Every school in my county does not have an art teacher. Some schools leave teaching art and art activities up to the classroom teacher. Other schools have part time art teachers. By part time, I mean that the teacher travels from school to school on alternating weeks.
My school is one that shares an art teacher with another school. Every other week, the art teacher is at my school. On her off week she is at another elementary school teaching art.
Due to the addition of more teachers and classrooms, the art room at my school this year was needed for a kindergarten classroom. Therefore the art teacher is left to travel around the school on a rolling cart.
She has all of her art supplies on the cart and she rolls it from room to room to meet her schedule. The classroom teacher can then stay in the room and work on other things or leave the room and return when the time is up.
This is not the first time that I have heard of a teacher being forced to have a traveling classroom. Limited space can force many special area teachers out of a room.
I think that being a traveling art teacher would be one of the hardest jobs to adjust to having. There are many supplies needed for art activities. Because the art teacher is using another teacher’s room, she is a little more reluctant to attempt messy activities such as painting.
In addition to having to travel within our school, she also has to deal with traveling to another school. Therefore, her supplies were already spilt between two locations.
Despite her conditions this year, our art teacher is doing a very good job. She does not complain about her situation although I am sure she has plenty of complaints that could be justified.
Merit Pay and Special Education