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?

Summer PD

 

MAEA SUMMER 2013 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS

The Michigan Art Education Association in collaboration with Western Michigan University and Finlandia University invites all Michigan art educators to participate in the Summer 2013 Professional Development Workshops, recognized in 2009 as an NAEA Co-Sponsored Academy.

Running from August 4 - 9, participants can select from seventeen 1, 2, and 3-day workshops with topics that range from studio practices to pedagogical innovations. In addition, we are honored to collaborate with the historic Pewabic Pottery in Detroit, location of a special workshop on once-fired ceramic techniques for the classroom.

Earn SCECHs or graduate credits, or come to simply renew the artist within and share ideas with art teachers from across the state. SCHECs will be awarded at three times the usual rate, so each 10 hour workshop will yield 30 SCECHs that can be applied to certification renewal or professional advancement.

For links to a detailed catalog of workshops, online registration, and lodging information please visit the MAEA homepage:www.miarted.org. For the best deal, take advantage of early-bird registration through July 9.  

For more information, please contact Bill at william.charland@wmich.eduregarding workshops at Western Michigan University, or Melissa atm_hronkin@hotmail.com regarding workshops at Finlandia University.

 

Make an Impact

MAEA 2013 Elementary Top 15: Gabriella R.
Washington Elementary

In many cases Art is the first on the chopping block when school budgets are tight; it can be easy to fall into the trap of anger over the cuts like the ones that were made in Lansing Public Schools. For many kids, Art is their time to shine and express the things they cannot in any other way. Art is the place where students can apply the learning that happens in other classes and give their learning meaning. And it is not enough to just get a class called Art - Arts-specific teachers are necessary to the development and implementation of Arts instruction that fosters the creativity and development of the whole child. When decisions are made that undermine this, it can be both frustrating and disappointing.

Instead of getting into the same arguments about this, I am going to propose something else. Get involved with the public review of two major Arts education documents that speak to the power of the Arts and give clear pathways to achieving quality programs. 

1. Michigan Arts Education Instruction and Assessment Blueprint Public Review: 

This Blueprint outlines the Gold Standard in programming for Music, Dance, Theatre, and Visual Arts. The document is open for public review until June 30 and you can help shape this document into its best possible vision for the future of Arts education by filling out the survey with your ideas and input to make it better. 

2. National Coalition for Common Arts Standards Public Review: 

The public review for the NCCAS work will be available on June 30th here. You can read an overview of the framework for developing the new standards here.  To get started thinking about the new standards, you can view many informative resources including this Matrix that outlines the Conceptual Framework for Arts Learning.


One way to move forward and build stronger programs is to chart new pathways to get there. How do you think these documents will help Arts programs moving forward?

One thing... NAEA 2013

I have never been to a National Art Education Association Conference. Now that I have, I can completely understand why people go back year after year, saving up their dollars to try and make it happen. It was a great experience with wonderful presenters, sessions, and workshops and time to speak and learn with teachers from across the country.

Although there is plenty to share from the conference, I am still trying to process through it all. So, instead of giving every last detail I am going to select an image and share the big idea from the presenter/workshop/session. I hope to have time to delve a little deeper into some of the themes I am going to share, but I think this is a good starting point:

Craig Roland, Ian Sands, Tricia Fuglestad, and Elizabeth Delacruz presented on being a part of a PLN (Professional Learning Network) through the use of online tools.Big Take-away: Being Connected allows you the chance to share and learn from anyone at anytime and grow professionally. 

One of the many stations in the Vendor Hall.Big Take-away: There were lots of chances to try out new and interesting materials - Apparently they make such a thing as watercolor  crayons! 

Teachers sharing about the Heart Houses/Haiti Houses projects.
Big Take-away: It is important to connect with teachers from around the country to see how they work with similar or different ideas, materials, and teaching situations.  

Ian Sands and Robert Sandagata's presentation on New Weird Ideas.
Big Take-away: Failure and risk-taking are a part of being creative and making art; do not be afraid to allow your students this opportunity in the pursuit of making something new.

Transfer Printmaking

Learning about monoprinting with Julia Healy.

Big Take-away: Interesting process to create portraits and investigate people's histories within a community.

Jesus Moroles speaks about his work as a sculptor.
Big Take-away: People don't know what they want; it is the job of the artist to show them.

Discussion with Wayne White, artist featured in the documentary "Beauty is Embarrassing".
Big Take-away: Art should flow between media - a sculpture is a drawing, a drawing is a painting, a painting is a puppet, a puppet is a performance - and it is all connected to experiences. 

Michael Reyes with his High School Art Teacher who entered his work that received a National Scholastic Award.
Big Take-away: Art teachers have the power to change people's lives and help them realize the power they have within. 

Brandon Foy spoke about how his National Gold medal from Scholastic changed his life and prepared him for his future as an artist and creative.
Big Take-away: Don't be afraid to work hard and put yourself out there; his viral YouTube video landed him a job with Microsoft in his early 20s.

New Leadership team for the NAEA
Big Take-away: There are a lot of exciting things to look forward with NAEA - including the next conference in San Diego, 2014!

If you have a favorite moment from the 2013 conference, please share below with a link to images/posts/resources. What did you think of the event? What were some of the things you learned and how will they help you back in your classroom?

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?

Documenting with iPads

My school recently passed a bond, which has allowed major technology upgrades to our classrooms. As a part of the equipment brought into the classroom, teachers were given iPads and taught basic methods of using them to deliver content and create resources for the classroom. I had been wanting an iPad for quite a while; there are so many great teachers who implement their use in the Art classroom and I wanted to do the same.

Unfortunately, since obtaining the device my creation of "art" has not been as frequent as I would like - since I do not have a class set to use with students, I have not done as much with production other than using it to take pictures and video and make presentations for class. Although my digital paintings have been sparse, the impact that simply documenting work with the iPad has made a tremendous difference in my ability to reflect on what I teach and how students work daily.

Artists Name: Katie M.

School: Grand Ledge HS

I recently spoke with a colleague who had been evaluated and mentioned how they wished the administrator could have been there longer or at a different time. We have all been there. I know I have. That feeling got me thinking about how I can use the iPad within the teacher evaluation system to show more than just a snapshot of what happens within my classroom. Instead of just looking at a short period of time when the administrator was able to come in and observe, by taping various projects or segments of learning, I can start offering a more complete and better representation of what happens in the classroom. When using this in during the review of a classroom observation, it can reveal different experiences that occur and help give a more complete picture of what it is you do as a teacher.

I think that is why I appreciate blogging so much as a part of my daily practice. It offers me a chance to give a complete picture of what happens in my classroom and hopefully allows others a chance to understand what it means to be an art student in my school. I also get a chance to reflect on what worked and what didn't, which impacts what and how I teach in the future.

How do you use iPads in your classroom? Do you document learning activities through blogs of videos and have you used that to impact your evaluation? I am interested in hearing from others on this topic as it is something I am just starting to explore. I look forward to your comments and learning more about how you approach the documentation of learning in your own classroom.