“I hope you get it,” said Anna Coleman to Journee Hayes. Hayes replied, “I hope you get it.”
Coleman and Hayes are good friends—and this year, they were two of the 22 teachers nominated for Santa Cruz County Teacher of the Year honors. Hayes ended up winning Teacher of the Year. And Coleman, Elgin School’s art teacher, won runner-up.
Coleman has held a wide variety of positions at Elgin School since 2004. After starting out as a parent volunteer, she was hired as a long-term sub before serving for two years as librarian and literacy coach. Over the next few years, she taught second, third and fourth grade, before becoming the art teacher for grades K through eight. 2025-6 is her third year in the Art Room. “I absolutely love it,” she said.
Coleman’s approach to teaching art is to first gain the students’ trust.
“Children need a few adults they can trust in their lives,” she said. “So, I first teach them the basics, the principles and the elements of art. I give the kids the opportunity to learn in the best way that they can. In grad school I studied the theory of Lev Vygotsky who believed that a teacher should push students to a feeling of slight discomfort, so they know the teacher has expectations of them. Once feeling a little discomfort from pushing themselves, the students will keep growing and never go back.”
“I love my team here at the Elgin School,” she said. “I want to support my fellow colleagues, especially the younger and newer teachers. I have served under seven superintendents, and our current super is the best one yet. We have a culture of rowing a boat together.”
Coleman hopes to remain Elgin’s art teacher for the near future.
“Kids are my life,” she said. “I want them to feel safe.”
In 2014, with the help of her husband, Steve, Coleman opened the Patagonia Youth Enrichment Center to serve youths aged 10 to 20. The center is open Monday through Friday, and sometimes on weekends for special events. Coleman’s daughter Caitlyn assists with the activities.
“I love the Youth Center,” Coleman said. “I think this ties together my passion and my genuine love for youth. I teach the children during the day, and then I support teens after school.”
Coleman was born and raised in the state of Washington. She received her degree in education, psychology, and English from Carroll College in Helena, MT where she also met her husband. The couple moved first to Glendale and then Tucson where Coleman worked for a while at her father’s vet clinic.After the birth of her daughters, she ran a preschool out of her house and then opened the Riverdance Enrichment Center which enabled homeschooling parents to network and provide their children with social and cultural experiences, music, science and hands-on learning.
While raising her kids, Coleman got her Masters in language, reading, and culture at the U of A. After her grandmother, Marie Shore of Sonoita, passed away in 2004, the Colemans bought her 40-acre ranch and moved to Sonoita. Horses, goats, livestock, chickens and 4-H dominated the family’s lives, and Coleman served as a 4-H leader for the next ten years. The daughters grew up, animals grew old and passed, and the Encino Fire took their barns and the rest of the livestock.
Recently, however, Coleman has acquired three Nigerian Dwarf goats, which she feeds and milks twice a day. She also makes cheese.
Asked if she has time to sleep, Coleman replied, “About five hours a night.”