TEAM - Overview

Join the TEAM

On April 25, 2009, TAEA achieved another milestone in the long road to providing exemplary opportunities for art teachers and students in the state! It piloted the first ever standards based Elementary Art Event. Using the quality and standards of VASE as a model, the elementary event was uniquely designed to accommodate the needs and learning styles of the elementary student.

For many years, Elementary Art Teachers in Texas have requested that TAEA provide them and their students the same opportunities for recognition and growth that high school students have in VASE and middle school students have with Junior VASE and so here it is. In it's second year in the Houston Area, it will be replicated by Denton and perhaps other districts in 2010 as the last year of the pilot, before the TAEA board makes a decision in November to take it to the next level.

The program is designed with the following goals:

• To recognize elementary art students in the state
• To recognize quality elementary art instruction
• To recognize art instructors for providing student opportunities
• To inform school administrators of the contributions being made on behalf of their art instructors and define a standards based program
• To reinforce state and national standards in elementary art programs
• To increase TAEA membership at the elementary level
• To provide the same benefits to TAEA members in the elementary division that are experienced at secondary
• Encourage students to elect visual arts classes at secondary levels
• To provide a safe venue for a quality program that achieves all of the above

Participating teachers received the following: Certificates for all participating students, award ribbons for entries receiving a rating Good or Grow, and medals for those that rated Exemplary, a juror rating form on each entry (like VASE there are 2 strokes and a grow), a commendation letter to the principal, an evaluation form to be completed by the teacher, and a list of the "Top of the Team" (top 10%) works that will possibly be on the TAEA web page.

The juror form is based on the state art TEKS and had 3 ratings: exemplary, good and growing. Jurors are all experienced art educators that understood the needs of the elementary student.

The plan for the current school year, 2009-2010, is to complete the pilot for the second year, replicating it in other areas of the state such as Denton, West Texas.

JUST IMAGINE- if VASE has grown from the 203 entries in it's pilot in 1991 in Houston to over 23,000 in 2010 across the state, what TEAM could look like in just a few years! Wow! The possibilities are mind boggling!