One of Valerie Stewart’s goals as the art teacher at the Alternative Education Center is to build her students up through creation.
Wanting to give them a different creative endeavor, Stewart has started a DonorsChoose campaign called “Chipping Away” to raise funds to provide a bas relief project.
In her DonorsChoose summary, she said: “I LOVE that my students are SURVIVORS. We are a ‘Second Chance’ school for troubled teens who’ve been cast out of mainstream schools. These kids deserve every positive experience possible to help them discover their talents and build their confidence,” Stewart wrote.
“My art program is dedicated to building them up through creating. Most are not art students, but they enter my room and feel SAFE enough to try. The are ALWAYS successful! We have done loads of paper-based activities using all mediums and techniques and now they need something new and challenging to build them further. My students will benefit so much from the challenge and excitement of a bas relief sculpture; something completely different from anything they’ve already done. They’ll learn how to use carving tools to create a 3D portrait they can keep for years. It’s an excellent finale to a productive year!”
This is Stewart’s first year with Ector County ISD and her first time as an art teacher, although she describes herself as a lifetime artist.
She has been a certified teacher in Texas since 2016 and came here from teaching elementary school in Houston.
Previously, she was in the Navy and a corporate trainer.
She and her husband, Kelly, who retired from the Navy after 26 years, are semi-retired. Kelly now runs Bunny’s Barber Supply in Odessa.
But Stewart was looking around and saw an opening for an art teacher. As soon as she found out it was at an alternative center, she thought it could be “really great.”
“I interviewed for another job within the district and sat and crossed my fingers that these guys would call and not the other school. And it worked out, so I picked them …,” Stewart said.
The project goes over her budget for the year, so she started the DonorsChoose campaign.
“Bas relief is a type of sculpture that’s done with carving. But rather than carving an entire 3D sculpture … in my experience it’s typically done in wood. You draw an image and then you chisel it out. The relief is what sticks up. So if I drew a palm tree, the palm tree would be raised, not carved in. You carve around and then you carve in it to give it the texture and that’s the bas relief. They’re fun,” Stewart said.
“Wood is way too expensive. The ones I’ve done, I’ve done in wood and it’s so satisfying to sit there and chisel, carve. It’s very satisfying. The material that I was looking for on DonorsChoose … it’s a synthetic material. It’s like carving wood, but it’s something synthetic,” she added.
There are some students who don’t think they’re good at art, or they say they don’t do art, but she just gives them a little nudge and they’re always surprised at what they come up with, Stewart said.
She added that her room is a place where students can “chill out” where they can use a pencil or a paintbrush or get their hands into some clay.
She allows the students to speak freely, within certain parameters, and she plays relaxing music regularly but not every day.
“When I do have an assignment, I give them … an awful lot of leeway so that they can make it their own and feel like they have control over something. I’ve seen it benefit a lot of people,” Stewart said.
She added that her students don’t always think they can do art, but she tells them to try anyway.
“… They’ll start and I might coach them through a little bit. They’ll say how do I do this and I’ll show them. I try to keep it as easy as possible. I try not to go academic on them. … After they do a little bit, I’ll pick the art and I’ll walk to the other side of the room and I’ll have them look at it,” she added.
Many times the students surprise themselves.
“… Some of these kids are kids. They’ve done something wrong, or they have a tough time at their home campus. Or … who knows what their background might be. But then you can tell in the look on their face that they needed that,” Stewart said.
She’ll sometimes let students dictate the project and if it’s a class of four, for example, there may be four different projects going on simultaneously.
One reason for the project variety is that the students are at the alternative center for different lengths of time.
“… They start out at 10 days. Some people are here all year long. Some people are here until they graduate high school. Some people are here for 20, 30 or 45 days, just depending on whatever the circumstances are. But yes, it’s a revolving door. A few times a week there is a new student. It applies to every teacher here so we get the new student up to speed and into the routine. But a lot of the students will help the new ones. If they know the routines, they’ll teach the newcomers,” Stewart said.
“… You’ll hear a lot of smack talk. But at the end of the day, they really do help each other out. And some people who are unlikely partners might team up on a project because it’s something they’re both interested in and they say hey, let’s work together,” Stewart said.
Together, Stewart and her husband have six children. all but one is grown.
She half joked that her children trained her for the alternative center job.
Stewart earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration communications from Baldwin Wallace College in Cleveland, Ohio, and an MBA with a human resource concentration from the University of Phoenix.
Her first career was in business as a corporate trainer who was also in change management.
She was in the Navy for four years, leaving as an FC II, a fire controlman second class.
That was in the weapons division. CS fire control is controlling the firing of weapons.
“I never wanted to be a corporate person. I fell into it. I worked my way through college, got an awesome job for an awesome bank based out of Cleveland. It was very good to me. It was an excellent experience, but I never wanted four walls; wasn’t built for four walls. I did it for about 10 years. I had friends in the Navy and said you know what, it’s time. I’m going to go. The story I tell my grandkids isn’t going to be I worked for a bank for years. I wanted to do something and it wasn’t that long after 9/11 so I joined the Navy,” Stewart said.
She added that she could have been an administrative person, but she wanted to do something cool.
“I had to fight for it a little bit. It’s … male-dominated and my background didn’t lend itself to that. I always wanted to teach, it just was not a path I was able to take when I entered college … because I was paying for it myself” and she couldn’t do the internships and the requirements while doing that.
But as soon as she got out of the Navy and her children were in school, she decided to get certified to teach.
Stewart said she likes it when her students make a connection and when her style works.
“… I’m not strict. I’m not rigid,” she added.
Alternative Center Principal Adam Portillo said they started the school year without an art teacher, which worried him because art is a form of therapy and the students use it to express themselves and their feelings.
“Mrs. Stewart came on board at the end of August and immediately made an impact with our students. Her projects and the creativity allow our students to become creative and thus this creates positive student sense of well-being. Mrs. Stewart is just great with our students and always has a smile on her face despite some of the challenges,” Portillo said in an email.
“Despite her coming from the corporate world, I knew she would be a great fit at AEC and a great art teacher for our students. You don’t get into teaching if you don’t have a heart for kids. She has the heart, the grit, and empathy, and AEC is grateful to have her on our team.”
