My name is Autumn “AJ” Jackson and I am an artist, researcher and teacher. I was beyond nervous to begin my new career, but it was a good type of nervous. It was the type of nervousness you usually feel as a new teacher, but with some added stressors. I missed the first week of school. When I joined the classroom, I was getting numerous messages – some good and some bad – of how the first week in art went. All of this made me even more nervous to step into my classroom that first day.

I administered diagnostic tests, learned my duties, started to learn names, but then came Hurricane Debby. Not even two hours into the start of the day, moments before I can meet my class, they send us home and we go to e-learning for the rest of the week. Although the situation was bad, this did give me more time to plan and get my new teacher nerves under wraps. But it was short lived. It felt like we just started the school year over and all my nerves flooded right back into me. But I can confidently say my first full week as an art teacher went better than I expected. I wholeheartedly think if I didn’t experience the internships I had through NetSERVE, the teacher residency program I completed while obtaining my master’s in art education degree, I don’t think I would have been prepared.

NetSERVE has always been a program that I was interested to be a part of because who wouldn’t want reduced tuition, a stipend, guaranteed job, all while getting a master’s. However, the issue has always been that it was not open to fine arts majors. That is until the year I joined. I knew I wanted my master’s but didn’t know how I was going to pay for it. Like a sign, I saw the email from NetSERVE about accepting fine arts into the program. I emailed just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things, and sure enough they were. I sent my application in immediately and began the program that summer.

NetSERVE was one of the pieces needed for me to become the teacher I am today. My first internship through the program was at the high school in the district I currently work in. The mentor there taught me how to keep an art room labelled and organized to make my life easier. She also taught me how to display all of my course content in numerous ways so that students can work at their own pace or see the information differently. Furthermore, she taught me how to slow down when I am talking or giving instructions. The best advice she ever said to me was to be authentic when I am teaching a lesson because the students can tell if I’m passionate about the lesson or not. They cannot tell how long I prepared or if something is wrong. They would only know if I showed them. We also talked about how the things I was learning with her wouldn’t help me on the primary level since she has only taught in a high school and couldn’t give me advice for the littles.

However, like another sign, my worries were answered. I was going to an elementary school in a new district to complete my certification, and that was the best thing to ever happen to me. The new district I was placed in was home to my other mentor teacher, a 40+ year experienced elementary art teacher who taught me everything I was worried about or didn’t even think about. Like how to get crayons off the floor, upcycling materials so you don’t have to buy new ones or how they will throw an art teacher into whatever role they need for the day – whether that be subbing, car duty, bus duty, making posters, literally whatever they can think of. Working with her gave me that last piece of the puzzle to make me the teacher I am today.

I can confidently say that these experiences I had through NetSERVE made me more prepared and capable to take on my many roles in my primary school. I’ve been a reading recovery teacher, found creative ways to display information to my students, used random found materials for projects and worked morning and afternoon duties through rain, snow and heat. All for the betterment of my students, and it is safe to say I am excited to do it all again in the fall.