Tag Archives: Performing Arts Teachers

Music educator Louise Smith named 2024 Mississippi Teacher of the Year

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Middle school music educator Louise Smith has been named the 2024 Mississippi State Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: Gautier Middle School

I am always excited to share the story of an exceptional educator who has been honored for their work in the classroom. One of these is Louise Smith, an instrumental music teacher from Gautier, Mississippi. She has been named her state’s 2024 Teacher of the Year.

Louise teaches seventh and graders at Gautier Middle School in Gautier. She has worked in the Pascagoula-Gautier School District for 22 years. The honored educator passionately believes that music literacy is essential to literacy in general. And her work shows this passion. Because of her commitment to teaching young people to read music, her students have achieved success at regional and state levels.

Raised by a single mother of Filipino descent, Louise credits her family and her teachers, particularly a college band director she met at a high school band clinic, with her success as an educator. She encourages teachers to recognize their importance in the lives of children. She says being a teacher is not an easy job, but she knows the impact she has on students and will always advocate for them.

Her selection as the 2024 Mississippi is not the only recognition Louise has earned. She was featured on the cover of NEA’s magazine in their August, 2020, issue, with an accompanying story entitled “Helping Students and Educators Recover from Covid-19 Trauma.” The article detailed her work dealing with teacher stress and mental health. Furthermore, in May, 2021, US News and World Report profiled her as one of the professionals who made a difference for her students during the pandemic.

Louise earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education in 2002 and her Master’s degree in Administration and Leadership in 2005, both from the University of Southern Mississippi. She is also a National Board Certified Teacher. In addition, Louise is an alumnus of the National Education Association (NEA) Teacher Leadership Initiative, and she has served as a state coach.

Christy Todd named Georgia’s 2024 State Teacher of the Year

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Middle school music educator Christy Todd has been named Georgia’s 2024 State Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: All on Georgia

Our nation’s students are indeed fortunate to have so many exceptional teachers in the classroom. One of them is Christy Todd, a middle school teacher from Georgia. She has been named her state’s 2024 Teacher of the Year.

Christy teaches music education to students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at Rising Starr Middle School in Fayetteville, Georgia. But her influence goes far beyond her own music classroom. To make music education accessible to all students on her campus, Christy launched a collaboration between the Music Department and her school’s Special Education classrooms. Impressively, the program has reached more than 10,000 students over the last 15 years. 

In addition to her classroom instruction, Christy founded her district’s Community for Creativity initiative, a program that supports schoolwide creation of songs, podcasts, videos, and audio books. These products are released through the school’s recording label, Hall Pass Entertainment.

Christy began her teaching career as a Choir Director. In fact, she still actively conducts honor choirs, along with publishing articles and research for various state, national, and international education journals. She was also a founding member of the Story Arts Collective, a group of education and industry leaders committed to growing Georgia’s creative work force.
 
Her recognition as the Georgia State Teacher of the Year is not the only honor Christy has received. In 2013, she was named a Grammy Music Teacher of the Year National Quarter-Finalist. In 2016, she was honored as the Georgia Middle School Association’s Teacher of the Year, and in 2022, she was named Fayette County Public Schools Teacher of the Year. She has also been honored as a key youth influencer by the United States Navy’s Blue Angels.

Christy earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Shorter College in Little Rock, Arkansas, and her Master’s degree in Music Education from Florida State University. 

Elem teacher, Drama Director Joshua Chard named Maine’s 2024 State Teacher of the Year

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Elementary teacher and Drama Director Joshua Chard has been named Maine’s 2024 Teacher of the Year. Photo Credit: Maine State Department of Education

I always enjoy sharing the story of an exceptional educator who has earned recognition for his work with young people. One of these is Joshua Chard, an elementary school teacher and Drama Director from Portland, Maine. He has been named his state’s 2024 Teacher of the Year by the Maine State Department of Education.

Joshua teaches second and third grade loop at East End Community School, one of the most diverse elementary schools north of Boston. “I was really excited to discover that I’m really good at teaching kids how to read,” says Joshua. “It’s pretty exciting to watch kids go from being word readers to being story readers. It’s a pretty amazing thing to be a part of,” he continued.

Joshua decided to pursue a career as an educator when he was only in the fifth grade. As a young student, he confesses, he was a struggling learner. But it was his fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Breau, who made a special connection that changed everything. She was an amazing teacher, Joshua declares, and she “convinced me that I could be a learner. She saw me for who I was,” he says.

In addition to his young students, Joshua also serves as the Drama Director at Deering High School. “The thing about my drama club is that we are a place that is a strong community where everybody is welcome to come as they are,” explains Joshua. “The word got out that it is a really safe place for kids who often feel they don’t have another safe place to land in high school,” he continued. During the four years he has led the club, he has built a community of young actors from nine to forty.

Joshua earned his Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education with a concentration in Theater from the University of Southern Maine in 1996. He also earned a Master’s degree in Education from the University of New England in 2009. He completed the requirements for a certificate in K-6 standards-based mathematics from the American College of Education, and he is certified as a K-12 teacher of English to speakers of other languages. His career as an educator spans 31 years.

When he’s not working with students, Joshua is a freelance theater director. This year, he and his husband will direct a show at the Children’s Museum and Theatre of Maine.

 

NYC dance teacher Sherry Fass garners 2023 Big Apple Award

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Middle school dance teacher Sherry Fass has garnered a 2023 Big Apple Award from New York City Public Schools. Photo Credit: Sherry Fass

There are many fine educators working in public schools in New York City. One of these, Sherry Fass, a middle school dance instructor, has garnered a 2023 Big Apple Award for her work in the classroom.

Sherry teaches at Louis Armstrong Middle School (IS 227), where she has taught dance for the past three years. In her classroom, she creates an environment where her students are independent learners and work well together. She prioritizes building student confidence, especially during the practice of the dances they are learning.

In addition to her work in the school, this honored educator works closely with the Dept. of Education (DOE) as a Big Apple Fellow, an Arts Liaison for the Queens DOE Dance Educators organization, a mentor to DOE Dance Educators in the Curriculum Development and Support Program, and an adjudicator for the Queens Borough Arts Festival. Through her extensive work in the DOE, Sherry has built partnerships with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, the Amy Marshall Dance Company, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ballet Hispanico, and several artists from Symphony Space. She is also an Adjunct Instructor at Hofstra University in the Dance Education Department. And for nine years, from 2013 to 2022, she worked part-time at the Rosalind Academy of Dance in Oakdale. As a performer, Sherry has danced in competition settings, university theatres, private venues, and most recently, Radio City Music Hall.

Sherry has also contributed to her community. She developed, organized, and hosted a fundraiser for students enrolled in the Young Autism Program at Developmental Disabilities Institute at Skydive Long Island in 2008 and again in 2009. Through this effort, she raised $4,500 in 2008 and $5,500 in 2009 to benefit the Young Autism Program Charitable Foundation.

Sherry earned her  first Bachelor’s degree in Speech Pathology with an emphasis in Behavior Analysis from St. Joseph’s College, New York, in 2009. She earned a second Bachelor’s degree in Dance Education from Hofstra University in 2018. She earned her Master’s degree in Dance Education from New York University in 2021.

Arts educator Elma Ina Lewis earned many prestigious honors

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Arts educator Elma Ina Lewis received a Presidential Medal for the Arts by Pres. Ronald Regan in 1983. Photo Credit: The National Alliance of Black School Educators

Many talented educators have used their considerable expertise to enrich others in their community. One of these was Elma Ina Lewis, an American arts educator who was so successful at promoting the arts that she received a Presidential Medal for the Arts by President Ronald Reagan in 1983.

Elma was born on Sept. 15, 1921, in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of immigrants who came to the United States from Barbados in the early 20th century. As a young woman, Elma worked her way through college by acting in local theatre productions. In 1943, she graduated from Emerson College, and in 1944, she earned her Master’s degree from the Boston University School of Education.

To share her love of the theater, Elma founded both The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in 1950. Her school, which emphasized music and dance, was attended by many students who found work in Broadway musicals and who built professional careers in the theater. Among them were Kenneth Scott who performed in The Wiz on Broadway, and Leslie Barrow who built a distinguished career dancing and teaching dance in Germany. Later, Elma founded the National Center of Afro-American Artists which served as an umbrella organization for the performing arts school, local arts groups, and a museum. She also developed the Technical Theatre Program at the Massachusetts Correctional Institute. Through this program, 750 inmates at the Norfolk Prison staged performances and learned skills such as musical composition. In 1972 the book Who Took the Weight? Black Voices from Norfolk Prison included work by ten inmates who were writers and artists. Elma wrote the forward for the volume.

For her work in fostering the arts, Elma received the Commonwealth Award, Massachusetts’ highest award in the arts, and nearly 30 honorary doctorates from universities, including both Harvard and Brown. In Oct. 2003, the National Visionary Leadership Project at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts named Elma a Visionary Elder. Musician Ray Charles and historian John Hope Franklin were similarly honored the same night. Also, Elma was one of the first recipients of a MacArthur Fellows Grant in 1981. In 1983, she garnered a Presidential Medal for the Arts from President Ronald Reagan.

Sadly, this amazing Chalkboard Champion passed away from complications from diabetes on Jan. 1, 2004, in Boston. She was 82 years old.