Teacher Feature: Mr. Waddles

Mr. Joe Waddles has been an Armijo art teacher for 11 years, but he has taught for a total of 15 years.

He’s spent a lot of time in high school as a teacher, but as a student at Elk Grove High School, he said that his experience was pretty average. When he was in school, he didn’t really participate in that much. He said that he only attended one dance in the entire four years, mostly because his friends didn’t attend any dances.

Before becoming a teacher, Mr. Waddles has spent time working at Dairy Queen, Lamppost Pizza, Pizza Hut, and two movie theatres.

He graduated from Sacramento State, after spending some time at Sacramento City College, and went on to become an art teacher. He has always liked art and felt that, if he could teach someone else to love it as much as he did, it’d be cool.

When he was a student, his family had a huge influence on him, and sculpted him into what his is now. His photography and art teacher also influenced him. His advice for someone who is considering becoming a teacher is to choose a subject of interest, something that the future teacher is good at.

If he could change something in the school, he said, “I would change the whole school — new rooms, electronics, etc. — because the stuff in my room is so outdated and sometimes doesn’t fit into my curriculum.”

He loves going to the movies and really likes photography. He also likes to play video games like NBA 2K.

Some people consider Mr. Waddles to be mean. “I’m strict, not really mean,” he said. “I’m strict so that we can keep on track and I want to have fun and do fun things, but when nobody is following the rules, and you’re on your phone not following the directions I can’t be the best teacher, and we can’t have fun. I like you all to answer and participate as much as possible.”

He also stated that “Wowie Wow!” is a tension breaker, an it’s not meant to be rude. He just thought it was funny. He likes teaching art and he knows it takes a minute to understand, but he hoped that, in the end, all of his students end up liking it, too.

Mr. Waddles said that his favorite color is blue, his favorite food is pizza, and his favorite drink is water with a little bit of orange juice.