Fashion story boards. Paper food trucks. Pop-art-painted vinyl records. Down the Summit Academy Secondary School Akron hallways, exhibits of cleverly concocted paintings, drawings and 3-D pieces give modern-art gallery vibes.
Art teacher Anyah Parker students’ work consumes a generous portion of the
school building’s walls. Each of Parker’s art lessons begins on Monday and ends with finished pieces on Thursday. The pace is fast. The process is smooth. The outcomes are inviting.
On a Tuesday afternoon in April, Parker gives her students instructions on how to make a rice fantasy map. They start by painting paper with coffee. Parker tells them the more strokes they apply, the darker the outcome. Once the canvases dry, Parker pours rice on them. The students shape their rice mounds by hand into different designs which they outline with fine-tip markers. The rice is removed, and island images emerge
Parker then calls on her students to name their islands and to add six to eight locations on them. She shows her own creation of 
Parker’s Palace, which includes landmarks like Possible Pond, Hidden Hills and Volcano Valley. Using line drawing techniques such as stippling, hatching and cross-hatching, the students also incorporate mountains, trees, rivers and other geographic features into their island maps.
Parker says she selects projects she hopes will appeal to her students and spark interaction.
“I try to keep it as interesting as possible,” she says, as she watches her students swap creative ideas.
Tenth-grader Michael Novak gives classmate Noah Jackson, also a sophomore, suggestions on island shapes while he works on his own Turtle Island. “It’s in the beginning stages, a light house and a castle, that’s all I got right now,” Novak says.
By the time class ends, Jackson’s previously nondescript island features a Black Forest, Dragons’ Den 
and Mystic Lake. Perhaps all the progress was predictable for a creative young man who says he has been drawing for years.
In addition to their aesthetic qualities, Parker’s classroom projects may tell a story, evoke an emotion or spark a career possibility. During an Inside Out art therapy week, for example, Parker engaged her students in a series of projects through which they could express their emotions. The students created sensory jars containing scraps of paper in colors that represented their feelings. On toilet paper rolls they painted self-portraits that revealed their emotions in real-time. Tenth-grade student Kayleigh Young gave her finished piece to teacher Melanie Grady. “I see Miss Grady like a grandma. I gave it to her, and we ended up talking about it,” says Young, explaining the sadness she projected through her art project.
Young then points to her favorite art class project thus far, a small-scale
fuchsia vintage dress design. She says her concept was inspired by her grandmother, who has a flair for fashion and sewing. Likewise, Novak steps into the hallway to show his choice artwork, an image of Handsome Squidward from a “Sponge Bob Square Pants” episode, which he painted on a vinyl disc.
“It’s one of my favorite projects. I was very proud of myself for making it,” he says.
Parker’s lessons have yielded everything from functional art, such as coasters and tote bags, to business plans and history lessons. Earlier this year, students were tasked with creating small paper food trucks for which they drafted business plans. They also crafted
mosaics out of compact disc pieces as they learned about CDs’ earlier popularity in the audio industry.
As she has watched her students grow on multiple levels, Parker says she has done the same. Last year, which was Parker’s first as the school’s art teacher, came with some growing pains, acclimation and long hours spent developing just the right lessons. “This year is more of a zen. It comes more naturally,” Parker explains. “I feel I’ve built great relationships with the students.”
Indeed, she has, says 10th grader Breah Kimbrough. “Ms. Parker is cool, like the other side of a pillow,” she jokes.
From their growing bodies of work, students will select their favorite pieces to be placed on display at the school’s April 24 Family Night.