Teacher feature: Beyond the artwork

Ms. Marita Redondo is more than just an art teacher. She is also a very generous and kind person. This is her first year teaching in Armijo High School but she taught at Matt Garcia for three years and in San Diego for two years before that.

She attended both Santa Clara and Adolfo Camarillo High Schools when she was growing up and she liked both of them. During her high school years she made a lot of friends that she is lucky enough to still be friends with. She really enjoyed going to football games with her friends and joined a tennis team and played soccer outside of school. Her hobbies now include hiking, watching movies and hang out with families.

 She studied at San Diego State University and Cal State San Marcos after graduation. “My dad, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my uncle were all high school teachers and all of their friends were, so I grew up around them,” she said. “We really value education in my family… My grandfather was an artist and a painter; I use to paint in his studio so I was influenced by becoming an artist.”

She has been a professional artist for 25 years. She has done fashion illustration, graphic art, painted for theater, portraits and landscapes in oil. She continues to have shows and shares her work in galleries.

While she loves being an artist, she had some advice to share with students considering going into teaching: “Be passionate about what you teach and care 100% about your students, and love being around people. Students are not fooled by teachers who don’t care about their subjects or students.”

“I am getting use to this new environment and there is nothing I would change,” she said. “I am getting used to this school and it is a lot of fun, but someday I would like to have student art gallery in the empty space adjacent to my room.”