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.

Partnering with Parents

2012 State Adjudication: Laura B.

As we get into the grove of another school year, there are all kinds of demands that come along with the job. From organizing student work and supplies to participating in displays, shows, and competitions, there is a lot of work beyond teaching to do as the school year gets into full swing. One thing that I always find challenging during this time is figuring out how to engage parents into helping with these extra events. As an Art teacher, especially in the elementary level, you may have well over 500 students to keep track of throughout the year. It can be difficult at times to juggle rotating displays, depleting supplies, and mountains of papers that result.

Instead of bearing the burden on your own, here are a couple of ideas on how to enlist parents to help along the school year:

1. Just Ask. Parents are interested in what happens in their child's school and there are many who would love to spend a day in the Art room helping organize materials, displays, or assisting with students. To make this a successful experience, make sure you have a specific idea of what that parent will be doing when they come into your classroom as well as communicate those ideas beforehand to make sure you are both on the same page.

2. Communicate your needs in multiple ways. Email is just one way to communicate with parents about activities that are happening in the classroom. You can also start a blog, create a twitter account, or a facebook page to help keep parents connected (make sure you comply with your school's technology policy first). If you participate in Artsonia, you can use their newsletter feature to be emailed to parents and then embed the form in your blog or website.

3. Take a poll. Google forms allows you to create a survey to share and gather information from others. I recently created a survey for parents to see how they feel about how the school year is going so far. The form automatically calculates the data and shows it to you in graphs or charts. This allows for parents to share their ideas and for you to get quick and honest feedback.

Do you have a great way for getting parents involved in your classroom? Please share your ideas below and help make this school year one filled with positive involvement!

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.