Darlene Tanner

Lower School Art, Japanese

Darlene Tanner, the art teacher for Cubs through First Grade, has been a teacher at USJ for nine years. She received her master of arts in education from Union University. 

Raised in Japan by parents who were missionaries there, Mrs. Tanner teaches Japanese for a quarter to fifth grade students as part of their passport language rotation.

Her goal as a teacher is to teach her students “the skills they need so they can create anything in their imagination.” 

The daughter of Baptist missionaries, Mrs. Tanner was born in Tokyo, Japan. She came back to the USA for a year of furlough when she was 5, 10 and 15. She also went to boarding school in Taiwan, where graduated from High School. She came back to Tennessee to attend Union University. Her majors were art and sociology.
 
She married David Tanner in 1979 and stayed home to raise two children: Nolan and Emily. Once the children started school, she worked part time. One of her favorite jobs was working with Belinda Patterson as a clay artist assistant. Her son, Nolan, is now one of the computer techs at Jackson Madison County Schools. Emily graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a parks and recreation degree and works at the Nashville Zoo as as an animal show specialist.

In 1999 Mrs. Tanner was offered a job at USJ as an art teacher. After teaching for a year, she went back to Union to get her master of arts in education. She loves the school, the children and the opportunity to teach art to the "little ones".

Even though Mrs. Tanner does not live in Japan any more, she has been back several times. She recently took two trips back. One was a mission trip with her church. The second trip was with her Mother (Ramona Mercer). They were invited back to southern Japan where her Mother was a missionary and where Darlene grew up. They had a wonderful time getting to see places they recognized, and even better, to see people they had not seen in 25 years. In July 2008, Darlene joined a group from Union University on a "Footsteps of Paul" tour, visiting Greece, Turkey, and Italy.
 
Mrs. Tanner also has an interest in the outdoors. She and her husband take care of six llamas and about 20 pygmy goats (miniatures). They enjoy taking care of them and selling the offspring. Some of the students may remember Saturn, a tri-colored Bolivian llama that she brought to school for Cinco de Mayo. Walter, a white llama, also has visited.

Because of her love of gardening, Mrs. Tanner also decided to become a master gardener. Classes were offered through the Agricultural Extension Service. She has enjoyed doing volunteer work with the Madison County organization. She just started her 10th year. She is the secretary for the Madison County Master Gardeners.
 
She enjoys working at USJ because of "the supportive atmosphere from parents, fellow teachers, school organizations (Fine Arts, Mothers' Club, Academic Support Group), and the Directors.”

E-mail Darlene Tanner