Matthew Grundler, Hendrick Middle School/Plano West Art Teacher, Named TAEA Middle School Outstanding Educator Of The Year

From Plano Independent School District:

November 4, 2020

Matt Grundler Hendrick Middle School and Plano West Senior High art teacher has been named the Texas Art Education Association (TAEA) 2020 Middle School Outstanding Educator of the Year for his significant contributions to TAEA and to art education at the state, local and national levels.

Matthew has been teaching art in Plano ISD for 17 years. He began his Plano ISD career as an elementary art teacher at Brinker for 14 years. He moved to teaching middle school art for the past two years, splitting his teaching time between Hendrick and Renner Middle Schools, and this year, he is currently teaching at Hendrick Middle School and Plano West Senior High.

Retired Brinker Elementary Principal Barbara Lange has this to say about his 14 years at Brinker, “Matt’s art classes were a special time for his Brinker students. His teaching influenced every student during the six years he was their art teacher from kindergarten through fifth grade. His classroom was a safe place to learn. The creative process is important to all learning - not only learning how to make beautiful art, but also learning how to think outside the box and be a problem solver. In his classroom, students developed life skills to take with them to be successful in middle school combined with an appreciation of what it is to be an artist.“
According to the Hendrick and Renner Middle School principals, their campuses have been enriched by his many contributions.

"Matt has been a Hendrick Hawk for the past 3 years, and during this time, he has shared his passion for art with our students. In addition to teaching his art classes, he partners with our centralized classroom teachers and students to provide valuable art experiences for our students. His creativity and love of teaching are evident every day and are reflected in the joy his students bring to learning new skills. Especially this year, with the pandemic, the creative outlet his art classes provide is more important than ever for our students," said Lisa Long principal at Hendrick Middle School.

Renner Principal Jill Engleking had this to say, “Matt made creativity a priority for every student in his classroom. It was evident how much he enjoyed teaching and bringing out the best in Renner's young artists. Although no longer a Renner Middle School staff member, we feel fortunate to have had his influence on our campus and are proud of his well-deserved Outstanding Middle School Art Teacher designation. We are thankful for his years of serving as a role model for Brinker and Renner children and for molding so many into young artists.”

Beyond his many years of experience in the classroom, Matthew finds time to be active on social media in support of art educators. In 2017 Matthew was the recipient of the Texas Art Education Association (TAEA) Lone Star Art Advocates award and the Outstanding Community Service Award by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Art Education Technology (AET), honors he shares with Laura Grundler Plano ISD visual arts coordinator, for creating a space for teachers through their popular Twitter hashtag, #K12ArtChat.

Although beginning his career teaching elementary students, Matthew has recently begun splitting his teaching role between Hendrick Middle School and the Plano West art department. Plano West Art Department Chair Ted Kincaid says, "His department is thrilled to have Matt join our West family this year. He brings a wealth of teaching experience and talent to the team. Not only is Matt a great teacher, he is also extensively involved with the global community of art educators via social media. We look forward to his contributions to our team this year and into the future."

Matthew takes educating students seriously and looks back proudly on moments such as, the “light bulb” moment for a student, who begins to make connections from other subject areas through a concept they are learning about in art class or when students have the opportunity to ask questions to a live artist an experience unavailable to them, outside the classroom, and seeing students build creative confidence. He said that, "As a teacher, there are many proud moments, even ones that you do not know about until many years later. I think my proudest accomplishment was one that I least expected, when a student came back to visit me, as a senior in high school. I had been her elementary art teacher, and she shared with me she was planning to go to college to pursue a degree in art therapy. She went on to share that she lacked confidence and didn’t have a sense of belonging in her regular classes, but she always felt confident in my art room, which was why she was pursuing art therapy. I was beyond proud of her and happy that I had contributed to her success in some way."

When a student returns to let their former teacher know that their class made a real difference in the student's life, these are the types of rewards that make all the hard work of educating children worthwhile. Fine Arts Director Kathy Kuddes voiced her pride in Matthew's accomplishment, "I am so pleased that Matt's passion, heart and creativity as a teacher of young artists is being recognized beyond Plano ISD. He has leveraged the power of social media to connect artists and art educators in a community of support and creative collaboration that benefits his students and local colleagues as well. Matt has a special talent for working with young artists and his commitment to the Hendrick Middle School community is truly exceptional. I look forward to joining the Texas Art Educators Association in honoring Matt's great work during the upcoming virtual conference."

This press release was produced by Plano Independent School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.