Teacher Feature

 Carol Mangano – Art Teacher Extraordinaire

If you ask Carol Mangano for one favorite experience teaching art to 6th-8th grade students at Rising Sun Middle in Cecil County, she will pause for a minute…then give you ten favorite experiences.   

Some of the most enjoyable experiences Carol can mention are her classroom’s tri-annual trips to Longwood Gardens, where she is also a current member of the Longwood Curriculum Advisory Board, assisting in the development of K-12 programs.  Carol has been teaching for twenty-five years, but sitting here at Longwood, she vividly remembers being an art student herself at the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia. She wants her students to have a similar and exciting experience, being able to visit local art institutes and historical sites.  “They are lucky that Longwood is close, it’s only twenty-seven minutes away.  The Delaware Art Museum and Longwood are my favorites. They experience local and regional enrichment.” 

Carol has been bringing her students to Longwood Gardens for thirteen years! Students are expected to demonstrate enthusiasm and dedication to the field trips.  A prerequisite to the trip is an application and written 100 word essay explaining how the trip will benefit their personal growth and influence their art production.  After the trips, they are informed of a mandatory essay that “describes the variety of gardens, types of art-related jobs and how you benefited from the experience.”

Carol’s entire program and partnership with Longwood Gardens is curriculum-based; she considers it a perfect fit. “The experience provided by Longwood demonstrates how students perceive, interpret and respond to ideas, experiences, and the environment through visual arts.”  While the curriculum-based field trips reinforced “individual accomplishments utilizing self/expression” the “Capture-It Program at Longwood and the Photography Workshop served as a means of establishing relationships with other educators.  Students exhibited a sense of pride as they were walking down the garden paths.”

“The gardens have something that would interest every student in one way or another.  Many students have their own gardens at home, maybe even flower gardens – a lot of the students in my school come from a farming community. If you name different kinds of fruits and vegetables for them to draw (especially during Autumns Colors, when the harvest displays appear) they or someone they know grows it!”

Carol frequently has students make contacts and exhibit their own art at Cecil College and Elkton Arts Center, just as she still does.  Her student’s photos of Longwood Gardens were entered in the county’s media festival and the first annual Visual Communications Photo Exhibit.  The photos won top award and second place for the middle school division of a juried exhibit at Cecil College.  The students can print photos and also use technology at home – they go to different places, meet a variety of people, and make classroom-based connection “all the way!”

Carol’s classroom adventures at Longwood Gardens are not just about art, but increasing other skills.  The students work in teams and share each unique experience with one another.  All of their thoughts are put in a long essay at the end of each marking period, as well as numerous art projects (some exhibited on this page), resulting in regional scholarship and grant recognition.  She has students keep journals throughout the school year, documenting each day’s class work.  In the end, they use these entries and reflect on the year.

After visiting Longwood, Carol says “my students’ work improves; they get inspired, they get ideas.  They take pictures of things they like and bring them back to the classroom.  Many of the students repeat the trip.  They have gone on the CaptureIt tour [Nurturing Curiosity art class] as well as self-guided adventures.”

But most importantly, Carol notes, “they get so charged from these experiences! It is amazing to think how just one student picture of a flower or a vegetable in the Gardens, can lead to a paper, a group project, and even a competition!”

Cecil Soil Magazine article featuring Carol Mangano and students at Longwood Gardens, click here.