When art teacher Steve McConnell retired last year he left big shoes to fill, and now Monica Orr is left to follow up his legacy.
Orr appreciates the program and history that McConnell has left behind, but intends to adapt the curriculum as time goes on. She plans to add her own personal touches to each class.
“I’ve pretty much stuck to the same curriculum for this year to just feel it out and see what it’s about,” Orr said. “Hopefully I’ll make some changes in the future like adding in some more three dimensional sculpture work besides just ceramics.”
Orr has experience with both two dimensional and three dimensional art, so she appreciates that each art class has a little bit of everything. She began her degree in 3D work, but moved to Oklahoma City to finish college at University of Central Oklahoma where she went into 2D work.
“Stone sculpture and painting is where my passion is,” Orr said. “But the human form is what I’m really interested in, so my art reflects the human form.”
A teacher’s room often reflects their class and personality. Before he retired, McConnell’s classroom was full of old artworks, a large collection of art magazines, and often an elaborate display for students to practice drawing in the principles of art class. Orr had to clean out the classroom before she began teaching this year, and start with a blank slate.
“There’s some artwork we came across that went all the way back into the 1980s,” Orr said. “It was really interesting to see the year after year, especially of portrait work where you could see what the kids were wearing in the 80s and then what they’re wearing now. It was kind of neat to have that time capsule to go through. I’ve kept it a pretty clean slate for the most part so we can start to accumulate those works and put things back up on the walls to make it new and our own.”
Orr taught art for first through eighth grade for 10 years, and then taught art at Westminster middle school for six years. She’s never taught high school art before, and wanted to give it a try.
“My purpose is to really just allow kids to have the opportunity to learn about art and fall in love with it,” Orr said. “Then maybe they’ll have some experience with it later and hopefully they’ll take a class in college or maybe later in life they’ll pick up painting or drawing. I’m really just allowing kids to have the space to be creative, to have self expression to learn about the world and things around them, to be able to express themselves through painting or drawing or sculpting.
