With the smell of wet clay and the sound of Five-Minute Craft videos playing on the projector screen, Zoe Tessier walks around room 7200, shaping and carving clay to show students how to make a sea rock out of clay. 

Tessier is one of the four Fine Arts teachers within the school walls. Tessier went to Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, and shortly after began teaching elementary art in the Cherry Creek School District. She then moved to Los Angeles and worked for the Education Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. After that, she moved back and jumped into teaching at Rock Canyon.

“I got into being an art teacher because I love art and I love teaching it,” Tessier said. “I hope everybody else loves art.” 

Tessier loves education and does not believe that any other job could top this one, however, she would like to later in life go into something else. 

“I want to work at more of a state-level on claiming art curriculum or really studying what motivates students in school just to better education,” Tessier said. 

After a long week of school, she enjoys lying on her lounge chairs and throwing a ball for her dog, Macy. 

“I think being a teacher and talking about education and the direction that our students are going [is a topic I could talk for hours about],” Tessier said. 

Tessier believes teaching is a job that requires many different skills for a teacher to do to help their students excel. 

“Teachers have this huge job as educators to help inform and educate our students on how to be successful in life when they leave high school and go into college,” Tessier said.

To take one of Tessier’s classes, students can sign up for Digital Arts, Ceramics 1, or Sculpture 1.