Sand Creek Elementary

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Biography: For the past five years, I have had the amazing opportunity to work at Sand Creek Elementary. From High school through most of college, I worked as a program lead in SCE's BASE program. Once I graduated at MSU Denver with B. A. Human Development, and applied Concentration in Elementary Education, I moved into the incredible SSN program. Within the year I applied for my dream job as the Art teacher! 

Teaching Approach / Philosophy: I believe that art instruction contributes to a well-rounded education and develops life-long learning skills. I also believe that every student can become an artist. My art program provides students with lessons integrated with,  art history, art elements, cultural references, connections to the core academic curriculum, collaboration between students and teachers, and technology. I want my students to be engaged, feel successful, and love coming to art every day.

Other Information: I am passionate to paint outdoors 'en plein air'. I love hiking all over Colorado to visit the amazing scenery so that I can spend 3-4 hours painting on top of a mountain. I grew up in a family of artists, as I was exposed from a very young age. My favorite mediums are charcoal, watercolor, and especially oil paint! I am a native of Colorado and grew up in Highlands Ranch. During my college years, I developed an obsession for science and especially Mycology, the study of fungi. I am an active member of the Colorado Mycological Society. So if you have any art or mushroom questions, stop by classroom, I'd love to help!

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CONTACT: tanner.steed@dcsdk12.org

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Online Art Galleries

Welcome to Artsonia!
Many of you enjoyed the online galleries of art that I included in my website last year, and this year I decided to take it one step further by displaying every child's artwork in www.artsonia.com, the world's largest online student art museum. I emailed every parent (with an email on file with the school) an invitation to open your child's Artsonia account. Please locate this email to activate the account (or let me know if you need to have it emailed to you again). Once activated, you can view all of your child's artwork during the year, you can invite family and friends to be members of your child's "Fan Club", fan club members can write positive comments to your child about his/her artwork, your child can write artist's statements, and you can order products using any artwork your child has made. This program has many benefits and I'm very excited to be using it this year! Some of those benefits are:
Boost students’ pride and self esteem: Repeatedly, participating teachers talk about the increased pride and self esteem their students feel after participating in Artsonia. Viewing their own creations in an online museum, students are putting forth extra effort in the art room, knowing it will be posted for all their friends and family to appreciate.
Increase parental and family involvement in students’ education: Parents and family members take a much more active role in their child’s art education by viewing the artwork online, joining the child’s fan club, and leaving supportive comments in the artist guestbook. This feedback from family, especially relatives who may not live nearby, is priceless in the development of the child’s artistic confidence.

Integrate technology into the classroom: Teachers and students engage in classroom art projects, and publish their artwork in an online art gallery. The technical literacy of viewing artwork online, tracking artists own statistics online, leaving other comments for friends, etc, provides a technology experience for students that stays within a safe, educational environment.

School rankings and honors for art program: Each year, Artsonia highlights and honors top participating schools and art programs. The awards are based on both technology integration and community involvement.

Financial support for art program: After the student artwork is published online, the parents and family may purchase keepsakes from the museum with the child’s artwork imprinted on it, and 20% of the revenue is commissioned back to the school art program.

Please activate your child's account today! If you are an apple user, there is also an Artsonia app for your iPhone or iPad that is very handy. If you have any questions, please let me know!

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