High school 3D art teacher Amela Cikota walks into her classroom on the first day of school, and for the first time, she recognises some students. Her previous students from her elementary school career greet her with excitement.
“[Reuniting with past students is] honestly one of my favorite things about working at Oakville High School … Almost all of the students that go to Oakville Elementary (OES) end up going to Oakville High School, so I have all of my previous students and then I get to see how much they’ve grown and how physically and intellectually and creatively,” Cikota said. “It’s just awesome to see them in the hallways, and I’ll always get the little moment of ‘there’s my elementary art teacher,’ so it’s really sweet.”
The class of 2029 and the class of 2030 are the classes that Cikota taught the longest. She taught both of these groups of children for five years. This will be her first year reuniting with students that she taught for her whole elementary school career.
“Those kids I know the best because I had them the longest, so when I get to see them now we’ve already had five years of memories, and now we’re continuing that again,” Cikota said.
Cikota much prefers to teach high school students because she can focus on greatening their creative abilities and bonding through art, whereas in elementary school she only taught the basics of creating art.
“I feel like in high school we can focus on the content and the building and creating of the artwork and putting a meaning behind your artwork and focusing on getting better at creating your art … ” Cikota said.
After she graduated from college, she got a position as an elementary level art teacher. After five years of teaching at this level, there was a job opening for a position at the high school to teach Three Dimensional Art.
“I always wanted to teach older students and do advanced artwork,” Cikota said.
Sometimes, Cikota has a student she’s had at OES, and her heart is warmed as she sees how they’re now applying what she taught them years ago.
“Three years ago I had a student in here, and we were doing a sewing project,” Cikota said. “I asked him, ‘wow, you know how to sew?’ and he said, ‘of course, you taught me in fourth grade.’”
Overall, Cikota is very happy to be working with her old students at the high school level. She’s working her dream job, and she feels that the students she taught when she worked at OES being at the high school only makes it better.
“I love having my previous students because of the already existing relationship,” Cikota said. “… I like seeing how their creativity has improved and advanced.”
