Amazing Teacher: Golden Gate High art teacher proud of her students
For Golden Gate High School Art Teacher Katie Doyle, it's all about her students.
No matter what the 27-year-old teacher is asked about herself and her aspirations, she finds a way to bring the conversation back to little moments with her students. Moments that she said makes the job worthwhile.
You can hear the pride in her voice as she talks about their accomplishments. While giving a tour of her classroom, which is covered in printed photos of student's work and the physical pieces, she points excitedly to one student's project after another, going into great detail on the concepts and ideas that inspired each piece.
"The coolest thing was seeing them improve," Doyle said. "You get to actually physically see in the art. Like they were so scared of doing this portrait and now we have this incredible portrait at the end."
While teaching her AP Studio Art class, she walks around the room pointing out things she likes in her student's pieces and offering guidance to students who ask for her input.
There's no limit on creativity for her students. While some were working on drawings and paintings, others were creating digital art on their iPads, carving designs into wood, constructing pieces out of recycled materials, pinning together outfits and using their camera.
"These students have so much to say," she said. "So when you give them this opportunity to share all their creativity, and they just take it to a whole new level, it's just such a proud moment."
During Doyle's planning hour and lunch, students trickled in to say hi, hang out and get a head start on their artwork for the day.
"She's just really fun to have as a teacher," said junior AP Art student Grace Thornford. "She gives you personal feedback and it's nice to hear what she thinks."
The pride Doyle has for her students is why she was chosen as the Naples Daily News' first Amazing Teacher, a series where the paper highlights outstanding educators in Collier County. Teachers are nominated by the community and the winner is selected by education reporter Nikki Ross.
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From fashion to teaching
Teaching was not Doyle's intended career path.
Originally from Ohio, Doyle went to Kent State University to study fashion design.
"I loved college, because it was so creative," Doyle said. "You drew, you did all that kind of cool stuff."
Following graduation, she got her first job in the industry in Florida. But she found that her job as a designer wasn't as creative as she had hoped. Her job focused more on altering designs and updating them rather than creating something new.
So in 2020, when many teachers were leaving the profession due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Doyle decided to give it a try.
She said starting her teaching career during the pandemic was beneficial because everyone was teaching in a new way, virtually and hybrid, and she was able to work up to her teaching skills.
"It was kind of like, I can like kind of jump in on that and be like, oh, we're all confused," she said. "I had half (of my students) that were at home and on the screen and then half here so they were very small classes, which I actually think was a huge benefit for me, because I really got to start getting comfortable being up here in front of people and showing them how to draw and all that kind of stuff."
She's been teaching art at Golden Gate High School ever since.
"It was the best experience to be with all these students, but to not have any (creative) boundaries, right, I can do all these cool paintings, drawings, portraits, abstract collages," she said. "I can do all these different things that I just completely missed in my life."
Now, she is inspiring students like sophomore Dany Sotelo-Garcia, who is creating an AP Art portfolio on fertility, to go to college.
"She's the reason why I'm going to college," Sotelo-Garcia said. "I wasn't going to before I had her class."
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Building an AP curriculum
When Doyle began her teaching career at Golden Gate High, there weren't AP Art classes.
But in the 2021-22 school year she'd added the rigorous college level courses to her curriculum. But they didn't have their own class period.
Students who decided to take one of the three AP Art classes were in one of her regular art classes and Doyle would split her time between the regular class and her AP students.
Of the 31 students who took AP Art in the 2021-22 school year, 30 of them passed and received college credit. It was the largest AP Art class in the district, according to Doyle.
Junior Serena Wells has taken art classes with Doyle for the past three years. This is her second AP Art portfolio and this year she's focusing it on digital animation about the hardships of being in a marching band.
"With Ms. Doyle, you get to create the stuff you want to create," she said.
AP Art classes are different than traditional AP classes. There is no exam at the end of the year, which Doyle said is her number one marketing tool for recruiting students. Instead, students create 15 pieces of art in a themed series throughout the school year. The art can be in any medium the student wants. They also submit a thesis paper explaining their project along with process pages, which can include swatches of colors, sketches and collages of ideas.
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For comparison, students in a regular art class make just eight pieces for the entire school year.
"You don't have to be a good artist," Doyle told her students. "You need to be unique and bold."
To keep her students on track, she has what she calls her "FBI Board" on the walls of her classroom. As her students come up with concepts for their pieces she puts a sticky note with the idea on the wall. Over the course of the year, the sticky note is replaced with a concept photo and finally, when the piece is done she replaces it with a photo of the completed piece.
"We had students who got fives...just doing amazing hearing from all these colleges," Doyle said. "The most important part is it led to something for all of them. And even the ones who didn't maybe pursue art, at least they have that college course to be really proud of."
This year, Doyle teaches Studio, Drawing, Drawing II, AP Studio, AP Drawing and AP 3D Art. She has 47 students enrolled in AP Art classes. Three of those students are doing more than one portfolio, which means they are creating 30 pieces in one school year.
At the beginning of each school year, each student will give a presentation on what they want their portfolio to be. This includes a concept and what types of art they want to create whether it's painting, photography, digital animation, sculptures, etc.
She then makes a Pinterest board for each student and will add ideas and inspiration to those boards throughout the year.
"I like how open minded she is," said junior AP Art student Isiah Leonard, whose portfolio is centered around life and death. "She has amazing ideas to help us when we're lost."
The AP art classes now have their own period so the time is no longer split. There's no prerequisites for students to take any of the AP Art classes, however she does like to have students in Studio first so that she can make sure they are ready for the rigorous work. For students who are unable to fit AP Art into their schedule, she allows them to take the class during one of her other art classes like she did last school year.
Looking to the future
Walking in to Doyle's classroom feels like walking into an industrial art studio. The walls have been covered in brick printed wallpaper and painted over with white materials to make it look distressed.
The floors are littered with multicolored rugs she's picked up over the past three years from Amazon and Target. The walls are covered in her student's work and art related tools. Shelves of supples line the front of the classroom while a mannequin from her fashion design days is in the back corner. Tubs full of recyclables sit under the counters in the back.
Her goal was to make the classroom feel like an art studio.
She said she can see herself being an art teacher for years to come. plesnews.com
"What I look forward to is it continuing to grow. I think we're just so fast and constantly moving all the time that it's time to stop and realize, oh my gosh, this thing grew in just three, well, two years, essentially when we started AP," Doyle said. "That's something that's really cool. And it's been awesome."
The Naples Daily News is now accepting nominations for February's Amazing Teacher now through Jan. 26. To nominate a teacher visit naplesnews.com.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Golden Gate High art teacher named Naples Daily News Amazing Teacher
