Dr. Joan Bouza Koster is an Instructor at Broome Community College, Binghamton New York with degrees in art education, elementary education, and curriculum development.

She has over forty-nine years experience teaching, twenty-four of them teaching elementary art at the elementary level in the Neshaminy School District and the Maine-Endwell School District and at the college level at Broome Community College.  She has taught preschool, in the primary classroom, middle school art, elementary science, and gifted education.

She holds a doctorate from Binghamton University. Her dissertation topic was Using Children’s Literature to Address Racism. It was named the most distinguished dissertation in 2015.

She is the author of the textbooks Growing Artists: Teaching the Arts to Young Children and Bringing the Arts into the Elementary Classroom. She has published numerous articles in the field of education and in art education including “Clay for Little Fingers” in Young Children as well as how-to manuals for VITA and the Peace Corps, and scholarly works in the field of ethnology. She is currently working on several works of fiction based on the lives of amazing forgotten women.

This blog grows out of the belief that children learn best when they are inspired, enthralled, and enthusiastic about the world around them and that the arts are essential to children’s lives.

Here are links to her other websites and blogs:

http://STEMfun4kids.com  STEAM IT UP! Science, technology, engineering and math with the arts stirred in. A resource of lessons for parents and teachers.

http://teachpeacenow.com Essays and book reviews addressing racism, bullying, and peace education.

www.teachpeacenow.org Huge resource of lesson plans, books, and links addressing racism, bullying, empathy, and peace education. An ALA notable site.

http://womenwordswisdom.com Women writers, their lives, and their words.

http://americancivilwarvoice.org Daily life during the Civil War

http://sunybroometeach.org Teacher education at SUNY Broome Community College.