Tessa Perlman

About Me:

I previously obtained my fine art bachelors degree from The Savannah College of Art & Design, then I completed my elementary education bachelors from Lees McRae College. Presently I am attending Full Sail University to further my formal education in the Educational Media Design Technology program for my classroom of exceptional students.

My daughter and I live in Western North Carloina, (very close to Asheville). We love it here, and I often photograph the landscape. We ride horses, and my daughter "Abby" competes in horse shows. I love yoga, traveling, reading, and every type of art imaginable. We have two dogs, one bearded dragon lizard, and a 325 gallon salt water fish tank. My daughter is very science minded, and she loves technology. We both love apple products, and I love teaching with emergent web 2.0 tools. Please take the time to review my project, and I look forward to any comments you may have.

The purpose of my action research project is to collect and report data I have collected on the art therapy process. I have and will continue to evaluate the effectiveness of art therapy strategies by increasing positive behaviors in my primary public school classroom. I am happy to report increased positive behavior by using supportive parental involvement while my students apply art therapy to their personal behavior plans. These students have previously been identified as struggling with social and emotional behaviors that compromise their classroom participation. The technology comes into the assignments when we produce videos of our art therapy projects that redirect my students with communication techniques. The videos are documentary style productions. We upload them to teacher tube for educators, and viddler for parents and peers.