Congratulations to Creekside Art Teacher Jane Montero, recipient of the National Art Education Association’s Outstanding Teaching Award from the Art & Media Technology (AMT) Special Interest Group of NAEA! This award honors an art educator who applies exceptional instructional applications in K-12 classrooms, museum education, higher education, or alternative settings. An outstanding art educator/teacher is recognized by students, colleagues, and/or supervisors as someone who consistently inspires and mentors students in a cooperative, collegial, collaborative, and nurturing manner or who has made a special effort to apply innovative pedagogy and technology integration into his/her art teaching. Award criteria include: Leadership in, Dedication to, Impact to, and Advocacy of art education technology instructional applications.
“The integration of technology in the art room, primarily through the use of Google Chromebooks, has expanded my art program,” Montero shares. “Providing choices for students to express themselves using digital art is one of the best ways we can foster creativity and self-confidence in our technologically advanced world.”
Montero will be recognized at the AMT award ceremony/presentation session on April 13, 2023 at the NAEA conference in San Antonio, TX. As part of her award acceptance, Montero will give a short presentation about her featured teaching practice during the award ceremony.
Jane Montero started teaching at Dexter School in 2001, and has been the fifth and sixth grade art teacher at Creekside Intermediate School since 2002. She also has served as the Special Area Department Chair at her school (representing Art, Lifetime Fitness, Media, and World Language) since 2008. Montero earned a Master’s degree in Education from University of Southern California in 1991, a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Innovation in 2022 from Concordia University Wisconsin, and has been teaching since 1989. The first 12 years of Jane’s teaching career, she taught in her home state of California; the remaining years have been in Michigan. Montero is a 2019 graduate of NAEA’s School for Art Leaders and serves as President-Elect for the Michigan Art Education Association (MAEA), a two-year term, after which she will assume the role of MAEA President in 2024.
