Parkville High Teacher Wins Art Instruction Award

At Parkville High School, taking an art class might mean more than drawing or painting — students in Ryan Twentey's classes work with photography and digital media.

Twentey, who has taught at Parkville High for the last 11 years, was recently named the Maryland art teacher of the year.

"I am extremely honored — for being looked as someone who would even be nominated in the first place," Twentey said of the award. "I think it’s a big deal, especially without a lot of recognition going to the teachers these days, any time we can showcase teachers and what an amazing job they’re doing for their kids."

For his part, Twentey isn't exactly sure why he won the award — he doesn't have much of an ego about it. art department chair Jennifer McBrien has some ideas though.

"His big thing is that he’s got very high expectations, that really works for him," McBrien said. "He runs his classes very much self-sufficient, he makes everyone very independent. He’s very knowledgable and passionate about what he teaches."

Students in Twentey's classes learn how to use technology like the Adobe Creative Suite to enhance their work.

"I love to teach Photoshop, honestly, more than pretty much any other curriculum based software," Twentey said. "It's great showing [students ] techniques that takes the work they’re already shooting and enhances it even more."

Kids is photography and media classes also use Edmodo, which Twentey describes as a "Facebook for schools" to upload their work and get instant feedback during class.

"The amount of technology, cutting edge stuff that I use. I try to create a different learning environment that I hope gives kids a real world experience," he said.

His students interests run the gamut — in one class students are preparing a full design document for an imagined video game and pitching their concepts to one another. Twentey said he has students who are interested in macro–or close-up—photography.

"Just experimenting a lot, I want them experiencing what photographers are doing then experimenting on their own," he said.

senior Autumn Carrow has been Twentey's student since she was a freshman, and she agrees with the county that he deserved the award.

"Personally, I think you learn a lot in his class and you get more experience in this photo class than you would in another high school," Carrow said.

"His lessons are really interesting. A lot of teachers would tell you what to do — he has it open ended so it’s your decision. The outcome is all about you and what you like to shoot."

This article has been edited to correct a mistake. Ryan Twentey was named Maryland Art Teacher of the Year, not Baltimore County Art Teacher of the Year as originally printed. Patch regrets the error.