For Art teacher Courtney Flamm, the end of the school day isn’t the end of her schooling. Flamm, a second year teacher at FHN, teaches several art classes throughout the day, including AP Art Studio and Intro to Art. In addition to her teaching load, Flamm also does online schooling to continue to expand on her degree.

“I got my Bachelor’s Degree from Lindenwood after four and a half years,” Flamm said. “I wanted to become a more confident person and explore a more artistic medium.”

Lindenwood University’s online Art History program is ranked one of the top five in the United States, Flamm uses this to her advantage as she works toward getting her Master’s degree in Art History, as well as having her thesis being a published book.

“My favorite part is opening my perspective to like the world in history and how accomplished I feel after writing a paper, especially considering the minimum page requirement for our papers is 15 pages,” Flamm said. “Every paper is a big deal and every time I start I feel overwhelmed and then eventually it just falls into place, and I’m like ‘Wow, I can’t believe this.’”

While keeping up with the workload of her online schooling, she also must keep up with being a full time teacher and she appreciates the different perspective it allows her to have with her students.

“I feel like it’s a completely different lifestyle,” Flamm said. “Being an art teacher, and then also a student, allows me to be able to relate to the students more from both sides. I’m teaching and doing art work, and then I come home and do more.”

Despite the fact that she is doing extra work, Flamm is still passionate about being able to help her students improve on their artwork. She intends to keep working on both learning from and teaching her students

“I think it’s a good break in my student’s day,” Flamm said. “It’s everybody’s time to come in and just relax and to do something fun for a part of their day. Hopefully everybody can look forward to coming in my room, and also like being able to do art.”