Sharon Buda Biography I am passionate about teaching students of all ages to explore personal connections to local and global communities through the visual arts. Recent alignment of 21st century skills into both my teaching and learning in the arts has guided me in the co-­‐
construction of several large and small community based visual arts curriculum projects with students and community members. While most everything I teach is integrated and dissolves boundaries between content areas, it is this more natural process of problem solving that leads us to newly constructed knowledge and understandings that include multiple perspectives and diverse view points. Therefore 21st century skills integration with visual arts curriculum illustrates how the arts promote habits that curiosity, imagination, collaboration, creativity and evaluation skills necessary for developing lifelong. Becoming a National Board Certified teacher in 2001 and then continuing my graduate level education at the Ohio State University from 2003 to 2009 has transformed my teaching practice. I earned my Masters degree in Art Education in 2005 and my PhD. in Art Education in 2009. I am active in several arts education learning communities and continue to conduct participatory action research, provide continuing education to current teachers, teach graduate level arts education courses, and I am increasing my involvement publishing in the arts education writing community. My research interests include Curriculum Integration, 21st Century Skills in the Arts, Collaborative Pedagogies, Service-­‐
Learning, Social Issues, and Learning Communities. My position as an elementary arts educator provides the flexibility to work in a wide range of media and approaches, which have evolved as a response to the changing educational climate over time. I have been able to incorporate my love of nature and specifically of water into many curriculum projects such as our 3-­‐year inquiry based curriculum project funded by over $65,000 in grants entitled P.O.N.D. (People, H20, Nature and Diversity) where I served as project director. Transformation of a park behind our school and the pedestrian tunnel connecting our school to the community are just a few examples of curriculum projects that connect my students their community. In a pending article that will be featured in the March 2012 edition of the Nation Art Education Association Journal a fairytale is presented that further enlightens readers to these shifting perspectives in art education and the need to attend to the business of art education.