Meet the Teacher

"Casa de la Amistad"

Meet the teacher day is always an important day for my own children. What will she be like? Will she be a good teacher? What will she teach the students? These are question that usually run through my head on the way to meet my children's teachers. On this day, I will also meet the teachers, that is instructors in Cuba. Above is the building where I met with specialists and leaders in the field of Art Education in Cuba. Celia Rosa Alonso, vice director from the National Centre of Casas de Cultura and Art Instructor, Mabel Cedenos, a professor at an art school for special needs students, were two of the presenters. I will not go into all of the details, however I can answer the questions above. The teachers in Cuba are very much like the teachers in the US. They care about what their students are learning and they are excellent instructors. Both professors demonstrated a love for what they were doing and a pride for their students equivalent to that of a parent. In a future post I will show you images of some of the schools. Seeing the joy in these teachers faces as they talked about their students, connected me to them. Our goals were very similar. We both spoke the universal language of art and our purpose was to share this language with children. Here is a picture of an art professor who overcame her physical disability (she is in a wheel chair) so that she might teach art at the very same school where she learned it herself. I recorded her on my web cam. She loved seeing her image on the computer. For those of you who are interested in art with special needs students, I will try to attached the video to my blog.

"Art Instructor - Mabel Cedenos"

The mansion where the meetings took place was spectacular. It was built for a woman who married a very rich man. Their marriage was interracial. They were spurned by society. It is a very sad love story that ends in her death of an illness at a young age. I have included a few photos of the rooms in the house. Again, art was everywhere. Did I mention that pictures of Fidel and Che are also predominately positioned? In fact, a fun little game in this blog would be to, "Find Fidel" His image mysteriously creeps into many photos.

Our group in front room -glass ceiling.

Ceiling in one of the rooms. Hand carved wood frame (20 foot diameter)

Sculpture by front door.

 Looking from an upstairs window into the courtyard. Glass in window made from the champagne bottle's from their wedding.

This bronze sculpture was used to prop a door open. 

This chair was incredible and used daily.


Meet the teacher day turned out to be educational as well as rewarding!