Madison Elementary School
Not to long ago I had the privilege of visiting Lisa Ingraham’s art classroom at Madison Elementary School. Lisa teaches K-5 students and her room certainly reflects her love of teaching but more importantly it is arranged for student success. The colors, organization, age appropriate visuals, and every detail is about the age of her students. Her lessons were spot-on incorporating literacy in multiple ways that enhance the visual art curriculum.
Not only was her classroom amazing but the school was alive with artwork. Every hallway, outside of every classroom she had shown evidence of a standards-based art environment. With each display, an explanation of the lesson.
Debi Lynne Baker and I were visiting to video tape Lisa in action for one of the 8 videos that the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative is creating as a resource for educators. It was a pleasure to meet and speak with Lisa’s colleagues as they articulated what Lisa does in her standards-based classroom and why her students are fortunate to have her as a teacher. Not only are her students fortunate but we heard multiple times how fortunate the community is as well.
One favorite part of the visit for me was learning about the book called “Mouse Paints”. If you teach early elementary school and color mixing it is a book that I highly recommend. As a follow-up to our visit Lisa was asked to present to the school board. Her information was very well received!
Lisa became involved in the Maine Arts Assessment Initiative during phase 3 and has served as a Teacher Leader. She is also the secretary of the Maine Art Education Association. Last Saturday she facilitated a round table discussion on Teacher Effectiveness and Evaluation. MAEA is writing a position paper on the topic so the information that art teachers shared was very helpful in that endeavor.
Thank you to Lisa for the opportunity and for the important work you do each day providing a quality arts education for the students of Madison Elementary School.
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