Teaching isn’t the easiest job, especially when you have over 100 students and an action-packed schedule that leaves little time for breaks. Alexander Finney, the Arts and Computer Graphics teacher at South, takes on a workload of six classes and has to switch between two classrooms throughout the day for each of his subjects. Entering his fourth year at South, Finney has already found his “home” at the school.
“I look forward to teaching my students every day, and you can tell they are also excited to learn,” Finney said. “All of my students are respectful and polite every time they come into my classroom, even if they [are] having a bad day.”
Finney only really considered teaching at the high school level once his professor at Boston University convinced him that teaching art was the right path for him.
“I was in the process of receiving my degree in illustration at Boston College,” Finney said. “So I eventually started to observe some of the classrooms about art and illustration and fell in love with it. I didn’t like the idea of sitting at a desk all day and doing work so I just knew teaching was the right path for me.”
Once Finney decided about teaching as his main career choice, he was faced with the question of what grade levels to teach. Since most of his college studies have evolved around computer graphics and art, he was looking for a position where he could teach similar classes.
“After college, I taught in Colorado for a few years before moving to Michigan,” Finney said. “When looking for a place to teach in Michigan, instantly I found Grosse Pointe Public Schools to have everything I’m looking for as an Art teacher.”
However, once Finney started the job at South, he was faced with many challenges including the rumor that the IA (Arts and Design) building could close at any time due to budget restrictions, as well as where his classrooms would be in the following years if they were to close the IA building.
“I was never really worried about the whole situation about the closing of the IA building,” Finney said. “Long before the news of the relocation of the art teachers to the main building came out, we already knew and were able to have everything prepared for an easy switch with little stress.”
