It is all about me

Kimberly Artman

Dr. Manuel Bustamante

EDUC 534- Integrating Technology into Curriculum

21 January 2012

It’s All About Me

My name is Kimberly Artman and I am a white, Native American, visual art teacher, gymnastics instructor, foster mother, graduate student, mother of three, director of after school arts programs, school web site developer, Bebold participant, artist that has been married for fourteen years.  This is just a list of current activities! I believe I am driven in life to help as many people as possible, especially children.  I am passionate about family, faith, the arts, and education.       

I knew I was spiritual when I grew up in a home where religion was not practiced and still felt the need to talk to a higher source.  The boyfriend I had in high school started taking me to a Catholic church.  I liked the thought of angels and saints as well as the love of God to give us Jesus.  I got married to a man who I thought had the same faith.  We divorced and I questioned my faith.  I found it once again with another wonderful man named Rick.  We went to a non -denominational church and I fell in love with both Christianity and a man yet once again.

My second husband and I met in a gymnastics facility where I applied for a job.  He was the director and I needed more money in the evenings to support myself and my two year old daughter Alexandria.  I was a past competitive gymnast and so was Rick so we instantly had a connection.  He loved his family and God.  Another perfect match!  Later in life his last name would come in quite handy.

Another passion I had in life was art.  I remember growing up in a house where sketch pads, crayons, and scissors were readily available.  I fought with my brother on a daily basis but when he showed me how to draw we were as close as fraternal twins.  I liked to draw horses and he liked drawing members in a band called Kiss.  I practiced daily and became good at art at a young age.

I took my love of art with me to elementary school.  The art teacher used to brag about my drawings and hold them up in the air.  This was an awakening as I hadn’t had the sense of pride in a public event.  It was at that moment that I decided to become an art teacher.  I knew that art was special but using it as a creative outlet AND using it as a self esteem booster seemed beyond comprehension.  I wanted to give this excitement to other students as well.

I continued to work on my art in middle and high school.  I took basic courses in college but still wanted more art.  I took art appreciation classes and private lessons through a city league.  I still wanted more and l had another passion for children.  How was I going to combine my love of kids and my love of art?  I found out when I talked to my daughter’s homeroom teacher.  She welcomed me into her class and I taught my first art lesson.  I knew this is what I was supposed to do with my life.  It fit like a glove.

My husband and I had two more children.  I was telling him that I wanted to teach art at the local elementary school.  They paid me a very low wage as an instructional assistant and I was given classes to teach.  I taught all day from the very youngest child (in kindergarten) to the more advanced child in sixth grade.  I was on a roll with all five hundred students but couldn’t make enough money to make our bills.  I decided to write a grant to help supply the school with art supplies and fund my position.  I knew I had to return to school to become a visual arts teacher.   The problem was that I wanted to keep my job and get a degree so I studied in the evenings at a college an hour away.  

My husband supported my decision and took care of our three children while I went to evening classes for four hours three times a week.  I was working from seven to four and studying from five to nine…. for four years!  It was a long road but we all survived.  I graduated with Magnum Cum Laude honors and we finally award a Bachelor degree in Elementary Education with an endorsement in Visual Arts.  There was one small problem.  The school I was working for the last four years only wanted a Educational Assistant in that position and wasn’t willing to pay for a licensed teacher.  I had to look for a job.

My husband had attended college on a gymnastics scholarship and had a degree in secondary education.  He let his degree lapse as there was a hiring freeze in the city he lived in.  He took a position as a manager and settled in a student loan business.  The luck of the cards towered down on him as well.  He was released after ten years of service due to layoffs.  We both needed a job and to believe something else was in our future.

I asked my husband what he wanted to do.  He had always coached sports so he really wanted to return to education as a physical education teacher.  He retook the exams needed to regain his licensure in teaching.  He passed and we were on the hunt to look for a school system that would accept an art teacher and physical education teacher.  God was on our side as we put our applications out online and saw an opening with a district needing both positions.  I was hired first at the elementary and my husband was hired second at the high school. 

I continued teaching children, about six hundred a week, at three local elementary schools.  My husband signed on as a PE teacher and volleyball coach.  We finally found our calling in life.  Each of us embraced our new positions with teachers’ pay.  We seemed to be at a standstill until another passion came charging in.  I wanted to move up to a higher level of teaching and needed a more advanced degree.  I had to ask my husband, yet one more time, to watch the kids as I returned to school online.  He reluctantly said yes and I started one course at a time in graduate school.  I wanted to get a masters degree in Education and English.  I had felt driven all my life to help children and that calling never went away.  I knew I hadn’t met my destiny as far as helping kids went.

I explained this continuous nagging in my head to my husband.  He just chuckled as he knew change would happen yet again.  My oldest daughter had just turned sixteen and wanted to live with her father in South Dakota for a year and I was heartbroken.  What was I to do in this large house with only two children (now eleven and seven) and a hallow heart?  It came to me as I thought of what was needed for the children in our community.  We were to become foster parents. 

My husband and I attended classes on foster parenting.  We had both seen the extreme need in the community as there was only three other sets of foster parents for the whole county.  He liked helping teens as I preferred young children.  Our first set of children was from an extremely broken family.  There were two brothers.  One was in high school and the other in elementary school.  I hope you see our faith shining through each of the pages as I type.

The experience turned out to be a nightmare.  The boys were so psychologically damaged that we couldn’t trust them with our own kids.  They had a sister that also came into custody and then the fireworks started.  The boys blamed her and she blamed the abusive father.  Needless to say this was not something we could handle.  The boys were moved to a mental institution as their violence grew out of control.  The girl started to take her anger out on my daughter so she had to be moved.  My husband and I knew this is not in our guided plans from God.  Children Youth and Family Division workers said that this case was one that should have been handled by a higher level of foster parent called a treatment foster caregiver.  They assured us that all cases were not that extreme and we should try another case.  Reluctantly we accepted two young boys.  One boy was five and the other boy was two.  We needed to figure out if this was the age group we should be helping in so after four months the boys left and a new set of siblings came in.

I have used my inner passion and guidance from God to direct my life.  It hasn’t been an easy road but then again where would the challenge be if it were all peaches and cream.  Since we started foster parenting we have taken care of fifteen children.  We hope to give them some security in their lives as they hadn’t known what a non abusive lifestyle was like.  We currently have two children and I am sure there will be more in our life’s plan.

I have continued teaching my passion in art to elementary students.  I see the same beam in their eyes as I had when I was young.  I see young blooming artists full of ideas and creativity shaping our future.  My fear, though, is that through education cuts, students will be without art, music or PE in the future.  I have another passion in life as well: one to show as many people as I can the importance of the arts and physical education.

I could easily write another five, maybe ten, pages on the importance of art education.  I talk about my passion and plea for administration members to see that the arts do form a well developed student.  Without the arts, those of us who learn through visual stimulation and a constant drive for a creative outlet will be lost.  I often ask where our future is going when we cut programs that directly affect our day to day living.  The arts are everywhere.  Who is going to compose the next great song, who is going to draw the pictures for advertizing, who is going to design the games when imagination is key to developing them?

I believe I am where I am in life because I have a direction.  The direction is given by God and I will do what it is that I need to do here on earth before going to Heaven.  I have met challenges and faced defeat always to come out on the road that I am supposed to take.  I don’t know where I am going from here but I can almost bet it will involve my spirituality, children, education, the arts and my family.