Does Grading Art Matter
You hate grading right? There’s a pile of project , scratch that, that’s a MOUNTAIN of projects taking over your desk, and you really really want to skip the grading part. But, since art is graded in college, are you setting your students up for a disaster? I don’t know that I’ve ever met a […]
How to ask meaningful questions in the artroom
Questioning is one of the best ways to help students to take ownership of their work and to help them learn how to make decisions and recognize why they’re making them. In the beginning it can be challenging to know what kind of questions to ask that will lead your students to have thoughtful and […]
Teacher Tools: Short and Informative Videos about Art
I don’t know about you, but I get so crazy excited when I find a new and inspiring resource, and well, that’s what just happened. I was looking for something totally different and stumbled across this awesome resource on the MET site. It’s quickly becoming my go to , to listen to each morning, […]
DIY: How to have fun making your own painted envelopes
During my first or second year of teaching, I decided that I wanted to write a personal letter to every one of my students, yes all 150+ of them. It took some time, but I did it. They loved it, and felt so good to sit down each day, reflect on each individual student and […]
Teacher Tools: FREE online Programs to Edit your Photos
There are lots and lots of tools and apps out there for editing photos, so don’t think that these are the only ones. These are simply ones that myself and my students enjoy using. Below I talk about Befunky.com and pixlr.com I also mentioned Canva, which isn’t a photo editing tool, but is great […]
Teacher Tools: How to make a Stop Action Movie
I always loved stopped action videos, and so did my students, but we needed a fast and easy way to make them, and that’s where picassa comes in. While you can create stop action with a variety of programs, by far picassa is so simple, with a few clicks your photos transform into a fun […]
How to make an Illuminated Manuscript
I know that I’m onto something when students thank me for creating and project, and continually tell me how much fun they’re having. That’s what happened with this Illuminated Manuscript Project. While most of the time my class is choice/TAB ( teaching for artistic behavior), where students develop their own ideas and prompts, they also […]
Do You have to come up with New Projects every year?
Do I have to come up with ALL new projects every year? Am I a slacker if I don’t? Am I a bad teacher if I buy and use other teacher’s plans? There’s no hard and steadfast rule that answers the above questions, but if you’re hanging out on the internet or with a […]
Things we did well and not so well :(
Yesterday, artist Dave Conrey, sent out an email looking back on 2016 and planning for 2017. He broke it into 3 categories, which I liked as a way to review/ plan for myself, and also think it’s a great thing to do with our students. Things that I did well in 2016 Focused on my […]
How to be Creative with Combination
” The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. ” ( author unknown) ~ Visual Intelligence One of my favorite things about creativity is coming up with new combinations, which is probably why I got all kinds of excited while reading the first few pages of Visual Intelligence. […]