In last week's Art Teacherin' 101, I chatted about my three big tips of putting together an art show: deer mesh, parent volunteers and a day off the day of the show. Next week, I'll share with y'all h
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
Ukrainian sculptor Volodymyr Tsisaryk was born and grew up in Lviv. His works were seen by almost every tourist who visited the city at least once in
Hellllo, friendly faces! For my Back to Art Teacherin' feature today, I thought I'd share with you my very fave self-portrait projects! Last week you saw my fave landscape projects so I thought these fresh faces would be a nice follow up! So, without further ado-ness, let's get the self-portrait party started! These first grade royal self-portraits are so stinking cute and were super fun! Not to mention, my wee ones learned so stinkin' much! Pattern-making, portrait drawing, relief-style crown design, whew! These artists are now in fourth grade and seeing these self-portraits just makes me so proud. They are still as awesomely artistic as ever! Last year, my third grade artists had the opportunity to sing and record a song to go along with the book A Beautiful Oops! In preparation, we sang and painted oops-es. We also learned how to draw a proportional self-portrait to be placed over our paintings. I loved how colorful and happy these turned out! More details about our recording session and the process of these pieces here. Love the splatter paint! Teaching kindergarten can be a wild and crazy ride. The key is to harness the crazy. This project was completed near the end of the year after we'd covered line painting (in the background), collage (for the clothing), rainbow order (see that palette?) and the proportions of the face. It was great to see all of their knowledge come together in one good looking project! All the details you could ever need on teaching portrait drawings to the littles, here. Y'all remember about 5-ish years ago when there was no Pinterest and we all had to use that gray squishy thing between our ears? WASN'T THAT A TERRIBLE TIME?! And y'all remember when that one genius art teacher did that one genius rainbow self-portrait project that I think just about every art teacher in the universe did (I know I did it!!). Well, this "We are the World" self-portrait number was a take on that. It was a big beautiful undertaking that you can read about here. Putting this together was a bit of a beast. Thankfully, I had some super amazing practicum kids from a local university put the thing together. Otherwise, it'd prolly still be sitting on my floor! Another big portrait-making undertakin' was this dealio: The Gallery of Gratitude was one of those projects that just made everyone smile. Who doesn't love to see a child's drawing of them along with their words of appreciation? This was a great project do to before Thanksgiving. Not to mention we learned about portrait drawing, capturing someone's likeness and colored pencil usage. When this display came down, I made sure everyone got their portrait and I've seen many teachers, faculty and staff have them hanging in their rooms and offices. How fun! My units are usually based on a culture. So many of our self-portraits give a lil nod do the culture we are studying. These second grade self-portraits were all about the kimono and the konichiwa! And these were all about Paris! First grade had a fun time flying high with this project! I love teaching about Ancient Egypt as much as the kids love learning about it. This is one of those self-portrait projects I repeat each time we venture to Egypt because it covers so much! We really got into the correct proportions of the face and shading. Last year, we were pinched for time in self-portrait-land for both kindergarten and first grade. Having eight snow days will do that to an art teacher! So we went the quick and easy route: we used multicultural colored contraction paper for the face which we drew in oil pastel. Then we cut that out and glued it to another sheet of paper that we painted hair and a background on. That took us two thirty minute art classes! Like I said, quick and easy. And happy as can be! Y'all have been so great about sharing your ideas...I'd love to know what your fave self-portrait projects are! Thank you in advance, kids.
In last week's Art Teacherin' 101, I chatted about my three big tips of putting together an art show: deer mesh, parent volunteers and a day off the day of the show. Next week, I'll share with y'all h
While coronavirus keeps many at home and forces the closure of museums around the world, digital platforms show you can still enjoy culture through these amazing virtual exhibitions available online.
'Kay, so when I decide to quit art teacherin' and become a Big Time News Anchor, this will be my promo shot. My tag line will be sumpin like, "Cassie Stephens...where there's news, she'll find it (esp
Kids. It's almost the New Year. And, if you're a list-loving-maker like me, that can only mean one thing: it's time to bust out that colorful variety pack of felt-tipped pens and start goal setting! I always make Sewing Goals, Health Goals, House-Cleaning/Decorating Goals and neglect Art Teacherin' Goals. Mostly because I seem to be stuck in the mindset that anything new to do with teaching must ONLY happen at the start of a school year. Well, not this year, y'all. I'm banishing that notion and going full steam ahead with a litany of New -n- Improved Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year! Who's with me?! One of my biggest goals as an art teacher is to jam pack as much info into the limited amount of time I have with my students. And for that reason, I'll be presenting Maximize Your Minutes in the Art Room at this winter's AOE conference! There's still time for you to register to attend this online conference and hear me chat about maximizing AND see a tour of my (new and improved for the new year) art room! So, without further ado, let's chat about my... Art Teacherin' Resolutions for 2016, Part 1 ("Part 1" because, let's face it, there's a whole lot I need to work on!) My class schedule is not like most of y'all, I imagine. I see my kindergarteners for 45 minutes, weekly; my first and second for 30 minutes, bi-weekly and my third and fourth for an hour, weekly. Even with that limited amount of time, I don't want my students to have a watered-down art class. Instead I want to provide a super-concentrated, high fructose, protein-packed experience. One that is both fun and easy for me to build into a routine. So here are some new plans I am looking forward to putting into action once the kids return (by the way, several of these ideas came from the Queen of Pinterest, Donna Staten!): An Art Class Greeting: When I open my art room door to greet the kids waiting outside, I usually have a coupla hand-raisers (what are we doing today?), a coupla complimenters (I like your hair! [really? because it's not changed since high school, y'all]) and a coupla lost-in-space-rs (Billy. The line is moving. Joining us?). For a while I snubbed this out with my Vocab-at-the-Door routine which I love but it just didn't pack the "Art class is the JAM! Let's get in here and make stuff" punch that I had in mind. Then I saw this video and got an idea to create an Art Class Greeting... Isn't that awesome?! Of course, I plan to change it up a pinch by saying, "Hello, my most amazing artists!" but the rest is perfection. Then I can drop into my usual vocabulary routine...or, what I'm leaning more toward for a lil change-up, teaching the kids a Walking-into-the-Art-Room song. Check out how these students gather on the floor with a song in this incredible teacher's room (watch the whole video, her methods are fantastic!)... An Art Class Song: Did you hear the little ditty the students sang as they came to the floor? I loved it! So I wrote one of my own. I wanna keep it short, sweet and simple so that the kids can quickly memorize it and put it to use as they walk in the door. Here's what I got so far: Walking into the art room 1-2-3 All my friends Are here with me Let's learn about Picasso and Vincent van Gogh With the best kid artists That I know (and repeat till all are seated) 3. Word of the Week: Keeping What Works! Of course, I'm not throwing out everything in my attempt to maximize my minutes. I do still love the Word of the Week... and plan to continue introducing new terminology this way. However, just one word of the week doesn't begin to cover all of the art vocabulary that needs to be taught. To remedy that situation, I plan to put my buddy Laura Lohman's Art Word Wall Cards to good use. I printed all of these words off and had them laminated at the start of the year...and just now got around to cutting them out and arranging them on my word wall cabinets. I've got the words temporarily stuck onto my cabinets with sticky tack so that I can easily pluck them off and put them into my vocabulary pocket chart thingie. You can score one of these bad boys from Amazon for a lil under $20. Or just shoot out a school-wide email and see if anyone has one they wouldn't mind parting with. When introducing new vocabulary with this chart, I like to do a couple of fun vocab games to get the kids comfortable with saying the words. These games are fun and quick. I use them when introducing new words, not each art class. We are trying to keep it short and quick so the kids can get to makerin', right? Oh, here's another: Accelerated Art History for the Littles: I once went to the doc complaining of stress and panic attacks. She asked, "What do you do?" When I responded that I'm an art teacher, she nearly fell over laughing. "It's only art! How hard can it be?!" Well, I don't have to tell YOU, my art teacherin' friends, do I? Just how do we squeeze in art history, contemporary art, techniques, proper use of materials, skillz, not to mention creativity and the cultivation of some imagination in one class period? With some Accelerated Art History, I've decided. At the start of each art class, after our new lil greeting, entrance song and Word of the Week intro, I've started zooming this kids through art history in 120 seconds or less. My first attempts, I brought the kids over to my big art history wall and did the lil routine you see here. Which was super fun but ate into more art time than I desired. So now I show them my lil art history PowerPoint (to be shared here soon!) with a sneak peak into a new period in art each week. I've been using these books as my resource as they keep things short and sweet: I found both used on Amazon and they have been great at highlighting the key points to share with my students. So far, we've covered cave art up through the Egyptians and the kids have loved these lil short snippets of art history. However, I recently discovered Marcia Beckett of Art is Basic's awesome TPT Art History Sketchbook prompts! Like, what?! So, now, when I am introducing this short voyage through art history, I can tie in the (older) kid's sketchbook prompts. I'm so thrilled with this idea, thank you, Marcia! (Below is a lil blurb about how I've had the kids create and use sketchbooks in my art room this year). Sitting Still Like a Frog: One of my goals this school year was to introduce mindfulness and breath to my students. I'll be the first to admit, I've totes dropped the ball on this one! I've been reading Sitting Still Like a Frog and I think I might have made the whole thing a lot more difficult than it needed to be. When my music teacher buddy Kiera told me that she uses the concept when she plays music and has the children listen silently while focusing on their breath, I was all, EUREKA! That's what I'll do! My thought is for my younger students who do not have sketchbooks to simply breathe and look at the art work I will have projected onto my television at the start of art class. You know, once, we've finished singing our entrance song and settled in on the floor. The plan is for that image presented to be from our lil Accelerated Art History lesson so I can segue right into that portion of art class. Of course, for the olders, it will give them a moment to reflect on their sketchbook prompt. How do you introduce the concept of breath and mindfulness in a fun way? I plan to show this video! For more on mindfulness, check out this clippity clip! A Flipped Classroom Attempt: I was really inspired at the AOE conference last winter by the concept of a flipped classroom. If you aren't familiar, the concept is that early finishers can educate themselves by viewing instructional videos created by the teacher. Nic Hahn of Mini Matisse has made a whole lotta strides with this in her art room and I love seeing what she's done (for example, this video above is one she shares with her students to introduce new stations in her art room!). Now, I don't have a class set of iPads for the kids to use but I do have the ability to record lessons and project them on my big screen television. I never really thought of doing this until Nic mentioned that it allowed her to, in one viewing, say everything she needed to say (cuz you know you ALWAYS forget something!) and, for some crazy reason, the kids focus much more on the telly than they do on us! It also will provide me a hot minute or two to tend to supplies and important tasks (like drinking my now-cold coffee). I'm really loving this idea and hope to start popping more videos up on my YouTube channel which you can find here. Alrightie. So, there you have it, just a sprinkling of my Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year! I have many more new ideas in store for my young artists like a new twist on supply distribution, new messy mats that also double as educational tools and a squeaky clean clean-up routine! Stay tuned, y'all. Until then, you'll find me adding these fun and inspirational songs to my list o' tunes to play both for their lovely lyrics... and their delish singers. HAAAAYYYYY, Bruno Marzzz. I see you! What are some of y'all's Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year? I'd love to hear them! Let's inspire each other!
Hello, friends! I've been packing and preparing for my upcoming trip to Chicago for NAEA and I'm so excited. While I do love me some art teacherin' conferencing, I don't love the multi-day sub plan preppin' it entails. The subs I've lined up are super-fab and I know they will have fun creating with the kids. However, they aren't art teachers by trade so I do like to have sub plans that are not only easy for them to follow but ones they can do with all my classes. This means less confusion for them and less supply prep for me! I think I've come up with a plan and I thought I'd share it with y'all in case you wanna use it too. It's an autobiographical three-dimensional star! Our school-wide art show is coming up and I love to have the kids do a little writing about themselves. What better way to let their star's shine than with this fun project? I mean, check out that three-dimensional star, y'all! I created both a sub video AND a photographed step-by-step. This way, if technology-town decides to be uncooperative, my sub-o can use the visuals. I'm printing each of the following photos with directions and plan to have them posted for both the students and the sub to refer to. But, before I get to all that...LET'S TALK ABOUT NAEA 2016! I'll be presenting a handful of times and meeting y'all at the AOE "Meet the Bloggers" event! Here are the deets... * "Come Blog with Us - Three Art Ed Bloggers Share Tips" Thursday, March 17th // 12 - 12:50pm McCormick Place, North Building, N426c, Level 4 A presentation I'll be doing with some of my fave bloggy friends, Laura Lohmann and Phyllis Brown! Thursday, March 17th // 12 - 12:50 // McCormick Place, North Building, N426c, Level 4 * "Dress Like a Masterpiece: Needle Felting Wearable Art!" Thursday, March 17th // 1:30 - 3:20pm McCormick Place, Lakeside Center, E272b, Leve 2 PLEASE NOTE: This is a ticketed event. It is currently sold out. Sorry, buddies! * "Leaving a Legacy Without Losing Your Mind" Friday, March 18th // 8- 8:50am McCormick Place, North Building, N227a, Level 2 I'm so excited to present with Janine about something we are both passionate about: school-wide collaboratives! For some reason, NAEA has me listed as Cassandra Stephens (which, technically, is my name but I ain't fancy so I never use it!). * "Meet Your Fave Art Teacherin' Bloggers!" I'm super excited to meet y'all and my fave art bloggers! Here are the deets in a super cute graphic that I didn't create (thanks, Alecia and AOE!)... I'm seriously cannot wait to see/meet/chat/high five all y'all! But until then, let's sort out these subbie plans, shall we? Below is the video I am leaving with the sub. I don't anticipate that she'll get thru the entire lesson while I'm away. However, this will be a super great way for me to ease back into things, what with the kids all working on the same project. I like a mellow-comeback after being gone for a spell, don't you? Here's a wee list of supplies used in this here art makerin': * Copy paper cut to a square 8.5" X 8.5" * Sharpies * Markers * 12" X 12" black construction paper * Metallic markers * Glue * Chalk This project was inspired by my current obsession with Sly and the Family Stone and the song Everybody is a Star. Take a look-see! And here's my sub plan video! (By the way, in case this sub plan doesn't suit your fancy, check this one. Also, I'm always sharing video'ed plans here so you might wanna subscribe). Sidenote: I am going to have my sub create a stockpile of these stars for my kindergarten friends and for any kids who have a hard time following the directions. We don't wanna leave any artist behind! (Please ignore the crazy image...and the fact that I have blue chalk smeared on my cheek for about 1/8th of the video). In case the video isn't the best format for y'all, I also snapped step-by-step photos because I'm such a giver. Here you go! 1. Fold copy paper square in half. 2. Be sure to press the fold down firmly. 3. Each corner has been labeled (my apologies for the blurry photo). 4. Take corner C and bring it to the middle of the line segment between corners A and D. It should look like this. Press the fold firmly. 5. Then bring D up and fold a small triangle. Press firmly. It should look like this! 6. Now bring the left hand side over to the right. It might be difficult to fold all of those papers. Be patient with yourself and your paper! It should look like this. 7. Now, using a pencil, put a dot in the corner of the two angle lines on the left side... and another dot on the other side just a little below the middle of that line segment. Like this! 8. Connect the dots with a cut line and... Snip! 9. Open it up and you are now the proud owner of a three dimensional star! Congratulations! 10. Now, using a Sharpie, start in the middle of your star and trace each creased line that you made with all of that folding. You'll end up with ten sections to your star. Each section you can decorate with a different pattern and design. Here are some ideas for you! 11. Draw your designs in each section. 12. Use markers to add color. 13. Once you are finished, place your star in the middle of a piece of black paper and trace it. Your pencil lines will be barely visible and that's perfect! 14. Let's write about what makes us a star! As you write, be sure to hop over the outline of the star. You might want to begin each sentence with "I am a star because..." Fill up that whole page! 15. To get your star to pop out, all you have to do is fold along the long lines of the star. The long lines of the star should be folded up (that's called a mountain fold) and the short lines of the star should be folded down (that's called a valley fold!). 16. Add a tiny dot of glue to each tip of the star. 17. Press each tip of the star and hold for about 10 seconds to get it to stick. 18. Use chalk to color on your pencil line of the star. Which should look a little like this when you are done. 19. Use your finger to push the chalk away from the star. 20. Let's do the same thing to the outside edge of the square! Color... Then smear and viola! You are finished and YOU are a STAR! Art teacherin' friends, I do hope to see y'all real soon! PLEASE feel free to use this lesson. I'd love to see what your kids create. You can always snap a pic and share it on instagram (you can find me here) with the hashtag #everybodyisastar.
3 Addictive Projects to Use When Introducing Students to Encaustic Art % %
Ukrainian sculptor Volodymyr Tsisaryk was born and grew up in Lviv. His works were seen by almost every tourist who visited the city at least once in
Are you looking to add some humor to your class? We had a “Funday Punday Monday” at our school where kids and teachers brought in puns to share. I rounded up some fun art-related puns …
This art lesson is one of my favorite high school art projects because it is so simple and builds the foundation for everything we do for the rest of the year.
Help your students better understand and appreciate the art of other cultures with this xenophobia and ethnocentrism lesson.
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
From Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi to Japanese-American post-war sculptor Ruth Asawa, a new book celebrates these unsung heroes of art.
I work very hard to make my classroom comfortable and inviting to my students. I've not had one Saturday to myself since July. I hope they appreciate it.
Art Lesson Plans for Art Teachers to save you time and restore your work/life balance. Let The Arty Teacher do the work for you.
An elementary art teacher blog with art projects and lessons, DIY projects and outfit photos as well as clothing I have made myself.
From Italian Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi to Japanese-American post-war sculptor Ruth Asawa, a new book celebrates these unsung heroes of art.
Bring art and math together with this fun tessellation art project. It’s a great way to explore patterns, tiling, and geometry!
How delicious are the colors and compositions of these Mark Rothko inspired chalk pastel drawings!? To introduce the links between color and emotions, we read the story "My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss". We then made a mental list of all the emotions we had felt during the day (tired when we woke up, excited to be at school, happy hamburgers were for lunch, and so on). Whatever color we felt we drew. Our next step was to talk about artists who use color to influence emotional responses from a viewer. Enter...Mark Rothko! Using chalk pastels on black construction paper we mixed and blended our Rothko inspired works. WOW! I'm still getting goose bumps, they turned out so stunning! I'm so proud!
15 Things Nobody Tells You About Becoming an Art Teacher % %
Loo Roll Art Challenge. Fun home learning art activity to for art students which only uses loo roll, pencils and pens. Lots of artits inspiration too.
Kids. It's almost the New Year. And, if you're a list-loving-maker like me, that can only mean one thing: it's time to bust out that colorful variety pack of felt-tipped pens and start goal setting! I always make Sewing Goals, Health Goals, House-Cleaning/Decorating Goals and neglect Art Teacherin' Goals. Mostly because I seem to be stuck in the mindset that anything new to do with teaching must ONLY happen at the start of a school year. Well, not this year, y'all. I'm banishing that notion and going full steam ahead with a litany of New -n- Improved Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year! Who's with me?! One of my biggest goals as an art teacher is to jam pack as much info into the limited amount of time I have with my students. And for that reason, I'll be presenting Maximize Your Minutes in the Art Room at this winter's AOE conference! There's still time for you to register to attend this online conference and hear me chat about maximizing AND see a tour of my (new and improved for the new year) art room! So, without further ado, let's chat about my... Art Teacherin' Resolutions for 2016, Part 1 ("Part 1" because, let's face it, there's a whole lot I need to work on!) My class schedule is not like most of y'all, I imagine. I see my kindergarteners for 45 minutes, weekly; my first and second for 30 minutes, bi-weekly and my third and fourth for an hour, weekly. Even with that limited amount of time, I don't want my students to have a watered-down art class. Instead I want to provide a super-concentrated, high fructose, protein-packed experience. One that is both fun and easy for me to build into a routine. So here are some new plans I am looking forward to putting into action once the kids return (by the way, several of these ideas came from the Queen of Pinterest, Donna Staten!): An Art Class Greeting: When I open my art room door to greet the kids waiting outside, I usually have a coupla hand-raisers (what are we doing today?), a coupla complimenters (I like your hair! [really? because it's not changed since high school, y'all]) and a coupla lost-in-space-rs (Billy. The line is moving. Joining us?). For a while I snubbed this out with my Vocab-at-the-Door routine which I love but it just didn't pack the "Art class is the JAM! Let's get in here and make stuff" punch that I had in mind. Then I saw this video and got an idea to create an Art Class Greeting... Isn't that awesome?! Of course, I plan to change it up a pinch by saying, "Hello, my most amazing artists!" but the rest is perfection. Then I can drop into my usual vocabulary routine...or, what I'm leaning more toward for a lil change-up, teaching the kids a Walking-into-the-Art-Room song. Check out how these students gather on the floor with a song in this incredible teacher's room (watch the whole video, her methods are fantastic!)... An Art Class Song: Did you hear the little ditty the students sang as they came to the floor? I loved it! So I wrote one of my own. I wanna keep it short, sweet and simple so that the kids can quickly memorize it and put it to use as they walk in the door. Here's what I got so far: Walking into the art room 1-2-3 All my friends Are here with me Let's learn about Picasso and Vincent van Gogh With the best kid artists That I know (and repeat till all are seated) 3. Word of the Week: Keeping What Works! Of course, I'm not throwing out everything in my attempt to maximize my minutes. I do still love the Word of the Week... and plan to continue introducing new terminology this way. However, just one word of the week doesn't begin to cover all of the art vocabulary that needs to be taught. To remedy that situation, I plan to put my buddy Laura Lohman's Art Word Wall Cards to good use. I printed all of these words off and had them laminated at the start of the year...and just now got around to cutting them out and arranging them on my word wall cabinets. I've got the words temporarily stuck onto my cabinets with sticky tack so that I can easily pluck them off and put them into my vocabulary pocket chart thingie. You can score one of these bad boys from Amazon for a lil under $20. Or just shoot out a school-wide email and see if anyone has one they wouldn't mind parting with. When introducing new vocabulary with this chart, I like to do a couple of fun vocab games to get the kids comfortable with saying the words. These games are fun and quick. I use them when introducing new words, not each art class. We are trying to keep it short and quick so the kids can get to makerin', right? Oh, here's another: Accelerated Art History for the Littles: I once went to the doc complaining of stress and panic attacks. She asked, "What do you do?" When I responded that I'm an art teacher, she nearly fell over laughing. "It's only art! How hard can it be?!" Well, I don't have to tell YOU, my art teacherin' friends, do I? Just how do we squeeze in art history, contemporary art, techniques, proper use of materials, skillz, not to mention creativity and the cultivation of some imagination in one class period? With some Accelerated Art History, I've decided. At the start of each art class, after our new lil greeting, entrance song and Word of the Week intro, I've started zooming this kids through art history in 120 seconds or less. My first attempts, I brought the kids over to my big art history wall and did the lil routine you see here. Which was super fun but ate into more art time than I desired. So now I show them my lil art history PowerPoint (to be shared here soon!) with a sneak peak into a new period in art each week. I've been using these books as my resource as they keep things short and sweet: I found both used on Amazon and they have been great at highlighting the key points to share with my students. So far, we've covered cave art up through the Egyptians and the kids have loved these lil short snippets of art history. However, I recently discovered Marcia Beckett of Art is Basic's awesome TPT Art History Sketchbook prompts! Like, what?! So, now, when I am introducing this short voyage through art history, I can tie in the (older) kid's sketchbook prompts. I'm so thrilled with this idea, thank you, Marcia! (Below is a lil blurb about how I've had the kids create and use sketchbooks in my art room this year). Sitting Still Like a Frog: One of my goals this school year was to introduce mindfulness and breath to my students. I'll be the first to admit, I've totes dropped the ball on this one! I've been reading Sitting Still Like a Frog and I think I might have made the whole thing a lot more difficult than it needed to be. When my music teacher buddy Kiera told me that she uses the concept when she plays music and has the children listen silently while focusing on their breath, I was all, EUREKA! That's what I'll do! My thought is for my younger students who do not have sketchbooks to simply breathe and look at the art work I will have projected onto my television at the start of art class. You know, once, we've finished singing our entrance song and settled in on the floor. The plan is for that image presented to be from our lil Accelerated Art History lesson so I can segue right into that portion of art class. Of course, for the olders, it will give them a moment to reflect on their sketchbook prompt. How do you introduce the concept of breath and mindfulness in a fun way? I plan to show this video! For more on mindfulness, check out this clippity clip! A Flipped Classroom Attempt: I was really inspired at the AOE conference last winter by the concept of a flipped classroom. If you aren't familiar, the concept is that early finishers can educate themselves by viewing instructional videos created by the teacher. Nic Hahn of Mini Matisse has made a whole lotta strides with this in her art room and I love seeing what she's done (for example, this video above is one she shares with her students to introduce new stations in her art room!). Now, I don't have a class set of iPads for the kids to use but I do have the ability to record lessons and project them on my big screen television. I never really thought of doing this until Nic mentioned that it allowed her to, in one viewing, say everything she needed to say (cuz you know you ALWAYS forget something!) and, for some crazy reason, the kids focus much more on the telly than they do on us! It also will provide me a hot minute or two to tend to supplies and important tasks (like drinking my now-cold coffee). I'm really loving this idea and hope to start popping more videos up on my YouTube channel which you can find here. Alrightie. So, there you have it, just a sprinkling of my Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year! I have many more new ideas in store for my young artists like a new twist on supply distribution, new messy mats that also double as educational tools and a squeaky clean clean-up routine! Stay tuned, y'all. Until then, you'll find me adding these fun and inspirational songs to my list o' tunes to play both for their lovely lyrics... and their delish singers. HAAAAYYYYY, Bruno Marzzz. I see you! What are some of y'all's Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year? I'd love to hear them! Let's inspire each other!
Five websites every art teacher needs. Helpful links to essential websites with resources, tips, ideas and support for teaching art & design
by Allan Innman oil on canvas, mounted to panel 2009 www.allaninnman.com
What if I told you that Norman Rockwell art provides engaging opportunities to work on inferencing skills? Intrigued? Read this post to learn how to use it!
This page lists Professional Development for Art Teachers around the globe. United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
So way back when I first started teaching (cough cough, 15 years ago back in 2008, there was no Pinterest, no Instagram and very few blogs to gather lesson ideas. We all know the early years of teaching is rough, but when you have very limited access to other art teachers to share ideas with, and have to create everyth
Recently I was inspired by the amazing art teacher Don Masse who is always working with contemporary artists. You can learn more about his awesomeness at http://www.shinebritezamorano.com.I have been wanting to do a project that focused more on graphic designers so I could introduce my students to this possible career choice in the arts. Don Masse did a project with the graphic designer Aaron Draplin so of course I had to check this guy out. First of all I loved how he is from Michigan and went
