Paint brushes moving swiftly, kids being creative working hard on art, this is a typical day in Mx. Adams art workshop. Central Kitsap High school is very fortunate to have such a creative, charismatic, and loving art teacher. 

Dawn Alexandra Adams, more commonly known as Mx. Adams, around CKHS, was originally born in Washington DC but was mainly raised in Montana. Adams originally moved to Washington because her husband was stationed here but after he retired, they knew this was the place for them to settle down for the time being. 

Adams loves to be creative in and outside of school, when she’s not helping students discover their inner artist, she’s picking up some new hobby to try something new. 

“I think one of my favorite things to do is choose a new hobby, get all of the stuff to do it and learn how to do it, then move on to a new hobby. When you choose things like welding, wood working, and quilting as hobbies, it gets very expensive.” Said Adams

After high school, Adams attended Montana State for college and majored in art and education. Originally, Adams was interested in being a pediatric neurosurgeon and even attended college for it. After going through some pre-medical work, Adams clearly knew that type of work was too emotional for her and that she wanted a change up. Already knowing she enjoyed doing art because she took many art classes in high school, she “completely swung the other way”, said Adams, and decided to become an artist. 

“I started out wanting to be a pediatric neurosurgeon and I went to college for it. I went through pre-med work and then realized that I could not tell a family bad news about their child, so I completely swung the other way around and became an artist. I then met my husband, but realized since the internet wasn’t really a thing yet, that I couldn’t travel and build a clientele as an artist, so I needed something to go with the art I was studying. I think this is where I am supposed to be,” said Adams. 

Adams has taught all grade levels, preschool through college, but teaching high students is definitely her favorite. 

“I love working with kids and young adults. I’ve taught all grade levels, preschool through college. My favorite thing is that high schoolers are in a beautiful place where they are sassy, you start to understand sass, and are learning to give it back, and this is such a beautiful environment to do that in because school is such a social place. I’ve taught all kinds of classes, all kinds of grade levels, teaching art is definitely my favorite.” Said Adams. 

Mx. Adams is known around CKHS for being charismatic because she works really hard to make her students feel safe and welcome in her classroom. 

“I have Mx. Adams for design and drawing this semester. I love her, she’s super inviting, likes to bring people together, and she’s just super nice. I definitely recommend her class, it’s super fun and if you like doing art stuff, you’re going to have a great time in her class,” said Kai Waggoner. 

Waggoner wasn’t the only person to enjoy Mx. Adams class and classroom environment.

“I liked how open she is with her students because I think that allows other people to look up to her and makes you feel heard. I also really appreciate and like that she looks at each student as an individual and not just as a whole class. I definitely like how she makes her and her classroom feel safe for everyone,” said senior, Jaidyn Velece. 

Velece also goes to explain Adam’s open to interpretation teaching style with her students.

“I love her teaching style because it kind of allows students to work at their own pace. She also doesn’t have super strict expectations necessarily which is nice because it kind of allows you to interpret it in your own way. She really helped me open up my perspectives on things.” said Velece. 

All in all, Mx. Adams is a very caring and important asset to the CKHS community as a whole and now hopefully you know a little bit more about our beloved art teacher.