Barb Holterman, an art teacher at Pleasant Valley Primary School, has been named the Washington Art Education Association’s 2019 Elementary Art Educator of the Year
BATTLE GROUND — Barb Holterman, an art teacher at Pleasant Valley Primary School, has been named the Washington Art Education Association’s (WAEA) 2019 Elementary Art Educator of the Year. The annual award seeks to recognize outstanding professionalism, service, promotion and support of the arts by individual art educators in the state.
Holterman is a National Board Certified Teacher who has been with Battle Ground Public Schools for 14 years. Holterman taught art at Amboy Middle School her first year with the district, and has been at Pleasant Valley Primary school ever since.
“Student engagement is a huge part of what I do,” Holterman said. “Giving my students the opportunity to drive their own learning and helping them reach the next level has given me great joy, and I love coming to school every day just to see what they will do next.”
After being nominated by Cynthia Gaub, a visual art educator at North Middle School in Everett, Wash. and the former president of the WAEA, Holterman outscored the other candidates on WAEA’s comprehensive scoring rubric to become this year’s Elementary School Art Educator of the Year Award recipient.
“Barb is an enthusiastic educator who is always looking for new ways to engage her students,” Gaub said. “Her passion for art education is infectious, and she’s taken proactive steps to be a leader amongst her peers, volunteering to be on the WAEA’s conference planning committee for the past several years. She is an inspiring educator who is more than worthy of this recognition.”
The award will be presented to Holterman during a WAEA gala event November 1-2 in Leavenworth. By receiving this award, Holterman also becomes eligible for future nominations for regional and national recognition.
More information about WAEA and this award is online: www.waea.net.
Information provided by Battle Ground School District.
