D181 Teacher Earns National Teaching Award, Chosen for Apple Institute

Community Consolidated School District 181 art teacher Theresa McGee has earned the Art Education Technology Outstanding Teacher Award from the National Art Education Association (NAEA). The honor is awarded annually to one educator in not only K-12 school systems, but universities and museums, as well. McGee accepted the award at the NAEA conference in San Diego in March, where she also presented a ten-minute spotlight on the work of her Monroe School students and how she integrates technology in curriculum.

In other exciting news, McGee was chosen to attend the Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) Global Institute this summer. In March of last year, McGee was named a Class of 2013 ADE, an honor recognizing pioneers who are using Apple technology to “transform teaching and learning in powerful ways.” She was one of 90 educators chosen from the United States, one of five from Illinois, and the only art teacher among those from K-12 institutions. The Global Institute will give McGee the opportunity to collaborate with 350 teachers, professors, technology directors and other educators from 30 different countries. 

“My approach to technology integration does not discard traditional art making materials,” she notes, “but instead infuses a wide variety of emerging technologies to encourage creativity and originality, engage learners, and support cognitive development.” In fact, McGee says only about 10% of her students’ projects are digital art. In “traditional” art projects involving drawing, painting, and sculpting, for example, she uses technology in innovative ways to strengthen her delivery of instruction. With her 5th grade class, students work in groups to create a Keynote presentation about artists they have researched and then share the presentations during their annual field trip to the Art Institute of Chicago.

For her 5th graders annual field trip downtown for a Chicago architectural tour, McGee created an iBook to highlight the city’s sites, complete with text, video, and images that students can share with their families upon their return.

McGee also uses iBooks to record herself providing directions on a variety of art projects. Students can access her recordings via iPads and choose the project of interest to them. “The recordings also allow students to work at their own pace,” McGee explains. “They can pause and rewind my directions if there is something they don’t understand or need to see again.” Essentially duplicating herself in the classroom digitally, McGee is able to provide more support and differentiation to students during class time.

McGee uses technology to engage in ongoing, collaborative professional development, as well, using social media and a variety of publications to connect with other art teachers and promote the education she provides. She developed several iTunesU courses designed as professional development for art teachers and has written 18 articles in her own “Tech 4 ArtEd” column for SchoolArts magazine. She has been a speaker at several state and national conferences and was featured in eSchool News earlier this year for her use of augmented reality (AR). Similar to the way a mobile device scans a QR code and links to a website, she explains, AR lets a person see artwork with a mobile device that would otherwise not be visible. 

Among other honors, McGee was the recipient of the 2011 PBS Teacher Innovator National Award and the 2010 Illinois Elementary Art Educator of the Year; she is also a National Board Certified Teacher.  

After 17 years at Monroe School, McGee will be moving to Hinsdale Middle School starting in the 2014-15 school year to teach art to the sixth, seventh and eighth graders. While she notes she will dearly miss her young students, McGee is excited for a new challenge at the middle school level.