By Allan Jamail
May 6th thru May 10th was Teachers Appreciation Week – The Galena Park ISD’s North Shore Middle School art students gave a tribute to Houston area teachers. The tribute was painting a large mural. (See photo.)
Sherrhonda Hunter, GPISD’s Executive Director for School and Community Relations, was present to making sure the ceremony followed the agenda and was orderly.
The ceremony was emceed by Principal Christopher Eckford. He recognized Superintendent Dr. John Moore, who welcomed and thanked everyone in attendance.
Assisting the students with the mural painting was artist Reginald C. Adams. His Houston studio is involved with public art and designs. The acclaimed artist is known for creating award-winning murals, sculptures, and art installations in historic and underserved communities across the United States. Adams praised the school’s art teacher Katelyn Loges and her students for their exceptional talent.
The Harris County / Houston Sports Authority Community Engagement Representative Maria V. Duran and Volunteer & Community Engagement Manager Courtney Randle-Gaines were present and helped with some of the things needed for the mural.
The school’s band performed and gave those in attendance some exceptionally good entertainment.
Art Teacher Katelyn Loges is a remarkable talented artist herself, and has mastered the ability to teach students so they can pursue their abilities in the art world.
Loges graduated from Texas State University—San Marcos with an Art Education degree. While there, she specialized in Sculpture. She has been teaching for over 8 years. She teaches drawing, painting, sculpture, and Art 1, all at the high school level. 2023 was her first year at GPISD, and as well as her first year in middle school.
She gave the following process of the mural: “First, I gave the students the prompt of defining the word ‘Legacy’ and what that word means to them. Next, we focused on teachers and talking about our favorite teachers and why. What characteristics make a good teacher and what images we relate with teaching, education, legacy and leadership.”
Loges concluded, “Then we generated a list of those words that define teaching, teachers, and education. Then we used an AI generator, and it generated an image from all the words we used. From that image we decided what we wanted to keep and leave out. Then we shared with campus leaders and adjusted it to fit exactly what we felt would represent NSMS as a whole.”