Southeast Highschool is home to a variety of art classes. One particular class of interest is sculpture. Taught by Mrs. Nagel, sculpture focuses on creating 3D art using anything that is available. 

“We make things out of paper, we make things out of polymer clay, we carve, we carve soap, we carve Sculpey, we build figurines with Sculpey. Normally, in a normal year, we do some casting and some mold making,” sculpture teacher Chezarae Jeanes Nagel said. 

At this time, however, students are now currently heading back on-site, where they will now be able to do more things than they could at home.

“Yeah at home this class would be hard, I don’t really know that I would have any motivation to do it at all. But it’s fun in person, because like it’s easier to bounce ideas off people when I can actually talk to them face to face,” sculpture student Johannah Welch said. 

Even though there are students back at the building, there are still students at home for the ongoing hybrid schedule, causing problems with the class.

“I had to sacrifice studio time, normally a sculpture studio is a buzzing place with people helping each other and trying new things and because of the distance we don’t have that buzzing studio, we don’t have this community space we normally have here in the school,” Nagel said. 

“It’s a little hard because you don’t have a teacher there to show you exactly what you need to do so you just have to learn how to do it through the computer and just try to do your best,” sculpture student Nyree Walker said.

During this time, solutions were being made in order to make sure all students get the same learning experience.

“So I’ve shifted to doing a lot more demo style work where I have the camera to where the kids can see my sculpture as it goes,” Nagel said. 

Although there were challenges with the hybrid schedule, it also became it’s own learning experience. 

“I think that I have learning a lot and become a better teacher from the experience, and can not wait until it’s over,” Nagel said.