The Sidekick has selected Coppell High School art and design teacher Cameron Tiede as the November Teacher of the Issue. Tiede teaches AP 2D Design, Art 2 Photography, Art 2 Honors and Art 2 Digital Art and Media. He has had a variety of experience in artistic fields, bringing a lot to the classroom for his students.

How did your own passion for art lead you to teaching it?

Originally, when I was working for myself, I was back in California, and it just so happened that a couple different schools at that time were looking for part time teachers. I didn’t go looking for the jobs, they contacted me, and I just started teaching. It wasn’t a lot, it was just so I could get out [of the studio] and talk to people. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. That’s sort of how I got into teaching, and as far as the art aspect, I mean that’s what I’ve always done, so that was just sort of an obvious for me to be teaching art and design.

What is your favorite part of teaching art and design?

I think that there are no right or wrong answers. I mean there are certainly more effective and less effective works of art, but there are so many answers, especially in design and the way we can communicate to people. I think it’s just, there are endless possibilities, so that’s something that really interests and excites me.

Are there any specific projects you have planned for this year that you’re particularly excited about?

Oh, there’s lots of projects that I’m excited about! I’ve got a lot of fun stuff planned for my photography class, especially when we move into the second semester and the kids really start to dive into Photoshop and they can express themselves more creatively. Dissecting portraits of people, and layering drawing on top of those [photography-based portraits], I think that’s something that’s really fun. In my digital media class, I’ve got a few cool things planned [such as] creating dimensional paper toys. I’m a big believer in having traditional physical media and digital media merge with each other.