Greetings to all of the wonderful people out there. I am learning new skills in the digital world and hoping to reconnect with some old friends and students. I am also hoping to make new friends clients and fellow art lovers.
Brief recap
Most of the people that I know; know me as Shimer, the eclectic and eccentric photo teacher from Fleming Island High school, in North Florida. I spent a decade there and made deep friendships with coworkers, lasting bonds with students, with whom I was lucky enough to teach in the classroom, but also to mentor through the difficulties of teen life. In the classroom I challenged students to look beyond what they saw on the surface, to find meaning. In my last years of teaching we started and ended on the question, “What do you desire?” and video from Alan Watts. As we spent time together in the classroom, I tried to help the with what they wanted. Some wanted an easy class, some wanted a voice, some were able to use the classroom as way to make friends, others needed cool selfies for Instagram, a portfolio for college, and others still found their freedom.
My reach beyond the classroom with students lead me to coaching/sponsoring (with the help of my awesome coworkers) National Art Honor society, Ultimate Frisbee, a FTC robotics team, the Gay Straight alliance, and the Interfaith coalition. These groups and the relationships with students are some of the most fulling memories in my life. My time with students and helping to build positive young people with self confidence and skills to succeed and be happy is what I miss most about teaching.
Believe it or not, I was helpful to other teachers as well; I presented at a few Professional Development meetings and lead my Professional Learning Communities (PLC) group. I was also part of a group of teachers that improved cross curricular learning with the addition of academies.
Teaching wasn’t just classroom learning for me; we had to go and explore. And explore we did. Local field trips included going to the Cummer Museum of Art, the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Sally Industries (a dark ride manufacturer), The Jacksonville Zoo, Amazing Grace Crop Maze, and the Battle of Olustee. Venturing further we explored galleries in St Augustine, ferries and pirates at Cumberland Island National Seashore, braved the theme parks of central Florida with sneak peaks behind the scenes at SeaWorld, Disney’s Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM, Animal Kingdom, Universal Studio’s Grad Bash, and Halloween Horror Nights. My favorite behind the scenes wasn’t a theme park though, it was at Cirque du Soliel’s, La Nouba. I was even lucky enough to partake on a four day Caribbean cruise, and getting to snorkel the reefs in the Bahamas. Looking back and seeing all the adventures I was able to share with students and the new ideas we were able to expose them too, was truly humbling for me. If you were one of the people on these trips, know that you own a piece of my heart in a way other cannot. I am grateful for you all!
These adventures into varying fields has fostered a loved for all people and diverse topics that I hope to continue to explore.