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Why is thinking soooo hard? (part 2): 5 things we might be doing to stop...

Do you ever encounter students who just don’t seem to want to think?  I’m not talking about simply not knowing what your students are thinking, because the truth is its a very difficult job to know...

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What’s more important: doing a good job or having a good idea?

What’s the big fuss over good craftsmanship?  This is a concept that gets thrown around a lot in the art world and generally refers to an attention to detail, tidiness, and skill in execution.  Take a...

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5 Ways To Get Your Brain Ready For School

I always think about Harry Wong’s The First Days of School and Fred Jones’s Tools For Teaching a couple weeks before school starts and I wonder why it’s so hard for me to do school-related things in...

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Prezi.com: Make Your Presentations Zoom!

If you’ve ever heard that you would learn as much from a student teacher as they do from you – well, it’s true!  Last year I had my first student teacher, and boy did I learn.  A lot!  One of the...

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How To Let Students Choose Their Own Seat and Stay Sane Doing It!

Life has been a whirlwind the last few weeks – participating in STArts (Skillful Thinking in the Arts – I need to write lots about this), going to pre-service meetings, and throwing myself into my...

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“What Are We Going To Learn Today?”– 3 Simple Ways To Let Your Students Know...

“What are we going to learn today?” “I’m so glad you asked!” Call me corny, but this is how my students and I are going to start each lesson this year.  If you read to the end of this lengthy post,...

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The Beauty of Standards-Based Objectives in the Visual Arts

As soon as I wrote that title, I thought back to my formative years of teaching elementary art.  I never could have imagined myself finding beauty in crafting objectives, activities, and assessments...

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A Fun And Engaging Way To Teach Elementary Students To Judge Art

Do you avoid teaching kids to judge art like the plague?  Evaluating is one of the highest orders of thinking, according to Benjamin Bloom, and judging falls in that category.  But when it comes to...

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Transitions as easy as 1, 2, 3 – literally!

If you teach elementary – or have ever taught elementary – you know that some of the most difficult times of the day can be transition times. Cleaning-up at the end of a lesson, putting away materials,...

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Charming 3D Gingerbread Houses

So, just how do you present the art-making process to your students?  Do they follow along with you step-by-step?  Do you give them materials and let them go?  Or are you somewhere in-between?  I am...

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Back to blogging and back to school

I started this blog last summer while participating in an online course about blogging for educators at the Art of Education.  It helped me to think about what I wanted to communicate with a blog and...

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The Art of the Classroom: Grow Where You’re Planted

Grow where you’re planted!  I love this expression, especially entering my 9th year of teaching art at my home school.  Last year was my very first year teaching only in one building.  What a gift!...

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The Art of the Classroom: Color-Coding for a Calm Milieu

I have discovered that color coding my classroom not only saves my sanity, but it creates a sense of order for students who have no choice but to dwell in this sometimes crazy and chaotic world. My...

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Love Changes Everything! (Teaching Art from the Heart)

I scrolled down through some previous posts and very compassionately took note of my need for control and order in the classroom.  Oh, the trials and tribulations of the control-freak art teacher!  The...

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Clothespin Galleries

At the beginning of the year I asked my principal if I could hot glue clothespins all over the school to hang student work.  She said yes without hesitation.  I asked if i could put them anywhere I...

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Decking the Halls

I’ve started decorating the school with art.  This feels like kind of an odd thing to admit to.  A few years ago I may have made the proclamation that I am not here to decorate the school, thank you...

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displaying art: whose voice is coming through?

how student work is displayed speaks volumes. displays can speak more loudly of the teacher, speak in a balanced way of both students and teacher (like here, i think); or speak more loudly of the...

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how can we teach students to be more creative?

less teacher input more resources and research (and more and more and more) less “hand-holding,” passing things out, and picking helpers more accessibility, responsibility, and independence less...

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what would happen if . . .

. . . all of the materials in the art room were accessible, orderly, and fun to look at – for the students and the teacher? what is the value in the clearing of cabinets and the increase in student...

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whack-y wednesday!

i got these awesome hedgehog nail brushes a while ago and i let the kids use them after we do clay.  they seriously love these things and, of course, some students use them every chance they get!  some...

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