Ms. Pourcho, otherwise known as Katie, is our art teacher here at North
Elementary. She graduated for Covenant High School here on the west side of
Indianapolis and then she did her college work at Ball State. And I think
just her love of art and her love of teaching is what brought her to art
education. Nine years ago Ms. Pourcho walked into
our office for an interview and we knew really quickly that she was the one, that
we needed to bring into our building. She's a wonderful educator and interacts
so well if the kids in her classroom. It just really sets a I think I real tone
and a model for all teachers, and that's I think when you walk into her classroom
that's the thing that just sort of jumps out at how well she connects with young
children. Her ability to connect with students no matter who they are, what
background they have just starts from the moment they walk into her room. The
way she greets them, the way they come in and sit down the ways this she gets to
know each and every one of them. You see her that she genuinely loves every
single one of them and a lot of learnings first starts with that
relationship, with that bond between the teacher and the child. She's really nice,
she's almost like a mom. She's not only interested in the children as what she
calls kid artist, she's also concerned about them as individuals, as a whole
person. I feel like I can't talk to her and tell her stuff. She's
one of my friends. I think one of the things that Katie does it helps them
figure out what they're passionate, about what they'd like to do, and then build
her skills around that, and then create some amazing pieces of work, and we see
them around the building all the time. You know, I started in the building in
January of 2010 and it's a beautiful building but it wasn't, it didn't speak
to people of this is an elementary school building. It was kind of sterile
and when Katie came in she just started bringing our building to life. What she's
done is almost create an immersion here in the school in terms of art, from the
cafeteria to the hallways. If you walk around there's frames with with art but
then she also has pieces of what the kids say. Inspired by love, you know, or
inspired by my sister's curly hair. Kids can without saying how they're feeling
express their feelings and that's huge for kids at this age because they
don't always have an outlet to be able to go and talk to somebody. So they
understand that there's a connection between what they're producing and how
they feel and believe. You can't walk down these halls and not smile. l'll see
my class walk down the hall and they're like "oh I know that, I know this kid, or I
know this kid, wow look at that". They love seeing their work and it makes them feel
like they've done something to be proud of and she facilitates all of that.
That's one thing that that she brings to everything that she does, you know, I
asked her, "hey can you help out in the mornings" and she's always looking
around and going, "how can we do this better". "Hey, I'll make some stop and go
signs" and then the kids will see that and I have these visuals for them, those
are all things that she brings, she's a problem solver, she's a always wanting to
do things better. She does a lot with art outside of school as well. She'll go
to weddings and paints the scene like at the reception. During the reception or
the wedding itself she will be in the back painting the people putting that
in place and just capturing the moment. I mean it is beautiful.
Some of the paintings I've seen that she does at weddings, there phenomenal.
So this is just one piece of Katie's creative life. It's just obvious that she
loves art, she loves kids, she loves people in general. And I know
every time that I see her, I'm gonna be greeted with a smile and I'll probably
leave laughing. She is a good painter and I'm proud of her of being
Teacher of the Year.
I would tell you that I was in Katie's room, I believe this last spring and Katie was teaching myself and her
students how to how to build a dog out of clay, doing clay sculpture. So, this is
a clay sculpture that the Katie taught me how to make. I think it's somewhere
between a dog, a dinosaur, and a pig, yeah um. What I would say is Katie, stay
humble, because you know as great a teachers you are, Teacher of the Year, there's
an opportunity for us all to improve. So appreciate your efforts but for this
student you got some work to do yet.