Conference Season: What to do if you can't make it

Artist Name: Amanda R

Every Fall I look forward to attending the MAEA conference. I know I will walk away feeling energized and full of ideas gleaned from sessions that are both relevant and will have great impact on my students in my classroom. Unfortunately, I am not able to attend this year's conference. If you are like me and staying home this weekend, here are three ways to plug into what is happening in Art Education even if you cannot always make it to the conference.

1. Check out Online Conferences. With the use of Webcams, Screencasts, and Videos, there are several websites that are offering conference experiences for Visual Arts teachers who may not have the funds or flexibility to travel to their State or National Conferences. Websites like The Art of Education (which is offering a Winter Conference featuring a variety of sessions) and The Education Closet (which offers monthly Master Classes that are hosted by Arts teachers on various topics in Arts Education) are making it easier for teachers to catch up on Professional Development without having to leave their homes. A free conference that has resources from a variety of content areas that I have also presented for is the K12 Online Conference. Dating back to 2008, you can search through their videos and catch up on a variety of hot topics in education with several sessions created by Visual Arts teachers from all grade levels. Although this does not replace the time spent face to face with other Arts Educators from across the State, it does offer an alternative for those (like me) who are missing out this year. 
2. Turn to Social Media. Even if I am not there, I can follow along with my colleagues and friends through their news feeds and capture bits and pieces to be inspired by through the magic of Twitter and Facebook. Although it might seem like you are being a secret stalker, take to your feeds during conference weekends and examine the pictures of demos, projects, and quotes that your friends are sharing. If something piques your interest, then favorite/like it and make note to ask more questions of your friend once they return from the conference. I have already gotten a lot of great ideas from friends in Indiana and New Jersey, whose Art Education Conferences were held earlier this month. Even though I was not there, I was able to share in some of the highlights through interacting with my attendee friends in our Social Media connections.
3. Plan for Next Year. It may be too late to attend this year's conference, but it is a great time to start planning for next year. In 2014 the conference is going to be in Lansing. Don't wait until the last minute to decide to go; instead, use the year to start saving and planning and getting ready to learn and share next Fall. 

If you are going to the conference, please share your resources below so that others can learn along with you, too! What makes for a great conference and what are some of your favorite MAEA moments of year's past?

Flipping Art Education

Flipped instruction is something that has been gaining interest in my district for the last couple of years. Flipped instruction is when you use a combination of online and face-to-face interaction to deliver content. There is a variety of methods to this and rather than re-explain, you can see them here.

One question that comes into play when thinking about Art Education, is how can you flip it? Or maybe better: Why would you want to? Art class is so hands-on, what really can flipping instruction do to benefit instruction in an art room. Here are 3 ways to Flip Art Education:

1. Sub plans: Nothing is worse than trying to prepare Art sub plans. More likely than not, the person coming in to take over has little to no experience using Art materials and the students are probably going to have a hard time figuring out what to do without your guidance. A couple of ways to combat this through the Flip model is recording a video of yourself explaining what needs to happen for the Sub to show students (or if the kids have access to computers, they can watch it at their own pace). That way they can see what you want them to do and the expectation is more clear than a sub trying to decipher your notes. I also tell students to email me when I am out if they hit a snag in a project and I try to talk them through it via email. It makes the students feel in control and me at ease when I am not there.

2. Snow Days: Today was the 5th one in my district. I am not complaining, but it does mean that I have lost a week's worth of instructional time with students. Instead of completely giving up on a lesson or presentation that you were planning to give on a Snow Day, you could create a video recording of it and email it to parents/students to view before returning to class the next day. I try to keep videos like this to ten minutes or less. It never takes the place of me being there in class and not all students will take the time to view it, but it does offer students the opportunity to get prepared for when we return to class the next day. Those students who do view can then take the lead in explaining the process and help others get on track with what we are doing.

3. Differentiate Pacing: What do you do with the student who is always ready to move onto the next assignment? What about students who are gone on vacation or sick? One thing you could offer is the resources for the assignment online. I house all of my projects on our Moodle page and students can check out what we are going to to do next when finishing their current projects. Sometimes I will make videos available that showcase an artist or go through a presentation I or other students have prepared. This allows students to move ahead when they are ready or get caught up if they are behind.

Imagine less time lecturing or presenting about Artists in class and more time for making Art. What might happen when students share their learning with parents by watching those presentations at home? Think of the potential this type of model offers the Art classroom when it is employed effectively. There are many tools you can use to create screen castings or videos. Two I frequent are Camtasia Relay by TechSmith and Quicktime on the Mac.

If you are interested in learning more about this type of instructional model and would like a chance to talk technology with other forward-thinking teachers, check out the upcoming PD at the GRAM this Saturday - it is only $5 for MAEA members. If you have used this type of instruction in your classroom, what are some tips or tricks you can offer others? If you have not, do you think you will? What are some potential issues that you see from using this strategy?

Transforming Minds

Happy New Year! Even though I say I am not going to, it seems like every year I get sucked into some type of resolution. I start out with good intentions and usually somewhere around March realize I had gotten off track.

A couple of years ago, I started my class blog  as a New Year's goal. It has been my most successful New Year's venture to date. I find the documenting of student growth and work to be a great reflective tool for myself and something my students enjoy as well. That is why I was excited to spend my first Saturday of the year with Art teachers in Oakland Schools, talking about technology, assessment, and how they can work together in the Visual Arts classroom to meet a variety of needs.

Claudia Burns also presented at the Transforming Minds conference on the topic of assessment. Her helpful resources will soon be available on the MAEA website.

Claudia Burns presented at the January 5th conference in Oakland on the topic of Assessment.

As we move into 2013, the topic of assessment is going to be more and more prevalent. We have to figure out how we are going to document student growth that will be put towards our evaluations. Claudia has really helped get the conversation going, by providing examples of assessment tools and sample assessments that could be used in the classroom. I hope to add to the conversation by providing examples of how the use of technology can aide in our effort with documenting student growth through my collaboration on this blog and others.

In addition to blogging, I also document the efforts in my classroom through Artsonia. This online gallery offers teachers a place to house digital images of student work over the course of their schooling career. Imagine being able to have students go back after years and reflect on their progress in various aspects of art making. I also use Google Forms and Moodle to create tests that help me quickly assess student knowledge, without having to spend time manually grading them. If you are interested in learning about any of these tools, you can find me at the January 19th Flip Teaching Conference at Byron Center High School. The event is free and lunch is provided - what more can I say!

If you are interested in helping shape the future of Assessments in the Arts in Michigan, you can apply to participate in the Michigan's Model Arts Education Instruction and Assessment Project. The deadline for application is January 21st.

What are some ways you are using assessment to document student growth. What are some tools available that help you show student growth?

Lifelong Learning

Artists Name: Stella Lee
School: Northview High School

I recently engaged in a relatively short discussion with @wmchamberlain (one of many teachers I follow on twitter) about lifelong learning. The discussion started with a question he posed asking what people were learning over the summer and I responded by describing that I have spent the summer teaching myself how to sew (with the immense help of both youtube and books ordered from Amazon). He shared that he was experimenting with art making. I pointed to a website that I thought might help in his journey and he gave me some encouragement, too.

Even though the "conversation" lasted a few lines back and forth, it has got me thinking about the concept of lifelong learning and how we engage students in this. It also got me thinking about how I engage in my own learning and what motivates me to want to learn new things.

I have always had an interest in how things are made. It is one of the reasons I wanted to be an artist and it is also why I wanted to be an art teacher - I also enjoy teaching others how to make things. I have had a sewing machine since 2006, but did not start using it until about a year ago. Why did I not learn to sew earlier? It might be because inheriting the machine was the result of my mother-in-law's passing, it might be because I didn't want to pay for a class when I had other bills and monetary concerns to think about, but it was probably because I wasn't ready to learn how to do it yet.

You can lead a horse to water, right? Anyway, whatever the reason is for me not wanting to learn how to sew then doesn't matter now because I am engaged and interested and as a result have not only created things that I am proud of but have been able to share those creations with others.

As I reflected on my own process of learning (and the fact that a lot of it involved failure, frustration, retrying things, research on the internet, and some help from experienced experts), it got me thinking about my classroom and how I can infuse this experience there. If I want my students to experience learning the way I did then I need to create an environment where experimentation, investigation, and following interests are important. If I want students to be engaged, then I need to be open to the fact that they are all in different points in their learning careers and even though I may lead them to water, it is up to them to figure out when they are ready to drink... I also have to give myself a break (and my students, too) when they are not and realize that just because something doesn't work out once doesn't mean they (or I) should never try it again. The most important thing I will bring to my classroom from this experience is my story. I will share with my students how I learned to sew and how I taught myself by doing research, failing, taking risks, and finally achieving my goal.

There is a great lifelong learning opportunity coming up August 5-10 through the MAEA Summer Professional Development Institute. Today is the early registration deadline and if you have been putting off learning something because you weren't ready yet, hopefully you will take this opportunity to learn in a community of experts that will guide and encourage you along the way.

If you have a learning story from this summer, or have taken a workshop in previous Summer PDI's please share your story below.

Flipping Assessment

Over the course of the past year, there has been much discussion on flipping instruction, moving more resources online for students to access, and really changing the way teachers connect with kids through technology in the classroom. But what if we do more than just flip instruction? Recently I came across this tweet from a consulting firm that also applies to education:

Often times when teaching, we are putting on a performance that tries to engage students in new concepts, skills, and ways of thinking. Unfortunately, as dynamic as that performance may be sometimes just because we did it doesn't mean it reached all students. One idea I think is interesting in addressing this issue is the concept of flipping assessment. Instead of solely focusing on assessing students through projects, tests, and quizzes, turn the tables and have students assess how you are reaching them as a teacher.

This is something I have done informally on the last day of class so I can adjust and reflect on my performance as a teacher. Students write a response to the following: 1. What was something that I should change for next year? 2. What is something that should definitely stay the same?

Sometimes there are responses like "you shouldn't mark us down if we didn't bring in a project" or "you should let us sit with our friends all of the time" which is unlikely to be something that can always change, but often there are direct and pointed critiques of how lessons are taught and what could have been done differently to help them learn the topic more. It is also nice to receive the feedback on what went well. It helps you get an idea on what made the biggest impact on students and think about the circumstances surrounding the projects or lessons to make that so.

For my Digital Arts Camp, I tried a different approach. I used a Google Form to create a survey of why students participated in the camp, what they thought about the camp, and what could be done in future camps to make it a success. By using a Google Form, I am able to compile data and use that data to drive future decisions. This is a great tool to consider using in the beginning of the school year to create student interest inventories or types of learning styles. You could also use it throughout the school year to check in on student attitudes and feelings about the class. Because you can make responses anonymous, it allows students to freely divulge their opinions.

Google Form compiled responses to why students signed up for camp.

 What do you think about being assessed by your students? Do you already do something like this in your classroom and how has it changed your delivery of instruction? Please share all related insights in the comments below.

May Flowers

May is a time where not only flowers are blooming (although with this crazy weather some have been out since March); it is the time where students really are at their prime to show off what they have learned throughout the year and apply it to culminating projects and exhibitions.

If your district is anything like mine, you get to show off the year's worth of work through various shows in your building and at a district wide show in a central location. This is a great time for students, parents, and teachers to connect and really remark on the growths students have made throughout the year.

Theresa McGee showed off her annual exhibition in this great Animoto video, complete with movies and pictures of the event.



What made this show for me was the effective use of QR codes to link to the artists being studied in each project. This is a great way to create an interactive show, involving the viewer to take part in the show by learning even more. Here is how she explains the process of using QR codes in her classroom.

In a time where students are probably looking ahead to the summer break, take a moment and pull them back in to enjoy the hard work and lessons learned that has lead them to May. This last full month of school should be the time when students say "This is my best project," or "I never thought I could do something like this..." instead of checking out, already tuned in to whatever summer plans might bring. In the best case scenario, you will even have some saying, "I can't wait to come back next year, already!" 

Connecting Classrooms

The most powerful lessons are often the ones that include students making connections among what they are learning in one class with their other classes and outside interests. Some of my favorite lessons are the ones that allow students to learn a topic they are discussing in Math, Social Studies, English or Science with an Art twist. It gives students the opportunity to use prior knowledge and scaffold their learning in various classroom settings. 

One resource that is helpful for finding these connections without having to pour over hundreds of pages of content standards for every subject area is the Michigan Education Library. In their M.O.R.E. (More Online Resources for Education) section, they allow you to search for lessons by content area, standard, resource type, and audience. They also allow you to quickly look through content standards in order to link them up with others for the most impact. They have lesson plan ideas and samples, too, which are helpful when deciding what types of lessons you want to connect with other subject areas.

Turning to the other teachers in your building is also a helpful resource when deciding how you want to integrate your curriculum to cover what is being taught in other classes. For example, I know that in 8th grade History they discuss the Civil War and Slavery. I use this as an opportunity to have students in my 8th grade Art classes create Anthropomorphic Jars based on the Southern Slave tradition from that time period. We also look at how cultures from around the world and in different time periods have used Anthropomorphic Pottery as a way to express their culture before students create their Jars to reflect something about their personalities. By tapping into prior knowledge, students are able to add various view points and context to the discussions had in class as well as the overall effect of the work created. Here is a video of the project from start to finish:

There is often the push for other teachers to integrate Art into their curriculum, but I really find a lot of success when I integrate other curriculum into Art. It allows me to connect with other teachers, giving students a different perspective on a topic that may have struggled with in the other subject. It also allows them the opportunity to learn more information from varying viewpoints.

What is a lesson you have used that coordinates with what is being learned in other classes at your school?

MACUL 2012

Educational Techies flocked the streets of Grand Rapids this past week for the annual MACUL Conference. From flipped classrooms, 1:1 computing, website building, movie making, and 22nd Century Learning, MACUL always offers teachers a space to exchange ideas and innovate for the future of education.

Some of the highlights I was able to take away included a presentation by Chresta Wright on making your Moodle class pages more organized for student learning. She challenged the audience to rethink how to build pages, making it easier for students to process information and more efficient for teaching concepts.

The use of iPads was also a popular topic in many sessions and I learned about all kinds of apps to help deliver instruction to students and involve students in creating videos and other presentation materials with this device. The student showcase offered a preview of what iPads might look like in an Art classroom.

Examples from Shashabaw Middle School's use of iPads in the Art classroom.

 If you are looking to add iPads to your curriculum, Tricia Fuglestad and Suzanne Tiedemann expand on that idea with their website they created as a part of their NAEA 2012 Conference presentation on the topic. Theresa Gillespie also has a great site about using iPads to make Art. If you currently do not have an iPad, consider creating a Donors Choose project to get one for your classroom. They are going to be starting a matching donations campaign for this month, which can help you get your project funded even faster!

Steve Dembo gave a spectacular presentation on the future of education as he challenged the audience to ponder what it will look like in 100 years. He proposes that creating is not enough for our students; instead of just creating, they must also share, collaborate, and connect using the physical and digital realm. After sharing valuable sites like Kickstarter and ScholarMatch, Steve challenged us to rethink how our students are going to function in the future with a world that is growing ever smaller and becoming a place where "In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen people." 

I also had the opportunity to present at MACUL this year. My presentation was about the MACUL funded grant so I could enact a project for student created videos. It was really fun to share experiences in my classroom with others and learn more resources from them, too.

If you are not currently a member of MACUL, sign up because not only is it a great community to be a part of, it is also free! As a member, you can apply for one of their grants to purchase technology for the classroom. View more details here: http://www.macul.org/grantsawards/

Did you go to MACUL? What are some highlights and take away tips we should know about from the sessions you attended?