March 29, 2024

The art of teaching

Noel retires after 40 years of teaching art, mentoring students

To understand how much art education and schools in general changed during Chris Noel’s 40-year career, just think about classroom technology in 1976 and 2016.

Noel, who recently retired after 40 years of teaching art in the Newton Community School District, other Iowa schools and at the college level, said the basic items seen in a school symbolize deeper and more systemic changes that have slowly taken place through the years — some negative, some positive.

“When I started teaching there were no computers in the schools, no telephones in the classrooms — many schools still used those purple mimeo machines,” Noel said. “Emphasis in school art was on the materials — the media used.”

However, Noel said, art is meant to be about far more than simply selecting colors or designs.

“I find it disheartening that many of those not in art education continue to perceive art as only working with art materials, when it is so much more than that,” Noel said.

Ruth DenHartog, a Newton High School art teacher and longtime colleague of Noel’s, said there were projects where students not only learned the intended lesson from a project, but also other valuable skills.

“One particular project incorporated the goals of the course along with lessons on working with the public and pleasing others,” DenHartog said. “She solicited volunteers who submitted photos and information for their own Christmas letters. Each student was assigned to create one of the letters. They learned working with photos, formatting, and styling text and editing. The students not only needed to meet the criteria for the assignment but they needed to please their client as well — and they did.”

A May 31 gathering to celebrate Noel’s retirement included several current or former colleagues, such as DenHartog, retired Newton Schools art teacher Margaret Caldwell and Mary Bruhn.

Noel and Bruhn are both members of Delta Kapa Gama, which promotes professional and personal growth of women educators and excellence in education. Bruhn presented a tribute to Chris and Ruth DenHartog and Laura Lengling presented her with a “Newton” achievement letter “N.”

Noel has been a part of Newton Schools for 17 years, having come to Newton initially as a high school art teacher, moving to Berg Elementary when the district made cuts in the high school art program two years ago.

Unlike some subject areas, art teachers tend to have K-12 certification. Noel also taught many workshops and has been an adjunct faculty member at area community colleges including DMACC and MCC and taught Upward Bound classes at Central College in the summer.

During her career, Noel has been on three state curriculum writing committees; the most recent was to provide information and lessons to infuse Common/Iowa Core into art curricula. She is a member of Art Educators of Iowa and is a past president of that organization.

The Art Educators of Iowa recognized Noel as art teacher of the year in both 1996 and 2008 — and is still the only Iowa teacher to win the award more than once.

Noel was the first Visual Arts Chair of an Iowa Department of Education-funded initiative to provide art mentors to new art teachers. She was also part of a 20-year collaboration between ISU and Iowa art teachers to construct art curricula based on visual thinking and problem solving, cultural and historical context, and authentic assessment.

Even though Noel doesn’t always see eye to eye with educators who she feels don’t fully grasp what art is about, there are some positive changes happening within the art community, she said.

“I see the long-building trend in art education for critical thinking, problem solving and mastering processes as a great improvement,” Noel said.

While Noel plans to continue teaching occasional workshops, she plans to spend much more of her time working on her own art. She maintains a studio at the Centre for Arts and Artists in Newton.

“Chris is a multi-talented person,” DenHartog said. “She has a working knowledge of spices and foreign foods and loves cooking something new. She was known to thank people at school by distributing her baked goods; Chris would distribute plates of cookies with detailed features and intricate designs so beautiful that it would almost make a person hesitate to eat them for fear of destroying their beauty. Her garden, too, is something to behold. In class, Chris strove to not only make class educational, but interesting.”

Noel said watching children’s eyes light up when an art concept or image catches fire in their minds is one of the main elements that motivated her as an art educator.

“The wonder of students when they create something new, see a new connection or context, learn a new process, or become excited about what they are learning — those are constants and remain continuing joys of teaching,” she said.

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com