To Be Honored for Arts Achievement : 10 Teachers Considered for 7th Bravo Awards

Ten teachers are in contention for the seventh annual Bravo awards, to be presented March 6 by the education division of the Music Center.

Center spokeswoman Connie A. Rivera said the awards were created “to recognize educators who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in arts education.” Two awards will be presented, one to an arts specialist and one to a classroom teacher “who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and creativity in incorporating the arts into a traditional curriculum,” Rivera said.

The finalists were chosen from 97 candidates nominated by their principals.

They are Barrie Becker, dance/drama specialist, Dorothy Kirby Center School, Los Angeles County Juvenile Court and Community Schools; Gabriel Bernstein, third-grade teacher, Vista San Gabriel Elementary School, Palmdale, Wilsona School District; Judith G. Bohlen, music specialist, Long Beach Unified School District; Amelia Crawford, kindergarten teacher, Eugene Field Elementary School, Pasadena Unified School District, and Gale Gomez Shafer, art specialist, Bell High School, Los Angeles Unified School District.

More are Phila McDaniel, art specialist, Gardena High School, Los Angeles Unified School District; Jo Ness, dance specialist, Glendale High School, Glendale Unified School District; Taffy Patton, sixth-grade teacher, Vena Avenue Elementary Magnet School, Pacoima, Los Angeles Unified School District; Stephen Sarinana-Lampson, art specialist, Abraham Lincoln High School, Los Angeles Unified School District, and Robin Share, drama specialist, Van Nuys High School, Los Angeles Unified School District.

The finalists will be visited in their classrooms by a panel of judges that includes both educators and artists.

Last year’s winners were Shanon Fitzpatrick, a fourth-grade teacher at Morse Elementary School in Placentia, and Herb Holland, drama teacher and chairman of the performing arts department at Audubon Junior High School in Los Angeles.