Many students here at Tuscarora High School know of the many available art classes here and the various teachers who teach them. One of these teachers is Mrs. Clague, our dedicated computer graphics teacher.
Clague has been teaching for 15 years, and it is her fifth year at Tuscarora. Teaching wasn’t always her goal, originally she hoped to do museum and conversion work, majoring in Art History. The issue was that her job options were all in DC, and she wanted to be close to her son. So, she switched careers and decided to use her Art degree to teach.
Next, I asked her what she liked about teaching, she answered, “What I like is getting to share my love of art with other people, and I also really like working with the students.” Clague enjoys seeing students’ creativity at work.
Clague originally taught traditional art, but due to covid and online schooling, she was asked to teach computer graphics. She had prior knowledge of photoshop from teaching photography, but had to learn to use illustrator alongside her students. Despite the difficulty, she discovered her love for computer graphics along the way, “I really like computer graphics. It’s fun, and I find it really interesting to teach people how to do art in a brand new way.”
What Clague likes about art is that it’s a type of self expression, with no right or wrong way to do so. She added after, “It also tells the story of life in general, you see paintings throughout the years, throughout the centuries and it really gives you a slice of what life was like for those people at that time.”
Clague is a person who works well under pressure or when there is a deadline to meet. If there is work she doesn’t like, she works to get it over with. Clague did not find there were a lot of times she felt academic pressure, but if she did she would prioritize the most important thing to do before coming back to anything else. “Learning how to prioritize was probably the biggest help,” Clague added, “not only academically but in life in general.”
While Clague enjoys teaching and working with students, if she had to pick a new job it would be Librarian. She likes to read, and enjoys the quietness of a library, finding it relaxing. Clague feels like she’s surrounded by the things she loves in a library.
Nearing the end of our talk, we circle back to computer graphics. I ask Clagues favorite and least favorite projects to do with her classes. Her favorite project is album redesigning, which is a level one project. Clague loves music, and loves to see what all her students are listening to. She is always excited to see the outcomes and creativity of her students. Clagues least favorite is the color wheel, which is used to teach color theory. She states, “Because it’s just technical enough that it gives people issues and my students aren’t a big fan of it.” Though this year she’s trying to come up with something more fun. Clague is a caring teacher with a very fun class that allows students to explore art at any level, so don’t be afraid to take her class.
