Three ARTeacher Fellows Selected as 2023 Teachers of the Year in Area Schools

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Bentonville educators who have participated in the U of A's ARTeacher Fellowship Program, from left, Nichole Paquet-Smith, Michelle Cearley Martin and Holly Howard.

Three Bentonville educators, who credit the U of A ARTeacher Fellowship Program with strengthening their classroom skills, were recently named Teacher of the Year in their respective schools.

Current fellow Nichole Paquet-Smith was named Gateway ALE Teacher of the Year. Former fellow Holly Howard, an English teacher at Bentonville High School, received the same recognition. The Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce named ARTeacher alumna Michelle Cearley Martin, a teacher at Fulbright Junior High, their middle school Teacher of the Year.

Smith said being a first-year fellow has reignited her passion in the classroom. "It has, by far, been the best professional development in the entirety of my career," she said.

Smith added, "This fellowship has immersed me in a network of creative minds who inspire me to view my classroom with a different lens, challenged me to implement different methods that allow my students to curate their personal means to express their learning, and engaged me in conversations of what education could look like with an arts-integrated curriculum," she said.

The fellowship, which will enter its 12th year this summer, is open to area secondary teachers in English/language arts, math, science, social studies and world/foreign language seeking to infuse the arts into their curriculum to deepen and invigorate the learning process.

Howard was part of the second cohort, finishing the three-year program in 2016. "At that point, I had taught for 10 years and thought I knew everything I needed to know about teaching," she said. "However, the fellowship became a part of my life and turned things upside down — in a good way."

She said what resonated most with her was the concept of student choice and alternate assessment, two of the most foundational concepts of arts integration. "Giving students a variety of options and the opportunity to choose how they showcased their own learning fundamentally altered my pedagogical practice forever," she recalled.

Now mixed media, animation, video production, digital publication and performance-based art are staples in her 11th-grade English curriculum. Howard said she's grateful for the relationships she's forged through the fellowship and the doors it has opened to other professional development opportunities. Those include a fellowship at George Washington's Mount Vernon Teacher Leadership Program and a week-long digital storytelling experience at the National Gallery of Art.

Martin said the ARTeacher Fellowship has been "the most useful, rewarding and immersive experience in professional development that I've ever had in my 31-year teaching career." She remains in contact with faculty from the U of A and other teachers from the program and said the fellowship provided a happy bonus: friendships, professional connections and a built-in support system.

"I attribute much of my professional success to this fellowship, as it taught me the skills with arts integration to elevate my teaching, pedagogy and impact on students to a new level," she said.

Martin uses documentary filmmaking, tableau and graphic novels in her classroom, some of which were used as examples for her teaching award. She also pointed to new opportunities due to the fellowship, including writing and publishing about arts integration.

"I never knew how impactful the arts could be in a literacy classroom until I became a fellow and was given the specific materials and tools to fully engage with it," Martin said.

She called the fellowship life-changing and a highlight of her teaching career.

"The ARTeacher Fellowship is honored to work with talented and dedicated educators like Nichole, Holly, Michelle and so many others through this professional fellowship program that brings together passionate and creative minds from across the region," said Hung Pham, director for the U of A Center for Children and Youth, which established the ARTeacher Fellowship Program. Pham has helped coordinate the ARTeacher Fellowship since its inception. "These awards are richly deserved and come as no surprise to those of us who have seen the impact these teachers have had on students."

Each year, the fellowship selects ten area secondary teachers to participate in a year-long professional development series focused on bringing the visual and performing arts into the classroom. ARTeacher Fellows receive training from nationally recognized arts-integration professionals, financial support for classroom field trips and ongoing collaboration and support from program members. Fellows who successfully complete the year-long cycle are invited to continue for a second and third year.

The Center for Children and Youth is an endowed initiative housed in the U of A College of Education and Health Professions' Department of Curriculum and Instruction.