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.

Chance Favors the Connected Mind

It’s been three weeks now since I came home from the conference weekend in Traverse City. So much has happened since then: the elections, the quarter ended, grades had to be completed, new lessons begun.

On Friday, Jan Cramer from Battle Creek posted on Facebook: “Tests and projects graded, 50 Kindergarten empty bowls drying, student holiday art/cards matted and framed, PLC meeting agenda copied, kiln loaded and firing, materials ready to go for Mon. and Tues....this is how I spent my Friday night.” We can all relate to her post, can’t we?

Amidst all the complexities of life I crave and cherish tranquil moments—moments that I allow myself for creative reflection. Recently I came across this video by Steven Johnson, considering “Where Good Ideas Come From”, also the title of his recent book.

We can look at Facebook or Twitter or Pinterest or texting or any other form of communication as a distraction, another complexity but then again we can consider them connectivity, which is what the 21^st century is all about, isn’t it?

One of my biggest challenges in my role as MAEA High School Division Co-chair is that very notion: other than at the conference how do we connect? I see this blog as a tiny possibility that could grow into something far more than it is now. Jeanine has set the blog up so that we have tabs for each level: HS, MS, El. And now: Assessment. Lots of teachers are concerned about this area. So let’s talk about it! Let’s take advantage of this way of connecting.

And if you have an idea, a hunch, bring it up, and maybe someone else will have a hunch and maybe those hunches will collide, mingle and create new forms.

So here’s the plan: I will set up a schedule for high school teachers to start the ball rolling. I already have ten of you interested in writing for the blog on occasion. I’ll e-mail you and set up a schedule. It can be an interview, a lesson idea, a student success story, or simply a creative idea that you want to talk about. Let us know if you want to join the party, if you want to write, e-mail me.

If you are an elementary or middle school teacher we have a tab for you, too!

But what I’d really like to see is dialogue after the authors post an article.

Voice an opinion, an affirmation, start a disagreement, share an example or tell a story. We’d love to hear your voice! Claudia: burnsc@aaps.k12.mi.us

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.

Ready to Go!

Today is the start of the annual MAEA Conference and I am so excited! It is a great time to connect with other teachers from around the state and share information on what works best in Art Education. It is a time where I learn so much from my peers and receive the valuable resources that allow my classroom to thrive and grow.

Artists Name: Samantha J.

School: Heritage HS

If you are attending MAEA this weekend, here are some tips that I have found helpful when attending any conference: 

1. Have a plan: Go through the Conference booklet (available online) to help plan out what you want to attend and when they are taking place. Also have a back-up plan in case your first choice fills up too quickly. With the new mobile feature on the MAEA site, you can easily do this through your smartphone or tablet.

2. Ask questions: If you attend a session and you want to know more about something that was said by the presenter, make sure to ask. As a presenter, I want to make sure my presentation is relevant and helpful to the audience. If there is something that you want to know more about, just ask. 

3. Check out the Vendors: I think my favorite part is checking out the booths from the great Vendors that come to MAEA. Not only do you end up with bags full of samples, but there are opportunities to participate in "Make and Takes" and talk with knowledgable spokespeople from the companies represented. If you have questions about purchasing supplies, new equipment, or other resources, this is a great time to connect and research through first hand experience. 

4. Student Work: Make sure to take the time and check out the great student work on display. I am always amazed at the talent and creativity each year during our conference. It is also a great time to get ideas from other teachers by seeing how they taught a lesson so you can adapt it in your own classroom. 

5. Tweet it out: Please use the hashtag #MAEA12 to tweet any important ideas or information you gained from this conference. This allows ideas to be shared from a variety of sessions - it will be like you can experience being in more places at once! When the conference is complete, I will post the resource here so that we can all enjoy the conference over and over again! 

I hope you have the best experience this weekend at the conference. If you are unable to attend, follow #MAEA12 to get updates on the new lessons learned throughout this weekend of learning and sharing in Art Education.

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.

Gearing up for Another Year

Artists Name: Samantha V.

School: Lakeview HS

In about a month, our classrooms will be filled with kids ready to dive into projects and materials. If you are anything like me, then you have been thinking about that for quite a bit of the summer and maybe have already had a few of those pre-school nightmares (you know the one where you end up with a class full of students revolting against your lesson or you run out of a needed material and no back-up plan).

Here are a few things that ease my stress when thinking about the new year:

1. Seating Charts - It is a simple thing that always does the trick for me when it comes to easing my stress over the start a new year. If you haven't checked out The Art of Education yet, you really should. In a recent post about seating charts, there are a list of great ideas for creating and organizing them. To add to their ideas, I would also include using sticky notes for student names on the charts (as shown here). This allows you to only have to write it once and simply pull it off the paper and re-stick it to a new location when changing seats. I always have my seating charts done before the first day and greet students at my door to introduce myself and tell them where their seats are located. If there is an issue with a seating arrangement, I can quickly pull the sticky note with the student's name and easily place it on a new spot on the chart.

2. Artsonia - I have been using this free online resource since 2007. I always try to get my classes organized before the new year with their rosters function and the fact that they allow kids to "graduate" into the next grade, makes that super simple. In addition to serving as a way for my students to share their work with the world, Artsonia does so much for helping raise funds for my classroom, supply ideas and tools for lesson planning, and documenting student growth. With the expectation of documenting student growth as a link to teacher evaluations, there's a lot of questions about how to do that in an art classroom. With Artsonia, documentation of growth is more manageable through the evidence of student artwork and accompanying artist statements. Artsonia has also added a lot of new features this year, as explained by Suzanne Tiedemann here.

3. Twitter - So, this is a new one that I am adding to my back-to-school regimen this year. I have been using this resource since Tricia Fuglestad urged me into it and I am so glad she did. I have been able to connect to teachers and artists from around the world that have enhanced my growth as a teacher. If you are on the fence about it, just check it out and see for yourself. Here is a post about how twitter is revolutionizing the concept of Professional Development and one specifically about how it works in #artsed.

What are some key things that help you get prepared for school and out of the pre-school jitters? What is a tool or trick that you cannot live without? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.