Randall Roden has always been an artist, with teacher coming in a close second.
Roden earned his bachelor’s degree in art education from Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin; however, the job market for art teachers was not very strong after graduation. So, he founded his own company, Roden Creative, which specializes in graphic design, marketing, and photography. But he continued to pursue his dream of teaching, and eventually returned to school to earn his Master of Arts from UW-Madison. It took him six years while working part-time and managing his company.
Throughout his career, Roden has taught at several universities and colleges, but has now gotten back to his original plan of teaching art at the high school level. He is currently a long-term substitute art teacher at Oregon High School in Wisconsin.
Online courses offered through the Continuing Education Institute have been helpful in allowing Roden to earn his teacher recertification and continue to develop his skills. “I researched a number of opportunities for online classes, and what Platteville offered that would work toward my recertification was more relevant than what the other schools had.”
One course Roden took was Introduction to Spanish. “I needed three classes to renew my teacher’s license. I have a number of students who are bilingual, so I thought it would help with that,” he said. “It gave me a basic understanding of the Spanish language and the ability to speak and read it. It gave me the opportunity to build on that where I could actually use it in communicating with my students.”