My name is Aileen Michel-Henderson and I teach at Champs and Millikan Middle School.  I have also taught for 4 universities, including Otis College of Art and Design, and I have written and taught art curriculums for just about every grade level, including classes for teachers on how to teach art.

My philosophy is simply this-  When teachers teach, students learn.  I took a lot of art classes in Middle and High School and enjoyed each of those classes.  Unfortunately, I never learned anything in those classes, as my teachers never taught and/or demonstrated how to use the mediums set out for the projects.  Instead, they simply assigned work, “Paint a scene,” and so I, along with my classmates, picked up the paints and painted a scene.  And there was no rhyme or reason as to the sequence of our projects.  One day we’d be on watercolors, and the next day, we’d be on collage.

I created the Art Program at Millikan Middle School to include topics students would normally have to wait until college to learn.  So, when Dr. Isaacs asked me to join the faculty at CHAMPS, I did so with the same commitment to create a quality art program at this site.