Write about one way that you “meaningfully” involve the community in the learning in your classroom. If you don’t yet do so, discuss one way you could get started.

Our school district hosts an annual exhibit at the local mall. Each art teacher can student select artwork to be displayed on panels in the mall.

I'm not sure if this really IS what the prompt for the blog challenge is asking for, but I feel like it is a great idea for other art teachers. A mall is a great venue for student work, as it gets a whole lot more foot traffic than a gallery. Sometimes I select collaborative projects or smaller items so that many of my students get their work shown in public. Last year, we had just finished these awesome large-scale neon paintings so I chose a bunch of those for the mall show.

I know there are lots of other ways to involve the community in our learning...(and we do other 'public' shows including a show at a local university, and artwork at the State Capitol for Youth Art Month) but TIME is my main issue. Sure, I could set up at the monthly art walk, host after-school art events and invite parents....but all of it is volunteering on my part...and while I DO value the 'volunteer experience'.....sometimes I just have to say no, not right now, but maybe someday.

For now, I will post about student success on my blog, twitter and FB page and maybe someday I will have a little more time to incorporate the community into the classroom. And if I do get a hankering to include the community a little more HERE is a great post with 50 ideas. ;0)

What does your PLN do for your teaching?

I actually created my very own BUZZFEED Community post about my PLN waaaaaaaay back in March. The sources and content on the post are actually still very accurate as my Personal Learning Network hasn't really changed a lot.

I rely on my PLN for everything from lesson planning to professional development. Check out my post here.


This post is part of the Reflective Teaching 30-Day blog challenge for teachers.

All of my students know that my favorite animal is the owl. Throughout the year, they bring me little presents in the form of drawings, key chains, garage-sale framed art, stuffed animals and everything in between. It is so sweet that they think of me and spend their time and money to get me little keepsakes that I proudly display in the room. Try to count all them all, you won't be able to...I have so many that I have to store some of them away to bring out seasonally.

We recently finished a painting project of killer whales and harbor seals......owls will always be my favorite, but I'm still excited from my Canadian Whale Watching Excursion where I got to see real orcas and harbor seals in the wild, so I selected the whales and seals as the topic for our paintings. In art, it is very easy to incorporate the things that interest me into the classroom. If I am excited about a topic, it resonates with my students.

This post is part of the 30-day blog challenge for teachers.

Curating student work is a big job.

Between art shows and building displays, the act of setting up all of the displays is an incredible undertaking. Just the act of selecting a few pieces for a show can be really difficult.

Generally I don't really work on-on one with my students to determine what will be displayed. I usually just sit down and sort through pile after pile of artwork, taking in to consideration themes, color choices, paper orientation, size of my bulletin board, and how many pieces I have selected from that student in the past. I make selections methodically, with an idea in my mind for the final layout of the display.

Recently, I collaborated with a professor friend to organize some student work for a show at her university. The deadline sort of snuck up on me and I had to squeeze the project into the middle of a big unit. The lesson plan was ready-made, it was just a matter of cutting the paper and getting the supplies organized.

It worked out great because I had the chance to introduce my students to the artist of the month: Henri Matisse. (Students read and view the information on a S'more flyer that is accessed via QR code).

I was also able to try out Emaze. Instead of creating a Powerpoint, I created a slideshow on Emaze. I synced my apple tv to my computer with air parrot, so that I could use the cool flash-only template: gallery. I had the slideshow on repeat throughout the entire lesson so students could read and see about the artwork continuously.

I followed the lesson plan pretty closely, demonstrating how to cut out an organic shape, using that free 'painting with scissors' sort of style that Matisse is famous for. While students were working, I allowed them to 'jazz' up the adjoining hallway with organic shapes taped to the walls. They really enjoyed installing their piece to the collaboration. It was a fun experience. When I asked the teachers who work down that hallway if I could use the two walls for my installation, I'm not sure what they were expecting....but I think they are a little creeped out at the results...art people get it....others kind of don't.....but that is okay. It was especially cool that the music teacher down the hall had jazz music playing while we were installing the installation....again, only an art teacher would appreciate the perfection of that sound while we were taping paper scraps to a wall.

Here is the hallway 'before'. I chose this hallway because it doesn't get a ton of traffic, and students who use the busier hallway (with the creepy Cardinal eye peeping out), can get a peek at the installation.

From the collages that were created during class, I selected around 30, out of 330 to go to the exhibit at PSU. When I told students whose I had selected, some of them were bummed that theirs was not selected...so that always make it harder!

How do you curate student work?

This post is part of the Reflective Teaching Blog Challenge from TeachThought.

In my post over on the Art of Ed.com, I mention that one great way to stay organized is to use a spiral bound planner to help keep track of things. I use this planner to make lists, keep track of special events and plan out my lessons way in advance. I carry it with me everywhere.

One year, I was feeling super ambitious and I decided to design my own custom planner. I think I was inspired by these planners by Geninne.

I really thought if I made a pretty book for my daily stuff, it could double as an art journal. But I never really made it that far. I just used pencil to scrawl my notes so that I could erase stuff as needed and make changes in my plans in case of snow days, etc. Occasionally I would draw a little sketch, but my lesson plan books are nothing like hers.

Her art journals are seriously beautiful!!

I used specialty papers, recycled a book for the cover, printed out custom calendar pages on nice drawing paper. It was a beautiful planner and I enjoyed using it that year. I could've bought basically the same thing for $5 at Wal-mart...but anyway, I thought I would share an excerpt with you and a link to the DIY from 2009.

I was flipping back through my old planner, trying to decide what to photograph for this post. This page stuck out to me because I made a note to: "Yell 'Santa isn't real' to all of my students (to cause a wild rumpus)." Wow. Sometimes the holiday madness gets to a teacher ;-)

Anyway, if you are interested in putting together a custom planner like this, I did write a post with the DIY.

My very first year of teaching, I started with 3 buildings. The district was desperate to find someone, after an art teacher took a new job in July, they hired me, even though I hadn't even done my student teaching yet. That fall, I student taught with the most amazing mentor, Leslie Clark. I learned a lot about content, procedures, organization, and classroom management. Much of what Leslie does, I still do in my classroom 9 years later. I learned all of the things that just cannot be learned in an art education program at the university level. It is not until you are in front of a live audience that you understand the importance of following your classroom management plan. Actually, the plan that I drafted in one of my college classes should just be shredded and burned, as it would never account for all of the effective tools that Mrs. Clark modeled in her art room, because I really had NO idea what I was getting myself into, until I saw her in action.

In January 2006, I started at the high school, with an art appreciation class. First bell rang at 7:25. Almost every day, I arrived around 6:30 a.m., just to set up and prepare for my art lecture. Unfortunately, anything that had been created by the previous teacher was wiped from the laptop, by the time I got it. So I had to basically start from scratch. There weren't any powerpoints, quizzes, tests, or anything useful for me to use in my lesson planning. The textbook was college-level, difficult even for me to decipher at age 23, freshly graduated with a B.S. in art education. Fortunately, I enjoyed art history and I had retained a lot from college, (even though I distinctly remember dozing in the darkened room, while the monotone professor droned on about the slides and historical contexts of each work we studied). I was able to piece together a decent curriculum for my art appreciation class.

At around 9:30 a.m.,  I traveled to one of two buildings. In one building, I had K-2 students. I had two lunch duties mid-day, preventing me from eating lunch with or even seeing any colleagues at lunch. I also had to participate in after-school tutoring once a week in either math or reading. At this building, I had 3 classes each on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The other building was an all-kindergarten building. I had all 9 kindergarten classes in the building, 3 classes each day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. Thankfully, I didn't have any extra duties in this building that year. However, I often stayed until 5:00 pm just to stay on top of art displays, lesson planning and organizing everything that needed to be done. One principal asked if I was more nervous about high school or elementary, and I remember answering, "I'm scared to death of all those kindergarteners!"

The next year, they gave me 3rd grade at the other building, and took away a couple of the kindergarten classes. But someone had to pick up the slack. That year, in all 3 of my buildings, I shared the room with another teacher who had to cover the classes that I didn't have. I had to keep my stuff in a cubby or on a shelf, out of the way. I had to prep everything  when I walked in the door, and put it all away before I left. It was so stressful to even think of preparing for a sub, that I didn't miss a single day that entire year.

It was very difficult to feel 100% a part of any one school. I tried to go to as many meetings in each building as possible just so I could figure out what was going on, and I had to attend high school enrollment nights AND elementary carnivals, sometimes all happening in the same week.

Also, since I shared the rooms with other teachers, I was actually in those elementary classrooms more often than they were, so I was the one who hung all of the art displays at both buildings. I had to be the one to make sure extra paper towels were on hand in case of messes. It was my job to fill all of the glue bottles.

The next year, they took away the art appreciation position, and handed me all of the 9 kindergarten classes PLUS 3rd and 4th at the other school. SO, I only had two buildings, but 5 grade levels. But, they also tore down the K-4 building and built a new one on the same property. So at the end of the school year, I had packed up everything in the art room and it was put it into a storage unit for the summer. In August 2007, I moved into my new room, which was much bigger than anything I had experienced previously. Oh, and did I mention that I had gotten married in July 2007? I had been planning my wedding in the midst of all the work chaos.

In my first 3 years, I experienced SO much.

Being a traveling art teacher meant that I carried about a dozen bags around with me. I up-sized vehicles a couple of times to accommodate all of the stuff I had to transport back and forth every day. I had a bag for my camera, my computer, my lunch, my purse, and sometimes I even had a change of clothes or shoes with me too.

This year, I finally have my own room. (I'm only temporarily sharing it with the band: 2:00-2:50 on my planning period, for a couple more weeks until the new band facility opens). But I'm still feeling the pressure and stress that I felt those first three years. I'm getting to school by 6:45 and staying until 5:00 almost every day. I'm getting my master's and attending classes and doing homework throughout the week. Maybe I do this every year....maybe I just have to put the time in early to prep the units and get the lesson plans and materials ready and things will level off as the year goes on. People keep asking me if I love it...and I always say YES I do love the students, I just don't love all the PREP that comes with a new job. It is SO much work and it is SO exhausting. It is rewarding and challenging and fun but it is mentally and physically exhausting. I keep trying to think of ways to make it easier, but if I want to do it right, and I want to do it well, then I have to be committed to excellence and doing what is best for student learning.

The blog challenge prompt for today is to create a metaphor/simile/analogy that describes my teaching philosophy. MY Metaphor:  Art teachers run an entire corporation in one room. Art teachers are the janitor, secretary, marketing strategist, product development supervisor, sound engineer, technology director, accountant, materials manager, budget director, managing director, supply chain director, logistics manager, purchasing supervisor, buyer, inventory planner, warehouse manager, shipping and receiving clerk, product portfolio manager, market intelligence research analyst, customer service director, airline stewardess, translator, public relations officer, receptionist, quality controller, assembler, safety officer, operations manager, nurse/care giver, health inspector, dental clerk, neurologist, plumber, painter, and interior designer. We do it all. In one day. ALL DAY LONG.

In Missouri, teacher tenure is on the chopping block. Amendment 3 will be on the November ballot.

If approved by voters, this measure would implement teacher performance evaluations that would be used to determine whether a teacher should be dismissed, retained, demoted or promoted.

It would also prevent teachers from collectively bargaining over the terms of these evaluations. Supporters tout its ability to reward teachers based on classroom success, which should lead to better outcomes for students. Many teachers associations object to the use of student performance on standardized tests to determine teacher pay.

Outcomes of the amendment would include teacher pay system which would take into account student performance on standardized tests. Scores go up, pay goes up, in every school someone would be at the top, everyone else would rank somewhere below that.

This post is part of the 30-Day Blog Challenge for Teachers.

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:

• Require teachers to be evaluated by a standards based performance evaluation system for which each local school district must receive state approval to continue receiving state and local funding;
• Require teachers to be dismissed, retained, demoted, promoted and paid primarily using quantifiable student performance data as part of the evaluation system;
• Require teachers to enter into contracts of three years or fewer with public school districts; and prohibit teachers from organizing or collectively bargaining regarding the design and implementation of the teacher evaluation system?

The Children's Education Council of Missouri, which is running the Teach Great campaign, provides the following arguments in favor of the amendment:

• ensure teachers are evaluated based on an objective measure: their students’ academic growth;
• protect great teachers and their students by requiring teachers to be dismissed, retained, demoted, promoted, and paid primarily using quantifiable student performance data as part of the evaluation system;
• end the unfair “last-in-first-out” rule, which often means that effective teachers are let go, while ineffective teachers stay;
• require teachers to enter into contracts of three years or fewer with public school districts, so that their performance can be re-evaluated as it would be in any other profession; and
• protect the rights of educators to collectively bargain for salary, benefits, and working conditions.[4

” --Teach Great, [8]

Arguments Opponents of the measure provide the following arguments against its passage:[6]

• The measure will require more standardized testing and, in turn, cost taxpayers more money.
• Under the amendment, the state would tell school districts the best way to evaluate teachers, thus "eroding local control."
• Some students cannot "get into the A-B range no matter what teachers do." Many students from lower income backgrounds may have other issues besides school performance on which they are focused.
• Teachers need protections from extreme levels of scrutiny.

Information from:
http://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Teacher_Performance_Evaluation,_Amendment_3_%282014%29 

The Teach Great initiative has already dropped its support for the amendment. School leaders have spoken out against the amendment, saying that local control is necessary for making personnel decisions. If great teachers were out there somewhere, working at Starbucks, taking away tenure would not lure them into the profession....and nixing teachers for poor performing classes, without any consideration for all the factors that give students success including their home life or parental factors is unfair to great teachers whose sole consideration for employment are scores on a test.

If you live in Missouri, please vote NO on this amendment in November. This is a big issue and you need to be informed.

Out of all of the comics-made-movies, the ones I enjoy the most are actually the X-men series. My favorite character is Mystique. I love that she can morph into another persona in order to get what she wants. While I think it would be fun to fly, or to have hyper-speed at the end of the day when I need to clean up and walk out the door at 3:15, having her ability to shape-shift into another person would probably help my students more than any other power. I don't want to change myself, I just want to be able to be what they need, when they need it.

This drawing was made by one of my Kinders last year, when I did my big Lego unit. It is too cute not to share!

This post is par to of the 30-Day Blogging challenge for teachers.

Recently, I have given a lot of thought to two competing ideas. One idea is that reflective teaching is a cornerstone to being a good teacher. You have to be able to reflect on your professional practice in order to make improvements and to think through things that aren't working in order to get better. On the flip side, using blogging or 'tweeting' as a platform for  reflection isn't in accordance to another big virtue in education which is humility.

Humility: The word alludes meekness, passivity, even submissiveness, and, in the worst case, an over-willingness to serve someone or something. True humility is both a generosity of spirit and a quiet self-confidence. In teaching, it means understanding that although you may know a great deal in your content area, you do not know everything. It means being willing to learn from others, whether they are peers, 1st graders, or a parent . It means treating all others—whether a mother with a 4th grade education or a professor with a PhD—as though they were as worthy and important as yourself. It means understanding that no method, strategy, or approach is the magic bullet to teaching and learning. 

I've been struggling with the idea that this blog is an over indulgence in self-promotion, even though I only have a few faithful followers, it is something that goes against the humble virtue of humility. So before I tell you the three things I do well...I wanted to admit that being humble is something that I value in a teacher, even if I come off as a bit 'braggy', I know that what I do works for me, but it may not work for everyone and there is no silver bullet in education.

Even though I am having that internal struggle that I explained above, I think that I am good at reflecting on my lessons....and I am good making changes that help students, whether it is in delivering the content or tweaking some factor in the lesson to make it more successful,

Two more things that I do well...hmmmm...One that I and am proud to admit, is that I am not afraid to make a mess in the classroom. I don't shy away from a big painting project, I find comfort in the fun of the experience and the enthusiasm my students have for the process.

Finally, I would say that I am open to incorporating new things into my process. I am open to new technology and new art materials. I don't like to be stuck in a rut, I want to be in on the ground floor of the next big thing....and I think that is kind of cool to know about myself.

This is a great article that gives 8 lessons for teacher growth.

This post is part of the 30-Day Blogging Challenge for teachers.

Giving students individualized feedback is difficult to squeeze into a 50 minute session, by the time you give instructions, pass out supplies, and clean up, the time that you are walking around the room is usually filled with some constructive criticism, peppered with behavior management, supply issues, and dealing with distractions as you attempt to keep everyone on track and the lesson flowing.

Grading is often done long after students leave the room, when you are surrounded by piles of paper and a clipboard, trying to narrow down whose collage is whose....since at least three students didn't write their name on the back in one class, and you are attempting to select artwork for a display, or an art show and you know one student really loves art...so you want to foster that love...but it might not be their best...or even the best of the best....its your job to make those decisions. It isn't something that I have ever discussed with my K-4 students because there just wasn't time or opportunity to have that conversation. Now that I teach middle school, my concept of 'grading in dark' has shifted. I really want my students to see something that they are missing or to master a skill so the feedback is much more important now than it has ever been.

This year I see 367 student every other day...and instead of grading them on a 3, 2, 1 scale on a rubric, I am required to award points for each activity and give them a letter grade. I am still adjusting to this way of thinking and describing the expectations differently when I present the lesson.

For my first two projects of the year, I spent one day with my clipboard in every single class, while students were in the room, and I had them come to me with both projects and I asked them to asses themselves....and we talked about why they had earned an A or a B or a C, D or F, and if I disagreed, I would explain why it was better than what they thought....or if it was worse, I tried to give them a little information on how they could improve it right then and there so that they could make it look better, perhaps I was seeing something they couldn't see. Also, I tended to grade on the lower end of an A, a 90 if it was just okay, not display quality but still met the expectations, so that I could give them something to strive for as the semester goes on...I want them to work towards the 100%, which has been hard for some parents to understand why their student would have an A- in art....but I just explained the process to the parents, and for the most part they get it and appreciate that their kid is doing great, and working towards improvement.

Moving forward, I know it will be a challenge for me to give that same feedback with every single project,, the day that I did that was crazy, especially in my classes of 32 or 33....it was hard to get to everyone, especially the slower workers who needed every single minute to finish, I didn't get a chance to have the one-on-one with them because they weren't done at the end...it would be much easier to facilitate this process with another adult in the room, monitoring student work so that I could spend some time conferring one on one with students.  Also, now students ask me about 5 minutes into a process: Is this an A or a B? And I'm just like, "I am not grading it yet, let's wait until the end, but as long as you are following directions,  and having good craftsmanship, you are fine."

How do you deal with feedback in your classroom?

This post is part of the 30-Day Blogging Challenge for teachers on Teach Thought.