Professional Development

Hello!
It has been a while since I've written any new blog posts. In August, I started a new job at a local school district--and now I am teaching high school art. I still have a few middle school posts that I started but never finished writing so I hope to go back and publish those eventually, but from this point on, most of my posts will be high school-themed projects. YAY! 

Can I just say, I love teaching high school? I taught elementary art for 9 years, middle school for 4 and now I am about halfway through my first year of high school and it is my favorite so far. In terms of projects that I am interested in, kids 'getting' my personality, and the pace of the daily schedule, it is like night and day from middle/elementary. There is a little more paperwork, and I had a bit of a learning curve as I moved to a new district, now I am implementing more technology than ever and it took a little bit to get used to the new gradebook and all of that, but the rest is so fun. 

For this post, I want to focus on Professional Development. Every school district does this a little bit differently. 

During the 2018-2019 school year, I will: 

• Read Drawing on the Right side of the Brain book. I will link my notes after reading. Write reflective blog posts about my implementation of vocabulary and academic language. My goal is to finis the book by June 2019. 
• Attend MAEA Spring Conference April 11th-13th 2019, and will attend sessions specializing in vocabulary and academic language. 
• Collaborate with other art teachers in the district, PLC fine art team and outside the district. I am currently enrolled in a graduate level oil painting class which runs from August 2018-May2019. During the course of this class, I collaborate frequently with cohort members comprised of practicing artists, local teachers and my professors. 

Today is MLK day so the kids had the day off. I spent the day in the art room of a local art teacher in a neighboring school district who was in session, making up a snow day. Man, I got so much information, I decided that the best way to reflect and delve into all of my ideas would be to draft this post, that way I can include links and photos. 

When I got to the artroom at the neighboring school, the teacher was in the middle of an advanced drawing class. The students were working on coloring with colored pencils. I was curious about her development of this skill and she shared some of the initial activities with me....and I promptly took scans and then forgot to save the scans on my notes and I just took a break from writing this to have a good cry....but I'm glad that I looked at what I actually got from her because I got a ton of great ideas!

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List of ideas:
Use www.sketchforschools.com to create custom sketchbooks for classes. First page includes a place for student's name, 2nd page is the course syllabus, pages 4-10 have examples of elements and principles. Page 11 has instructions on how to write an artist statement, page 12 has self reflection/rubric for artwork, pages 13-20 have weekly sketch prompts with an art style for inspiration. Wow, I cannot wait to design my own book!! After the first 20-30 pages, the rest of the book is #60 weight drawing paper for sketching and prompts. 

Supply bags. Using bigger than gallon-size bags, supply bags have the following: glue stick, drawing pencils, kneaded eraser, tortillions, sharpies and other supplies that kids have added. 

Use 'imagination at work' handout at the beginning of the year to check for creativity. (got a copy) This is also used in gifted testing. 

Final exam sample. In drawing, students were charged with combining a drooling dragon, an eccentric elephant and a maniac mouse into a single composition. The drawing should take the entire 90 minutes. 

Perspective: demo 2 point and 1 point; give students a small example to use as a guide for their own name (tailor the activity to each students ability). Some get to do 1 point, while others are encouraged to do 2 point. 

3-D class ideas: cardboard cube. Use x-acto to cut square pieces, tear away the cardboard to reveal the corrugation. Use a different design on each side, assemble into a cube. 

​Spirit animal quiz for a spirit animal mandala or other spirit animal project. 

Weaving loom. Raku firing. Make the loom out of clay, add texture and then when it is finished, weave in the center. 

Stonehenge paper roll from jerry's artarama. Amazing for colored pencil and drawing. Buy every 3 years it lasts a long time. 

Encaustic painting with Cray-Pen crayon melting tool. OMG these are amazing and I had to make a sample immediately. They aren't too crazy expensive and would be great for my Mixed Media class. 

Never Dull wadding polish. Buy it at wal-mart in the automotive section. You can use it to lighten magazine images and smear the ink around to create textured backgrounds. Useful in collages. You can draw on it with sharpie or gold pen. Cheap and useful for Mixed Media class. 

I cam home with a big armload of fabric from a surplus donation she gets every year for her fibers class. 

Also, she created a google drive folder and shared tons of images and reference materials with me. 

Looms, portfolios, weaving and basketmaking. Room layout. I need more electric pencil sharpeners that actually work. 

Tempera ink resist project for art 1. Collage candy wrapper for art 1. 

Inspiration for a display board outside the art room. Make sure the wood is 3/4" thick so I can use nails to hang stuff. Use nice carpeting on it. Can be done pretty cheaply. 

Looms!! She has her husband build these for her. Saving for later!! 

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We also talked about art shows, I need 20 pieces for the COC show...she already has her pieces chosen! We talked about other exhibits in the area and the coloring book competition that she has been advertising. She gave me so many great resources on google drive and she is going to keep adding the folder. 

To me, getting to visit another art teacher's room and see how they organize things and to hear and watch them interact with their students is one of the most valuable things I can do to improve my skill. I made sure to ask her about assessment, and reflection, but it was wonderful to get ideas for future projects.