AAEA MENTORING

The Alabama Art Education Association is pioneering a state-wide mentoring program specifically for visual art teachers!

There is a unique need for a support program in Alabama; the majority of our art teachers are isolated in schools and have little opportunity to team with other art teachers. The school districts that already offer mentoring programs are not equipped to address the specific needs of visual art instructors in the classroom, such as materials management as well as managing extremely high numbers of students. Often, novice art teachers are paired with a math or social studies teacher mentor due to the fact that there are no other art teachers in the building.

 If we can increase new art teachers' proficiency in instruction as well as keep talented teachers from leaving the field of education, more students will be given the opportunity to participate in the arts, thus improving their ability to exercise creative problem-solving, increase test scores, and a myriad of other benefits that the arts bring to the classroom. The ultimate benefit of this program will be to the children of Alabama! Only about half the schools in Alabama offer visual art classes, and of those schools 76% have only one art teacher. We have 22 counties with no art teachers, and 27 school districts with only one art teacher in the entire district. 

Elementary, middle, and high school art teachers: if you teach in Alabama and would like to advocate for visual arts instruction by participating in this program either as a mentee or as a mentor, please contact us at:

artteacherhelp4al@gmail.com

Ms. Sharon Christman

Mrs. Anna Nichols

Co-Chairs, AAEA Mentoring