Auburn School District No. 408
915 4th Street Northeast, Auburn, WA  98002

11/26/07

NEWS RELEASE
Auburn School District's Board of Directors Honors Staff Member Art Spencer

It may not surprise you that Art Spencer, a teacher librarian at Arthur Jacobsen (AJ) Elementary School, loves a good novel, but did you know he also delights in children’s picture books? In fact, Art annually supports the Washington Children’s Choice Picture Book Award program by reading all of the selected picture books to the students and then letting the students choose their favorite. “The author with the most student votes wins,” remarks Art. Art reads what the students read. “There is something neat when a kid says to me, ‘I really like this book,’ and I can respond with, ‘Yeah, I did, too, didn’t you like the part when…’”

Art also engages his students—who happen to be all of the students at AJ—by creating a team for the annual Global Reading Challenge. Art took one group during his time at Chinook to the regional competition and looks forward to taking another group from AJ in the near future.

Day-to-day, Art is responsible for a plethora of activities in the school library including: circulating books; teaching students reference and research skills; promoting books; tracking equipment; administering MAPS testing; ensuring all software and hardware are running smoothly; and providing resources to teachers such as books, websites and A/V equipment.

Art is otherwise known as the go-to man for all technology-related issues in the building. He is the building’s technology coordinator. According to Neil Vien, executive director information technology for Auburn School District, “Art’s low-key style and great organization skills lent themselves to the smooth start-up of AJ.” Art worked behind-the-scenes to ensure that on the first day of school the technology was up and running, which included coordinating vendors, purchasing equipment, training teachers and so on. Art also provided school classrooms with video montages—a tool used in classrooms that visually reveals to children the subjects they are studying. Art celebrated his hard work the day he finished shelving all of the new books: “I stacked the empty boxes and laid on top of them all; it was a proud moment.”

Art enjoys working with all students in the building. Each classroom visits the library once a week to check out books and learn valuable reference and research skills. Art is known for his visually-pleasing teaching style. Frequently he uses downloaded videos from the Web to introduce a new story to the students. “It provides great background knowledge to the students,” says Art, “and it gives them a visual to help them understand the story.”

Art’s love of reading is contagious. “I hope it rubs off on the students,” says Art. Art also enjoys a pun; in fact, according to Art, there is no such thing as a bad pun. “I remember one student raising his hand when I was passing something out and he said, ‘Now can we call you Mr. Dispencer?”

Art started his teaching career 18 years ago as a third grade teacher. Originally he planned to pursue marine biology and volunteered his time at the Seattle Aquarium. He also sorted biological samples for the EPA Commencement Bay Clean-Up Project. In college, Art enrolled in psychology classes and discovered their appeal but wondered if he would make a significant impact in the world as a psych major. He began reflecting on his former experiences and realized it was the guided tours and teaching he had enjoyed the most during his time at the Seattle Aquarium. Soon thereafter Art earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology and a teaching certificate from the University of Washington. He then transitioned into teaching and found it be a wonderful fit. Art also holds a master’s degree in educational technology from Lesley University.

Art participates in local educational conferences including the Washington Library Media Association conference and the Northwest Council for Computers in Education conference. He has presented at both conferences. Art’s latest and greatest in-service offering is a one-day workshop on pod casting in January at the Educational Service District. He has also taught in-services on storytelling, clicker software and Microsoft Office 2007.

“My goal this year is to connect with and impact all of the kids at AJ. I am just starting to get all the names memorized,” smiles Art.

For more information contact Amy Spence, public information officer, at 253-931-4713.