How to put together an Art Portfolio
Near the end of the school year juniors and seniors flock into my artroom as they realize they need an art portfolio to apply to college. The stress arises because while many colleges tell students that they need to submit a portfolio, they aren’t overtly clear as to what needs to be included in a […]
How to save time while grading Students Projects
I’ve never met a teacher of any kind/subject, that says that they love grading. It takes a lot of time and often feels like the students don’t even look at, let alone apply the given feedback. You have piles of work, taking over your desk, so you take it home ( telling yourself that […]
Fast and Easy ways to make video for your classroom
A side of affect of teaching art online, is creating A TON, of video, however, video isn’t just helpful for those of you that teach online, it’s also a great tool to flipping the classroom. An added bonus, is that it can be super helpful when you have a sub. Save your videos to a […]
Teacher Tools: How to Help your Students Check their writing
Sometimes I love reading my students writing, and then , well, then there are other times, when I feel slightly different about the whole situation. ( You know what I mean). You might also be thinking, wait, I thought that you taught art, so why in the world are you talking about writing? Students do […]
How to Help Students Find the Answer
While learning about creating visual texture: student: is mine good? me: Do you have at least 2 textures? student: I think me: What are they student: a scarf me: what texture is that? student: I don’t know me: What does a scarf feel like? student: soft so your texture is soft, what’s your other […]
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 […]
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 […]