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On Teaching Art: Things to Think About

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On Teaching Art: Things to Think About

Welcome to the 4th post in my series On Teaching Art. The first post and the background behind this series is On Teaching Art:  Art vs. Craft. The second post was On Teaching Art #2: Organizing Curriculum. The third post was On Teaching Art #3: Integrating Art with Other Subjects. The question posed for this blog post is: “What are the important principles for teaching art that my students should remember? For instance, I can imagine that it’s important for them … Read more… →

New Art Teacher Blog Directories

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There are lots of great ideas on the internet and I have enjoyed reading so many art teacher blogs.  There are over 300 art blogs on the art teacher blog directory.  That is a lot of blogs to browse!  Some are older and haven’t been updated in awhile.  Once in awhile I will notice someone on a forum or blog saying “Help!  I’m switching to middle school! Any good ideas?”  I thought it would be more useful to have the … Read more… →

15 Spirit Week Ideas for School

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15 Spirit Week Ideas for School

So, you’re in charge of Spirit Week!  Do you need some good ideas? (See how I used a photo with the kids’ faces obscured?  Don’t use pictures where the kids are identifiable unless you have permission from the parents or school.  This photo was on our public school website so I grabbed it from there.)   Be sure to check out my newer post “10 More Spirit Day Ideas for Scho0l”.   Spirit Days can be fun scattered throughout the … Read more… →

Featuring Magazine.. new issue is almost here!

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Hi!  Happy Summer! When I am not teaching art to little kiddos, I spend some of my free time writing articles and submitting them to various magazines.  I am a contributing editor for Featuring magazine, which is a relatively new international art magazine.  I am so proud of our magazine and I wanted to share our latest issue with you. Wowza, Issue #4 is almost here!  We’ve been working really hard on this issue and even though we’ve had many … Read more… →

Summer Time Plans

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Summer Time Plans

Phew.  I can’t believe another school year is over.  I was just thinking yesterday that it was crazy that I have been teaching for 11 1/2 years already.  I’ve been at my current school for 7 years!  Don’t the years all start to blur together?  When you try to remember classes you had years ago the memories are fuzzy.  It’s amazing how every year there is more to learn and new things to try. The yearbooks finally came in, the … Read more… →

2nd Grade Oil Pastel Landscapes

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This oil pastel drawing project is inspired by the artwork of Paul Gauguin, in particular his painting Tahitian Landscape. To build up a little enthusiasm, when the kids arrived to class there was an envelope at their seat.  I told them to open the envelope and see what was inside.  I had printed off pictures of Tahitian Landscape, laminated them and then cut them into puzzle pieces.  The kids worked quickly to put together the puzzles.  Then, I introduced the … Read more… →