About The Teacher

NAME: Miss Kristi Atkison

SCHOOL: Kendale Lakes Elementary- Home of The Tigers

CLASS: art, art club for 4th and 5th grades

SCHOOL PHONE: 305-385-2575 and don't forget to visit the school website at www.kle.dadeschools.net


About The Teacher

Miss Atkison has lived in Miami most of her life.  She was a graduate of 
Gulliver Preparatory.  She was on the school's tennis and softball teams and 
competed in tennis on statewide competitions. She is also a member of the 
Women USTA league for tennis and is found playing on Monday and Friday night 
playing singles and doubles. She also plays mixed doubles tennis on Mondays, 
Thursday and Friday nights when the weather allows her. Another sport she has 
recently taken up is golf and can be found playing with her parents, friends 
and oldest nephew on the weekends. She didn't get interested in art until she 
was attending college at Florida International University. Miss Atkison is a 
graduate from Florida International University with five seperate degrees. 
She began teaching in 1992 at Olinda Elementary which she earned the rookie 
teacher of the year award.  She  transferred to Kendale Lakes Elementary in 
1999.  She has a minor in Fine Arts, a Bachelor's in Psychology, a Bachelor's 
in Art Education, a Master's in Art Education, and a Specialist in Art 
Education. She has currently passed her national boards as of November 2009. 
With her degree in art education she began developing her own unique style of 
art and creating a working portfolio that she uses in her profession as an 
artist.  She is a working artist that specializes in pastels and watercolors 
and competes in a variety of shows and contests with her art work. Examples 
of her style of work can be found in Atkison art gallery on the home page. 
She has won several awards and recognitions for her art at contests and sells 
her work to the public. When she is not working at school or playing tennis 
you can often find her at home either painting with her pastels or watercolor 
paints or playing with her dog Pepper.  Pepper is a silky terrier that she 
adopted from the Miami Humane Society in November 2004.  The loves of her 
life are her dog, parents, brother, sister-in-law and her two nephews (one is 
in fifth grade this year and the other is in second). She is very happy 
that her family lives close by so they see each other often.

Mission For The Class

The art class mission is to expose the students to various styles and 
mediums in art.  The student learns about artists of the time and the 
development of the individual styles.  The art teacher instucts students to 
develop their skills in drawing, pastels, watercolor painting, tempra 
painting, sculpture, and cutting and pasting with paper.  There is also an 
art club for students in the 4th and 5th grades.  Students try out for the 
club and get to experience art more often than they would in the regular 
classes.