Mrs. Asha, native to the Washington Metropolitan area, is the Fine Arts Department Chairperson at Deerpark Middle School. She holds her B.F.A. and M.A. in Art Education from the University of Texas at Austin. Her masters thesis, entitled Teaching Middle Eastern Art to Promote Socio-cultural Understanding in the Secondary Art Classroom, involved writing, testing, and teaching original curriculum on Middle Eastern art, to high schools in the Austin area.
She continues to research on inter-cultural issues, as well as technology, with relationship to adolescent self-identity. She considers her classroom a “research lab”; where findings are mirrored and explored in her lessons. Mrs. Asha shares her research on a bi-annual basis with colleagues by presenting at the Texas Art Education Association (TAEA) and National Art Education Association conferences. She has been elected to the TAEA Board of Directors, and served Central Texas art educators, as an Area IV Representative. Mrs. Asha has also worked with Scholastic Art Magazine as a member of the Editorial Board on their monthly publication. Scholastic Art Magazine is available in our school library!
Mrs. Asha has worked as a writer and consultant for the publishing company Glencoe McGraw-Hill. and was invited to participate in Glencoe's National Arts Advisory Committee. She has since been a contributing author to the prototype for the 2010 Middle School textbook series as well as Glencoe's monthly newsletter. http://www.glencoeartnotes.com
She has worked as a Teacher Representative with national art supply chain, Jerry’s Artarama. Together with Jerry’s, she has produced a television pilot for KLRU PBS: W.O.W., Watch Our Works, starring a student artist in the Austin community.
Most recently, she was voted by her peers as the 2011-2012 Teacher of the Year for Deerpark.
Mrs. Asha is a practicing artist, and shows her work regularly with the Round Rock Arts Council. She practices yoga daily, and her favorite pose is Urdhva Dhanurasana. She loves to read historical fiction novels, play with her miniature schnauzer, and spend time with her family.
