South Fayette art teacher lauded with award
Diane Lally has vivid memories of many of her experiences.
Lally is still mesmerized by her observation of the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling while lying on its marble floors after hours, while visiting Vatican City during the summer of 1991 as through the National Endowment of the Humanities program.
Another day she fails to forget is her first day as a teacher. Without any experience as a student teacher or substitute, she walked into Shady Side Academy in Fox Chapel and became an art teacher, the yearbook adviser and head of the art department.
One recent experience that will live on in her memory happened in mid-July, when she pulled the contents from her mailbox.
“I slowly opened up the handwritten letter,” Lally said. “It was just a very exciting feeling.”
That feeling came from 27 years of dedication, 23 at the middle-school level, as she was honored with the 2016 Pennsylvania Art Education Association Outstanding Middle Level Art Educator of the Year award.
Lally, whose public education career started in 1992 at Chartiers Valley Middle School before arriving to South Fayette in 2002, made a commitment prior to entering the teaching field.
“I made a decision early in life that I wanted to be 100 percent on either being a mother or an art teacher,” she said. “I chose art. I’ve never regretted a day of it.”
With music in the background in a majority of her classes, Lally’s methods are far from traditional.
“I’m really big on creativity,” she said. “The days of just sitting quietly at their desks doesn’t happen anymore.”
Instead, she centers her classes on themes and brings what she has learned at nearby museums and universities to her own students.
Working with middle school STEAM coordinator Frank Kruth, Lally had her art classes work to build robots to integrate collaborative learning.
With total dedication to her students, Lally is now focusing on “Exploring the past, inventing the future,” her theme for the 2016-17 school year.
It will be far from the last theme she ever has to create.
“It’s my calling,” she said. “I really enjoy what I do. I always tell my kids that as long as I’m not physically unable and can keep my energy level up, then I will be here. When you find something you love, you will never work a day in your life.”