Excellent Educator: Osseo Senior High's Dan Prody

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- When it comes to budget cuts in schools, art programs are sometimes the first on the chopping block.

Bteacher at Osseo Senior High is showing how valuable art can be by helping students use it to pay for college.

It's what makes Dan Prody this week's Excellent Educator.

Prody has been teaching ceramics for six years. You can find his students' art on display throughout the school, including the main office.

Prody may have gotten the teaching bug from his mom, who was an English teacher for 35 years, but it was working with his dad that got him into art.

"I grew up working construction with my dad," Prody said, "and I enjoy working with my hands and I really like the creative aspect of it."

Prody got the art itch in high school, but it was his first love that helps him connect with his students today.

"I didn't participate in art until I got into high school. I considered myself more of an athlete and I played hockey, and I was into other things and then I got into ceramics it was just eye opening to me. So my job as an educator, I kind of view myself as a coach and bringing out that talent and bringing out that love of making things," he said.

The secret to teaching art, according to Prody, is getting students comfortable with failing.

"Being OK with accepting failure and learning from that failure," he said.

Roberta Farrell, the head of Osseo's art department, said that Prody dedicates time to watching his students grow.

"He spends a lot of time after school with kids helping them and giving them opportunities to be able to do their best work,"  Farrell said.

All that extra TLC is paying off. Several of Prody's students just learned they are the recipients of the Minnesota Scholastic Art Awards.

"Mr. Prody got six kids with Gold Keys, which is a top ceramics award, five kids with silver and eight kids with honorable mentions," Farrell said. "It's quite a bit for one teacher. Historically Osseo has had one or two kids, so he's really been building the program along with really encouraging kids to enter competitions."

The competitions help when applying for college. The nationally-recognized Minnesota Scholastic Art Awards means the students have a better chance of receiving scholarships.

"Huge for them," Prody said. "I'm really proud. We've been working really hard, we've been staying after school and putting in some long nights, so I'm really excited for them."

The students' work will be on display during the Minnesota Scholastic Art Award Exhibition. That goes from Feb. 3 to Feb. 21 at the University of Minnesota's Regis Center for Art West Gallery.