Teacher receives prestigious art educator award

Dan Ryan’s passion for art began in elementary school, a time when he wasn’t regularly exposed to art education.

Once Ryan entered middle school, his love for art grew exponentially when he had art classes on a regular basis.

“I delved into art right away,” Ryan said. “I found a space where I could draw what I like, make what I like and express myself more easily.”

Now an art teacher with the Dryden Central School District (DCSD), Ryan’s dedication to art education led him to receive the Art Educator Recognition award at the Gala for the Arts at the Everson Museum in Syracuse last month.

“I am very, very happy to have been nominated and given the award,” Ryan said. “It was a great honor to be awarded amongst all [the nominees]. They were doing some absolutely amazing things for their schools and our state.”

Ryan was nominated by individuals he works alongside at the BOCES Center for Instruction, Technology & Innovation (CiTi) arts-in-education service.

Last summer, Ryan and his partners started developing a pre-kindergarten through fifth grade curriculum to help students at DCSD better comprehend the New York state’s standards in art education.

For art education, Ryan said elementary-level art classes are required to follow the state Common Core educational standards. These standards, known as anchor standards, recently increased from four to 11 in count and are based on four pillars. These pillars include creating, connecting, responding and presenting within the arts, Ryan added.

“We went through every single one of those standards and wrote those standards down to a more understandable level, created age-appropriate connections for the students and then started creating a lesson plan menu,” Ryan said. “Teachers would be able to grab and input lesson plans with a spiral curriculum that would eventually work its way down to the main standard at the end of the school year.”

Ryan noted that the process was “a lot of moving pieces” but added that the result works out in the long run.

“We wanted a much easier way to understand those standards,” Ryan said.

An art teacher since 2012, Ryan has been teaching art at DCSD since 2018. He noted that he has already changed lesson plans based on his work with CiTi and what he has learned in his decade of teaching.

Basically, Ryan said, it’s about making this work “universal.”

“Dan is what we call a teacher champion,” said William Jones, CiTi’s arts-in-education coordinator. “When we think of a champion teacher, they often embody selflessness, leadership and advocacy. They are the spark that creates change and pushes people out of their comfort zones, while still staying pure to their objectives of what is best for kids. He quietly does amazing and innovative projects, working to build stronger connections in his elementary art room, and creates an atmosphere of creativity and expression.”

Ryan, currently an art teacher at the Dryden and Cassavant elementary schools, has put his view of the curriculum to work with his students. So far, his students have responded well.

“It’s been fantastic,” Ryan said. “The rubric we had the past few years worked, but it was a little clunky. The new one was much more accessible to students. They had an age-appropriate response, looked at their own artwork at the end of a project and assessed how they did.”

Ryan said his students were able to use materials and sketch out ideas and brainstorm potential projects. This occurred while they came up with concepts on their own, he added.

“It was a much easier task for them and much more balanced,” Ryan said.

Jones mentioned how Ryan single-handedly “took on the monster” of building a new elementary curriculum for DCSD to align with the state’s standards.

“It was through this painstaking process that [Ryan] created the pathway for his colleagues to follow,” Jones said. “Few people willingly take on such a workload for the betterment of others, but Dan is a true champion.”

The work Ryan is putting in to help his students better understand art education is what he loves the most about teaching it.

“For me, honestly, it’s that moment where a student who has been having a little trouble expressing themselves and getting their ideas down and making it into art,” Ryan said. “They have that aha moment. I love seeing kids working on a project and realize they can do this. If I get that out of one student, I’ve had a great day.”

A native of DeWitt, Ryan graduated from Jamesville-DeWitt High School in 2008. He praised his art teachers there for setting him on the path to where he is now.

Ryan graduated from Nazareth University in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in art education. He went on to receive a master’s degree in art teacher education from Syracuse University in 2015.

“I fell in love with [art)]” Ryan said. “[My teachers] helped me become a much better artist. They helped me develop the idea of wanting to teach art.”

More importantly, he said, it’s the support from his wife, Catherine, and daughter, Lily, that made Ryan dedicate his art educator award to them.

“They’re fantastic human beings,” Ryan said. “I love them so much.”

Dryden Dispatch appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.

In brief:

Dryden Middle School to hold can and bottle fundraiser

Dryden Middle School’s eighth-grade class will hold a can and bottle fundraiser from July 17 to 24 at Clarks ShurFine Food Mart in the village of Dryden.

The Dryden Central School District is asking community members to save their empty cans and bottles to support Dryden Middle School’s eighth-grade trip.

Free summer meals in Dryden

The Dryden middle/high school and the Southworth Library are offering free summer meals for children and teenagers 18 or younger. The free summer meal program in Dryden began on Monday and will run until Aug. 18. 

The school will offer meals Monday through Thursday. Breakfast goes from 9-10:30 a.m., and lunch is provided from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The library will provide lunch from 11 a.m. until all meals are gone. Wednesday’s lunch will be served at Montgomery Park at noon, the same time as the kids’ free farmers market. Lunch is available on Saturdays, if supplies last.