Happy Retirement

Maine is fortunate!

We know that what a teacher offers can have an enormous impact on students development day to day AND over their lifetime. As educators retire at the close of another school year, 2015-16, I know that you will join me in THANKING them for their years of service and dedication to students across the state. Maine appreciates the commitment of the following educators and wish you well and many healthy years of laughter!

Combined the following have taught for 503+ years. HAPPY RETIREMENT!

• BETSY ALLEN-McPHEDRAN, Visual Art, RSU #38, 29 years of service
• SARAH BARNUM, K-6 Visual Art, Augusta School Department, 30 years of service
• PIPER BOLDUC, Visual Art, Old Orchard Beach High School, 37 years of service
• LISE DUNN, Music, Mast Landing School, Freeport, 42 years of service
• MARY DYER, Visual Art, Winthrop High School,  40+ years of service
• ELAINE FLETCHER, Visual Art, Harrison Middle School, 30 years of service
• JULIE HAYES, Visual Art, Vine Street School, Bangor, 31 years of service
• KATY HELMAN, Visual Art, Deer Isle Stonington High School, 18 years of service
• KIM KRAMP, K-8 Visual Art, Conners Emerson School, Bar Harbor, 35 years of service
• JOHN NEAL, Music, Oak Hill High School, 38 years of service
• DIANE NOBLE, K-6 Visual Art, Saco Schools, 38 years of service
• BLAISE SPATH, Music, Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, 33 years of service
• BETH WHITNEY, Music, Woolwich Central School, 34.3 years of service
• ROGER WHITNEY, Music, Wiscasset Schools, 35 years of service
• LINDA THORNDIKE WILLIAMS, Visual Art, Berwick Schools, 33 years of service

If you know of others retiring this year who are not on the list please email me at argy.nestor@maine.gov so I can add them to the list.

Laura, Romy, Beth, and Karen Go To Boston

Art and Music Teachers travel to Boston for fabulous learning opportunity

Romy Polizotto, Laura Devin, Beth Whitney, Karen Wolfe outside Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Laura Devin, K-8 Art, Woolwich Central School and co-art teacher at Fisher Mitchell School, Romy Polizotto, K-5 Art, Phippsburg Elementary School and St. John’s School, Beth Whitney, K-8 Music, Woolwich Central School, and  Karen Wolfe, Pre-K-5 Art, West Bath School and Georgetown School applied and were accepted to an Expeditionary Learning Conference at Wheelock College in Boston put on by the Conservatory Lab Charter School. The conference title was Interdisciplinary Teaching in the Elementary Classroom, Art and Music as Tools for Learning – A Picturing America Conference.

In Laura’s words:

Audience Participation...Beth Whitney style!!

The next morning, as we checked in to the conference, we were handed a great tote bag with a full notebook of resources- you gotta love swag from conferences. (Most of my grocery bags are conference bags.)

Romy Polizotto, Laura Devin, Ekua Holmes, Karen Wolfeparticipating in a hands-on workshop with Artist in Residence, Ekua Holmes

The guiding question of the conference was “How do art and music shape the ways we picture the past?” We came away with many ideas that we are all anxious to implement in our schools. We will be developing an interdisciplinary lesson plan to be submitted for inclusion in a website of resources.

In the afternoon, we had the great pleasure of going to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts to hear keynote speakers, Elliot Bostwick Davis and Barbara T. Martin. We toured the new Art of the America’s Wing and now want to bring all of our students back to such an amazing display of wonderful art with many interactive pieces included.

We also got to browse in Dick Blick’s Art Supply store…even Beth, the music teacher, bought something!

A great day and lots of ideas to go forward with.

Thank you to Laura Devin, one of our Maine Arts Assessment Initiative Teacher Leaders, for writing this blog post.