Sophia Leone is the art teacher at Iselin Middle School in Iselin, NJ and she is a very well-loved and popular teacher.
When her parents found out that she wanted to be an art teacher, her parents fully supported her and were happy that she chose teaching art for her career. Leone’s mom used to do creative projects with Leone and her dad was a teacher for 20 years. Leone’s job is basically a mixture of both her parents’ hobbies!
Leone found about an art teaching job at Iselin Middle School, and did an interview. She found out she was hired and has been teaching art here ever since.
“When I graduated, right away I heard that their position for this school opened. I really wanted to work with middle-schoolers, because that’s what I was doing at the daycare.”
Leone states the best methods of teaching art are the DBAE method and a psychological method.
DBAE stands for Discipline Based Art Education, it’s a comprehensive approach to art instruction. There are 4 parts of DBAE Art: Production, Art History, Art Criticism and Aesthetics.
Leone did not go to any college for teaching art, instead she went to a school to do interior design.
“I went to college first as interior design, because I always wanted to design my room like I did when I was younger and I ended up not liking my classes.”
Leone states that the pros of being an art teacher are working with children, and the cons are that she has to work with a lot of art supplies, such as brushes and paints.
By the end of the marking periods, Leone’s expectations for her students are to draw more accurately, think outside the box, and let them experience art materials they’ve never used before.
“I think that based on their projects that I tried to get the students to draw pictures a little bit more accurately. I do projects to get them to be creative and think outside the box and I do projects where they get to use materials they never used before,” Leone said..
Some advice Leone gave to future artists is to pursue their dreams and to not have doubts about it.
