The role of a college professor is to teach as well as inspire the burning passion and desire in his students. Teachers are constantly searching for ways to draw out the inspiration.
On the morning of Thursday, Oct. 29, a small group of teachers and staff attended a workshop called Teacher’s TRAC.
Teacher’s TRAC is an integrative workshop that shows teachers the importance of relating their teaching subject to another similar subject in the school.
Art history and cosmetology were the subjects presented on.
Art history professor, Lisa Boutin-Vitela, spoke about the significance of the Mona Lisa.
On the other hand, Professor Nina Motruk, from the Cosmetology Department, explained the art of make-up.
The facilitator of the event, Assistant Professor Teri Cheatham, English Department, explained why she brought the professors together.
Cheatham said, “Both share common ground in terms of teaching methods, student engagement, critical thinking and innovative lesson planning.”
Both Boutin-Vitela and Motruk interweaved their subjects together.
Boutin-Vitela explained how the Mona Lisa was the controversial painting of its time, while Motruk expanded on the basis that makeup is a different form of art.
She explained that artist sculpt faces, highlight best features and hide the ones that aren’t so appealing to the eye.
Motruk said that makeup has always been about art.
She added that there are a few times she gets art students in her cosmetology class.
“It’s a different medium for them yet they can see the connection between art and that and doing it is just understanding it a little different,” Motruk said.
By the end of the workshop, teachers and staff were buzzing with creative new ways to include different fields of study into their classroom lectures.
Sally Havice, English instructor, said that, “Everything relates…when you’re in the workplace you have to be able to ‘think out of the box,’ and that involves thinking into other areas.”
By having teachers relate subjects together, they help expand their student’s minds.
This workshop also inspired attending staff counselors to suggest relatable classes to a student’s required class.
For a student, if they take classes that relate to one another, then it will be beneficial in more ways than one.
