Faces of Education
Students draw from real life
Kris Heuckroth wants students to study the world around them and draw. He doesn't want them to draw from memory but from what is sitting in front of them, such as the chair he puts on the table in art class.
"When I ask kids to draw a chair, 99 per cent of them don't even look at the chair I put on the table. They just draw from memory. If you do a paper on molecular biology you don't do it from memory, you do it from research."
Kris teaches students to open their eyes and look at the world around them. He encourages them to interpret it however they wish and throw in the wow factor. "In art, you have to have a strong technical background to build from but I stress creativity."
Kris is the visual arts and info tech teacher at Brooks Secondary School.
Kris believes that everyone can draw. "I try to break down the fact that they think they can't draw because of course they can. I tell them there are so many jobs in art. Everything you see around you is influenced by art: tables, lights, everything. But you need business skills to make a living as an artist. If you want to design tables and chairs there are jobs for you."
He should know. Kris is an accomplished sports artist who has managed to successfully combine his love of art with teaching art.
Kris is also a goalie who paints hockey players. Not long ago Ken Dryden signed one of Kris's paintings and now he's trying to get Vladislav Tretiak to sign one he did of the famous goalie.
His work is in demand. "I do shows in Vancouver; I had a show in Vancouver during the Olympics."
Kris didn't set out to be a teacher but life is full of unexpected twists and turns.
"I was going to be a city planner at one point but part of being a city planner meant that I'd have to live in a small community and I didn't want to live in a small community so I chose teaching instead," he laughs.
Kris is originally from Cambridge, Ontario. He received a BA with honours from the University of Guelph where he did a double major in geography/urban planning and visual arts. He did his teacher training at UBC before moving to Powell River from the Lower Mainland in 1992. "I applied for the job two days after the cut off. I saw it on December 31 and called. I faxed up my resume at 10 am. They asked me if I could be on a plane at noon that day and I said yes."
Kris got the job and began teaching two days later. "I began teaching at the old Brooks. I think the view sold me," he laughs.
Kris taught at Max Cameron while Brooks was being built. "I was able to help design the two art rooms and the digital media room at Brooks," he says.
Back then, Kris was into film. "How I got into that was kind of funny. I was teaching part time for the first couple of years and Mr. (Brian) Bennett wanted me to teach drama. I'd never taught drama before and so I turned him down. Three times. But then I bought a house," he pauses. "So I went into his office and said I'll teach drama but I'll teach the kids how to be rocks and then bushes and then furry little animals. Or, I can teach drama, film and television instead."
Mr. Bennett went with the second choice and the drama, film and television course was born.
With the new program students had the opportunity to act in front of cameras. "It just ballooned from there and soon we had a full lab."
Kris recalls when they used to do a bi-weekly broadcast at the school. "We'd film students in their classrooms and show what they were doing."
The class soon hooked up with the inaugural Powell River Film Festival. "We entered the five-minute film festival and took the kids and entered into BC student film festival and won prizes there. And then it just grew exponentially."
He took students on a one-week intensive training course at the Art Institute in Vancouver and immersed them in the world of film television and gaming design. "And this was all from happy little rocks," he says.
Kris and the School District went on to host the BC Student Film Festival in 2007. Over 300 students from all across the province came to Powell River to compete in the festival.
He loves being involved with the International Student Travels program.
"In 2008 we took 30 students to England and France. In 2009, we took 25 students to Italy. Next year we are going to Greece with 30 students."
Kris says that seeing the rest of the world can be life changing. "That's something I'd say that students in Powell River need to do -- get out and see the world."
Seeing the world from a different perspective in art and travelling creates new opportunities.
On these trips students not only get to see the world but experience different cultures too. "I'm always amazed at how much kids get out of these trips. You see it in the year book where they ask about the best thing of the year and they talk about the trip."
Fundraising is important for international trips and Kris is excited because it has just been confirmed that Wunderbread will be in Powell River during the third week of September to do workshops with the students and a school dance. The following evening the 1970s disco band will play at a community dance in order to raise money for the Greece trip.
"This will be huge fun," he says excitedly. "I just love Wunderbread."
