"One individual, motivated by a genuine and personal
concern for human rights can face evil and triumph. One
person alone can make a difference"
-Annette Lantos
concern for human rights can face evil and triumph. One
person alone can make a difference"
-Annette Lantos
Susan Chapman is a long term substitute teacher for students with disabilities from preschool up to twelfth grade. She currently works at the Duarte unified school district, and loves working with children and young people. She was inspired to follow this path at around 7th grade when she got the chance to go through a unique experience that radically changed her view on people with disabilities or learning challenges.
" A shocking part its always shocking to see that not every student has the support that they might need from at home and its shocking to see because you know how much the students need it and when they don’t have it, its kind of shocking. "
"A lot of personal experience and first hand experience with students with disabilities. I was lucky enough when I was about your age I think I was seventh grade and I had to have surgery on my leg and I wasn’t allowed to participate in pe for the entire school year. And my councilor asked if I would become a teacher’s assistant for the classroom, the special education classroom on campus. And I was so nervous and so scared but I’m so glad that I took that opportunity because I spent that whole year with student that never would have interacted with and learned and appreciated the differences and the similarities between us to, I became comfortable with a difference that I didn’t get to experience before and I found it to be very interesting and intriguing how different people’s minds and brains can work and think."
My art exhibit
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My thought process for the metaphorical meaning behind my project was that since my upstander is a teacher, I should probably make a metaphorical depiction of the relationship between a teacher and a student. That is how i came up with my idea of making a lighthouse and a boat because just as the lighthouse guides the boats to shore, teachers guide students into adulthood and the rest of our lives. Although I figured out my metaphor faster than I expected, it took a while for me to decide what medium I wanted to express it in. This resulted in me having a dilemma in which i couldn't decide between making a diorama or a shadow box. After consulting my teacher and a handful of my peers, i settled on the medium that you see in the pictures above, a shadowbox. The pictures to the top left and right show the steps I went through while making the shadow box. Designing, cutting out, and sticking the paper panels together and the second one sticking the led strips into place. The pictures below those show the shadow box in both the light and dark. the last picture on the left is my initial sketch of my idea in photoshop. |
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