3rd-5th Grade Art/Visual Arts | The Villages Charter School

For Alexandra Boise, creativity has always been part of everyday life.

Growing up, she spent countless hours drawing and experimenting with art, encouraged by her grandmother, who constantly supplied her with new art materials and inspiration.

“That’s what I did all day as a kid,” Alexandra says. “I was always drawing.”

That early love of art eventually led her to the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts. After college, she worked as a visual merchandiser before becoming a stay-at-home mom when her daughters were young.

During that time, Alexandra continued finding ways to stay creative. She ran an Etsy shop, taught painting classes and even worked at a children’s summer art camp. Later, she began working as a teaching assistant with three-year-olds at The Villages Early Childhood Center, where she discovered how much she loved helping children create.

“Teaching filled a piece of my heart that I didn’t know needed to be filled.”

In 2021 she began teaching art at The Villages Charter School. Now in her fifth year as an educator there, she teaches third- through fifth-grade students, introducing them to a wide range of artistic techniques and ideas.

Her classroom focuses on mixed-media projects, combining painting, drawing and layered materials to create pieces that are both visual and tactile. She also introduces students to contemporary artists whose bold and sometimes unexpected work sparks curiosity.

“I introduce them to a lot of artists and I’m just trying to get their mind to work differently and look at things differently and expose them to stuff that maybe they haven’t seen before,” she says.

“It’s just fun to see their reaction and they get enjoyment out of it.”

Alexandra believes the key to teaching art is giving students the freedom to explore their own ideas. Even when working on the same project, she builds opportunities for each child to add personal touches, so every piece looks different.

“I try to create opportunities within the projects for them to make their own choices,” she says. “We could all be doing the same thing, but everyone has their opportunity to put their own spin on it.”

She also integrates literacy into many lessons, using books and storytelling as inspiration for art projects. At the end of each school year, students select their favorite pieces for a schoolwide art show, where families finally see the artwork that has been carefully saved throughout the year. She also saves her students’ work and creates personal portfolios they can take home with them at the end of the year.

For Alexandra, one of the most rewarding parts of teaching is watching students gain confidence in their creativity.

“It excites me,” she says. “I think that’s the best part of the job is seeing them get excited and then seeing them be proud of themselves.”

Alexandra says her goal is to help students discover that art exists everywhere in the world around them and that their own ideas are worth sharing. She also believes art provides something students need now more than ever: a hands-on outlet for creativity.

 “I’ve seen such change even in 5 years with my students’ fine motor skills,” she says. “Technology is an integral part of life but I don’t want kids to lose their creativity because of it.”