Greetings from your August Mentor!

I am thrilled to be on board as this month’s guest blogger! The month of August is such a transitional time for me. After the whirlwind of summer activities, I find that this is the month when I pull all the varied components of the last school year’s experiences, the learning that took place through the summer through professional development and studio time, and my personal and professional goals into a succinct package. Well, as succinct as it can be, with the understanding that flexibility is vital to reaching those goals! As I share this road with you through this month’s posts, I endeavor to connect with each of you. Our experiences may be different, our teaching environments as well as the students we serve provide challenges and opportunities in a variety of ways, but there is a constant: as we strive to be the best that we can possibly be, to serve our individual students, to advocate for our unique and quality programs, to support art education at the local, state and national level, and to be an example to others in every field, we establish the importance of active participation in the role of “teacher.” This role is challenging. It is multi-faceted. It changes with each dynamic group of students and the topics we discuss. As we, and our students, grow and succeed through these experiences we develop the attributes of a “Master Art Educator.” As I determined the focus of this month’s posts, I kept going back to a snapshot of what a Master Art Educator looks like, a concept framed by my colleagues and I on the council and board of TAEA. I look forward to unpacking this concept with you over the weeks ahead! 

 Austin City Limits Music Festival, 2010, photo by S. Melvin

-Samantha Melvin