FARMINGTON — Exceptional teachers is a new column highlighting the educators and staff at Regional School Unit 9 that have overcome challenges and found innovative ways to educate, keep RSU 9 running over the last few years.

Educators were faced with unprecedented challenges when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and it was time to turn to remote learning. Any educator could have struggled with trying to educate students over zoom. But how does one teach art via a video chat? How does one ensure students have the materials they need? How does one guide them to create art without being in the same room?

Kimberly Jacques, an art teacher at Regional School Unit 9 (RSU 9), found a way.

Jacques has been the art teacher for elementary schools such as Cape Cod Hill School, W.G. Mallett School, and G.D. Cushing School for 17 years – 18 in total at RSU 9.

Jacques estimates she teaches 400-500 a students a year. Before the pandemic even began, Jacques said it was hard to “keep up with the pace” – setting up, teaching the lessons, overseeing the projects, cleaning and starting all over again for the next class in just 30 minutes.

“It’s just a rapid pace,” she said. “I’m always feeling rushed.”

But Jacques has “always been driven to get the job done,” she said.

Jacques said she’s able to keep going because she’ll “go with the flow” and relish in the “meditation” of art.

And she channels “patience” – a necessity for this kind of work.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020 and the challenges of teaching became a “nightmare” and “frustrating,” Jacques said.

Students didn’t always have the materials they needed – or they used them all up ahead of class time; students had trouble accessing the lessons on online programs; they sometimes struggled with following instruction while not in the same room, etc.

But Jacques jumped into gear.

She sent materials home; set up her easel in front of her webcam; found unique web programs; pre-recorded lessons to show to every student; and came up with creative, “interactive” ways to teach the skills students gain from art.

Jacques sent students around their homes to find different textured items to use for crayon rubbings; they played Eye Spy; she found ways to put her artwork directly on Zoom.

The new methods of teaching were “really rich,” Jacques said.

“Some of it was fun learning,” she added.

As an artist charged with imagination and creativity, it is clear Jacques was able to find creative solutions and workarounds to the challenges that the pandemic pose.

Cape Cod Hill School Principal Lisa Sinclair agrees.

“Kim was really multitasking to meet the needs of kids who were in all different models of education that year [of hybrid learning],” Sinclair said.

Despite the challenges, Jacques found some silver linings in the remote learning.

It allowed students from the different elementary schools to connect during her classes. Jacques also found the time during remote learning to “gather her thoughts.”

And she said remote learning helped her “realize [she] needs more organization,” which strengthened her ability to teach in the classroom, too.

Now that students have returned to the classroom, Jacques is back to teaching the art projects she is known and loved for including her “spooky dreams,” Georgia O’Keefe and Whoville art projects.

Jacques also painted the RSU 9 bobcat mascot that now hangs above the Cape Cod Hill School entrance.

Jacques’ lesson plans, projects also highlight the inventive ways she imbues students with important skills such as learning about colors and textures. Jacques brings together “the creative side and the technical side,” she said.

Sinclair said Jacques is exceptional for being “passionate about her content area.”

“She’s gentle and nurturing to students and brings out the best of each student … sees their potential, no matter what their ability level may be,” Sinclair added.

Through the ups and downs of the pandemic and her overall career, Jacques said she’s always been amazed by the “totally wild … imagination of a child.”

“Everything’s exciting [for children]. It brings out the joy in yourself,” she said. “It brings [back] what everybody remembers about childhood.”

That imagination has also highlighted the “individuality” of each of her students and made her career invigorating.

“What’s kind of neat about [teaching art] is that their own personality comes through the emotion,” Jacques said. “Whatever their brushstroke is or when they’re coloring, you can tell their personality just when they lay it on paper … and you can see their style develop.”

Ultimately, Jacques said she takes away from her job the amazement of “sparking the imagination” in students.

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