Dancing, juggling, and singing were all artistic activities that one teacher found comfort in during his childhood as an Air Force kid. Moving across the country constantly meant that art teacher Michael Zadra never had a chance to make lasting friendships, and as a result he turned to art. Today, he teaches Ceramics I and II.
In middle school, Zadra discovered how therapeutic art was for him. “For me initially, art was therapeutic because I had to move around so much, it was difficult emotionally, and art was a nice reprieve from being in pain over having to move so much,” Zadra said.
His interest in art grew in high school when he moved to Washington D.C. from Colorado and started taking trips to The Smithsonian with his dad every Sunday. Zadra found himself drawn in by the experimental modern art of the East Wing. “I loved going to the art museums, just staring at the art and being there. The art museums in D.C kind of became my home away from home,” Zadra said.
Zadra, inspired by his mother and high school teacher, started subbing for the Shoreline School District in late 1998, when he lived in Fremont. He also did substitute work for the Mercer Island and Seattle school districts. “I really like the community in Shoreline [and the] student behavior in Shoreline,” Zadra said.
Zadra mentioned that he tried to get as many jobs in the Shoreline area as possible after realizing how different the social environments were compared to other districts. In 2005, Zadra started working under contract at Shorewood as a cartooning teacher and teaching digital photography with Marty Ballew, until in 2006, when the former ceramics teacher fell ill and had to retire. The next year, 2007, Zadra began teaching ceramics full-time.
Zadra is also musically inclined. He enjoys playing both the piano and guitar as well as singing. These days he composes music in his free time, but in college, he was in a band that had many names- the last one being The Romantic Yellow Grapefruits, inspired by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. His sophisticated music taste is reflected in his classroom, where you can almost always hear the silky tones of funky jazz while you work among the clay-stained tables and tall cabinets full of student projects.
All in all, Zadra creates a very welcoming environment and really encourages his students to get out there and try new things. “Most teachers don’t have to sub as long as I did… From my experience as a sub, I’ve probably been to more schools than most teachers ever have and I would like the reader to know and be reverent and appreciative of how wonderful the district the students here are in… I hope that students might be kind of appreciative of where they’re at,” he said.
