PVHS Art Teacher, Kristy Jimenez and two of her Digital Animation students teach monthly drawing classes to the elementary students at Lunada Bay Elementary School.

This year, the curriculum focuses on storytelling through illustrated cartoons.

The students create and develop a character.

They learn what makes a captivating story and how to keep a reader’s interest.

Jimenez has enormous enthusiasm and dedication to the program.

“The students learn how to write a story, draw to that story, and how to make it come alive,” said Jimenez.

Senior Madison Tody is one of the two PVHS students who teaches the drawing class. She is a senior and a student in Animation 3.

“Ms. Jimenez always told me stories about the previous student, Ray, who taught drawing at Lunada Bay. Since he graduated, Ms. Jimenez wanted to keep this tradition going so she reached out to me and my friend, Kayla, and we decided to take on the challenge. It has been a really good experience,” said Tody.

Junior Kayla Valentekovic, also a Digital Animation 3 student, loves connecting with the young students at Lunada Bay Elementary and feels that the teaching experience has “helped [her] organization and planning skills.”

Tody has grown personally from this teaching experience.

“This type of teaching environment has expanded my knowledge about public speaking. I have learned how to plan and create lesson plans and how to teach a class.”

Jimenez was inspired to start this program eleven years ago when her daughter was in first grade.

She observed art and the masters being introduced to the students, but she felt the students needed basic drawing skills that they could use anytime, not just in an art class.

“If you have basic drawing skills, just like basic skills in a sport, you can do anything.”

“There is a myth that you are born to draw, and you can’t acquire the skill, but I think that drawing can be acquired.” — Kristy Jimenez

Similar to the elementary school class, the idea of storytelling is a central concept in the PVHS animation class.

“In Animation 3, we create characters, write stories, and make storyboards, which are visual stories with descriptions on the bottom. The process is really confusing at first because the program is so expansive. Ms. Jimenez teaches us the techniques of animation and the subprograms,” Tody said.

Valentekovic became involved with animation as a 5th grader at UCode where she learned the program, Scratch. Scratch allowed her to create interactive stories, games, and animations.

Tody became involved with animation as a freshman at PVHS. She was inspired by the cartoons she watched as a child.

“I wanted to learn how to make them but the process seemed so out of reach.”

When she walked into Jimenez’s classroom at the PVHS Open House and saw what current students were working on, she was ecstatic.

“The dream I always had can be a reality and I can actually learn to do this. This realization drove me to get more involved in animation.”

Jimenez scouts her incoming freshman class to find good instructors for the elementary school program.

“I look for students who are social, have teaching potential, and artistic skill,” she said.

She invites them to shadow the current student teachers and to teach the following year.

She loves when the elementary school students can have a four-year relationship with the high school students.

Jimenez is passionate about providing meaningful learning experiences.

“I believe making connections with kids is an important tool for learning and teaching,” Jimenez said.

“I want to give my high school students the opportunity to feel valued. If they feel valued, going out into the real world as young adults, I believe I have contributed to the art world.”