Every year, Arcadia High School (AHS) is honored to have amazing new teachers join the staff. This year, one of the newest additions is Ms. Lolbette Moreno, who is currently teaching Ceramics 1 and 2 in classroom G-102.  

Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley area, Ms. Moreno loves to incorporate her cultural background into her work. She finds inspiration from her culture, pop culture, and artist friends. She also paints patterns she sees in her surroundings, such as roses and iron fences in her backyard. Additionally, Ms. Moreno loves painting eyes and includes them in many of her works. 

Before coming to AHS, Ms. Moreno graduated from California State University, Los Angeles with a BA and MA in Education and Teaching. She has taught classes for Ceramics, Yearbook, Drawing, and Painting at two other schools, but her favorite subject to teach is ceramics, which she has taught for six years. Her favorite part of being a ceramics teacher is finding hidden talents that her students have, and then watching them grow as artists. 

“It’s so fun to show them how talented they really are!” said Ms. Moreno. Self-expression and artistry are a huge part of ceramics, and she loves to help them discover these aspects of themselves.

As a teacher, Ms. Moreno enjoys bringing her artistic knowledge and skills to the classroom so that her students can apply it to their work. Since everyone has their own style, she believes that it is important to learn from many art teachers so that students can see what they want to take from each one. 

She herself studied art abroad in Italy, France, and Japan, and continues to take summer workshops in painting and ceramics with master artists; from these workshops, she gains advanced art skills to better instruct her classes.

“I love structuring clay for the sculpture projects that we do in class!” exclaimed junior Shuhao Chen. 

While patiently guiding her students, Ms. Moreno believes that mistakes are always an option in the classroom, and are actually the key to improvement. Therefore, she tries her best to encourage students to have fun and enjoy themselves while creating beautiful pieces of art. Her preferred method of teaching is through demonstration first, then having students try it themselves—with assistance if needed. Through Ms. Moreno’s hands-on approach, students learn by trying over and over again. 

One of the phrases that she repeats to her students is to “be patient with themselves and to experiment.” She believes that “in art, you have to make a lot of work to start seeing what you’re good at or what you’re interested in.”

We are honored to have Ms. Moreno at AHS, and cheers to another great year with wonderful additions to the staff!