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FOCUS FIRST
What's In This Issue
What an amazing Teacher Appreciation Week! We hope all our TAA teachers feel celebrated and honored this week, and we can't wait to celebrate you more at TAA 2024. Be on the lookout for our newsletters and announcements regarding this summer's faculty, musers, and performances. You won't want to miss it!
In this week's newsletter, Faculty Focus introduces three more outstanding 2024 TAA faculty members. Get to know Elementary/Lower Middle Music Instructors Jacque Schrader and Rick Layton and Upper Middle/Secondary Visual Art Instructor David Tamori. They will all be bringing impressive skills to their Academy classrooms this summer.
Plus, keep reading to meet our May Teacher Hero and the prize winners of the TAA Foundation Teacher Appreciation Donation Sensation!
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Faculty Focus
Summer 2024 TAA
Jacque Schrader and Rick Layton
Elementary/Lower Middle Music
Core TAA Session: Delight Your Senses: Music, Movement, and Language
Jacque Schrader and Rick Layton have been teaching adults in Orff Schulwerk teacher education courses, state conferences, and national conferences in the United States for more than twenty-five years. Since the late 1980s they have taught together at the University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University, and George Mason University. In addition to their work in this country, both have taught internationally, including courses in Australia, Canada, China, Dubai, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Taiwan, and twice at the Orff Institute in Austria.
For the past thirty years, Jacque Schrader taught in the first school, lower school, and middle school at the Key School in Annapolis, Maryland. Most recently, Schrader has been appointed as the director of the Discovery Outreach Program for the Annapolis Symphony Academy. In this role, she has launched the Discovery Outreach Program for children from age five to ten. Schrader holds a degree from Drake University, and Orff Schulwerk Level III certification from Hamline University.
Richard Layton’s teaching has included being a professor of music theory at the University of Maryland, College Park since 1992, and teaching at the Key School in Annapolis, Maryland since 1979 where he was the upper school performing arts department chair. He holds a degree from West Chester University, and his master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Maryland. He is co-author of The Elemental Style: A Handbook for Composers and Arrangers.
MORE ON TAA 2024 MUSIC SESSIONS
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Faculty Focus
Summer 2024 TAA
David Tamori
Upper Middle/Secondary Visual Art
Core TAA Session: Teaching As an Inquiry-based Interaction
David Tamori served on the faculty at Oroville High School for more than thirty-seven years. He taught drawing, 2D design, 3D design, and jewelry making and supervised more than thirty student teachers. Tamori received the National Art Educators Association Award for Outstanding Secondary Art Educator in the Pacific region and the California Art Educators Award for Outstanding Secondary School Visual Art Educator. He served on the development committees for the Praxis, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and as a member of the Commission on Teacher Credentialing Bias Review Committee. Tamori is a consultant for the College Board Advanced Placement Art and Design Program in the Western region of the United States. While much of Tamori’s career as an artist and educator has focused on visual art, he is also an accomplished drummer and a founding member and president of the Artists of Rivertown, a non-profit group of Oroville artists.
MORE ON TAA 2024 VISUAL ART SESSIONS
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TAA Teacher Hero Award Winner
Congratulations to Monica O'Neill!
The Tennessee Arts Academy Foundation is very excited and pleased to announce the May 2024 TAA Teacher Hero Award winner – Monica O'Neill! Monica is an exemplary visual art teacher with many talents. She teaches at Rossview Elementary School in Clarksville, Tennessee and was nominated for this honor by her friend and colleague Amanda Oliver.
Please read below to learn more about this outstanding arts teacher!
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MONICA O'NEILL
MAY TAA TEACHER HERO
Monica O'Neill has dedicated more than twenty years of service as an elementary visual art educator in public schools. Her classroom is warm and inviting. She strives to provide a learning environment where students are exposed to art from around the world, explore many different art mediums, experience opportunities for self expression, and gain overall self confidence. She sponsors school art clubs as a volunteer. Monica mentors many student teachers and continues to support them after graduation. As co-Education Coordinator for Main Street Arts, she teaches children's camps and art workshops. She is also a freelance and studio artist with many awards to her credit. Her work has been featured and recognized in several art venues including juried exhibitions by the Cheatham County Arts League, River Arts Council, and Riverfest, among others. She has dedicated her life to teaching, creating, and supporting the arts and is an excellent role model for her students and colleagues.
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“I have never worked with a more talented teacher in my entire career. Monica O'Neill is the full package in one person. She is a master artist and she knows exactly how to get kids to work for her. Watching her process is absolutely magical.”
- Stacey Taylor, former colleague
“Mrs. O’Neill goes above and beyond as an art teacher at Rossview Elementary. She builds relationships with our students and they know that she cares about them. She is very talented and the students love her. She has a task of teaching over 1200 students and does it with love and grace.”
- Frances Ann Camp, Principal, Rossview Elementary
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The TAA Foundation Board of Directors and the TAA Administrative Council congratulate TAA 2024 April Teacher Hero Monica O'Neill,
Rossview Elementary School Principal Frances Ann Camp, and Clarksville Montgomery County School System Superintendent Dr. Jean Luna-Vedder for their commitment to excellence in teaching and their support of arts education.
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About The TAA Teacher Hero Award
The Tennessee Arts Academy Foundation created the TAA Teacher Heroes in Arts Education Award in order to recognize those teachers who every day put their talent and creativity on the line to go over and above what is required. TAAF's goal is to honor and recognize TAA Teacher Heroes by showcasing their accomplishments. Now more than ever, it is important to let the world know how much extraordinary work is being done in classrooms and schools across the state and nation by our most dedicated arts educators.
The 2024 Teacher Hero Award nomination period is now closed. The nomination period for 2025 will open on October 1, 2024. Thank you for supporting the TAA Teacher Heroes program!!
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Thank You For Helping Make Our Second Teacher Appreciation Event A Success! | |
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A very warm and heartfelt thank you to our many devoted Tennessee Arts Academy alumni, board members, current and former faculty, staff, and friends of the Academy for supporting the TAA Foundation Teacher Appreciation Donation Sensation!
We raised over $6,500 for TAA. On top of that, during the event, we received news of additional (and unexpected) grant funding that helped boost our total fundraising effort for the week. We are SO excited and appreciative of everyone's support and encouragement.
Most importantly, we were able to honor a large group of extraordinary teachers and help celebrate the hard work and dedication of ALL educators, both past and present.
Here is the list of winners for the contest portion of the Teacher Appreciation event! Congratulations to them and to all who participated.
Announcing Our Prize Winners!
Teacher Nominees Who Received The Highest Number of Points for
Most Unique Donations Pledged By Donors:
1st: Lauren Baker
2nd: Jerome Souther
3rd: Kami Lunsford/Jennifer Keith (Tie)
Teacher Nominees Who Received the Most Points for
Highest Dollar Amount Pledged By Donors:
1st: Hueston Marshall
2nd: Robyn Greene
3rd: Lucile Cady Edwards
**Winning teachers will receive gift cards per the game rules.
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Here's a Round of Applause for All Teachers This Week! | |
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"Kami Lunsford's joy and enthusiasm are contagious!!"
- Roland Wilson, Choral Music Teacher
Memphis Central High School, Memphis-Shelby County Schools
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Academy Essentials
What You Need To Know
WHO, WHEN AND WHERE: The Tennessee Arts Academy is held on the campus of Belmont University in Nashville on July 14-19, 2024. The Academy is designed for K-12 arts specialists, elementary classroom teachers, librarians, pre-service college education majors, and school administrators.
WHAT: Intensive discipline-specific training, nationally renowned speakers and performers, unique interdisciplinary workshops, and a host of fun and festive special events are all part of the TAA schedule.
FEES: The registration fee is only $449.00. On-campus housing is available for a nominal additional fee.
REGISTRATION INFO: Click here to apply for the 2024 Academy. First-time applicants receive priority acceptance. Regular registration continues through the end of June or until classes have been filled.
Don't miss the 2024 Tennessee Arts Academy!
It is a life changing and awe-inspiring week.
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TAA MISSION STATEMENT
The mission of the Tennessee Arts Academy is to provide exceptional quality professional development, arts training, support, encouragement, information and renewal to K-12 teachers and to promote and honor the role of the arts in the lives of all Tennesseans.
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The Tennessee Arts Academy is a project of the
Tennessee Department of Education and is funded under a grant contract with the State of Tennessee.
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Major corporate, organizational, and individual funding support
for the Tennessee Arts Academy Foundation in 2024 is generously provided by:
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Significant sponsorship, scholarship, and event support for the
Tennessee Arts Academy Foundation in 2024 is generously provided by:
Madeline and David Bridges; Marion and Stephen Coleman; Morel Enoch; Dorothy M. Gillespie Foundation; Jim Holcomb; Patricia A. Hudson; Ron and Karen Meers; Michael Meise; J. Tabor Stamper; Theatrical Rights Worldwide; Jeanette and Bill Watkins; Watkins College of Art at Belmont University; and Talmage Watts.
The Tennessee Arts Academy is funded in part by
Metro Arts / Nashville Office of Art + Culture.
Special thanks to the Robert K. & Anne H. Zelle Fund for the Fine and Performing
Arts of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee for their
funding support for the 2024 Tennessee Arts Academy programs.
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Help Support TAA by purchasing a Tennessee Specialty License Plate. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of Tennessee Specialty Plates goes directly to the Tennessee Arts Commission, which in turn, provides grants to the Tennessee Arts Academy. Click here to learn more about the Specialty License Plate program. Buy one today!
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Your donation helps ensure the work of the Tennessee Arts Academy,
bringing in world-class faculty and performers, providing scholarships, and continuing our legacy as the premier teacher training institute for arts education!
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