BY HUNTER ROBERSON, Freshman
BLYTHEWOOD- Margaret Roberson stands over the student helping them with their art work. She talks to them about ways to make their work better and how to make it pop using specific techniques. She uses paint brushes dipped in red paint and tells the student what to do.
Junior Painting student Andrew Starnes said that Robertson's class is fun.
“Her classes were very fun and enjoyable,” Starnes said.
Roberson is an Art teacher at Blythewood High School and also arranges the Passports and is part of House 1 Future Visions.
She sponsors NAHS, (National Arts Honors Society) and is the Fine Arts Department lead. She mainly works with Gina Taylor and Nick Hendrix due to the fact that they are the other visual arts teachers.
As the NAHS sponsor for Blythewood, she leads the group in many community service projects. Some for example, would be carving pumpkins for the farmers market or helping with Relay for Life.
Roberson has worked at Blythewood for five years and is looking forward to her sixth.
Roberson has two children who go to school in Richland School District Two. Her oldest is a freshman at Blythewood and her youngest is an 8th grader at Blythewood Middle School.
“My son is not in my class but if he where I would hold the same expectations for him as everyone else,” Roberson said.
Roberson has had many accomplishments, but says her greatest personally is raising two children to be successful in their school career so far.
“Although I've received rewards, promotions and accolades my greatest professional accomplishments are when I see my seniors walk across the graduation stage,” said, Roberson
Roberson was part of a military family, her father was a preacher in the army, and therefore she moved around quite often.
During the summers when her parents were moving she would stay with her grandmother in Ridgeway.
She has an older sister and an older brother.
At one point she lived in West Berlin, Germany when the wall was still up.
Working Career
Before Roberson worked at Blythewood she was a store manager at Best Buy for four years and an employee for Sears where she worked for eight years in management.
She also worked at Lee Central High School for a year as an art teacher. Many of the students admired her because she treated them as individual adults.
“As a manager in the work force I knew what characteristics created a successful employee and I incorporate those same characteristics in the lessons I teach,” Roberson said
Students can tell how she uses this in her teaching lessons by the way she sets deadlines. She also has students fill out a blog on each major assignment.
“She is very hands on when teaching and I like that about her.” junior Victoria Jamison said.
Roberson confronts teaching in a very hands on, discovery based method of learning.
She has many long term projects which she treats as a major problem. The lessons she teaches are steps toward the solving of that problem or the creation of the final work of art.
She said she gives the students a long time to do their work so they can get a good grade. She expects for students to do their work and have fun while doing so.
Roberson is also creating a fresh method of teaching by implementing a new curriculum hierarchy of courses to allow more students to take intermediate classes.
These classes will allow there to be a more divided line between those who actually want to do art as a career.
Some advice she would like to share with people who are striving to be in a career like hers is, “You must love to do it, maintain precision in everything you do and have fun. When it's not fun anymore students will notice.”
Roberson said the most surprising thing she encountered at Blythewood was the pride students took in their school and community.
The Impressions She Has Made
“She’s been more than a teacher to me and has taught me many valuable lessons,” senior Zach Wyatt said.
Through her teaching at Blythewood she has taught many valuable lessons to many students. She has taught students about being in the workforce through the use of her projects and deadlines.
She has taught some students that the world does not revolve around them and that some students need to just do the work.
What She Enjoys Doing
Some hobbies Roberson enjoys as a pastime are painting and drawing. She lives on a lake and therefore also enjoys lake living.
She enjoys floating in the water and kayaking with her husband in the mornings when she can. She also enjoys fishing off her dock with her family.
Roberson enjoys going on trips to places her family and friends are and to new places she has never been to before.
Her students think Roberson is a very interesting person not many people knew about. She does very important things for this school and has a fun and enjoyable family life.
She has many different hobbies that she enjoys in her pastime.
Roberson loves helping her students do artwork in class. She often helps her student learn art techniques, such as paintbrush strokes, color blending, and how the use of different materials can drastically affect their art work.
