Brilliant and Fearless Middle Level Art Teachers
September Buys, Middle Level Division Chair
septemberbuys@yahoo.com

My name is September Buys and I would like to introduce myself. I have been granted the remarkable opportunity of being the next Middle Level Division Chair for your MAEA. I have been an art teacher for nine years, with the past seven of those years being at the middle level. I earned my BA in Art Education from Western Michigan University and my MA in Art Education from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore. The focus of my Masters thesis was engaging the disengaged middle level art student. I currently teach 6th-8th grade art at Greenville Public Schools and 5th grade art at St. Charles Catholic school in Greenville, MI. I love working with this age group and agree that just like an Oreo cookie, the best is in the middle!
By now, you’ve probably already submitted work to your regional show and some of your students’ work has progressed to the state exhibit. The MAEA Middle Level State Exhibition will be held July 3rd -15th at the Michigan State Historical Society in Lansing. On March 13th and 14th, Kim Cairy, MAEA president and I brought the top fifteen from this collection to share at the Michigan Association of Middle School Educators conference in Saline. October 9th– 12th , the top fifteen middle will also be on display at our conference in Grand Rapids. It’s nice to have other venues where we can share the talents of our students and their art teachers.
One of my goals is to create and post on our MAEA website information on lesson ideas, exhibition opportunities, advocacy tips, classroom management strategies, budget saving ideas and much more!
If you would like to contribute material for the middle level webpage, present lesson/unit ideas in a “Best is in the Middle” Showcase (formerly the “Middle Level Mega Medley”) for the upcoming fall conference, or just want some collegial conversation about middle level issues, please send your ideas to septemberbuys@yahoo.com .

I’m looking forward to meeting all of you and putting faces to your names! Please take a moment to introduce yourself if you find me floating around the conference this coming fall! ☺