Visual arts teacher Leslie Burwell has always been a storyteller, her roots in the craft going as far back as her love for art itself.
“[When I was a kid], I was always making,” Burwell said. “My mom said my favorite thing to do was sit at my table, make Play-Doh animals, put them on the windowsill and talk to them; they would become my little critters in my stories.”
Today, if you ask the people around her what they think is interesting about Burwell, they will probably mention something about her stories.
“She is one of the most surprising people I have ever met,” theatre teacher Kayla Sharp said. “She will tell a story that will shock you but at the same time make you laugh and give you an emotional reaction in a very raw, real way.”
Sharp believes that Burwell has brought this ability to elicit a strong emotional reaction through storytelling into the classroom as a strategy for connecting with students.
“She is able to do that with her students too,” Sharp said. “She is able to tap into a very clear emotional response in them, even if it’s just through their artwork.”
Burwell’s students see this in their teacher as well.
“She likes to have us talk about ourselves and our lives,” senior Sara Jackson said. “She lets us come to her almost like a mother figure and [she] gives us advice and is there for us to support us.”
Burwell’s love for telling stories recently came to Northwood in the production of “One Home,” a play written by Burwell in the wake of her return from a trip to South Africa.
“I’ve seen poverty in my life, but I’ve never seen that amount,” Burwell said. “The thing about it is, you don’t feel like you’re walking away from poverty…. In South Africa there was such joy and happiness despite the situation, and I just wanted to bring it back and share it with my students.”
The proceeds from the show were all donated to LIV, an orphanage in South Africa. Several of Burwell’s students became involved in the production and were very impressed by their teacher’s devotion to this cause.
“It was an amazing experience,” said junior Joseph Lorbacher, co-president of the National Art Honor Society. “I think it was so great that she did something like that, especially when not many organizations here are doing something that really affects somewhere else around the globe.”
The word “global” is something else that comes up often in the discussion about Burwell. In her time at Northwood, she has taken student groups on trips to New York City, Paris, London, Italy and Spain. Because of the value she sees in traveling, she has made it a goal to provide the opportunity to students.
“When my daughter got to travel, we made her get a job to pay for the trip,” Burwell said. “I saw the benefit of what traveling did for [her] and [my son]…. The independence that they came back with and the ability to know that they’re okay if they decided to travel on their own made me want to do that globally with my students.”
Burwell believes that, especially in the art field, travel gets students involved in a way the classroom cannot.
“I realized the value of traveling with my students because those that went with me were able to connect to the art they saw and see it come alive and then carry that over into the classroom environment,” Burwell said.
Burwell’s passion for helping students can be traced to her past.
“I didn’t want to be an artist at first,” Burwell said. “My mother was an artist, and I wanted to be very different from her, as I think most of us do. I went to college for special education and took art classes as part of that field, because you have [art] tasks that you can teach students who face challenges.”
Burwell’s studies in special education brought her to Duke Hospital, where she met a man named Patrick.
“He was an artist who had lost his leg, so we used to draw together, just thinking of therapy,” Burwell said. “This is when I decided that I really liked teaching. I didn’t think I wanted to be so emotionally invested, so I switched to art education and went to Meredith [College].”
Following in the footsteps of her mother, Burwell became an art teacher.
“I was going to get an MFA (Master of Fine Arts), but that never happened,” Burwell said. “I fell in love, got married and started teaching to help raise the kids.”
Burwell and her husband Lee have two children, Rebecca and Daniel. Now that they have grown up, Burwell does not see Northwood as her final destination.
“I think in our society, we think ‘one career’ and ‘one job,’ but I think because women have children, we always have different seasons in our lives,” Burwell said. “And for me, I love teaching, but it’s not going to be the only thing I ever do.”
Burwell plans to get her MFA when she retires. However, for the time being, she will continue teaching, and many students think she is very well suited for the job.
“She’s probably one of the most dedicated and hard-working teachers that I’ve ever had,” junior Sierra Blackwell said. “There’s never a day that she’s not here for us. She goes out of her own pocket to get us materials all the time, she gives people rides home if they need it, she just does everything she can for her students to get the most out of her class.”
Other students thank Burwell for helping them find their inner artists.
“If it weren’t for Mrs. Burwell, I definitely wouldn’t be a painter right now,” senior Tatyana Barrett said. “I’ve grown close with [her], and I can trust her with anything.”
Burwell’s job as an art teacher has allowed her to reach young adults and impart the wisdom she has learned about finding herself.
“I think that life is an adventure,” Burwell said. “Our goal as teachers is to prepare our students so that they can live their dreams and be prepared for whatever they want to be prepared for. I think that a sense of adventure and a little bit of ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m going to try it out’ is all somebody needs.”
– By Lanna Read
