Teacher and Practices
Meet our Art Teacher, Mrs. Laura Manchester
Mrs. Manchester has been the Art Teacher at Montello Elementary since 2012. She holds a Bachelor's degree from The University of Southern Maine with a concentration in Art Education.
Within the last two years Mrs. Manchester has become an invested Teacher Leader in Maine. She is a part of The Maine Arts Leadership Initiative (MALI) and is also a candidate for National Board Certification.
As an artist, Mrs. Manchester specializes in painting and drawing but loves learning how to use new media. Most recently she has been learning about mosaic tiling.
Click on the link below to read more about Mrs. Manchester in this recent blog post:
Some of Mrs. Manchester's personal works:
Art Room Philosophy
Our Montello Art program is based heavily on process-based learning. Movement, exploration and experimentation all are part of our weekly class routine.
In art class students learn new ways of seeing, thinking about and problem solving through art. Students develop skills not only in art-making but also in critical thinking and respectful, reflective critique.
Art Room Year-Long Student Goals
Each grade focuses on their own specific progressive curriculum goals but as a school we try to meet each of the "I can" statements below as we work through the school year.
In Art I Can...
...create art using a variety of materials and processes
...apply Elements and Principles to my own work and see them in the work of others
...communicate my own thoughts, ideas and feelings through my art
...make connections between art class, other classes and my community
...talk about other artists and their works in a kind and respectful way
...recognize the role of artists and their work across times, places and cultures
Arts Standards and Curriculum Links:
Our district is working to unpack State and National Standards to create a unified curriculum that works well with the new proficiency-based curriculum.
As we become a Proficiency-Based District, Arts Educators are working to unpack standards and find common goals and needs for all students. Currently as an arts team we score students on "Habits of Work." A student's "HOW" score reflects their efforts to perform in a safe, respectful and responsible manner during class along with their attendance. Beginning in the 2018-2019 school year, student assessment will more directly reflect their performance based on Maine Learning Results and National Visual Arts Standards.
COMING SOON:
A detailed description of standards to be assessed in coming years
PDF documents showing all Visual Arts Standards used by our district.
Below you will find a link for Maine's Learning Results Standards for Visual and Performing Arts.