Wiles encounters smooth start as first-year teacher

It happens to most children. It's their first day of preschool, and their teacher asks them what they want to be when they grow up. Most kids would say they want to be a teacher or maybe a police officer.

Although they say that they want to be a teacher now, many times children change their minds a million times before they decide on the perfect career. This was the case for the new high school art teacher.

Tiffany Wiles, believe it or not, has only wanted to be a teacher for a few years. She said that she decided to become an art teacher when she first attended college at Washburn University.

"I've only wanted to be a teacher for a few years. I know most people decide when they're five years old that they want to be a teacher, but it wasn't something that appealed to me until I got into college," Wiles said.              

Wiles also said that her high school physics teacher eventually inspired her to become a teacher.

"My physics teacher in high school was probably my biggest inspiration. His name was Mr. Schetler, and he was just so good at what he did. Even though I didn't like science, I liked his class because he related it to the real world and made it interesting for everybody," Wiles said.

Wiles graduated from Campus High School in Hayesville, Kan. with 210 kids in her graduating class.

Wiles student taught at Topeka High School, where she taught advanced painting, drawing, design, photography, and advanced photography. Wiles also did some of her student teaching at French Middle School, where she taught sixth through eighth grade classes every day.

Most first year teachers experience a hectic start, dealing with difficult students and problems relating to them, but that’s not the case for Wiles.

"Everybody has been really receptive, having a new teacher around and everybody's been really nice to me. It's a very friendly town,” she said.

The only difficulty Wiles has found thus far is not knowing how many supplies to order so that they will last her throughout the whole year.

Wiles set goals for both herself as a first year art teacher and for her students.

"(For me), don’t mess up. Make it a really good first year and have a lot of fun and try a lot of new things.

"I want (my students) to learn a lot about art. I want them to like art. I really want everybody to make art a part of their everyday life and be able to look at a piece of art and say, ‘I like this because or I don’t like this because,'" Wiles said.

Katana Creger, one of Wiles' printmaking students, explained her teaching style.

"When she teaches a new project, she does a quick example for us to get started. Then once we get going, if we have any questions, she helps us with them right away. I think her teaching style is very productive," Creger said.

Wiles said that her favorite class is art exploration.

"I like teaching art exploration because the projects that we do in there are just so much fun and you get to do so many different types of things and all different mediums," she said.

Wiles said the most rewarding part about being an art teacher is seeing the students learn.

"I think it's kind of this way for most teachers. It's seeing something click in a student's head. It's all of a sudden they are like, 'Oh, I get it now,'" she said.

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