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A Few of My Favorite Posts from 2016

Another year has come and gone.  Here are some of my favorite posts from 2016.  Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year

My Top 6 Favorite Posts in 2016.. in no particular order.

1. Huge Printable List of “What Artists Do”  The list is two pages long and can be printed and hung in your classroom as a reminder of all the things that artists do!  Click on the image to find the downloadable pdfs. This goes along with a huge set of printable art posters.

2.  Art Curriculum Download:  I rewrote my entire curriculum and it is on this blog post for you to look at and get ideas from.  Entirely free!  Click on the image to go to the blog post.

3. Collaborative Fence Weaving

My students had a blast weaving on this plastic garden fence.  I came up with the idea after rabbits ate through the fence and it was useless.  We rolled it up and saved it in our garage until I thought it would be perfect for large group weaving!

4.  Frank Stella inspired art  I took my students on a field trip to see an awesome Frank Stella retrospective at the local modern art museum.  I love his artwork so much!  The kids created their own abstract artworks by using protractors, French curves and other design tools.  Click on the picture below to see more examples.

5.  Watercolor Flowers Doodles  I love painting with watercolors and I love demonstrating some of the steps I use when painting for fun.  This blog post was one of the most viewed posts ever on my blog.

6.  Blogging Basics Series:  I wrote a 4 part series of tips on how to start a blog!  While it didn’t gain as much traffic as I hoped, I think it will be a valuable resource to refer people to whenever I get asked how to start a blog!

Favorite Student Project

  1.  Sand Art:  I think this was my best received art project by the students.  Kids loved working with sand and the other classes begged to make sand art as well.

My Favorite Professional Accomplishments in 2016

  1.  Published  in the December issue of Arts & Activities
  2.  Published in the October issue of Arts & Activities
  3.  Published in Summer issue of School Arts Magazine
  4.  Going to the National Art Education Association Conference and seeing lots of awesome presentations and meeting online friends
  5. Published in the April issue of Arts & Activities magazine
  6.  Art Ed Blog of the Year finalist

Favorite New Products I Created

My two new favorite products this year were the Elements of Art Printable Sketchbook

and the What Do Artists Do signs.

Goals for 2017:  Personal, Professional and Blog-Related

What are your goals for 2017?  I’m keeping mine simple!

  1.  Professional:  Organize and run the first Fine Arts Night at our school in March! (Plans are already underway… just a matter of implementing them!)
  2.  Professional:  Get a good start on writing my Professional Development Plan for recertification.  It’s all in my mind, but I just have to get it written down.
  3.  Personal:  Exercise 4 times a week, even if it’s only 20 minutes on the exercise bike.
  4.  Personal:  Attempt to decrease anxiety by listening to guided meditation at least twice per week before falling asleep.
  5.  Blog:  Continue to write at least 2 blog posts per month.
  6.  Blog:  Submit to at least 1 magazine for potential publication.
  7.  Teachers Pay Teachers:  Introduce at least 2 new products.

In the comments, share what your favorite art projects of 2016 were.. whether they were ones you did at your school or ones you saw online.  What are your goals for 2017?

 

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About Marcia Beckett

Marcia is an elementary art teacher and loves painting, drawing, sculpture, art journaling and clay. Her blog, Art is Basic, features many exciting art projects for kids.

2 Responses to A Few of My Favorite Posts from 2016

  1. Claudia says:

    My favorite project this year is the blind count our and modified contour drawings of leaves. Students really enjoyed this project. We used real leaves abs studied the linework and details. After a lot of observation then students picked their favorite drawing. They redraw it on black construction paper then traced their linework with glue. Last they used oil pastels to fill in with color. Using color theory of cool and warm colors and value. 🙂 love this project!!

    My goals for the new year is to incorporate more elements of art and really get kids to apply them in their own artwork!

  2. Cheri Deardorff says:

    Since I teach high school, I have to alter most of what is on the internet. By the way, I can’t wait to purchase your Principles of Art Sketch book. Nice work!
    My favorite project this semester was cell phone case designs. Students had to design them in black and white and then for extra credit could redo them using any color combination without changing their original design. Both were very creative.

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