You're it!

Last May I had the opportunity to attend the TEDxGrandRapids Livestream for Education event at Kentwood Fine Arts Auditorium. As we prepare for this school year, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on one particular speaker that has stuck with me throughout that day and over the summer.

The theme for this year's event was "Tag, you're it!" That feeling was all around as we were encouraged to engage in conversation throughout the breaks in the day, participate activities like decorating lunch bags for the Kids Food Basket, or while listening to the speakers illustrate the power of being "it" for someone.

Although I took away great messages from all of the speakers who discussed ideas both big and small, it was Simone Ahuja's story of Mansukh Prajapati that had the most impact on me.

Rather than write about it, I think it is best watched here:


I am sure that there are moments within this that stuck out to you, too. As an art teacher, clay is a media we use for so many things. We use it to make decorative sculptures, molds, functional items... but not until I saw this story of how this material was "reframed" did I see what an impact it could have on a community and change their lives.

As I prepare for the start of school in the next few weeks, I am going to think about this story and how I can reframe my own situation to include innovative and creative solutions that help students find their potential and explore their ideas. I am going to share this story with my students and encourage them to embrace the moment they are tagged to be "it" for somebody.

What are you doing to prepare yourself for the upcoming school year? What pieces of motivation are you bringing with you to help foster learning in your classroom? How are you going to be "it" for your students this school year?

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?

What did you Learn?

It has been a couple of weeks since the MAEA Fall 2012 Conference, and I am still sorting through bags of handouts, sample materials, and pictures that are filled with great ideas and classroom inspiration. This conference had it all - great views of Traverse City, awesome sessions with expert teachers, and loads of ideas to take back and implement into the classroom. Here are a couple of take-aways that will be helping me through this year:

1. Assessment: Claudia Burns had a great Thursday night session on Assessment where teachers were able to share how they are working with the new evaluation requirement to show student growth. Teachers gave examples of how the implement both formative and summative assessment tools as well as the resources they use to help with pre and post testing. You will notice a new tab on our blog labeled "Assessment" - Claudia will be putting resource materials on there to help you get started or advance your understanding of how this works in an art classroom.

2. Creativity: There were several sessions that had creativity at the heart of it. Adam VanHouten, September Buys, and Cindy Todd gave presentations dealing with aspects of creativity in the classroom. I enjoyed learning about various methods of instruction to help foster innovative thinking. Both Adam and September used www.prezi.com to create interactive presentations on how they apply this in their classrooms.

3. Workshops: The amount of hands-on opportunities this conference did not disappoint. Sharon Stratton gave an awesome workshop that not only gave great resources for using unusual materials like tar paper, bleach, and soap to make awesome works of art, but also included pop-rocks in her presentation (which was a sweet surprise). The vendors also did not disappoint with their samples and make-and-takes which helps when deciding if you want to purchase products on display.

4. Data: One of the best moments was the presentation by Dr. Root-Bernstein. His keynote on the link between the Arts and everything else put hard facts and figures to something we always have felt to be true: that when you invest in the Arts, you are investing in all other aspects of learning. It was a great talk and I look forward to reading his book that goes into the topic further.


Overall, this was a great conference to attend. It was full of information and moments to connect with others. Conferences like these are important for our profession. What was your favorite part of MAEA 2012? Please share links, pictures, and information below so we can archive the highlights of this year's conference.

Mattawan Tech Camp 2012

Artists Name: Christine M.

School: Northview HS

From Video Game Design, to management tools like Class Dojo, and an endless amount of Free resources for consuming and creating content - the Mattawan Tech Camp offered a little bit of everything for the teacher looking to add digital tools to their curriculum.

The event kicked off with a lively and thought-provoking Keynote from Rushton Hurley, whose presentation title included the words "Kicking Posterior." As an advocate for the power of digital tools in the classroom, Rushton shared his passion with the crowd and offered the impact we can have in our classroom if we allow students the chance to create and share content through the video production. 

He continued this discussion in his sessions by offering us a load of free resources as well as things to think about. One thing I learned involved the search function in Google. Maybe you already knew this, but I hadn't ever seen the advanced search option in Google - did you know you can search for specific file types? He had us search for PowerPoint presentations using this method. If we can do this, so can our students. This got a lot of us re-thinking the presentation tool and how we can use it as a way for students to see what other students have created and synthesize it into something of their own, like a video or even use what they find to write a critique or summary of the presentations.

 I also appreciated the resources page filled with tools that I was seeing for the first time. One such tool is called Psykopaint. In this cloud-based program, you can upload pictures and then select artist styles ranging from Seurat to Van Gogh (and more) to paint your picture. You really have to check it out to see what I mean.

I had the opportunity to present at this conference, too. I discussed how I have used Video Game Design in the classroom. Sometimes as an Art teacher, I get a little narrow in my definition in what I should be teaching; Art History, drawing, painting, sculpture, and ceramics are key, but I have opened up to the idea that animation, video, digital arts, and video game design are also important aspects in Visual Arts education. You can check out the Video Game Design page I created for the conference filled with links to important sites about how this skill can effect student achievement as well as how students can make them and various competitions students can enter. The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards will begin to accept games starting in September, so consider this as you start planning your curriculum. And if you don't know how to program or design a game, it is okay - you can still create a space that facilitates that learning for your students. I know that is the case in my classroom, at least.

Have you learned something at a Edu Camp this summer? Please share any new skills, tips or tricks below.

Getting Hired

I have been very lucky in my educational career. When I graduated from college in 2004, I was able to secure a job by the end of May. When I needed to make a change because we were moving across the State, I was able to find employment well before school started. And even though I was pink-slipped three times in the course of a year, I was called back each time.

Everyone who has been hired has a different story for how it happened and having been on several interview teams, I have seen the inter-workings of what goes on when potential teachers are being vetted. I am not guaranteeing that these tips will get you a job, but here are some things that helped me get mine and what I look for when we hire teachers to be a part of our team.

1. Make contact with a mini-folio. A mini-folio is a short version of your larger educational portfolio that has copies of your cover letter, resume, certification, transcript, samples of student work, samples of your personal work, and letters of recommendation. This is the highlight reel of everything you have done in under 15 pages (my larger portfolio has well over 60). Most schools post that they only want you to fill out the online application, but from my experience, if you want to stand out against the horde of online resumes, put on a suit and personally deliver the mini-folio to the specific school where you want to teach. I did this for every job I have ever applied for and once received a call for an interview within 15 minutes of handing it off to the secretary.

Diana G.

  Stoney Creek Elementary

2. Show and tell. Now that you have an interview, it is important to think about what you are going to say to the many questions. As an interviewer, I am not just interested in what the candidate says they do in a classroom. I am interested in seeing how they engage with us - are they smiling, using eye-contact, energetic, and passionate about what they are saying... How you project yourself is just as important as what you are saying. Having confidence and conviction in what you say is important and it can give insight into what you might be like in front of your students.

3. Use your portfolio, please! It always amazes me when I have to ask candidates to see their portfolios. I remember taking that class where we put it together and not being able to wait to show off the hours of work I spent curating the collection of student samples and lesson plans. It is one thing to talk about a project or lesson or idea, it is another to show it in action. Make sure when you are answering questions you are thinking about something in your portfolio that illustrates the point. If they ask about a cross-curricular lesson, have your portfolio organized in a way that it is easy to flip to and point to the answer (it might be a good idea to practice this first). As an Art teacher, Visuals are important. When I am a part of an interview team I need to see what students have done as well as the candidate's own personal work. This helps me see evidence of what this candidate can bring to the team.

4. Do your research. Usually at the end of the interview, you will be asked if you have any questions about the job. Make sure to do your research about the school you are wanting to work and ask questions to clarify any specifics not already discussed. You can ask about schedules (like grade levels or amount of buildings you are in), classroom budget, participation in outside PD, technology concerns, or even use your knowledge to comment on something you know about the school. I always ask a question about the school's vision for the future of the program. It is important to see what they think about what you are teaching and how they see that job or department looking down the road. This gives you insight into your future as a part of that team.

5. Don't forget the "Thank You". After the interview is done, be sure to send "Thank You's" to the teachers and administrators involved. It is a nice gesture that can also give you a chance to recap something you discussed during the interview. This can be done via email or by hand. If you do it online, you can also use it as a chance to send them a link to your online portfolio or professional website. Even if you do not get the job, it ends the process on a congenial note.

 These are just some ideas that worked for me and I hope will land you the job you have been waiting to secure. If you have any interview tips that worked for you, please share. This is a very exciting time to be a teacher and good luck in your search!

TEDxcellent!

what now

This is not so much a question or a theme, but a call to action from those presenters and participants at yesterday's TEDxGrandRapids event downtown and the Livestream for education at Forest Hills Fine Arts Center. The day was filled with thoughtful insight into ideas surrounding education, science, technology, social culture, and design. But more importantly within all of the speakers segments, it was really a discussion about the human condition and hopefulness for "being the change you want to see."

From highlighting contact lenses that offer the ability to transmit and receive data, to using game play as a way of discovering self, clothing made of the result of feasting bacteria, and how to love those around us, the speakers of TEDxGrandRapids offered the audience a chance to imagine the future and take part through initiatives like Community Xprize and TEDed.

One of the more emotional moments of the day included the story of Linda Ragsdale, a survivor of the 2008 attack in Mumbai. Although she was shot and witnessed the murder of friends around her, including a young girl she had promised to teach how to draw a dragon, Linda does not harbor hate for those who committed such acts; instead, she challenges all of us to come from a place of love and peace when encountering others. Her story of the dragon is one that looks to blast myths and misconceptions behind what it is; that the dragon is a symbol of peace, "whose spiky scales are revealed to show he is made of hearts; all hearts have a point, each point leads to a direction" and you have to be the one to answer "which way will you go?" She chooses the path of peace, and during her 3 days in Grand Rapids will have worked with over 11,000 students in a community art project called "The Peace Dragon Project" to encourage them to do the same. Linda is an incredible person who was warm and inviting to each person she spoke with during our breaks at the Fine Arts Center. She is a genuine example of peace personified.

There are plans to continue this Livestream for education next year and I encourage you to participate. There were quite a few Visual Arts Teachers there, and it was a great time to connect and talk with others outside of our discipline about collaborative projects. Have you ever been to a TED talk or have a favorite one to share? Please leave your insights and share your "what now" moment below.

Show and Tell

Show and Tell is a concept that we all know; usually it is done with lower elementary students and they get to bring in an item and share it with their peers by showing it off and talking about it. The Show and Tell concept is not only for kids, it also happens for educators through conferences. Do you have a lesson, concept, or technique that has always worked for you and you want to share it? Consider presenting at the MAEA Conference in Traverse City, October 25-28th or the NAEA 2013 conference in Texas!

Being able to share information with my peers has been a highlight for me both professionally and personally. It is nice to connect with other teachers and show what works for you in the classroom; it is even more fun to hear back from those who have attended your sessions on how they have been able to use the information in their own classrooms. When presenting, or putting together a presentation, it is important to think about your time allotment, who your audience is, and what you want your audience to get out of what you are presenting.


The aRTs Roundable, a podcast hosted by Carol Broos, dedicated an episode to the topic of presenting at Art conferences. One tip I found very helpful was having your resources online instead of making copies for handouts; even when making it online, be sure to have a backup in case the internet is down. If you make a Prezi (which is my go-to presentation tool right now), you can download it and then show easily either online or right from your desktop. Instead of wasting papers on copies, consider creating a business card with your website or contact information on it so that participants can go to there to review the presentation again or ask follow up questions later. The biggest take-away from this podcast on presenting was making sure to focus on the kids and how whatever you are presenting on will help teachers reach their kids in new and interesting ways.

Great conferences are made possible because educators like you are willing to share your time, showing and telling the tips and tricks that make your classroom work. If you have any sure-fire presentation tips to share or are planning to present at an upcoming conference, please comment below.

No post about presentations is complete without Don McMillan's video on how not to use PowerPoint: