My First Rodeo

In the late fall of 2001, my school principal sent out an e-mail to the faculty telling us about a grant called the “Fund for Teachers” grant. How could I resist anything with that name?

You can find out all about them at http://www.fundforteachers.org/ .

I was amazed at what I read. This appeared to be a dream grant for teachers. I read everything that I could find about it. Once I finished checking it out, pinched myself a couple of times for good measure, and made sure that it wasn’t just a dream, I begin to think of what I would like to do.

At the point that I first applied for a Fund for Teachers grant I had ten years public school classroom experience as an art teacher and I was forty-seven years old.

I need to give you some background here. The first “art class” I taught was at a Baptist Vacation Bible School when I was about fifteen. I sold my first painting the same year. A classmate of mine’s mom bought it for twenty-five dollars. I think it matched her couch.

Before I began working in public school, I had been a visual artist/instructor for about fifteen years. I taught workshops to kids and adults, toddlers and senior citizens. I hustled like crazy to get enough teaching jobs to take care of me and my two kids. Art, teaching it and making it, were the two main things, otherwise I did what ever was necessary to support my art habit. I have been an artist model, a waitress, a real estate agent, a real estate appraiser, driven a delivery truck, worked as a librarian and worked retail sales. Of all the things that I did, only teaching art and making art were fulfilling.

At the age of thirty-two, I went back to school for five long years. When I finished at university, I had graduated cum laude and had an all-level, lifetime art teaching certificate.

For the first six years after receiving my degree I taught art in a middle school. I changed school districts and took a position teaching “multicultural art” to gifted and talented students in an elementary school. And that is where we find me when the Fund for Teachers grant first became available in my school district.

Back to the grant, my very first thought was that I wanted to take the Orient Express. This had more to do with reading and watching movies than anything else. A few moments on the computer let me know that this was way out of my financial reach, even if I got a grant.

Then, reality kicked in. I had been teaching art for ages and I had never gotten to see the things I taught about. I wanted to go to Europe and see the artworks that I had seen in reproduction in books or projected on lecture hall screens. I wanted to see the real thing! I might not be able to take the Orient Express, but I could get a Eurailpass!

And with that a plan was born. I went to the bookstore and got a Rick Steve’s Guide to Europe. I pulled out my old college art books. I begin to make a plan based on museums. It took quite a bit of time, but finally I had a proposal. My first grant asked for $5000 so that I could fly to Europe and tour museums. Continental Airlines had just started a non-stop flight from Houston to Amsterdam and they were running a special low fare to publicize it.

It was a huge grand plan. My mother always told me that my eyes were bigger than my stomach and my dad used to say I always bit off more than I could chew. You know, they might have been right! I planned to start in Amsterdam and then museum hop my way around Europe: London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Nice, Rome, Venice, Florence, Prague, Vienna, Berlin, and then, back to Amsterdam.

It was fun to plan and dream, but I never believed that anyone would really say yes. Imagine my shock when the phone rang and a voice told me that I had received the grant.

And so I had. I went to Europe in the summer of 2002 alone. I speak a bit of Spanish, a smidgen of high school German, and before I went to the UK I thought I spoke English. It was awesome! I didn’t make it to Florence, Rome, Prague, Vienna or Berlin that trip. It was just too much, but I did make the trip.

Until I got the Fund for Teachers grant I never believed that I could go to Europe. I was given the opportunity of a lifetime: thirty glorious days, five countries, museums, churches and galleries all in an intoxicating whirlwind of languages and cultures.

Not long after I got back I begin to plan for the next grant. You can only receive the Fund for Teachers Grant every five years.

In the meantime, I’ve been back to Italy once and the United Kingdom twice. The Fund for Teachers Grant allowed my life to open up and blossom. My students have received the benefit of having an art teacher who can share her personal experience of works of art. My experiences as a stranger in a strange land have made it easier for me to relate to those of my students who are new to the USA and who are just learning English.

So what could I do for an encore?