The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District
Auburn School District's vision is each student will have an educational experience in which they are seen and valued for who they are now, while developing their full academic and social potential to prepare them for the future they choose.
This podcast features amazing staff, students and programs that make our vision come true for the Auburn community.
There are so many people making a difference in Auburn and Superintendent Dr. Alan Spicciati can’t wait to share those stories with listeners!
The Recess-An Inside Look at the Auburn School District
Episode #8: Elisabeth Ronley, Ceramics & Painting Teacher
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Dr. Spicciati talks with Auburn High Art teacher Elisabeth Ronley. Learn about the Auburn High mural projects, the value of arts education and friendship bracelets.
Hello and welcome to the Recess Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Alan Spicci, the proud superintendent of the Auburn School District. On the recest, we're here to tell the stories of the people and programs that make Auburn such a wonderful place. And it's really a chance that I have to share some of the things that I see behind the scenes with the public because we have some amazing things happening in the school, programs that staff are running, incredible kids who are doing incredible things. And you just don't hear, right? It's not going to make the uh the local news, unfortunately, but we have some really cool things to talk about and share. Um today is is an area that I'm really excited to share because it's uh another art form. We recently did a podcast uh in the music space. This is uh going to be about visual art, and we have some amazing art teachers and programs throughout the district that work in a variety of mediums and they work with beginners and they work with some very, very talented, advanced students. Um there's an art display in the boardroom uh every month, which I know all the board gets to enjoy, and whether it's uh anywhere from kindergarten up to our seniors, uh, some really thoughtful, heartfelt, um, very intriguing pieces that we all get to enjoy. So I thought I would invite one of our uh many great art teachers to the podcast. And today I have Elizabeth Ronley. Uh, she's our teacher at Auburn High School, and uh kind of breaking news, she is the 2024 Auburn High School Teacher of the Year, and so I think that's really cool, and it's just great timing uh to have her on the podcast and talk about her program and some of the amazing things that her students are doing. So, Elizabeth, welcome. Thank you for joining me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_01Um I actually first got to know Elizabeth um through some mural projects that are just so cool. So we're gonna hear about those. Uh, but let's get to know Elizabeth just a little bit before we we jump into her program, and we'll start with uh the question I ask all of my guests. Who was your favorite teacher?
SPEAKER_00I uh my mind went down two paths with this one. I had so many great teachers coming up through public school, but the one that just resonated the most, um I was part of this after-school program when I was in high school. It was called Youth Arts Collective. And the two women who ran it, um, Meg Biddle and Marcia Perry, uh professional artist mentors, and they, I mean, they're they're my inspiration for what I do. Like they're they're incredible human beings, and they continue to mentor me to this day. And um they one of the things I think about a lot, uh it actually is uh Marsha's philosophy on parenting, but it ended up really applying to teaching, uh, is uh Marcia told me that her perspective on parenting is who are you and how can I help you? And I think about that every time I start a new semester, and it feels particularly poignant because we start the new semester on Monday. Uh, but I think about that as my my teaching philosophy because you know it's so important to get to know your students, to understand who they are, and then figure out okay, what moves you forward? What do you want, and how do I help you with that? Um, so yeah, Marsha Perry and Meg Biddle are the people who really guide a lot of what I do, and I think about them all the time, and I love them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's wonderful. It reminds me, so my background is in music, and I think in the arts, there first of all, there's a special connection with with your arts, and we're two for two of our arts guests mentioning somebody in their discipline, um, versus in other areas. It the connection um it's meaningful, it's a great teacher, but it's not necessarily in your in your subject. Um the other thing that I I noticed there is the relationship between teaching art and being an artist and how um powerful it is that it's really difficult to teach something you don't do. Um, and it just helps that connection with students. Uh can you talk about that and just explain why that's a thing?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean uh to it's to me, I think of like my my my soul who I am as kind of having three tenets and it's artist, teacher, and mother. Like those are the the pillars of who I am. And I don't do one well without the others. Like they're they're very core to who I am. And so I can't be a good teacher without being a practicing artist. I've tried it before, like it, you know, sometimes you get in a rut and your your studio practice isn't running well or whatever. And you're it the connection with the students feels less authentic. Um Marcia actually guided me on this one too. She would say, you know, if you don't feed your inner artist, then you can come to resent supporting other people's creativity. So you have to feed your own creativity. It's like it's essential for being an art teacher specifically. But I also think for me, like as a human, it's essential for my mental health, it's essential for my well-being to be a practicing artist. Um, I don't always have to be a showing artist, but like I have to create or I'm I'm not really living.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's really insightful, and I think our listeners will uh get a lot out of that response. Um and and as I said, I've seen this over and over again. My mom has uh one of my art teachers, uh art he did landscapes, uh, hanging in her house today, uh, many, many years ago, as uh I've been out of school for a while. So it's really important. All right. Uh tell us about your path to being the ceramics and painting teacher at Auburn High School.
SPEAKER_00I feel super lucky that that happened. I feel like it was just a lot of things aligned at the right time. Um, I was teaching in Oakland, California. Um, and I it took me a long time to get to teaching. I was I tried a bunch of other things. I tried nonprofit management and running after school programs and camps and um and uh I worked for sculptors and I did all kinds of things. And then I was like, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna be a studio artist, but I was like bored being by myself in the studio. So I started tutoring kids on the side, and like just that was what I loved. And so I started teaching, um absolutely loved it in Oakland, and then the pandemic happened. Uh, and I think for everybody that just lifted everybody out of all normal behavior, and I thought I was gonna be at that school forever, but I taught during the pandemic second grade for a year. That's what they needed. And so I taught second grade online, even though I'd never taught second grade before. And at the end of that year, my family, like, we thought we were gonna be Oakland for life, and my whole family was like, maybe we'll move to the Pacific Northwest instead. And so we all just decided to move to the Pacific Northwest. And I started applying for work. Um and Auburn High School, I was like, okay, this is the last weekend I'm applying. I applied to Auburn High School, and I had a job five days later. My whole family moved, not just me and my husband and my kids, but also my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. We all moved up here together and we bought a house together. And yeah, the rest is the rest is history. Now I'm now I'm at Auburn High School. I love it.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're really glad that that happened. And uh so thanks to uh the the district in Oakland that assigned you to second grade and set in motion. Uh so we we started out talking about you being an artist a little bit. What is your favorite medium or art form?
SPEAKER_00I mean, oddly enough, so I teach painting and ceramics, and in the field of visual arts, you often teach outside of your field. Like you often are a practicing photographer and you end up teaching painting or drawing. Weirdly enough, I'm a I paint with ceramics, is what I do. So I do wall-hanging ceramics um and ceramic sculptures that are paintings. So I found the unicorn job as like really, really the perfect fit for me.
SPEAKER_01That's really good. And and you know, most of us don't know your day-to-day uh what does your class schedule look like?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I get to have uh two uh two periods of painting in the morning, and then I have uh three ceramics classes in the afternoon. Um I also teach in advisory, but um yeah, it's it's also the perfect schedule. It's great.
SPEAKER_01And and how does that work? Uh do you need experience to be in your program? Can you start as a beginner? Can you grow through the program? Just tell our audience how it's set up.
SPEAKER_00So I'd say it's really interesting because it's also changed in the three years that I've been at the school because I think um I think the program's starting to get some uh like word of mouth with students. So I think students are more actively signing up for it. So I tend to have wait lists now. Um, but I think, yeah, a lot of students that come in are totally new. They've never taken an art class before. Um, and that's what's really fun for me as a teacher. I can take a student from knowing nothing about art and feeling really intimidated about creativity to really exploring like what did they like, what what interests them, what do they want to get better at, and supporting them in expressing their own ideas is really the main focus of the program, both in painting and in ceramics. Um so I love working with people that have never done anything before at all. And also I'll get people that come in who've happen to have, you know, wonderful classes from Mish Schleicher, who teaches drawing across the hall, or they've done digital photography with Mr. Kelp. Um, and those things translate as well. They come in and they're like, oh, I know how to do perspective. Mish Schleicher taught me that. And so it either way, it's great. Like I get to have these students that are super experienced, or I get to have students that have never touched a paintbrush before or never touched clay before. And we get to see what happens in a semester.
SPEAKER_01And you know, I think you are you've already started to answer this, but um one of the things that I like people to really ponder and and and and sometimes push people out of their comfort zone is to think about why is it important for um class like visual art uh or music or drama uh or other subjects. Important to be um you know a curricular subject, and just what is the role of a strong arts education program in the education system?
SPEAKER_00I mean uh uh my in the last week of the semester, I have students present their work and they present three pieces that they've made, how they made them, what they learned, and then what they learned in the class overall. And it's fascinating to me because the answers can be very technical or you know, about the vocabulary of the class, or they can be these life lessons. And what I really they say it best. What's important about an arts program is, and this is straight from their mouths, that they learn how mistakes are how you learn. That's literally the one of the main things that they they come out with during the portfolio of like what they learn from the class overall. Mistakes is how you learn. Um you have to repeat things to get better. Um they learn time management. I can't tell you how many of them talk about time management during the class. And they also skill. Yeah, that one is a funny discreet skill that they talk about a lot. But then they learn that they can be creative and that it's enjoyable and that it releases stress and that it makes their lives better. And that's something that you can't say, like, come take ceramics, it'll make your life better. But like, that's what they tell me at the end of the semester. And so I'm like, okay, did I do my job? Yes. They they understand that this is a way that they can make their life better, that they can be enriched as a human, um, and that they have innate creativity, that they have something to express. Like those are core human qualities. And it's a really special thing that that's supported here at Auburn School District. Like that's not, that doesn't exist everywhere. Like I say that this is the unicorn job, and it it really is, because I mean, I I came from California to find a school district that had this level of support. It's a special thing.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think it's very special too, and and I'm glad that uh you as a teacher uh feel the same way. All right, so you started to talk about your your students and the experiences they have. Um paint paint a picture upon intended. Get my brush out. Um of a success story of one or two of your students.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I I guess this is how my brain works. I go down two paths again. Um one student that I think about, and there's there's many names that come to mind, but this one is still pretty fresh. It just happened last year. Mario Turner was a senior last year, and uh he told me as he entered the class that he wanted to be a filmmaker and that he has his own YouTube channel. And he was one of my painters, and he worked with uh with the class and with me to develop a mural that is up at Auburn High School that celebrates Native American heritage, um, and also that like makes uh the message about like contemporary Native Americans at the school right now and like what that experience is. Um and Mario was part of the development of the mural, but then the success story is that he took it and he made it his own by making a documentary about the experience, and he interviewed uh a bunch of Native students who had put forth symbols in the piece and um made this really tremendous mini documentary that just yeah, still kind of gives me sh shivers when I think about it is really wonderful. Um, and then the other, like the other success story is is what I was saying about how frequently students in their final portfolios tell me that they've found something that they love. And so that's kind of the the everyday win. Like I think about so we have uh capturing kids' hearts as our like social emotional curriculum at Auburn High School. And one of the things I think about a lot is that for capturing kids' hearts, the idea is that um small and often is much more powerful than once and big. And to me, those little wins, like every student telling me consistently that they're feeling excited to come to class, that they're feeling excited to make something, that they're feeling proud, or that they overcame something, a challenge in one of their paintings, those small wins are so powerful. And then you have the occasional big win like Mario Turner.
SPEAKER_01That's so cool. We there's a buzzy phrase in education, you know, teaching the whole child, and I don't like it because it's just a little trite, but uh but you just described it in such beautiful words and examples. Um and this is why we have art education in our schools. And uh my guest Elizabeth Ronley, the art teacher at Auburn High School and uh Auburn High School Teacher of the Year, is uh doing an incredible job giving students those opportunities. And um, if you're ever at Auburn High, um you would see examples of the students' work, and uh actually my first exposure to Miss Ronley and um the art program uh post-pandemic is with the murals that are on school. So uh let's just specifically spend a minute or two talking about the murals and um how that is similar, different to the classwork that is done. And uh just just welcome people into the school with with your words and what they would see.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh we just finished, or rather, I'm I'm gonna go in and put some finishing touches on uh the fifth mural uh that we've done since the pandemic. Um and the murals are they're a super powerful like passion project for me. I I've uh started doing murals back at Youth Arts Collective back as a teenager. And so um they're a powerful thing. You can the the starting place for it is that I ask my students, what do they think Auburn High School needs more of? And then we we look at what other muralists have done in other places, and then we look at what our school um does or does not have, or does or does not represent, and then we start to develop a message. Um, we work to craft sort of like what do we want this mural to express, and then each student submits a symbol that visually expresses that, their personal connection to that idea. For example, there's a basketball player who uh is um really interested in abstract shapes. And so when we were looking through uh our current mural and what our our school needs, the students decided that the school needed more joy, um, more color and brightness, specifically along the 500 hallway, and which is kind of like lots of cinder block and and brick, and it's a really long hallway. It's also like where all of the band programs are. So it's like a weird, it's like band and drama, and it's like a weird hallway to be so gray and trap. Um and so the students decided on this location that they wanted the mural to be about joy. Um, and they also, it was right after the DECA um presentation about uh like mental health and suicide awareness, uh, the Helsinki's Hope Assembly. And so DECA is a student-run organization. So the students had organized that. The entire school attended those assemblies, and a number of my students ended up submitting work that was related to mental health and suicide awareness. Um we've got all these ideas floating around. We've got joy, we've got suicide awareness, we've got mental health. Students start submitting symbols. I've got a basketball player who submits all these abstract, very joyful shapes and bright colors. I've got a um a collection of students that are submitting butterflies with semicolons as a symbol for like hope that your life can continue onward. Um, I've got a group of students that are uh submitting things like it's okay to not be okay. I take all of those symbols. It ends up being somewhere like 90 symbols because it's also the students from DECA that are submitting things. And I take all those symbols and I put them through like what the students have told me they want. They want it to go more abstract, they wanted it to be bright and colorful. Um, I start putting together sketches for them. They give me feedback, and then what ends up happening is we've got the basketball players like abstract ribbons running through the whole thing. We've got a central butterfly that has a semicolon and it's got affirmations in the butterfly wings about like, I am enough, I'm strong enough, um, you know, different affirmations that the students voted on to include, like good mental health affirmations. Um, and we've got a big ribbon that says it's okay to not be okay. So the students are coming up with the message, they're coming up with the placement, they're submitting the symbols, they're giving me feedback on the layout and placement, um, how the color design is gonna go, and then they paint it. So they just this was the fastest mural to date, but uh it was painted in 10 class days, um, which is wild. It was it was a crazy, crazy like run around. At the end. And uh Mr. Casias is the wood shop teacher. This particular mural, because of the the basketball player and a few others like abstract ideas, we decided to cut the board so it's not like a rectangle. The the wooden board that the mural is on is cut into 65 shapes. So each of the individual individual shapes is painted. And so the wood shop students cut it apart, sanded it. So there was a collaboration with the woodshop people too. So yeah, it's a lot, but that's that's that that's the rabbit hole of like our current mural.
SPEAKER_01Here's what I think is is so beautiful about what you said. In in a way, all of teaching is about gradual release if you do it well. Um I had a uh a mentor when I was a music teacher, or actually a student teacher, who said, your goal should be at some point in the year that you could walk off stage and it would keep going without you. You know, and I'm as a brand new person uh in the field, I'm thinking, wait a minute, I I'm integral to this operation, right? But it's not about that, it's about the kids and it's about scaffolding their success. And whether you are teaching beginning readers uh and and you do I do, we do, you do, or you're doing some very sophisticated public art projects, uh it's the same. And I think I just love the way that you articulated um you know, this doesn't happen without a teacher. But this is really when we talk about learning being student-driven, that is a perfect example and and well told.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, when you say you should be able to walk off stage, I definitely have that mental model. Like I it feels weird to be at this podcast and to be talking for so long because like my model is like, okay, get off the stage. Like it's their time to make stuff. And uh, you know, I'm whenever I have a sub, the the idea is that they should be able to like it shouldn't matter if there's a sub there because they know how to run the studio. So like they know what they've got to do, they're just gonna do it. Like, and generally that's what the subs tell me that I come back and like they they did the thing, they worked, you know.
SPEAKER_01That is so great. Okay, so you mentioned that that uh the students have been working on the fifth mural. Yes. Uh you mentioned uh the native mural as well. Uh tell us about the other ones.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh the performing arts center. Um we did a we did a mural for the performing arts center. I believe that's when I first met you. Um and that one uh is installed over the Performing Art Center office. Uh and I think the concept was uh they they told us the five values of the Performing Arts Center. Um I'm not sure if I can rattle them off, but it was like love, inclusivity, creativity, joy, I don't know, maybe art music, something like that. Um and so that was that was the message. So that's one of the uh few murals that the the core content originally came from someone other than the students. Um, but then the students, you know, connected to it in a personal way and decided how they were going to show that. And the mural ended up being um these hands, like different, different colored hands, uh uh holding a heart that's sort of exploding in flowers. Uh and the and the thing is called creative heartbeat. And it has lots of like symbols of how the students interpreted um creativity and joy, and uh lots of like sort of connections to nature as well. Cause I think there's, you know, it's beautiful around here. There's a lot of students that feel like that connection and oneness with who they are when they're painting trees or whatever. So, but also like some skater stuff and and uh and playful things, and it's still very much a teenager design. So yeah. And then uh so that was the uh the the one in the performing arts center, and then there's two more that are in um Auburn High. One is outside the library and one is at the end of the 200 hallway. And both of those were done in my first session. Uh, one group of students really wanted to do like cartoony, joyful, childlike work. And so we've got this what I call like the whacked out cat. There's this like really, really strange uh like cat unicorn creature at the end of one hallway that's just like really playful and like very childlike. And I think sometimes high school students don't always want to be so mature. Sometimes they want to be kids, you know? So that's kind of what that is. And then the other one is about like cultural affirmation. And they said that our school needed more acceptance of other people, other races. And so it's got Kendrick Lamar's uh sort of central lyrics in a yin yang uh that says, uh, I always has to fight. Uh, I think we gonna be alright. Um, all my life I has to fight, uh, we gonna be alright from his To Pimp a Butterfly album, which I think was so impactful for so many students. And so a lot like to have something that's like a deep lyrical connection felt really important. Um, and then hands that are full of these symbols, like the word love in 20 different languages. Uh, they went around and asked different people at the school. Um, there's a the tree of life, the Washington Tree of Life, and the the trunk is full of fingerprints from a bunch of different students and administrators. I had to other teachers come and put fingerprints on it too. So yeah, it's it's one of those things where all of the murals are they're so layered that you know, you don't necessarily know what all of the symbols mean, but you you catch that it's important. And I think when students tell their stories to others, it like it's important to me that none of the murals have been defaced. Like I think that that comes from the fact that the students know that they made it and they share that knowledge with each other. And so there's like there's respect. Like it's like this is a cool thing that we got to do. When I ask them what's your favorite thing you did in the class, they say doing the mural.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, so awesome. Uh I I really um look forward to seeing the next mural. And and I was visually kind of touring myself as as you talked about them. Um one thing that I think uh I don't know if this comes naturally, you can explain it, but I am really struck by how naturally culture works into the projects uh that you see around school. And I had uh an opportunity to speak with several of your artists on the on the the native project, and uh they were just so eloquent. Um we talk about the seven principles of culture responsive practice, and the first one is affirming students for their culture. And you see that come to life in these murals. So is that something that explicitly you think about, or um is this a product of it being so so student driven? Uh how do you how do you get to that point?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I think when you really put student agency, that like students making the choices at the center of things, what's important to them comes out. So if their culture is important to them, that's what comes out. If their sense of humor is what's important to them, that's what comes out. If you have somebody who is going through something really dark, sometimes you their pain comes out. But whatever it is that's most important to them is what gets expressed. And I think, you know, that covers all your bases. Like that's always going to be the most important thing. You're meeting the student where they are. And so I think education has trends. You know, we we have we put different language on it at different times. Culturally responsive teaching has uh looked different or had different buzzwords on it at different times. But I think anytime you put the center on the student making the choice and being in control of their learning, you can't go wrong. And that's also like that's why you know the sort of process that I follow, the teaching for artistic behavior, um, is the umbrella that I kind of sit under, where I don't care about the product. It's nice that we get these murals, like that's a cool product, but it's a byproduct of these students behaving artistically. And for them to be able to like get in touch with their own inner creativity and say, okay, what do I like? What do I want to express? What do I think is good? What do I want to get better at? Those are the kinds of habits that extend past the classroom. So those are the kinds of things that they can actually carry into their lives and have that, you know, in education speak, that transference that's actually deeply impactful. Um so yes, I do think about culturally responsive teaching. And I think uh like a the more simple version of it to me is like whose con whose voice is this that's coming out? Is this what I want to happen or is this what they want to happen? But how can I move the locus of control into the student's hands so that they're controlling the learning because that's what they're gonna remember.
SPEAKER_01I couldn't have said it better myself. And uh thank you for making explicit your your thought process uh as a teacher and and why it's important to be student-centered, uh, which I think comes hard for educators sometimes, and and you just are nailing it.
SPEAKER_00It it can I mean it can be hard because you have to you have to really know what is the most important thing. You have to let the most important thing be the most important thing. You can't be distracted by uh getting every learning target every time for everyone. You have to get the the learning target for the kid in front of you. What's what's their zone of proximal development? What's their next step and how do you move them forward? Because then you can also, you know, if you have a student that has developmental difficulties, or you if you have a student that's really excellent who's like done introductory classes before and they're in painting one, it's like if your approach is always, okay, what's the next thing for you, then you know everybody's gonna have a chance to grow. And that's that's what a teacher is supposed to do. They're supposed to facilitate growth.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, before we wrap up, uh I'd like to give my guest Elizabeth Romney, the uh art teacher at Auburn High School, uh a free 60-second spot on the recess podcast uh to plug your upcoming work and exhibitions.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so uh I'm really excited, you know, as a uh as an artist, we just talked about how important it is to be a practicing artist. Um, and I am working with another art teacher to have an art show at the Performing Arts Center. Um, and we will have our opening on April 19th from 4 to 6, and that show is called The Vapors. Um, so I'll be showing my ceramic paintings and she'll be showing her abstract work.
SPEAKER_01April 19th, 4 to 6 at the PAC.
SPEAKER_00Yep, at the PAC. And we also have uh for students, we'll have the merge art show and jazz festival. Um, and that will be May 22nd in the evening.
SPEAKER_01And that one's really fun. Uh, I've had a chance to check that out. And what a great concept. Um if you go throughout history, art and music move together. Uh, and then in in high schools, we have a bad habit of putting all of the subjects into silos uh when in the real world there's a lot of integration. So I I think the merge art show is is a home run there. Um this has been such a great half hour to learn about uh art and students and art education and what's happening in one school as an example of of um the kind of thing that's happening in in the district with art. So uh Elizabeth, thank you for taking us through the art side, but you're not done. Oh, okay. My last question uh is always what was your favorite recess activity in school?
SPEAKER_00I oh man, I was always that awkward kid. Um I was usually playing uh cat's cradle with the strings off to the side.
SPEAKER_01I remember that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Or like, you know, uh making little friendship bracelets and whatnot. I was uh I was definitely like a fringe uh recess player, the quiet like imagination games and and uh and little like crafty things.
SPEAKER_01And that's perfect, right? I I've I made made this point a few times. Uh play is learning for kids, and uh clearly it fed into your creativity and probably uh is a little piece of of who you are today. Yeah. Elizabeth, thank you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you for having me. This has been really fun.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you for listening. This has been the recess podcast where we tell the stories of the district. Uh, I think this was a phenomenal chance to go behind the scenes of an art program. And if you enjoyed this podcast, I encourage you to please share with others who might as well. That's how we get the word out and uh tell the stories of the district. Thank you for joining us.
