Mrs. Johnson, the Color & Design teacher, if you know her. Her birthday is on March 7, so on that day, you could leave a gift. She was born in El Paso, Texas. The firstborn out of four kids. She’s been all over the place: she hasn’t moved once, or twice, but twelve times before she went to college. She went to Israel, lived in Maryland, moved to Turkey, went to Syria, lived in Arizona, and other places in and outside of the United States until her family moved to California. Traveling is one of her favorite things to do; Israel is her favorite place to travel to and see how the country changes over time.

“It’s fun to meet new people and get experiences, traveling and seeing new sights,” Mrs. Johnson said. “I love it.”

She went to college in Western New York at a place called Houghton College. She was there from 1988 to 1992, four years of college where she played field hockey on a girl’s team. Mrs. Johnson had the dream of becoming a nurse, but due to things taking other turns, nursing would not work out. Her art teacher was an inspiration and motivation for a new option, so she decided that studying art was a better choice. She talked it out with her father and landed with art education when she started college.

“He said, ‘Try something else,’” Mrs. Johnson mentioned. “And I said, ‘Okay,’ so like, I went through the catalog, and I was looking and looking and a few days later, I called back and asked my dad, can I do art education? And he’s like, yes, you can do art education.”

Having instant friends somewhere new is a great feeling, and that’s exactly how Mrs. Johnson felt when she started college. Pre-sessions in sport helps with friends when they begin two weeks before the semester starts. Though they helped her feel encouraged, her home was 90 minutes away, and she couldn’t see her parents too often, making it hard when she doubted herself or had her struggles. But the professors and everyone else made it an enjoyable experience with all their help and support.

“But my professors always gave me extra help, and other people gave me help,” Mrs. Johnson said. “And I loved it, it was a great, great time for me.”

Speaking of college, during and before college, Mrs. Johnson had all sorts of jobs, some that related to her position now, and some that were not even near related to her teaching Color and Design, from working at Michael’s, to stamping passports during her high school years, to working in a kindergarten, elementary, and middle school where she taught art. This led her to DP in 2021, making this her third year here.

All this work keeps her busy, giving her not much time during the school year for one of her favorite things to do, hiking. Going to Rattlesnake Canyon was one of her favorite places to hike, but unfortunately an accident happened. She broke her ankle bones there and now fears going back. That said, she has recently prompted herself to hike again, even if it’s just hiking somewhere else, just to do it more often.

Apart from work and hiking, Mrs. Johnson likes to spend her time with art—sound familiar?

“I love sculptures and watercolor painting,” Mrs Johnson mentioned. “And like what I’m talking about sculptures, I mean, like paper mache sculptures, or I’ve never figured out how to do metal wielding yet but that would be something cool.”

Restaurants are also one of Mrs. Johnson’s hobbies—teachers also eat outside of school! Mrs. Johnson will go all the way to Ventura and Santa Maria, even if it’s just to eat steak at Outback Steakhouse, or a salad at Olive Garden.

“Sometimes I would just drive over there just to eat their steak!” Mrs. Johnson said.

Have you ever thought about when you were younger and things always seemed much bigger? When some things were not that big of a deal and you always thought that they were, and other things that were to be taken seriously never were. That’s exactly what Mrs. Johnson was like when she was her younger self.

“When I was in fourth grade there was not a lot of grass in Georgia,” Mrs. Johnson said. “It was like a lot of dirt and sand. And I liked to clean my shoes during class time. Because I never wanted to have my shoes all dusty and dirty, you know, so we would sit and we would clean our shoes. We would lick our fingers and we’d clean our shoes.”

Kids will be kids, and they will not make big of a deal out of eating germs, but they will make a big of a deal out not finding their mother when playing hide and seek, and that’s exactly one of Mrs. Johnson’s favorite childhood memories. As an adult, she now looks back on this as something to cherish and laugh at.

“We were all playing hide and go seek,” Mrs. Johnson mentioned. “And my mom hid in the laundry chute. And we ran around my brother’s room and we yelled our heads off. When we saw my mom, she popped her head out of the laundry chute and it scared us. But I think that’s one of the funniest things that has ever happened in my life.”

Though you might not know it, you could have a lot in common with Mrs. Johnson—you just have to talk to her. There’s a lot more to her than what you can imagine. Teachers are there to get to know their students, and students can get to know their teachers, too.