Doug Martin - Mentoring Artists

"Because I wasn't talented in math and reading skills, I figured I wasn't smart." - Doug Martin

I just read a short article about Mr. Doug Martin in the April/May 2009 edition of Edutopia Magazine.

The article, written by Owen Edwards, begins by explaining how Mr. Martin didn't feel smart enough in the traditional subjects. He explains how he envied the students in the gifted class as school seemed easy for them. He feared standardized tests. He said they made him feel inferior.

Mr. Martin is a visual arts teacher in West Virginia. He now makes it possible for students to showcase their visual arts in digital portfolios, and he assists his students to obtain scholarships in the arts.

Here's a longer article on how Mr. Martin assists his students in developing their own digital portfolios. Here's a great quote from that article.

"I always wanted to teach students that were like me, the students that teachers overlooked because they weren't the type who excelled in traditional classrooms and who maybe thought they couldn't survive the rigors of a college education."

Thank you Doug Martin!