Third-grade teacher Ronia Davison integrates the arts, literature and technology with core subjects to help students become high achievers at Sadler Arts Academy in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Teaching students from diverse backgrounds, 75 percent of whom are eligible for free and reduced-price lunch, Davison implements research-based best practices in creative and engaging ways. She has students use the Internet, PowerPoint and Smart Board technology to research and deliver presentations on artists such as Henri Matisse, identifying characteristics of his style and creating self-portraits using these characteristics. Davison organized a field trip to an art exhibit in Tulsa, during which her students were quiet, well-behaved and mesmerized by the artwork. Typically 90-100 percent of her students pass the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test (OCCT) each year in reading and math, and in 2006, 100 percent of the school's third graders passed the Oklahoma Criterion Referenced Test (OCRT) in all areas. Davison is the district's lead teacher for third-grade language arts curriculum development and is part of a cadre of exemplary teachers who present on quality arts education to schools and districts across the state. She participates each summer in the McCurtain County Arts Initiative and is a faculty member at the prestigious Oklahoma Fall Arts Institute in Quartz Mountain, Oklahoma. A National Board Certified teacher, Davison regularly mentors Sadler teachers, including those pursuing National Board Certification.
1996 Northeastern State University, B.S.
