up example after example on the projector that he otherwise uses for instructing his students. Each example making the otherwise quiet and well spoken man speak faster and with more excitement. The day ended with him having spread this newfound excitement to his students with a smile on his face and the expectation to have the first of many figurines waiting for him on the print plate in the morning.

His ability to connect with students is one of the many strengths he's found in pursuing his passion in teaching art. I myself am not artistic. But I often found myself participating in his class and spending much of my free time at the table beside his desk as I joined in on what felt more like relaxing with friends rather than the work that I put into completing projects and going beyond to achieve what I believed was ambitious.