I’ll admit it. My art room is looking pretty darn ugly. The walls are bare, stacks of paper are shoved against the walls and half-empty paint bottles are jammed onto open shelving. It’s a sad state of affairs. I know what you are thinking. You probably thought that I had the most beautiful art room in the world but I’m afraid I don’t put much effort into the aesthetics of this creative oasis. Time … Read More →
During my second round of facilitating my Teaching Art 101 e-course, a group of us were discussing organization in the art room. Just like most of the class participants, I struggled with sorting piles and piles of artwork. One gal piped up and said she used ordinary clothespins clipped to stacks of art projects to help separate classes. Isn’t that genius? Maybe you heard of this tip before or maybe you learned it from … Read More →
2014 has been a great year. That’s not to say that everything went swimmingly, but I crossed stuff off my bucket list and ended the year happy. This site has been a catalyst for much of my joy. It’s where I get to exercise creativity, push through comfort zones and dream of doing bigger things. The best part, of course, is connecting with you, sharing ideas, and extending a helping hand. When I receive emails from … Read More →
Do you ever arrive at work with a new lesson plan that you are totally excited about? Then your students arrive with less-than-stellar attention spans? Don’t answer that. I know what you’re going to say. We all dream of the perfect class, filled with well-behaved, little angels but then reality hits. Slowly the excitement of unveiling a brand new lesson floats away as you try to corral the little ones back to their seats … Read More →
So often I get emails from new art teachers or home-school parents wishing to start an art program, come across my site, are super excited but have no idea what to buy. What lessons are good starter lessons? Which ones cover the most grade levels? Which ones require the least amount of supplies? I can relate. My shop has over 90 products, not including the 300+ free lessons on my blog. … Read More →
It’s the question everyone wonders about. How do you teach an art lesson so every child finishes at the same time? Can it be done? Not really, but you can create a classroom so that everyone is working. Children process information at different rates and children work at different speeds. This is true for adults and so it must be true for children. Intellectually we know this yet we still yearn for … Read More →
There are no words more terrifying to hear for an art teacher than, “You will be teaching from a cart.” This is pretty much what happened to this reader: While I don’t teach art via a cart now, I do have a bit of experience from my early days of teaching. Basically, when you are a visitor or guest in a classroom, you don’t have a lot of control over your … Read More →
