Schools

Art Teacher Named Educator of the Year

Elementary teacher receives honors for educational effort.

Babylon Elementary School art teacher Patricia Stork has been chosen as the 2011 New York State Art Teacher’s Association Educator of the Year for Region 10.

Stork took an interesting journey to get to where she is today.

“When I graduated from high school I was told NOT to go into education; they said there was no future in teaching and that I would never secure a job. I listened and decided to go into advertising instead, enrolling in SUNY Farmingdale and graduating two years later with an AAS degree in Advertising," she related.

She worked for many years in various advertising agencies; got married and started a family. She raised her children while working part-time and working freelance, but recalled that “My heart was always in art and working with children. I finally decided to go back to school to get my teaching certification. I attended Dowling College; got my BA in visual art and education and then went to SUNY Stony Brook for my MA in studio art.”

Over the years she has filled many positions, ranging from K-12. Her first teaching position was as a three-year leave replacement in the Farmingdale schools. From there, she secured a probationary position in Commack, which with the hard economic times, was eliminated. Determined to continue teaching, she kept at the search and has been teaching art in the Babylon district since 2009.

She teaches all of the art classes at the Babylon Elementary School as well as grade 6 art in the winter/spring at the Babylon Grade School.

“Pat is truly extraordinary. She not only keeps the students engaged during class, but she also does enrichment art classes in the building and finds LI events to put the children's work in. The latest will be The Colors of LI exhibit, which is held in Stony Brook each fall," said Babylon Elementary School Principal Dana Basile said.


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