Alum receives rookie of the year award
By Kathleen Walker
 |
Art education alumna Gale Connelly after winning her Rookie of the Year award from Woodstock Middle School |
Success seems to follow Gale Connelly (art education, 2007). First, she was named one of the 2007 Outstanding Seniors for the Kennesaw State University College of the Arts. Now, Connelly has been named Woodstock Middle School “rookie of the year” after her first full year as an arts education teacher. The school’s faculty and administration chose Connelly for the honor out of more than 20 rookies—a rookie is either a first-year teacher or one who is new to that middle school.
Iiadonnasanova Owens-Williamson, a fellow College of the Arts graduate, is pleased but not surprised by her friend’s success. She describes Connelly as an “unbelievable person, always thinking about the next project, and always thinking of ways to reach her students. The award is well deserved.”
Connelly is “overwhelmed” at being chosen for the award. She also says she is “humbled, surprised and honored.” Her first year in the classroom has already gone better than she expected, and she attributes some of her success to the field service she participated in while a student at KSU. “I did lots of field service, more every year, in Cobb, Bartow, Pickens and other counties so I’ve seen lots of different situations.”
The KSU arts education professors also taught her other valuable lessons that helped make her inaugural teaching assignment such a success. “They taught us to write the lesson plan based on the essential question—what is the most important thing that students need to learn from this lesson. That is exactly what my county wanted so I was very well prepared.”
Connelly’s approach to teaching goes far beyond the lesson plan. What she hopes that each of her students takes away from her class is the importance of problem solving. “It’s not my concern if they’re going to be an artist,” she says. “They may end up being a politician, a business person or an architect, but if they’re going to make it in the 21st century, they will have to think creatively. Art teaches them that.”
When working with her students on a project, Connelly does not give them step-by-step directions. Instead, she gives the students a problem and lets them find the solution. “Everybody learns together,” she says. “The students can teach me things I’ve never thought of, and they often think of simple solutions that just amaze me.”