How to Stay Organized as a New Teacher
I was 22, fresh out of college and freshly married. They handed me the keys to not one but 2 high school art rooms, that were all mine!!! Along with the keys, came a stack of class rosters, revealing that I was going to be teaching, jewelry/metals, darkroom photography, digital photography, sculpture, and foundations of […]
How to Help Students Develop Ideas
Helping students develop meaningful ideas in a TAB classroom. Everybody gets stuck sometimes, but one of the harder things about bringing choice into your classroom, is finding ways to deal with students that can’t seem to come up with anything. Leaving them sitting, staring at a blank page, ask you for ideas. A few years […]
What’s the Point
What are you actually doing when you’re writing lesson plans, correcting papers, and grading projects? What are you really doing when you’re scrounging for supplies because your budget ( okay, you don’t even have a budget) never covers everything that your students need. What are you doing when you spend your summer going to professional […]
2 Easy ways to kids writing, and 1 way to organize your books
“It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.” – Ernest Hemingway For the years that I taught in the public school system, we, the art teachers, were always being told that we needed to find ways to bring math, writing, and reading into […]
What do You Want to Become?
Ever imagine what you want to become when you “grow up”? When I was little , I knew that I wanted to be a teacher. Yes, I was one of “those” people, that always knew what they wanted to be. I spent my time teaching both real and pretend students, assigning the neighbors homework, and […]
How to have better ideas
When you ask the wrong questions, or not enough questions, you get the wrong answer. Lowe’s was having a .99 paint sample sale, which to an artist, is pretty darn exciting. Sorry, the sale is over as I”m writing this to you. It was perfect timing as I’d recently decided that I want to paint […]
Refuse to Quit, How to Become an Artist
Art has always been a major highlight and focus of not only your education, but your life. You have consistently been drawn to areas that involve artistry and innovation. Your early memories include going to art classes with your mother, looking over her shoulder and being fascinated by the creative process. The idea of manifesting […]
Everybody Loves Inservice
I had a love/ hate relationship with inservice. And the only reason that I say, “had”, is because I no longer work for the public school system, and inservice is a thing of my past. Now, I realize that I may have lost you when I said the words love and inservice to very close […]
Let’s get the pARTy stARTed. 3 lessons for Secondary ART teachers
The start of a new school year or semester always comes with a lot of emotions. There’s excitement, nerves, overwhelm, and the feeling of wondering if you’re good enough, and most importantly if any of your friends are going to be in your class. While students are comparing schedules, us teachers, and writing lessons, stretching […]
A complete guide to stocking your Art supply closet
After a year and half, our little yard is no longer a big pile of dirt, it has a patio, flower beds, and grass is growing!! These things are excited in and of themselves, but the really excited part is that means that it’s time to add all of the fun details….. DECORATE… and, well […]