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In the 1100s hall, walk past the painted doors and a teacher looks too familiar for coincidence. A friendly face to many students, Ms. Gombas, previously a 7th grade art teacher in Hammarskjold, has recently moved to teaching at the high school.
Ms. Gombas points out that aside from just a new building, a lot of other differences come with teaching in the high school. “More so than teaching, my job includes mainly encouraging and guiding the students,” she says, adding on that it’s a result of a big difference from Hammarskjold. “Students are more motivated to work” as more students take art classes in the high school out of pure interest.
“You can tell she is passionate about teaching us,” says junior Edison Yang. “It makes a difference when we receive constructive feedback.” Ms.Gombas’ attention to her students’ work and her dedication to helping them reach the best of their potential is appreciated by students across all her classes.
Ms. Gombas, continuing the list of perks of working in the high school is that “[she] can have actual conversations with [students] while they’re working, about their work but getting to know them as people too.” This is especially true in her period six class, Studio Art II Honors, which only has six students, a factor that allows her to have more one-on-one time working with each student.
While Ms. Gombas gets to know her students better, they also get to know each other better. With studio time to work on individual projects, it leaves students with ways to talk to people they may not usually meet in their academic classes. Senior Natalie Cioch feels that the class environment is conducive to connecting with others; “In this class I talk more than I do in my other classes because I’m not scared to say something, it’s really inviting.”
The encouraging feeling students get in this class isn’t just an added benefit in an art classroom but something integral that helps students with their work. Feeling comfortable in a class where so much of what is produced revolves around self-expression is extremely important to students.This class differs from others in that way, unlike art classes she has taken in the past where projects were very formulaic, junior Simi Awoyode points out that here, “you really get to be creative and make important decisions about what you’re making.” This can be seen even through the students’ first and current projects, where the only guideline was to make a piece inspired by a specific Pantone color card.
The freedom students are given to be creative in this class allows for diverse results in their projects. Even though students work independently, the size of this class allows for them to bounce ideas off each other and inspire others’ projects. Despite the small size, this class is overflowing with creativity. Natalie Cioch expresses that “we have our own little tight knit group of people who enjoy doing the same thing, all our art styles are different but everyone is here for a reason.”
