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Maggie Parks of Garwin spent 35 years teaching art in the area public schools, earning countless awards and accolades along the way. Although she retired from Marshalltown Community School District at the end of the 2025-26 school year, she's returning to teaching this fall as the newly hired part-time art teacher at St. Francis Catholic School.
"It's definitely time for me to slow down. I've been in two or three schools most of my career, and so this is an opportunity to work half time and be in just one building, but still be involved with teaching because I'm not ready to stop teaching," Parks said.
Her credentials are impressive: she won the Marshalltown Optimist Club Golden Apple Award for Specialists in 2005; was the Art Educators of Iowa President for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years; 2010-2011 Art Educators of Iowa Art Teacher of the Year; 2016 recipient of The United States Society for Education Through Art inaugural Excellence in PK-12 Art Education Award; served as secretary for the Iowa Alliance for Arts Education (2014-2019), and more.
Her high school art teacher, Lorrie Anderson, at ADM Community Schools in Adel, nurtured her love of the profession. Parks pursued her education at Iowa State University earning a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education in December of 1990, followed by a Master of Arts in Art and Design in December of 2004.
"When I got my master's degree I received the same award, twice (2002 and 2003)," she said. "It was from ISU's College of Design for Outstanding Student Teacher/Researcher."
Her first teaching job ran from August 1991 through June 1998 in a K-12 shared position with Green Mountain-Garwin and South Tama County schools.
In August 1998, she began working for Marshalltown schools, initially teaching art part-time at Miller Middle School before splitting time among the district's elementary schools.
"Then the next year I worked at Miller, Anson, and Hoglan, and then for the next four years, I was at Woodbury and Anson, and then for the next six years I was at Fisher, Hoglan, and Anson. And then for the last 16 years, I was at Woodbury and Fisher," she noted.
In 2017, she was selected to be part of a fine arts team that developed recommended statewide standards in fine arts with the Department of Education.
"That took about two years," she said. "Then I remained on an advisory board for the Dept of Ed for several years after that."
Parks said she grew to love working with young students.
"I see this with a lot of art teachers: they don't envision themselves as elementary teachers. Then after a while, it sucks you in as you start to understand children. I still love hanging out with middle school and high school aged students," she said.
Coming into the new school year, Parks doesn't just want students to learn the basics of art, but rather, how art can build character.
"I think a big role that art can play is to help students to tap into their compassion and think about other people and what their lives are like, treat other people with compassion and really bring out the best in themselves," she said. "When I got my bachelor's degree it was about how to teach art, and my master's degree (focused on) the why."
She has a pottery studio in her basement where she and her husband Les used to make pet urns for a vet clinic in Tama. In her home art studio, she enjoys doing gelli printing and collage.
She and her husband are members of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Tama, and usually attend the Hispanic Mass.
"I've just rejoined the Spanish choir after an extended break. Singing in Latin in church gave me the confidence to join a choir in a language I only have a basic knowledge of. It has been an incredibly rewarding experience," she said.
Outside of work, her main hobby is rock hounding, making trips to Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota and Arkansas.
"I have a really good friend who is a prospector, so we'll go on trips looking for agates and crystals. He mines for diamonds and pans for gold," she noted. "I collect what I find but I don't do a lot of buying."
To learn more, she may be reached at: mparks@st-francis.net