Smithtown Art Teacher Casts Creative Influence

Smithtown High School East art teacher Tim Needles was recently interviewed by the Talks with Teachers podcast, which provides valuable insight into cutting-edge practices to help educators enhance the classroom experience for their students.

Needles covered a wide range of areas during his segment, including how technology is influencing art instruction, why art should be a vital part of a student’s experience, and how he connects with his students, critiques them and inspires them to collaborate.

“In an art room, I am able to get a kind of engagement [as opposed to a traditional classroom],” said Needles, who has taught in the Smithtown for 16 years. “It’s about curiosity, thinking outside of the box, collaboration and having students create projects that are real.”

Photo courtesy of the Smithtown Central School District: HSE art teacher Tim Needles provides some input to students in his drawing class.

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