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Amanda Falling Honored by State Art Teachers Association

Posted Date: 1/22/25 (4:53 PM)

Falling Honored by State Art Teachers Association
Jr/Sr High Art Teacher Named Educator of Year for Region 2
January 22, 2025
Art teacher Amanda Falling was named Art Educator of the Year for Region 2 of the New York State Art Teachers Association.
Amanda Falling has a teacher to thank for her career as a teacher. 

“I’ve always known I wanted to be an art teacher,” she said. “I had an art teacher in elementary school that really fostered creativity.”

That’s the spark that lit her path to becoming an educator and today, she has even more teachers to thank for being named Art Educator of the Year for Region 2 of the New York State Art Teachers Association. Mrs. Falling, in her sixth year of teaching art at Marion Junior-Senior High School and 10th overall, said it’s validating to be recognized by education peers but it’s not her biggest reward. 

“There’s always something new to learn and it’s always challenging,” she said. “I really like helping kids find things they can get excited about.”

That’s not always easy, especially in a smaller district like Marion. But then again, there is something special about being the only art teacher for grades 7-12. 

“The relationships I can form with the students is neat,” she said. “I have them all to myself from grades 7 to 12 and I can see them grow and form a bond.”

One of the bigger challenges of teaching art is the subjectivity. There are no equations or formulas that are either correct or incorrect. The work produced in art class is a personal reflection of a perception or observation and that’s not always easy to assign a grade to.

So she found a different set of criteria to track the progress of students.

“It’s not about how it compares to someone else,” she said. “It’s where they start and where they end.”

In other words, it’s the journey. That’s what the world of art offers, whether it be drawing, painting, fiber arts, ceramics or any of the multiple disciplines.

“I just try to meet the kids where they are,” she said. “I want to create a space that is comfortable and calm for them because for the kids who don’t think they’re good at anything, they’ll never take the risk if they’re not comfortable.”