Celebrating GREAT teaching in Art

Westbrook Art Department is always delighted to celebrate the success of students and teachers.

This year, Westbrook Art, joins the MAEA in recognizing the efforts of Ms. Debra Bickford as “Secondary Art Educator” of the Year;

Over the years Debra Bickford has demonstrated again and again that she is an!

exceptional artist and gifted teacher. In my opinion she is the perfect model for a

teacher of art in the 21st century. She is a highly dedicated professional who knows how

to motivate students to strive for excellence. Both in the classroom and in person, Ms.

Bickford is a dynamic and powerful communicator who possesses the gift of being able

to make complex subjects understandable. In spite of these formidable gifts, she is a

humble and approachable person who loves to share her knowledge and skills with

others (her students and colleagues in particular!)

And WSD in recognizing Ms. Melissa Perkins as Congin School’s “Teacher of the Year”

I am most impressed by Melissa’s commitment to Arts Integration as it can be a hard model for classroom teachers to buy into. As art teachers we know that the visual arts often scare teachers who don't have experience in it. Melissa’s commitment to keep art central to learning, by seeking out information on what is happening in each grade-level classroom, and infusing it in her instruction and grade-level curriculum, is exemplary practice. This also speaks to Melissa’s ability to be visibly passionate about what she does. If you’re not excited about art education (and the essentialness of learning in the arts) there’s no chance your colleagues, students, or community will be. I once read that “the most wonderful thing in the world is seeing someone do something that they love really well” and I couldn’t agree more!

“The arts inform as well as stimulate; they challenge as well as satisfy. Their location is not limited to galleries, concert halls, and theaters. Their home can be found wherever humans chose to have attentive and vita intercourse with life

itself.” (Elliot W. Eisner)