Do I have to go back to the future?

This morning (Tuesday, 9/23/14) in the studio classroom

Clearly,  I have not held up any bargain/promise/proposal I have previously made to resume blogging. I am not even going to try and apologize about it anymore because I'm actually not all that sorry.

I mean... this blogsite has been really important to me. (Don't get me wrong on that.)  It has (more than) served its purpose of connecting me with other art teachers and working artists and designers. It's also been a terrific resource for folks if/when they have really REALLY needed it - be it for lesson plan ideas OR set/scene design ideas/how-to's/graphics for the many theater productions of which I have worked. I have gotten some awesome emails and comments from readers (about all of the aforementioned) and with every single one, I'm constantly humbled and amazed that anybody else thinks what I have done here has been useful or good.

(Please don't read all of this as a cry for validation and passive-aggressive request to feed my ego. I just seriously feel like I am 1) not that great of a writer to begin with, 2) OK enough at sharing what I have shared and 3) still learning so much myself that I am hesitant to "consult" because I'm still figuring things out myself/for myself - basically, I know I don't have the "answers" so I'm not trying to give anyone anything that is "half-baked.")

Related to all of the previous, the "fasting" I did years back from social media and then eventually from my electronic devices at large, I have found that since I have tried to return from that fasting, it's been hard for me to have very much of an appetite to keep up this particular blog anymore. I find that what I really crave (and am drawn to do) is to be more present in my classroom and with the incredibly talented (and hungry) student artists that I have been blessed to come to know. Despite how contradictory this sounds (especially since I am sharing this with you via digital social media), I find that one of the first things I want to do in order to start and end my days, are things that are not digital/virtual and are as tangible as possible.

In the past I used (and hated) using a teacher planning book/notebook. While I had lesson plans, I disliked writing them and I preferred using any (even every?) number of digital mediums/apps to write and archive them. Over at least half a decade later, I'm admitting that "my way" - of doing as many things digital as possible - is not nearly as productive or useful as I once thought. Through much too much trial and error, I've discovered that actually WRITING lesson plans in tangible ways (on real paper) has made teaching and learning (for both myself and my students) that much more tangible and REAL than it ever has been in digital format. This isn't to say that I have now decided that technology is bad but just... I have a new understanding of what it is good for and it's no longer as good for me (and my teaching efforts) as it once was.

My very well used Teacher Planning notebook - NOT digital!!! Thank you, Erin Condren for this amazing teaching tool. 

I've applied the understanding of the need for tangible things and organization in other areas of my life too. While I still use iCal across all of my devices, I don't rely on it as my sole means to keep me on track and on time. I have alarms and reminders set for things but I don't require them because I am actually remembering things before they remind me to not forget them. This is all because I'm using a paper planner (also from Erin Condren) for my non-teaching life...

I have no idea how my life was ever functioning at all without this Life Planner. Seriously. How did I do it? (Answer: I didn't)

The above looks fancier and like it requires more work to maintain it (as seen above) than what it actually does and I'm so thankful for that. I've come to find that it is true that when I fail to plan, I plan to fail and this has a domino effect in every direction of my life. This isn't to say I've become this incredibly regimented and "by the [planner] book" type of person of routines that cannot be deviated from and structure that is so rigid it hurts. Quite the opposite, I'm more relaxed and at peace and fully present than I ever have been in all of my life. I don't get worked up over stupid things and I'm truly able to do things like keep little things little because I have taken the time to better know the size and weight and TIME that most things take up in my life. And if something unexpected arises? I know how much size/weight/TIME I have leftover (or not) in my life in order to be able to squeeze/fit it into the time and energy that I DO have because I can see it so clearly as it's laid out in my planning notebooks.

None of the previous was ever possible for me when I did things digitally. Perhaps there's something wrong with me that doing this digitally has worked like this but I have found I just can't do things digitally as much as I have thought I could. I feel like doing things digitally (and thus asking less physically and cognitively of myself) has ended up giving me less HEART and SOUL to actually LIVE life as I know I have been called to do rather than giving me "convenience" and saving me time, energy, or money the way I have thought it worked when digitizing is used to its greatest degree.

Anyway, all of this is to say that 1) I'm still not clear about what I'm to do with this here blogsite though I know I'm not taking it down and 2) I'm still choosing to be more present in my actual and physical life more which consequentially means I am also choosing to be less present here (on this blogsite) and until further notice.

I hope you all understand. I hope that even what I am sharing now (in addition to what I have already shared) is relevant and useful in the dreaming, Praying, and CREATING of your own decision. In the meanwhile, I am being still and remaining in a holding pattern where I'm praying for each and every one of you, this blogsite, and myself so that I can better understand where/what I should create next.

God bless you, all! Have a great rest of your week and see you whenever I see you...

Let the planning commence!!!

My Erin Condren Teacher Planner arrived in yesterday's mail!!!! WOOO!!!!! Decided to do a video for the unboxing so you can see what I selected for my own customized Teacher Planner. 

If YOU are interested in getting an Erin Condren Teacher Planner. I have some coupon codes that will save you $10 - that's about the cost of domestic shipping (that I got and is the cheapest option) + a few more bucks savings. Two of them are general use and one is a teacher coupon code that expires. Please see below for codes...

:: Coupon Codes for $10 off ::

Automated referral code so I can get product credits https://www.erincondren.com/referral/invite/andreaellwood0211-7505 

Teacher Coupon code, expires midnight PST on 10/15/2014 =>TLP1014TXG9EJWUL 

First Time ordering code, no expiration date =>WELCOME10

[If you want to read the rest of my review that would have been included in my video, click through to get through the break! Thanks!]

Working my way back

Hello everyone! Hope you all are enjoying your summer with however you are selecting to spend it. Despite my best intentions to spend my own summer doing things of relaxation and leisure, I have been doing nothing of the sort. :-p Sometimes divine callings and the complicated demands of life simply require things that deviate from your best laid plans. 
Despite the aforementioned, I'm definitely thinking about the start of school (in less than 25 days!) and returning to the classroom AND blogging here. *YAY!* As always, I have grand dreams and great intentions. However... it's safe to say that that sort of stuff always lands me within my own embarrassing failures (AND in front of quite the audience at that). I'm doing my best to avoid the previous though and one way that I have learned aids in such prevention is coming up with a reasonably sound and executable plan. Does this make me sound like someone who lacks the ability to dream and spontaneously create? (Which is an individual who is far from the one I have known myself to be most of my life) I don't know. All I do know is that I have learned very much that it IS true that failure to plan all too often lends to me planning to fail no matter how/what I might intend, hope for, dream of, or scramble to make happen. 
All of this said, this coming year marks the 9th year of my teaching career and the 7th year at my current school where I am in my 2nd year as department head but incidentally? It will be my FIRST year as the sole Visual Art Teacher and having my very own classroom (though I had my own classroom years ago when I was in public school). 
It's all very exciting but also quite daunting at the same time. I'm going to be teaching all of the courses that I have been teaching in addition to three other intermediate/advanced courses. I will also be working closely with the principal and the academic dean to "chart" a better path for the visual art curriculum which will likely involve a huge overhaul of the courses offered (including new course descriptions, clearly defined and communicated study "paths" for art students to navigate, and other things that fall into the realms of "etc."). Does all of this sound a little like chaos waiting to happen? I am being realistic and saying that it quite possibly does. Still, I'm determined to take all of what I have learned and know I'm able to do in order to steady myself so that when the waters (that I'm metaphorically on) start becoming choppy, I don't end up so motion sick that I cannot do what I am determined to try and do - which is stay the course!
For the past couple of months, I've been anticipating all of the things that I know I will need to do better and one of those things is being more organized, concrete in my forward thinking ways, and documenting all of because my memory and retention isn't nearly what it used to be. Truth be told, I don't use a Teacher Planning book despite trying to use one year after year only to have the thing be crushed at the bottom of my teacher tote bag before even half the year has arrived. In thinking back on my failed attempts to do this better (because I NEED to do this and I don't deny it), I came to some conclusions about what my natural work habits are and how to adhere to those so that it's not such a chore to do classroom and teacher planning.
One thing in particular that I learned is that the teacher planners/organizers that I have used in the past aren't that well suited for the curriculum/content that I teach and/or the approach that I take in the classroom. I was able to identify the things that I believed would be essential for the unique things that I sort of require that seemed like they should be readily available. I set out to find a teacher planner that would as many of these things as possible and despite my best efforts (and they're pretty decent and it's safe to say that if something is out there I. WILL. FIND. IT.), I was turning up empty handed and becoming increasingly frustrated. 
As things happened, I was about to give up after MONTHS of dealing with this and then I finally found what I believe is a bit of a "holy grail" for my finicky teacher planning needs... HELLO, ERIN CONDREN TEACHER PLANNERS!!!!!!

I don't know where these things have been and why I haven't ever heard of them before but I know about them now and I have already ordered my own planning book and I am IMPATIENTLY awaiting its arrival - that should come just in time for teachers work week a week and a half BEFORE the first day of school. 
Please know that I'm not plugging this product because I'm getting any sort of compensation from them at all and I haven't even gotten mine yet (but I hope to share an initial review and then follow-up review eventually) about my thoughts on it. If you know anything about Erin Condren products, you might note that they are a bit on the pricy side but honestly? I am not a big shopper and so when I do spend money, I am always willing to have it be something that is worth the money (however much it might be) so that I don't have to spend any more money again because I have to replace what was supposed to work to begin with. 
I've ordered my Erin Condren teacher planner and I'm so excited to get it soon!!! If you don't need a teacher planner, she also has a life planner (that's still pretty amazing if you ask me) and a wedding planner (also amazing and I recently bought one for a friend as her engagement gift). If you are interested in ordering an Erin Condren planner (of any type) too, you can do so and get a $10 coupon toward it by way of THIS LINK (which is a referral link from me and it allows me to accrue credits toward my next year's planner). 
Anyway, I'll let you know when I get my planner but just wanted to pop on here to say hi with an update of how things are in my niche of the world and also let you know that I am certainly interested (and thinking deeply about!) how I will get back on here more often than not (at all). 

Art Teacher Hack :: Managing Supplies in Classpacks

You ever have one of those moments when you are teaching/planning and something occurs to you along the lines of "Why don't you just do it like THIS?" and you do that very thing and all of a sudden you have a solid chunk of time that you never had before???!!!

I had one of those moments last week when I was trying to manage the classpack of Portfolio Series Oil Pastels that I both love and hate because they are a favorite and awesome media to work with. I mean, maybe it's me? But pretty much anything in classpacks is a real pain in my side to have to deal with. Are you the same way? Well, comrade-in-suffering-by-classpacked-supplies? OUR pains shall be no more!!!!

(Perhaps I am behind on this sort of classroom and classpack management technique but just humor me, OK?)

A typical Table Box and it's contents

My main system of dealing with everyday materials is to provide each of my students with Table Boxes. This is basically a plastic shoebox sized vessel that holds every day materials - pens, pencils, erasers, simple coloring materials, etc. I usually only pull out the Table Boxes at the beginning of a lesson when the students are drafting ideas and generally trying to figure out what they will do for their personal project endeavors. For what it's worth, it works well enough. However, it stops working so well when we get toward the midway of creative process when there are specialty materials that have to be drawn in. (This is where the whole business of classpacks comes into play...)

While I would love to assume that my students (who are high schoolers and mostly trustworthy I feel like) will be able to handle something like a nicely packaged and neatly organized classpack of beautiful Portfolio brand Water-soluble Oil Pastels, the keeping of such a thing just doesn't happen and I have learned enough at this point to not expect it to start happening. And why it doesn't happen and won't probably ever happen? I don't care what the reason is. The point is this: I just want a workable solution to end the issue of broken and/or disorganized classpacks of pastels (or pens or gluesticks or whatever) so that I don't have to have individual vessels for every little portion of every type of supply I might want to use.

So, I got to thinking: Wouldn't it be nice if I just had an individual tray for each table where I could portion things out almost catering-style? And I got all forlorn because I didn't have any trays until I realized that I DO because I could use the LIDS off of the Table Boxes that are already numbered (and the students are "trained" to use) to begin with!!!!

Oh My LANTA! What a gorgeous site and amazing solution this works out to be!!! I will never go back again!!!!

Something even better about this solution? It makes it REALLY easy to prep portions ahead of time and once they are prepped? They take barely any space to store until they will be used (see stack below). 

Prepped, trays stacked NEATLY and ready for distribution for the next follow-along demo in 2D Design

After they are used? I have the students take a moment to reorganize their portions on the lid trays putting them in spectrum order so when I collect the trays and then have to put back the colors in their respective compartments in the original classpack box that is NOT damaged in any way, it's completely easy-peasy for me. A bonus is that them learning to group and order their materials teaches them a little bit about the color spectrum and relationships within it as well!

And there you have it! My quarterly revelation (Seriously. How slow am I about this stuff sometimes?) of how to better manage both materials and my students during class activities. Let's not dwell on the fact that I might have told you something you already know and just virtually high-five me that I finally am a little more "with it." *wink*

Pin(ch) me because I must be dreaming!

Three or so years ago when I started this blog it was largely because I wanted to fill a niche that didn't even seem as if it existed in the first place. While there was an abundance of elementary and middle school art education blogs, it seemed like there were few (if any at all) blogs that specifically focused on high school art education! This sort of things made it very difficult for me - a just starting out high school art teacher - because, well... I felt like I was venturing into unknown territory with no metric or wisdom to draw from in order to be able to tell if/what I was doing right or terribly wrong.

Times have so changed though because this blog has been established and reasonably maintained (save for a few brief sabbaticals and interludes) to the point where my blog analytics regularly indicate that I average well over 100 hits per day for some of what I have shared here. One of the biggest drivers of hits is coming from pinterest. Check out this screenshot of all of the things that have been pinned from my blog...

I cannot tell you all how much it delights me to see that the things that I do in my classroom and then share online are things that are being carried out and about in order to serve as inspiration and instruction not only on the high school level but in other ways as well - at community art centers, in other grade levels, at the college level for beginning teachers. My blog analytics have regularly reflect that not only do my site visitors come from international locations but also places such as universities and board of education servers. I KNOW this means that I am connecting with other visual art professionals and that is just amazing to me.

From the beginning my goal has never been to be a professional blogger and have this be the way that it would happen. I don't blog to get rich or to be noteworthy and I have only wanted to share and be an active member of the art education and professional visual artist communities.  While I know I still have a long ways to go with this blog, I am feeling so encouraged every day as I tangible evidence that the blog is growing and reaching more people every single day.

Thank you ALL OF YOU who visit and give me hits to this site because it really affirms me and what I have sought to do from the very beginning. While I believe that I probably won't win any huge awards or be majorly recognized in any way because of how and what I do here, it's enough for me to see my blog stats reflect how the blog is growing exponentially.

The ROYGBIV Project :: Sneak Peek of a series!!!

I am so delighted to bring a whole week/full series starting next Monday of a look at the start-to-finish of an installation art study and project I just completed last week with the 3D Design students. Two classes did the project together and it took about a solid month to do it and while collaborative learning can sometimes be a bit of a nightmare for both the teacher and the students involved, this project was a HUGE winner overall. Not one student felt excluded and wasn't whole-heartedly invested and I also didn't feel like I was ever trying to push or shove the efforts of the over 45 students that did the project together.

This project is one not totally different from what I did last year with The Ombre Experience endeavor but it twisted and expanded it some with the intention for it to be totally student-centered in how it established and unfolded itself. It was quite intense and consuming and for that reason I don't feel like I could come close to sharing it and discussing it with you all in just one or even two blog postings so that's why I am stretching it out. Anyway, come back and check in on Monday! That's when I will be kicking everything off. 

The Interactive Notebook :: Creation beyond the Art classroom

Did you know that before I become the private high school art teacher and blogger that I am I was a 6th grade core subjects in the public schools? Indeed I was! I spent two years at a public middle school teaching Reading/Language Arts and then Social Studies and then - praise be to GOD(!!!!!!) - I was given the opportunity to be where I am doing what I am now. And while I love what I am doing now and wouldn't ever want to go back, I still remember all of the ways and days spent getting bit by the bug that helped me to find my heart for teaching and then follow it to where I am now.

Last week I really got to reminisce and revisit that time when I started teaching by facilitating a professional development workshop at an inservice event done by my school every year. I don't know when this inservice event started but in the four years I have been here it has been formally named "Brainfest" and we have invited other local area private schools to join in the day that includes at least two teacher-led workshop sessions for professional development purposes and then a wonderful catered lunch. Just about anybody who is in attendance can jump on the side of being a facilitator and you're allowed to instruct/speak on just about anything you want to. Last year I paired up with a colleague and did a workshop focusing on the Millenial generation in the classroom. This year I single-handedly tackled the AVID Curriculum's brilliant idea of the Interactive Notebook that I used to use and LOVE daily in my early teaching career days of the core subjects. Ever heard of it? Well! Let me just tell you about one of the most awesome ways to teach AND learn on any content area and grade level EVER.

In a nutshell, the Interactive Notebook is multi-dimensional vessel for a student to collect knowledge every day and then be able to take and CREATE something with what they have learned. Every page of a student's notebook becomes completely unique and is created to have a specific purpose for something else to springboard off. Also, many of the pages require action in order to access the material/information on them. Students have to lift, fold, tuck, adhere, or color just about every page of the book so that their notebook becomes (for lack of any other way to put it) a POP-up version of what was once a boring school notebook easily lost, forgotten, or despised because of what it contained. Each project or double-page spread is a mini-project unto itself that only serves as encouragement to keep doing more and more and MORE pages and spreads. You want to talk about good return on investment? The Interactive Notebook is absolutely worth it's weight in Ticonderoga pencil leads!

[via] This person can't get enough of the Interactive Notebook either and I don't blame them.

I LOVE the Interactive Notebook and before I was able to be in a classroom that allowed me to create without bounds, the Interactive Notebook mostly satiate the unquenchable thirst I have to be creative AND create. And because I can't help but remember where I came from, I fully acknowledge that were it not for the Interactive Notebook, I probably would have quit teaching forever and maybe even never made it to where I am now.

As a visual art educator I feel like I am always having to "fight" for and assert my position that I am a "REAL" teacher. So sad that I even have to acknowledge such a thing but it's the truth. *Shrug* Doing this session for my colleagues last week at the Brainfest was a great way for me to really prove and SHOW that cutting, pasting, coloring, and CREATING has a place not only in the art classroom but also in EVERY classroom and content area. It also showed - without a shadow of a doubt - that I am not simply "hanging out" with my students everyday "making stuff." It was a blessing to be given the opportunity to share what I love with everyone I work with and help them to see that what I love aligns and scaffolds beautifully the things they do in their classrooms.

I don't have the full presentation to show you about how/what I did at my session because it was a very hands-on step-by-step process that I did alongside them where I helped each of the attendees make their own "take-away" notebook page-by-page by way of showing them demonstrations with a document camera. Every attendee was from a different subject area - core subjects and electives alike(!) on ALL grade levels - and not one of them had ever tried something like this before in any of their classrooms. By the end of the session each of them was very SOLD on incorporating it into their classroom goings-on and they were very excited to do so even despite their hesitation just because this was something different than what they have ever done.

I am a visual art teacher but I also know I am so much more than that and that goes the same for YOU. We as art teachers know we are something special (seriously - it's OK if we toot our own horns to others and not just sit in our art rooms being misunderstood!) but nobody will know that if we don't show them. I mean, we teach our student artists everyday the importance of SHOWING over telling. So, I implore you all to do something similar as what I did - you don't even need a special event to do it - and teach one of your colleagues how powerful folding, cutting, pasting, and coloring can be. And if you need any help? Here are some awesome links for you to help be a better teacher of teachers yourself...

• An entire book in PDF version of Foldables from the awesome Dinah Zyke who is the pioneer of foldables
• Foldables just for Mathematics in PDF form
• Another PDF link for Foldables for Social Studies
• Foldables for Language Arts on a teacher's wikispaces site
• A whole site just for Science Foldables 

I shared the above links with the attendees of my workshop and I hope they are useful to you or a colleague you might know. Here's to spreading the LOVE for CREATING a type of learning that will only greatly expand upon itself. 

Project ROYGBIV :: Studying Installation Art :: 3D Design

By far and away one of the most successful lesson ideas/project endeavors that I have done from the start of my art education career was one that is affectionately known as "The Ombre Experience." Perhaps you know about it because it is the thing that brought you here to this blogsite in the first place. Per my blogstats and that tally over there to the right ------------------------------------------------->
The Ombre Experience lesson idea is the most popular and frequently looked at by way of google searches and Pinterest. The lesson idea coupled with the ROYGBIV day 500+ balloon release event is hard to forget and just as hard to top. Or... is it?

 I can't let go of what we had last year with The Ombre Experience. It was so awesome and fun and encouraged such a beautiful type of connection and interaction - it's no wonder that it's been one of the most popular things I have shared on this blog. And because of that the two sections of 3D Design of this Spring 2013 semester are going to attempt to do it again and even bigger than that.

What are they going to do and HOW are they going to do it? Well... honestly, I don't really know. Why? Because I am leaving it largely in their very capable hands and in their very imaginative and visionary minds. As it works, they already know what we have done before and they liked it much like you kind blogsite readers and supporters but in order for us to do it all up this year? They are very much being encouraged to go beyond the beyonds of what last year was in order for us to do something that is just as unforgettable as last year and just as hard to top for next year. (Because I feel like this is a worth while endeavor for us to do every year and have it be a bit of a traditional thing!)

Now before I look like some completely crazy teacher who has lost her marbles completely and is letting her student artists just plain go CRAZY, let me present what I am doing in a different way: I am acting as a bit of a captain for a big giant ship (think of it even as a space shuttle if you'd like!) and my job is definitely to steer the ship to where it needs to go - that being to get to an end point and have everyone arrive safely and soundly - but for the most part? The journey could include any number of things and it's my job to ensure those things provide a memorable trip as much as possible.

So far this week (and a little bit of last week) my adventure with the classes has been pretty successful and even organized despite how loosely I might have already suggested they are.

Last week our focus was on getting ideas brainstormed and down on paper and in order for me to be able to present them to everyone for voting/selection purposes and then this week we voted on them all, divvied off into self-selected groups (meaning the students got to go where they wanted to go)...

We did self-selecting of groups the good ol' fashioned way with sign-up sheets!

... and then working together within those groups so that we had a solid enough idea for each area of the sun, clouds, AND rainbow in order to actual start giving them real physical form starting this week. Each group tossed around ideas about how they were going to accomplish their area of the installation and then at the end of last week they each gave me a heavily debated (my input included) shopping list so that they would actually have materials to work with and be done with this project within the next three weeks.

The shopping lists I have been requested to help fill! Not bad actually. 

This project is coming out to be one that is almost completely student-centered and I have had very little input in what goes on other than when a group/students are obviously off-course with what they are seeking to do and I simply redirect them to refocus themselves by reiterating any of the following:

• We are on a time crunch
• The success of the group's effort is hugely dependent upon each person's individual effort
• This is a very unique opportunity and HONOR that they get to be a part of and be able to remember back on for the rest of their lives (this is almost the most motivating reminder of all of them if you can believe it!)

While most teachers might be a little iffy about this idea of how and what I am doing, I have done some seriously extensive research about this age-group/generation of students (the Millenials) to know that what I have been able to orchestrate for their working situation is the most ideal and will produce the largest return on my investment (as a teacher) of my time and general instruction. 

I will, of course, keep you abreast of how and what is going on with this all but if you don't like to wait, you are always encouraged to get sneak peeks of things by way of my instagram stream - DreamPrayCreate is my username. Don't be afraid to connect with me that way and offer feedback of either questions OR critiques of how/what I am doing as an art educator.

Master Study - Marc Chagall :: 2D Design

I've got one section of 2D Design this semester and while I could just do what I did last semester with the three sections of 2D that I had, I have decided to change things up a bit. What can I say? I get easily bored with things. *shrug*

I have never done a master artist study with any of my classes but I feel like they are important and really interesting when you do them so I think it's time to start doing them. Our artist of focus is Marc Chagall and I think the student artists I have will really appreciate his work because of the colors and overlapping elements that he used in his pieces. I am not sure exactly what it's going to look like for subsequent projects but for the initial one we are going to use Chagall's work to produce some continuous line drawings. I feel like it will make sense to the students to take these two and put them together because they will feel the connectedness of the overlapping elements of Chagall's work and then they will have to physically connect them all with the continuous line technique.

Something else that I am going to have them do is time themselves - at first we will do it as a class - and then they can time themselves individually with their phones/music devices. I want to encourage them to try out different things within their creative processing in order to be able to get different results so they start to understand that successful works of art don't happen simply by chance and they are intentionally created based upon specific decisions that are made in the process of creating them. I want them to learn to see/feel the differences and then attempt to make changes within their own processes in order to get different creative results.

We just started this last week so I will let you know how it starts to pan out and if it ends up flopping? Well, of course I will let you know that as well. ;)

Behind the Music(al) :: Hairspray

Hello! Welcome to February and welcome to the season of my life that is always the Spring musical.

As I have previously shared, things have been very busy for me and this is due in large part to the fact that at this time of year I am in the throes of musical production work. Before I came to my current teaching position I had limited experience in this realm but even in that I enjoyed it very much. I really love most any of the fine arts and though I can't act or sing in front of an audience worth a darn and I much MUCH prefer to always be behind the scenes and/or the cameras, I still enjoy being a part of the arts that is dramatic and performance arts if I can help it. Thankfully, the Lord God knows this well of me and He has placed me in a position where I can fully experience it and really have the time of my life.

As things go in the time that I have been in my teaching job, I serve (basically) as the creative and visual artistic director/coordinator/consultant for most every stage production that my school does. My department head is actual a drama and theater teacher by training and she and I have developed a wonderful working relationship together in order to bring some of the awesome performance art productions to fruition.

At this point I have a very significant amount of experience helping in production with a pretty large amount of shows that my school has done where I have either helped to solely or collaboratively originate set designs, props, and sometimes even conceptualizing the actual direction (visually) of how a performance art piece will take and be presented/"packaged" - so exciting to be in this part of the production especially since basically I sometimes get to help decide how it will all be packaged!!! My experience so far includes the following stage productions:

• Godspell
• Diary of Anne Frank
• Sound of Music
• The Crucible
• A handful of choral/band performances and student life events (like prom) that regularly occur every year and require design work for programs/printed materials

 Anyway, this year the Spring musical is HAIRSPRAY!!!! And as we say with nearly ever production that we do? This one is going to be bigger than everything we have ever done before.

Now, usually, I will present some portion (at least) of the set design and general production work of any of the performance art pieces I have had a stake in but this time? I figured I should do a bit of a blog series documenting how and what I do with all of this. I (of course) have no preconceived idea of how long it will go - meaning I have no clue how many installments there will be OR what the general schedule for posting them will be so it will seem very scattered at times - but there definitely WILL be an end date once the show premieres on March 1st. (Cannot believe it's less than a month away!!!)

Anyway, I am affectionately calling this series "Behind the Music(al)" as a play on that ol' documentary series on (the now defunct?) channel VH-1 called "Behind the music." And for today's behind the scenes look? I bring you the color picking process that I have been enduring!!!

For me, the color picking process is almost always the most fun stage of the pre-production and creative process.

Color picking is a HUGE deal for every show we do because my director, producer, and set building cohorts insist that I am better at doing this than any of them AND little to nothing can really happen unless we have the right colors to begin with. And so? One of the keys to kickstarting any production is me getting the colors picked.

The way it usually works is this:

1. Have multiple conversations with director/producer(s) about what they are envisioning OR collaborate with them to establish a "vision" for what/how it should all look - especially if we (collectively) do not agree with the general ways that it has already been done by other either because we don't like it or just plain want to do something different.
2. I will draft up and/or study all sorts of documentation - including pre-fab plans and images from my director that she bought the rights to use for us to even do the show to begin with, doing Google image searches of what other schools/performance companies have already done - and then from there I will usually always know the general palette that should end up being selected.
3. I will physically go to local "super stores" of home improvement like Lowe's and/or Home Depot as well as looking at the prices and color palette offerings of theater set design/supplies companies like Roscoe brand theater paints. This allows me to collect prices (for budgeting purposes) and then also physically collect color swatches that can be given to the director, producer, set builders, and costuming crew so that everything is cohesive visually with color.
4. All of the individuals above either approve or disapprove of what I have picked and it's either back to step one of the color picking  process or on with the rest of production!

It is a rare thing that I ever have to go back to step one from step four unless it's an issue of the directors/producers/set/costume folks decide (separate from me) that the vision we originally had will not work and the idea needs to be totally reworked. And if/when this sort of thing happens? Well, it's usually not during a time when the work I have done with color picking has even happened yet.

Anyway, I will be sharing other stuff (than this) with you all but just wanted to get some new content up here finally and also give you a peek at what is ahead and to come! It's good to be back and I will see you next week. *high five*

It's here!!! The Dream. Pray. Create. Lesson Planning Template!!!

It's here!!! It's here it's here it's HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRE!!!!

As I have said before, this year I decided to be a first year/sixth year teacher and it has absolutely transformed everything about my classroom. If you have already forgotten what I am referring to I will tell you again that it has all come from my implementation to do inquiry-based teaching with a teaching model I designed and discussed HERE.

Approaching teaching and learning in this way has done the following in my classroom: renewed me with fresh inspiration, empowered and encouraged my students to be more autonomous and personally accountable in their creative efforts, and given both me and my students much needed structure in order to have a working studio art classroom that is more like a "well-oiled" machine than I ever might have dreamed it could be.

I am calling this teaching model "The DreamPrayCreate Teaching method because I can't think of any other way to call it. *shrug* (Seriously.) Calling it "A Framework for teaching Visual Arts Education + The Creative Process" makes it sound so dry and official and while it has become a very official thing for me to use that certainly does provide an amazing framework for Visual Arts Education it jus seems like it could be called something a lot more colorful, imaginative, and inventive (in what it suggests it does for teaching/learning.

The template itself is not necessarily six pages (as seen below in the snapshot of the multi-page view in Microsoft Word) but when I typed it all out for the Our Common Threads | Intro to Printmaking lesson idea, it ended up being longer than the 3-4 pages it started out with in it's blank state.

I have (for you to download and use!!) both the BLANK version of this lesson planning template as well as a completely useable and fully articulated lesson plan for the Our Common Threads | Intro to Printmaking project. Both versions are being stored online in the Google docs folder I set up to be able to share documents with you all...

• DreamPrayCreate Lesson Planning template worksheet in word document (the most recent/up-to-date version of word docs - (3) pages - as well as in PDF format
• DreamPrayCreate sample lesson of Our Common Threads | Intro to Printmaking in PDF format (6 pages) and HERE it is in word document as well

Regarding the visual formatting of the above documents, the word version of the Lesson Planning template worksheet should be downloaded and not just modified in Google docs because it is definitely off in how it is viewed via the Google docs web-based platform. The correct visual formatting is viewable only via the PDF formats for both the lesson planning worksheet AND the sample lesson.

I invite and welcome you to use both of them AND share them with others in an effort to (perhaps?) inspire, invigorate, and reshape the teaching and learning that happens in your art classrooms. Still though? I feel like this could work just as well for any other type of content-area as well so share it with your non-art education colleagues! What I have designed and created is something that definitely is indicated to be for a classroom/school of Christian faith, the section that indicates the connection to a Christian worldview could just as well be thought of us being a Character trait connection so that the teaching of Visual Art is a vessel for learning principles and values like integrity, perseverance, selflessness, etc.

As for me providing lesson ideas in the future in this format? I am undecided. This year is a curriculum review year for me at my school and while writing up everything in this lesson planning document for each of my lesson ideas would certainly align with the assessing and revamping of my curriculum area, well... I have a lot more to do for this process other than writing lesson plans (micro-level type planning) and I have to focus on the big picture and the long-term/far reaching goals of the visual arts program at my school. While I would like to say I am "that good" and I can both stand a little bit in one place while also making leaps and bounds in every direction, I am realistic in knowing that I cannot do it. Still, it doesn't mean that there might be some lessons/lesson notes that I won't sometimes present in this format. I mean, now that I have it it is certainly a lot easier for me to implement/use/share with you all so perhaps I need to just TRUST in the Lord that He will steer me and provide for me so that I am using it - especially if it is helpful for you all.

I see what I am doing as a little bit of collaboratively planning with you all and I am happy to do it as long as the Lord Almighty provides a way for me to do so. Let me know how you like this lesson planning template and/or how you think it could be modified to be more useful! I know I'm not perfect and so I am always open to constructive feedback of how to make what I'm doing better.

An armature for Visual Arts curriculum and instruction

While it's not ready yet, I just wanted to give you all a heads up of a very special something to come!

This year (at my school) it is curriculum review year for my content area and this is really informing my planning and teaching decisions that have largely contributed to my inspiration and motivation to create the inquiry-based teaching and learning method I have been using with my classes. Because I am also doing graduate studies in the Masters of Arts in Teaching program, I am learning the importance of having a good solid armature for my instruction and curriculum and really making an effort to plan ahead and NOT rely solely on teaching on the fly. I mean, definitely the ability of teaching on your feet and being able to go with the flow is important but ultimately? I know (for me as a teacher) I am much more effective in the classroom when I have really thought about what I am going to do before I do it.

All of that being sad? The above image is a sneak peek of what will be unveiled tomorrow so come back and see me then! I will have not only a little bit of an explanation behind the inspiration behind it but I will also have an empty/blank one for you to use (that can be downloaded and/or shared collaboratively) as well as one that is fully articulated and aligns with a lesson idea I did just this year with my 2D classes! This means that you will have my lesson notes for one of my project ideas!! See you tomorrow!!

TICONDEROGA PENCILS. Forever and ever!!! (And ever and ever.)

What kind of pencils do you use in your classroom? Do you have a favorite brand? I do. I am ALL ABOUT the brand loyalty and the pencil brand I am most loyal to is Ticonderoga...

This shot reminds me of the movie "You've got mail" with Meg Ryan when she mentions how the beginning of a school year makes her want to have a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils.

Now, I try not to be an elitist and equal opportunity when it comes to the supplies that are used in my artwork and with my classes but in all honesty? When it comes to pencils, I have learned my lesson that there definitely are some very inferior types and brands of pencils especially when compared to the amazing standard (of superiority) set by Ticonderoga brand pencils.

The thing about Ticonderoga pencils is... well... what ISN'T there to love about them? Seriously! The wood casing is so well structured and of high-quality material that it doesn't splinter or split very easily (if at all). The lead itself applies itself beautifully. Even the erasers are awesome!!! Also, they sharpen really REALLY well and the pencils themselves don't ruin pencil sharpeners the way so many other pencils do. Just this year I got myself a heavy-duty and quite fancy sharpener and though I have (fiercely) protected it by locking it up so it's not used and the engine is burnt out by the whole school (Seriously. I used to have students interrupt the goings-on of my class to sharpen their pencils!!!) - the sharpener is STILL holding up like a champ. I am convinced it is not only because I keep it locked up but also because I am not allowing for low-quality pencils to be burning it out and dulling the blades. Anyway, the pencil sharpener I got is pictured below and it is called the Stanley Bostitch QuietSharp6 Electric Pencil Sharpener. I ordered mine from Dick Blick HERE at the beginning of the year with my annual supplies order.

Pencil sharpener with the pencil organization system everyone on Pinterest also uses.

I feel like this is the first year (in four total) that I have pencils AND a pencil sharpener that are going to hold up against the general wear and tear (and beatings) of the year and if you are in the market for a new brand of pencils and/or sharpeners? Consider both Ticonderoga brand and the Stanley BostitchQuiet6 Sharpener. Both brands will set you back a little bit in terms of time but consider the fact that the money you spend is an investment that will pay itself back in dividends since (at the end of the year) you will easily still have a working pencil sharpener as well as a stock of pencils that don't get eaten up and easily split from regular use.

WiPs: "a place of Grace" - Blueprinting the Visual Composition | 2D Design

In continuing on with my endeavor to attempt to teach the 2D Design students how to paint landscapes from picture/2D image reference, They have officially entered the stage of the creative process that is Figure out & Focus. Most of them have selected their inspiration pictures - found via image searches on the web as well as combing through their own instagram and other personal image archives.

Each of the students is required to bring in their images - whether it is singular or it is a collective in order to create a composite painting - so that they can figure out a strong visual armature for the composition of their individual paintings. I have been running them through exercises every day of looking at masterworks to both read paintings/images as well as how to identify leading lines, forms, and differentiating contrasting values and colors in order to understand how they all relate to one another in order to inform strong and successful composition. For as complicated as it makes my job sound? They are getting it. They are really really getting it!

One thing I am having all of the students do for each of their designs is to make composition blueprints (for lack of better word). What they do is they lay a piece of clean paper on top of their inspiration image and then they have to draw on the clean paper all of the leading lines and simple forms (see above picture). Once they do that they have to identify and label the foreground, middle ground, and background as well as match/lay out basic colors in their blueprints...

I have shown them examples of images where there is a strong foreground, middle ground, and background as well as showing them images where there is just a foreground, subtle middle ground, and obvious background. I have also shown them how leading lines can steer the viewer's gaze to draw it into a picture/painting so that a person can't help but experience the visual depth in addition to perhaps naturally skipping their eyes (with rhythm) from object to object in the image. I have also been using the instructional book Mastering Composition (in e-book format so I can project the pages and visuals from the book onto the white board) to show the eight different types of composition and visual armatures that can be employed to help add more obvious structure and order to a painting.

We haven't discussed how to use color and value as a tool to create depth and space on a 2D surface but I will be showing them how to use complementary colors in order to make elements of a work of art appear as if they are advancing or retreating within the space/surface of the painting to make it appear to have a lot greater and more dynamic depth. 

Pinterest for the Visual Art Education classroom

How do you feel about social networking? What's your favorite avenue for that? Are you a Facebooker? I recently decided not to be for my own personal interests and concerns. I used to be an avid Facebook user but it just seemed like it was counterintuitive and counterproductive to actually connecting people as it supposedly seeks to do. So... I quit it. (Facebook.) Despite what this might suggest, I am not against social networking. I mean, I'm an avid blogger (obviously) and I am questionably addicted to instagram. Another type of social networking I know and love? It's Pinterest!

I have been on Pinterest since it first started. I am blessed enough to be very well networked and so I got one of the earlier invitations that were given out. As Pinterest has grown and more people have discovered it, it has been exciting to sometimes even stumble upon people's pins made from my very own website!!! I know a ton of teachers who use it for lesson planning and classroom organization and I have used it for that very same purpose. Recently though, it occurred to me to use it for something other than just inspiring my curriculum and instruction.

The 2D Design class is starting a new project of painting where they are learning how to paint from/by photo and image reference. This endeavor was NOT planned and I had much different plans but I veered from them about two weeks ago and I have been praying about it and knowing that I need to make it happen for my student artists. Trouble with all of this is that teaching painting is something I am definitely NOT (entirely) confident or properly trained to do. Still... that isn't stopping me. *wink*

Taking notes from my amazing painting professor from the summer course I just took, I am crash coursing my students on understanding how to use visual composition in order to help them intentionally design and thoughtfully create works of high quality and successful visual art. One thing that has really helped me is the book called Mastering Composition. Another thing I am doing? I am looking at a TON of different types of visual art examples (masterworks, pins from people on Pinterest, personal works, etc.) with the students. AND(!) I am encouraging the students to DRAW on them in order to help "unpack" how and why the composition on each piece is either really successful or not so much.

Last week I projected one of my Pinterest boards up for my classes and we went through multiple photographs and I had draw on the white board all of the leading lines, forms, and space that helped to contribute to the successful visual composition. The goal is that by doing this, they will learn to read composition so that they can translate what they read to be strong composition into their own work. 

Best Practices: A student-centered studio classroom | Visual Art

I cannot tell you how worn down I am already with teaching/working and it is not even close to the end of school year let alone the first semester OR marking period. Last week I got an FYI email from the academic dean that said, "Guess what! We are halfway through the first marking period!!!" WOW. Just... WOW.

Now, I already have a hard enough time knowing what day it is as it is (and usually I don't know what day it is) but I am really REALLY bad about knowing what day it is in the grand scheme of things and deadlines pop up on me all the time forcing me into "do or die" mode at any given time. This isn't because I procrastinate though. Really, it's because I'm so caught up in the moment and investing myself completely that I am not thinking about what is beyond that as much.

Take my current endeavor for classroom management as evidence for that...

One thing I am determined to do is make the studio classroom as student-centered as possible. While such a thing requires an incredible amount of planning, prepping, and then taking out and then putting back in of things - I am SO pleased to report that all of my efforts are WORKING!!!!! There have been less and less incidents of such things like students asking me questions like, "May I use [insert any color, shape, design idea, etc. in this place]?"

Now, I totally get that school is meant to help teach conformity and the importance of conformity. Just the same, I have found it's been sort of damaging to the creation/production of successful artwork. I have found it has made student artists to be more timid, far from confident, kind of afraid to try things out in order to answer a question or satisfy a curiosity they might have, and just generally unwillingly to be autonomous if they can help it. Perhaps this is just a high school thing and I have really REALLY obedient students (the latter is VERY true and I am abundantly blessed to have this) and this is why they want specific directions in order to follow them but I don't know. The one thing I do know is that it has squeezed the beautifully organic creativity that I know would otherwise be there from the hearts and imaginations of my wonderful student artists.

In the past I have really compartmentalized each of the student project endeavors with a general attitude of segregation between the mediums we use. I have thought of it like, "Now we are doing scratch-art and when we are doing it that is ALL we will do." This has left very little room for organic creativity and even original thought to occur. I never realized how damaging this was to the act or creation OR the way it was a damper or even elimination of original thought or ideas.

I mean, definitely there are certain types of work where it isn't possible to do more than just one type of medium but if I don't have a requirement to limit mediums, why not allow the students to decide how and when to layer them OR if and when to use them at all? If I provide them with a place where their exploration and experimentation is not only suggested but also aggressively encouraged and fostered, it is certain that they WILL be more creative because they almost can't not be as the situation dictates and the objective of the projects require. For all of these reasons I have decided to try and make every possible medium that could be used available to the students for every single project we do. How they use them, and IF they use them ends up being completely and totally up to them. 

One last way that I really manage and facilitate this very student-centered approach to art education and instruction? I do my best not to tell them what I think and I push them to tell me what they think about how and what they are doing. I probe them to look intently upon their own work so that they can not only find things to articulate and explain about their work but even more so pushes them to find the words to say about what they are doing especially if they don't have them immediately. It is common practice for the students to ask me what I think and for me to just look at them quizzically and then turn the question back to them  and say, "Well... what do YOU think?" Despite what this might imply that I don't answer their questions or give them specific directions that would help instruct them in the most constructive way, it's not that. Rather, I allow them to start the conversation, I (immediately and mentally) assess what they say in order to understand where they are coming from/what they understand, and then I steer the conversation based on that.

So far I am dog tired by doing things the way I am doing but you know what? It has been SO worth it. It has been SOOO incredibly worth every last ounce of effort and energy. My classes as quickly becoming the "well-oiled machines" I was so praying and hoping they would be and the student artists are truly going beyond making things and truly being imitators of the almighty Lord by CREATING.

How to clean up a wet mess

While I don't hang up awesome visuals around and about the studio classroom to encourage and instruct how to clean up I very much expect EVERY SINGLE STUDENT to have working knowledge and ability to be able to clean up a "wet mess" that might be that of paint, glue, water, etc. etc. etc. Here is a demonstration I do to help them learn how to do it in the most efficient way I have found to do it...

Our motto for how to take care of a wet mess?

Dry to Wet,

Damp to clean-up!

We repeat it so much it is hard to forget and if ever there is a question of what to do when a mess happens, I always ask the following...

1. Is it Wet? Then it needs something DRY to make it less wet.
2. Is it Dry? Then use something DAMP to clean it up!

Easy-peasy! I hope you can use it in your classroom too. *high five*

Art Teacher Hack | Prepping paper for projects

One of the biggest and most frequently made misnomers about what I do as a high school art teacher is this: Being an art teacher is SO fun ALL the time because all art teachers ever do is draw and "make stuff" all day long with their students!!!

Wow. That could not be farther from the truth. I mean, yes my job does indeed allow me to be with my students all day and make CREATE amazing and (sometimes) fun works of art but none of that is so easily done. There is a lot "behind-the-scenes" (a WHOLE lot) that goes into getting to that point. If it looks easy? Well, perhaps it's just because I have had enough practice (read: time, energy, EFFORT) at this point to make it look easy. *shrug*

(Please note: I am not saying all of this like this to toot my horn or anything. I actually don't think I am super stellar at anything I have noted so far. As far as I am concerned, I consider myself to be a constant "work in progress" when it comes to teaching, teaching art, or being an artist.)

All of that being said, every year I teach, I learn something new to add to what I hope is wisdom that can be drawn from and applied within whatever moments that follow when it was gained. In the years leading up to this one, I have learned how very bad I am at prepping materials for too many of the projects I have attempted with my students and also the importance of attending to correct that issue and not let it go and get worse. Not acknowledging the importance and significant of preparedness has made me a really bad teacher in the not so distant past. Thankfully, I have learned from the errors of my ways.

I order everything at the beginning of the year to avoid disasters like having a budget cut happen mid-year that prevents me from ordering the required supplies for a project. This year when the supplies order came in, I did my usual sorting for storing but I tried something new: instead of just grouping materials in cabinets with labels on the outside, I actually wrote on the materials what they would be used for. Seems simple right? No-brainer? You do this already? Well, I only just figured out that this would be a good way for me to do things just this year. (Ridiculous. I KNOW.) Normally I would have grouped supplies and then put them in a cabinet and then put a label on the cabinet itself that in the long run looks like a list of general supplies with now designation of how each would be used. Once it came time to use them? They might be gone because (I can be so forgetful and disorganized - yeah, tell you something you don't know...) I would have maybe used them for something else or they would have maybe been shared with my fellow art faculty member. Pretty much, I would end up trying to do a project without the required supplies NOT because of budget cuts but because I am my own worst enemy.

Something else that has been a general issue for me for project materials prep? Cutting and portioning out materials so they are good and ready to go when I need them. Now as it happens, ordering in bulk can save big money. That is just because ordering in bulk means I am not paying for the convenience of having materials come ready-to-use. I will literally sit and calculate out prices per unit in order to determine if it is better to order a stack of correctly sized materials OR order a huge chunk/sheet of something and then portion it myself. As it happens? I usually end up ordering in bulk - which means I usually have to do a significant amount of prep work to pare down the big giant of whatever it is into workable individual portions. Kind of a pain but it is a necessary evil of the job.

Recently, as I was portioning things, I realized that some of what I was doing was ridiculous. Yes - it was good that I was counting out what I needed and then stacking them in individual piles (per class) and then labeling the piles - after all, some classes needed more than others because of the different numbers of students I have in different sections.

But then I got to thinking - something I know from experience - there is are some classes that even though they have less people, they sometimes require more materials and I am pretty restricted on extras so how to I portion that out? I don't want to just give every class the same amount? Then all the piles will look exactly the same! Or whatever if one class starts the project on one day and it takes another class two more days to start theirs. It has happened in the past and I KNOW it could happen in the future that the piles of materials somehow all end up in one pile despite my best effort to compartmentalize them.

So, I got to thinking, what about if I drew from previous working experience of being at a restaurant and portioned things this way: one big giant pile but stack them in back-forth layering in smaller groups of 5 or 10...

Doing things this way is similar to how it restaurants sometimes prep things. They will portion things out and then they will packaging them up and group them in a defined number so then they can tell at a glance how much of something just at a glance. Grouped by six? Six groups right there? You have 36 total. Need only six more? Just grab a whole bag - no need to stand there and measure and weigh things to portion them and no need to count 1-2-3... to get the six you need. Need 72? Get 12 bags! Simple and easy. And that's why I'm doing it like this now instead of the other way I was doing it.

Doing it up (in the classroom) the PIXAR way.

Over the summer I had the great blessing to read an amazing (but most recently very controversial) book called Imagine by Jonah Lehrer. It is a nonfiction work intended to examine and discuss the inner workings of creativity and reveal some of the secrets of how to be more creative. Some stuff was a rehashing of what I already knew like that the physiological effects of blue are so powerful that they they can actually make you more productive, inspired, or creative. Other stuff? It kind of blew my mind. And also, it made me feel like I completely needed to revisit and revamp the way I was teaching the creative process to my students as well as fostering a space for it to exist within. Thank you, Pixar, for helping me to finally see the light as well as the gigantic shadow I was casting upon my classroom and daily doings and happenings in my classroom. Pixar? I am an entirely new art teacher because YOUR creative process is what I am now going to be doing in MY class.

While Jonah Lehrer has definitely failed in grand form in very noteworthy ways, one way that he didn't fail was in his chapter about how Pixar does the amazingness that they do not only in the big pictures (no pun intended) but just as much on the daily that no doubt makes each of those big pictures that they churn out so gosh darn successful every single time. A myriad of things contribute to their success and while I can't do all of them - like, centralizing the location of the bathrooms to promote a guarantee that each person working will have the greatest probability of crossing paths with as many other people/coworkers as possible in the midst of their daily work flow - I CAN make one thing happen in my classroom. And that is: A serious commitment to doing (essentially) formative assessments and critiques (both peer and self) of student work and performance FREQUENTLY and CONSISTENTLY. 

Now, Pixar is known for having exemplary visual design, illustration, and animation in ALL of their products - be it full-length pictures or animated shorts. While they easily have the "best in the biz" working for them that would certainly cull and employ expert skill, technique, and knowledge for any given task, where they do it right isn't based solely within that. They don't rely on their obvious talents. Why? Because the only way to remain talented is to keep pushing yourself AND your talents to keep sharp enough to cut any competition down to smaller size. That's where the frequent and consistent formative assessments and critiques come into play.

According to Mr. Lehrer, one of the big things that Pixar does that ensures they are always #winning (Yes. I DID just do that!) is by regularly and FREQUENTLY gathering in order to tear apart each others work and design so that it can be put together again in a way that could never be argued to be anything less than THE. BEST. version of itself possible. Even if it takes tireless rehashing of something that doesn't work, that's what they do in order to make it work. Their ultimate goal is to find every and anything that might need tweaked or outright fixed and FIX IT. They do this by putting their work up for all of their colleagues to see and then having seriously critical and analytical discussions about what does and doesn't work for each piece of work. At times they are brutally honest and though it is reported that feelings have been hurt with some of feedback offered, what they do is SO much an integral part of their creative process that pretty much everyone is used to it and they see it less as a tool to be cut out by and more as a tool that is helping them cut from something - whether it is bad design and/or idea or it is cutting the roughness of in order for them to be polish worthy to become (for lack of better way of putting it) DIAMOND-quality type products.

Now, I'm not in the business of multi-gazillion dollar animated films. However, I would argue that what I am in the business of - shaping the hearts and minds and guiding the hands of the individuals who will one day be holding the collective fate and success (or not) of our world - well, what I do is a whole heck of a lot more incredible than trying to top the last blockbuster animated film. (Maybe I'm biased? Whatever. I maintain my position.)

So how does this apply to art education? Well, my thinking is if Pixar can do that and find the incredible success that they find on a regular and continuing basis - and I don't just mean the obvious success but more in their success of being on the cutting edge of visual creativity - why can't I institute this into my own classroom for the sake of my own students' success with their artworks?

Related to all of that, I have some huge confessions to make related to my own failures as a teacher:

• I am TERRIBLE at doing regular and consistent assessments of any and all student work.
• I have rarely (OK, never really - I said it) done peer critiques. 
• I have a very general and non-specific grading rubric I give at the beginning of any course I teach but I don't really use it and I also don't really use a specific grading rubric for specific projects even if I do verbally communicate what the "general" idea/learning objective is for any given project.
• The timeliness of the feedback in the form of grades that I provide? Uhmmm it starts out reasonably timely but it doesn't take long until you could say it takes me forever and not be exaggerating. You might even be able to call me late to my own funeral. Seriously. (SHAMEFUL)

Now, the aforementioned isn't said in pride in what I am guilty of in the least. Rather, I am reporting it in order to confess of my own sinfulness so that I can receive forgiveness for what I have done and ultimately redeem myself and seek reconciliation by doing something different that isn't so incredibly shameful and failing to be an adequate teacher to my beloved students. And now that that's out of the way, let's get on with me being oriented toward being a solution versus being the root of the problem.

Last week, on Friday (the third/last day I saw each of my classes for the first week of school), I did my first open forum self and peer critique of student work. This is because I FINALLY got a visualizer AKA document camera to hook up to the classroom projector!!! (seen to the left with a quick caricature I did of my 4yo daughter)

Each of my students did a quick project (intended to serve as a formative assessment for me to draw direction from and gauge where each of them stands with their abilities and understandings) and on Friday I had each of them do a brief presentation of their work (inspiration behind what they did, techniques they used, etc. etc.) as well as a self-critique and a peer critique. They were required to use the sentence starter "This piece is SUCCESSFUL/UNSUCCESSFUL because... [enter something constructive with specific terminology that does NOT relate to how they liked something because it was their favorite color or the like]"

One of the pieces that was presented at today's round of critiques. Not bad for a class and a half of working time!

I kicked off the critique session by explaining my particular caricature style portrait, critiqued by own work, and then acted like a third-party critique and gave specific and intentional suggestions of how what I did could be improved. Internet friends? IT WAS AMAZING HOW RECEPTIVE THE STUDENTS WERE AND HOW QUICKLY THEY CAUGHT ON AND REALIZED HOW MUCH BETTER IT WAS TO TALK ABOUT THINGS IN TECHNICAL TERMS vs. THAT IT WAS "NICE" and THEY JUST "LIKED" IT.

One of my students in the midst of her first critique session ever!!

I know. I KNOW. Pretty much, I'm late to my own funeral by taking three years to FINALLY do this type of thing in class. Let's not dwell on me being an epic failure of an art teacher before though. Let's instead recognize that my failures are a thing of the past and from here on out I am going to be doing critiques like this OFTEN and CONSISTENTLY for both works-in-progress (WiPs) as well as finished pieces. Why? Because doing it this way will do the following:

1. Help to teach AND model conscientious working and creative processing
2. Regularly employ and practice the use of vocabulary of the elements of art and principles of design
3. Provide the opportunity to bounce and springboard ideas within the largest pool of creative minds possible vs. just allowing the students to limit their proximity of creative inspiration to their immediate classmates/best friends that they might be working alongside

In the past I have not believed that doing things like this are so important (I KNOW. I know. I stand corrected and shamed.) I get it now and you better believe I am going to keep doing things like this. My goal is to do major ones (where EVERY student gets up and presents) at least every other week and then periodic ones with volunteers or those I feel should present because what they are doing is unique, particularly impressive/innovator, or presents a real teachable moment type thing at least twice a week. I know there is room for me to fail at this because I'm human and definitely far from perfect but still? Doing something different in my classroom/for my students is absolutely the first step in a direction to both transforming my teaching as well as transforming the type of work my students will inevitably turn out.