4/4/2007

Tamara Krauch receives her award

Before an assemblage of government officials, Board of Education members, business leaders, teachers, parents, students and members of the press Tamara Krauch was named Worcester County's Teacher of the Year. The annual Teacher of the Year banquet was held at the Clarion Hotel in Ocean City on Friday night March 30 with approximately 300 guests present for the festivities.

Accepting her commendation from Worcester County Commissioner President James Purnell, Ms. Krauch was one of the 14 finalists selected from each of the 14 schools within the Worcester County school system.  As finalist she will serve for one year as the county's ambassador representing all Worcester County teachers. She will compete with Teacher of the Year finalists from all 23 Maryland counties and the 2007-2008 Maryland Teacher of the Year will be named at a state banquet in October 2007.

Tamara Krauch has been teaching Visual Arts at Pocomoke Middle School for six years. "Teaching at the middle school level is so rewarding," she explains. "The students are complex and energetic, particularly in a hands-on subject like art. The experiences an art teacher creates for middle school children will stay with them forever and influence so much of their lives."

Tamara believes that the positive rapport and mutual respect that she develops with her students affects not only the art classroom, but a child's overall feelings about education.  She helps to develop this rapport with students by sponsoring after-school academies, coordinating the Honors Night program, being a Mentor, and sponsoring the school yearbook. In addition, she strives to cultivate strong relationships with colleagues by serving on the AFG Team, School Climate Team, and Arts Immersion Team, as well as being the Specials Team Leader and co-coordinating Service Learning facilitator at Pocomoke Middle School.

"I take a Holistic approach to teaching art," Tamara explains. "I don't teach art exclusively. I teach how art fits into our world. I am so excited about the Arts Immersion addition to our school because I have always approached art education in an integrated way." Tamara, for example, doesn't just teach visual language, artistic concepts, or historical aspects of art, but rather, she teaches how all of these are interconnected to our world. She helps students to see beyond the artwork, to how art is created mathematically, socially, and culturally. "I love that this county and PMS acknowledge that art is all around us and that it is important in the overall development of our children." Tamara believes art education opens students' eyes to the beauty in daily life and helps them see the interconnectedness of art with each subject that students learn.


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