Elementary Fine Arts and Physical Education
Meet Our Teachers!
Elementary Art
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As a young child, April James, lived in Japan. Her bedroom looked over a rice field, with Mount Fuji behind it. Her mother kept a notebook with drawings Ms. James began making at age three, of the images she experienced while living in Japan. She has always had interest in people and their culture, traveling and art. Ms. James has traveled all over the world, including Thailand, China, Israel, most of Europe and both North and South Africa, but she is not finished yet! She still plans to visit Iceland.
Ms. James doesn’t just paint and draw, she also buys houses and remodels them. She loves to take a worn home and make it look fantastic again. Ms. James has been buying and selling homes for 20 years.
Ms. James finds being creative has helped her invent ways to earn a living. The way she paid for college was by buying vintage clothing and mid-century furniture at thrift stores and reselling them to collectors. She has never had student debt. Yeah!!
She believed thinking creatively means more than the fine arts. It is the ability to problem solve and find solutions using a new pathway. |
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D.J. Mooneyham is an Elementary Art teacher with MVUSD. He earned a fine Arts degree with an emphasis in painting and drawing at the esteemed University of California, Santa Barbara. During his collegiate career, he studied drawing under the world renown Eric Beltz.
D.J. is a practicing artist who's work can be seen on display at events throughout the Inland Empire and Los Angeles. His work is published on his Instagram account @mooneyjam
After finishing his Bachelor's Degree, D.J. obtained a Masters degree in Education at the University of Redlands. He has been using his knowledge of Fine Arts and teaching to train the next generation of Moreno Valley artists.
D.J. grew up in Moreno Valley and is a product of the MVUSD school system. His goal is to help grow Fine Arts in Moreno Valley, and help strengthen the MVUSD Fine Arts program. |
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Ryan Taylor is a bipedal man with a bristly beard. His zest for life and art is only overshadowed by his deep love for fried food and family. His four daughters continue to add various shades of gray to his beard. Getting into the classroom was natural to him as his parents were both school teachers. His father coached various sports, and taught science, and his mother taught English. How he ended up in Art? His love for comic books most likely. Outside of school he is a published author, as well as a comic book writer. He also insists that you know he is originally from Houston, Tx.
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Elementary General Music
Nicholas Kelly has an educational background that includes a BA in Music Education and a MA in Curriculum and Instruction. Mr. Kelly holds a clear professional credential with CLAD certification in Multiple Subjects and also a Single Subject authorization for Music K-6. He began his teaching career in LAUSD in 1993 and has worked for MVUSD since 1998. He worked as a multiple subject classroom teacher in third through sixth grades for over 21 years before moving into his current position as one of our districts elementary music teachers. Music is his passion and he hope to cultivate an interest in it for your student. As he let students know the first week of school, everyone can do well at music because everyone is born with a beat and thus music is inside all of us.
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Paul Sexauer has loved music ever since he was a child. He would always sing and hum songs. When Mr. Sexauer was 12 he started playing guitar. When he entered middle school he joined choir and continued choir on into high school. During college Mr. Sexauer took more music classes and went on to get his A.A. in music. Then he received his teaching credential and taught elementary school. Mr. Sexauer wanted to be an elementary music teacher in school but the jobs never came up in the districts where he worked. After 30 years of teaching, he had pretty much gave up on his dream of becoming an elementary school music teacher. Then in 2015, Moreno Valley posted a job for an elementary music teacher. He applied and here he is. He finally received the job that he went to school to do! |
Elementary Physical Education
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John Kush has been a teacher in the Moreno Valley Unified School District since the year 2000. His first 16 years were as a high school teacher at Valley View High School, where he taught health science and physical education. John also coached various sports at Valley View, such as, swimming, football, and soccer. John is currently in his third year of being an elementary physical education teacher with MVUSD, and loving working with the students. John married in July 2013. In November 2014, his son, Dorian, was born. Recently in December of 2017, John earned his Master’s degree from Ohio University. John’s passion for teaching started when he started coaching high school soccer while going to college. |