Digital Photography Lesson Round-up
While my first year of teaching was 10 years ago, I still have some pretty distinct memories of excitement and terror when I was handed my schedule; Darkroom Photography Digital Photography Jewelry/Metals Foundations Sculpture I had no experience or background in jewelry/metals, and while I’d taken a film photography class in college, taking a class, […]
How to Balance Instruction and Experimentation in a TAB Classroom
When teaching digital photography to students, I always find that it’s a bit of a dance between the technical elements, with allowing time and space for experimentation and discovery. I once read a quote, ( can’t remember who in the world said it, and google doesn’t seem to be sure either), but it’s good none […]
Helping Students Understand Content and Context in Art History
Previously, when teaching Art History, students were often confused about the idea of content and context and how it relates to works of art. This year I develop 3 new exercises to walk them through, and now they are understanding it like nobodies business!!!! Here is the video that walks students through the […]
Troubleshooting Digital Photography: How to have Better Photos
After teaching photography for 10 years, there are certain problems that students seem to encounter no matter what. I’ve created three handouts that address the 3 most common problems, and possible solutions. Video 1: What to do if your photos are too dark Video 2: What to do if you photos are coming […]
What Questions Art Historians Ask
Over the weekend my husband and I headed to the Phildelphia Museum of Art. We first checked out the contemporary section, they had a lot of Cy Twombly’s work on display, and I love his mark making. A lot of people look at his work and see childlike scribbles. I see layers, pain, sadness… […]
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 […]