RMMS Computer Graphics Art Teacher Inspires Students
A Robert Moses Middle School computer graphics arts teacher, Mr. Eugene Rogovitz, has brought many new and creative projects to his students this year that reflect his desire to make a connection between students and content being taught. A case in point is his Bottle Label Design project which entailed students in essence inventing and designing a new beverage with a label, name, tagline, color scheme, nutritional value, and barcode. The result was a quite professional looking variety of new beverages that would appeal to anyone.
Another major project so far this year was the “Celebrating Diversity Silhouettes” in which students explored their cultural heritage and made a very professional looking photo-collage from images of their countries of origin. Then each student created a self image silhouette to put on top of their photo-collage. Explaining the project, Mr. Rogovitz says, “Overall, the theme was to show how as individuals we are unique and diverse, but together as the human race we are one. Ultimately, that's why we chose to take each individual collage and unite them together to form one big collage.” Students readily grasped the meaning of the project as reflected in the comments of student Gary Dornellas who stated, “The project showed the diversity of all the countries that we come from. It also showed that we are all a little different but in the end we all have a whole lot in common.”
Mr. Rogovitz inspires his students and draws out their talent. He has brought unusual creativity to his classroom that reflects his work as a graphic designer in Manhattan on projects that included the World Trade Center, the NY Jets, Zurich Financial, Liz Claiborne and NBC. His seven years as a store manager for Gap led to his discovering his passion for training and developing others, which eventually led to his wanting to be a teacher. He says, “ I loved working with people and utilizing creative action plans to get the most out of their talent. Those years in retail industry revealed my true passion for teaching.”
He strongly believes in making a connection between the student and the content being taught and says, “If you can somehow make the content relevant to students, they are more likely to actively engage with it. Even if you are referencing material from centuries ago, you have to associate it with some facet of a student’s life today.”
Mr. Rogovitz is always searching to find new ways for his students to really buy into what he’s teaching and to put them at the forefront of their own education. Director of Art Dr. Lowenborg-Coyne says of Eugene, “His lessons always begin with something near and dear to students such as sports, music, fashion, and it is through their interests that he introduces artistic elements. I would love to be a student in Mr. Rogovitz’s classroom!”
Needless to say, Mr. Rogovitz’s methods not only work but they also inspire. All you have to do is look at what his students have created this year. As Dr. Kim Lowenborg-Coyne also says, “He is a born teacher and is moving our department well into the 21st century.“ Pictured far right is Mr. Rogovitz with students in front of the “Diversity” project. Below are some pictures of the Bottle Label Design Project and the Diversity Silhouettes Project . Also we have included some of the artwork displayed at Barnes and Noble.
