For this assignment at first I didn’t know who I wanted to interview and I thought about Ms. Erin Royse, a high school art teacher, who’s also a professional artist. I scheduled an appointment with her. The day of the interview, I drove to Cottage Grove to meet with her. We met at her classroom which has a lot of really nice art work. We sat down and had a little conversation. After making small talk with her, we jumped into the interview. I wrote some questions I wanted to ask her. The first question I asked her was about when she decided to become a teacher.  She told me that when she was nine years old, she was showing other kids how to ride a bicycle and she liked the feeling of teaching someone else. Since an early age she had that capacity for teaching people. It was interesting for me to know that because some teachers didn’t know they wanted to become a teacher until after they graduated high school or while they were in college  

Next, I asked her how she decided what type of art she wanted to do. She said she likes to do any type of art. She couldn’t  decide what specific branch of art she wanted to go in because there were a lot of choices. When I asked her if art teachers get paid well, she said it pays well and also teachers get paid more over the years. She doesn’t get paid only for teaching art, she is also a PE teacher. She feels comfortable with the amount they pay her. 

I also asked her if is easy to find a job as an art teacher or as an artist. Her answer was, as an art teacher it is not easy to find a job because art teachers love their jobs and it is not easy to let go of a job you are happy with. She also said there are many jobs out there, and if I want a job that I will like, I have to look and look because there are a lot of opportunities out there. All i need to do is to look for them. Another question I asked her was how long it took her to find a job after graduating college. She looked for a job for four months. She taught at a small school for awhile after moving to Cottage Grove, but after moving it took her only four days to get the job of the art teacher at Cottage Grove High School. She told me the only reason she got the job was because the teacher who used to teach art decided to go teach overseas. At first they told her she could teach the class until that teacher came back from vacation, but the teacher who was teaching before her decided to stay and teach art to the kids in that area. 

The last question I asked her was if she recommends becoming an art teacher. She told me that we need more artists and more art teachers, and it is good to show kids how to make art and how they can come up with their own artwork. She said, “One important thing a teacher needs to have is patience,” and it is true.  I learned a lot by doing this interview. I learned what it takes to be able to do what you like. I learned more about Ms. Erin Royse who has experienced a lot in her life, good or bad she still keeps going no matter what. I got advice from her, which is good because she has a lot of experience in the artistic side of life and also she gave me advice for how I can achieve my goals in the future.