Robb Wick – Art Teacher
Location: Mercer Island High School
Job description: Robb teaches beginning and advanced ceramics, drawing and painting, and AP studio art.
Typical day: Robb “hits the floor running” at 7:30 a.m. He unloads the ceramics projects that were fired overnight in the kilns. He preps the lab: checks that the appropriate supplies are in place, that all equipment is ready, and that there is separation between ceramics and drawing/painting supplies and tools. “I teach two incongruent subjects in the same room,” Robb explains. “Painting and ceramics don’t get along!” At 9:00 a.m. when his first class starts, the ‘controlled chaos’ begins. “There are about 30 students in each of my classes. There are so many technical questions that I need to answer, I have to assign them numbers—‘Now serving number…’—like in a NAPA auto parts store!” Shifting gears between concurrent ceramics, drawing & painting and AP studio art classes, Robb says, “You will never find me standing around. Just once in a while, I’d like to have a boring day. My kids are ambitious, innovative, tenacious, and they challenge me professionally.”
Best part of the job: “The ‘young grasshoppers.’ That’s what I call my beginning students,” says Robb. “As the year progresses, it’s a pleasure to watch their confidence and ability grow. Attending their graduation is my motivation to start the next year. The students, they’re like your own children. You nurture and teach them. They take a little piece of your heart, so it’s hard to say goodbye.” Robb has taught in four school districts throughout his career, the first in Montana, and the next two in Alaska. “MISD is the best,” he says. “East Anchorage High School was a very tough school, with gangs, guns and fights. We don’t have any of those problems here. Our students are cordial, caring, respectful, and really want to learn. I can now do activities with these kids that I could only dream of doing at my other schools. They make me look good. I have also received generous support from the Mercer Island Schools Foundation in developing a great ceramics lab. The support and leadership from the administration has been great, and our parents are incredible.”
Years in district: Ten years.
Something people may not know: Robb is a Vietnam veteran. He was Radarman aboard the Navy’s USS Hornet when it recovered astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins from Apollo 11’s command module. Robb participated during the Apollo 12 recovery, as well. Growing up in Montana, Robb loved the outdoors. He moved to Alaska as an adult where he became active in ski patrol at Mt. Alyeska, and was a whitewater rafting guide. He taught art for 20 years in Anchorage, Alaska public schools.
Outside interests: Robb enjoys golfing, fishing, and his home ceramics studio. He is a homebrewer developing a small home brew system where he specializes in ales, pilsners, stouts, and bitters. He and his wife, Susanne, a principal in the Kent school district, live in Fairwood with their two dogs, Snickers and Tucker. Between them they have three grown children.
