Ms. Alyssa Miller has never been here before. She said she felt like a freshman in high school all over again, wandering around the halls trying to memorize the confusing school. 

“The first week was interesting,” said Miller. “I felt like a freshman getting used to everything and the schedule.”

Miller isn’t alone when it comes to being the “new kid.” Before coming to Triton she was an art teacher in the Salem Public School system. But well before that, she lived down in Savannah, Georgia,  for 6 years right out of college. She started off in the art business by making gold teeth or “grill”. Later, she became involved in making jewelry for 15 years before she started teaching art. “I decided I wanted to do something else,” said Miller. She moved back to Massachusetts and started teaching after she had her child who is 5 years old.

Miller grew up in Essex, Massachusetts, before moving to Georgia to go to the Savannah College of Art and Design. She graduated the college in 2006 and then lived in Georgia for six years after that. “It was beautiful, and hot.”

“My first job out of college was making gold teeth.” said Miller. “The ones the rappers wear.” “That was in 2006, so it was  really popular at the time.”

She started getting involved in the arts when she was in high school. “One of the reasons I became an art teacher is because of my high school art teacher. I had very strong, fond memories of her and the class in general.”

“In general, learning from each other, without judgement or criticism. It was a place where it didn’t matter if people were friends outside of art class or not, we all were like a family of artists,” said Miller.

Today at Triton, Miller teaches Art Studio 1 & 2, Photography, and Digital Art. She has several projects planned for her classes this year, one being “A Day in the Life” with the Art Studio 1 kids. “It is a self-portrait without a picture of yourself,” said Miller. “It’s more through words.”

For the Art Studio 2 kids, she is giving them more of a choice-based art project, by presenting them with different materials and techniques. Then they will be the artists and propose ideas to her. “You come up with an idea, write a proposal, ‘I want to make this because of this’ and then they get to design their own projects.”

When it comes to her students, she’s remembered almost all of their names. This year, “I have pretty small classes and some of my students are in multiple classes.”

As someone who is passionate about the arts, she said she believes art is important and a creative outlet for students. Now that there are more options for activities, it’s important to have skills artists have. “It’s not just about creating art and being a good painter, or drawing well,” says Miller, “It’s about learning to think creatively.”

Miller started an art club last Thursday where kids can learn different styles of art such as, street art and metalsmithing, which is what she did for a while before she started teaching.

“I hope that the art room is a place for people who enjoy coming and creating things, and people really feel comfortable in the art room and feel like it’s a place where they can really be themselves.”

“I had a very positive experience. Everyone was really nice,” Miller said about the first week of school at Triton.

As Ms. Miller’s mentor, veteran art teacher Ms. Toni Fein, helps with logistics, like how to order supplies, who to talk to about getting a key card, what to plan in the curriculum.

“We both teach Art 1 this year, so I go to her about what we have done in the past with art 1, what we may want to do, bringing her fresh perspective to what we do here.”

It’s also about working together to add in some new ideas that Ms. Miller might have. They said, “It’s a lot of incorporating what she has done in the past as far as teaching, and then how she may go about doing things that are new to her. I give her advice to how things have worked best for me.”

When asked about what the kids would like about Ms. Miller, Fein immediately said, “Her enthusiasm for making art. Her professional background, she comes to us with an artist background as a jewelry maker, so maybe some new projects that involve her strengths as an artist.”

“We had four art teachers last year, so it’s a lot more structured and organized this year, and you can tell she knows a lot more about the digital stuff than some of the past art teachers have,” said senior Lizzie Oliver.

Ms. Miller has presented techniques to the students that might be different from what they are used to from past years. “I like that she lets us be creative with it and take the project and do what we want with it not being stuck doing one particular thing,” said Oliver.

“I think she is a great addition to the art department,” said Fein. “and if anyone is interested in taking art classes, definitely try it out because now is a good time to be involved in the arts at Triton!”