Fremont Middle School art teacher Marty Weber to retire

Marty Weber has one general guideline for her art class.

If she tries a project and doesn’t like it, her students probably won’t like it either.

With that premise in mind, Weber taught elementary and middle school art in the Fremont Public School system since 1986. She retires this year.

“I didn’t start out in education,” Weber said. “At first, I was a commercial artist in Dallas, Texas. I enjoyed the work, but I seemed to be pulled toward a helping career. So I joined VISTA.”

Known as the “domestic Peace Corps,” VISTA volunteers worked as advocates for low-income families. Weber found herself in Fremont, working alongside others who formed the Low Income Ministry. Combined with her work with another new organization, Family Planning, Weber found a niche in the field of advocacy.

She was named director of Family Planning for the Fremont site -- a position she held for 12 years.

She entered the teaching field “late” by her own admission.

“I started taking classes at Midland to get my teacher certification. And as luck would have it, a position opened when I completed my training. There was a lot of traveling at first,” she said.

Weber recalls her first teaching assignment encompassed three K-6 schools. In a routine week, she would teach in 56 classrooms. The time for the younger students was limited while she had around 40 minutes with the fifth- and sixth-graders.

“Talk about moving fast!” she laughed. “When a spot opened at the middle school, I thought having my own classroom and more supplies would be worth the move.”

Of all the variety of art projects she currently teaches in a seven-week unit, clay wins hands-down. Her students ask about the clay unit the first day of class.

“And they keep it up until we dig into it,” Marty said.

She is proud that many students want to make a gift for their Mom or Dad.

“I have always marveled at that. But then, art is a gift,” she said.

As she exits the daily classroom, Weber hopes her replacement is skilled in technology. Modern art education has been drastically altered by the computer, with its accompanying challenges and promise. The resources available for the next generation art teacher are virtually unlimited due to advances in computer graphics �” especially those interested in commercial applications.

Technology driven or not, art education remains an effort to make a connection. Just as a teacher attempts to connect with her students. Recently, Weber had a talk with an eighth-grader who asked her to “come teach us art at the high school.”

“Those kind of moments are so humbling,” Weber said.

Without the structure of the school day or school calendar, there figures to be plenty of time on her hands come summer. But Weber already has plans of her own. She’d like to be a TeamMates mentor. And return to advocacy for the less fortunate.

But most important, she wants to regain her commercial art skills.

“I am looking forward to working my craft again. Drawing. Painting. I’d like to create a local presentation downtown,” she said. “I am looking forward to finding a way to give back to the community.”