Teaching Acrylic Painting to beginners. Always daunting (for me anyway) at the start. Essential Questions started to flow: How do I distribute supplies? What supplies do I even use? What brand of paint? Brushes? Storage? Chaos-free clean environment? And these are just a few questions. It has been at least five years since I taught Foundations Art 1. We call it Visual Arts Beginning. This year I got the privilege to teach it once again. I had 36 kids in the class. In a room that comfortably houses 28. A chaos-free clean painting environment was a must. When I had Art 1 in previous years, I tau ..read more

“Can everyone learn how to draw?” My answer is a resounding YES. Anybody. Anywhere. Anytime. But how? With 36 plus kids in a class of all skill levels, how do I get everyone to be successful at drawing? Most Importantly: Dispel the myth that only certain people can draw. You know, only the talented people. (Pssst. Spoiler alert. Not true.) Here’s how you do it. Break it down. Slow it down. Scaffold the skills. Keep it small. Keep the deadlines tight. Explain the WHY behind the process for each skill and WHY that skill is important. Presto. Everyone learns how to draw really well. I promise, it ..read more

Productivity. Stamina. Motivation. Problem: How do we keep the daily productivity sky high in the art room? How do we keep the quality of work at or above excellent? How do we keep the kids motivated? Day in. Day out. This has to be (in my humble opinion) the biggest challenge for any art teacher at any grade level. We fight constantly against the forces of evil - class interruptions, chatting, tiktok, bathroom breaks, hormones, I could go on and on (I’m sure you could too). Solution: The goal of this blog has always been to help teachers achieve a productive environment with an attitude of ex ..read more

Here we are. The end of the school year and it's time for an Art Show. Covid killed the art show for sure. (reminds me of “Video Killed the Radio Star” - this will only truly resonate with my early MTV people). Well, it killed the in person art show, anyway. 2020 was the year of virtual art shows.I have seen some brilliant ideas out there for getting kids’ work seen virtually. (check out my friend Glitter Meets Glue for fabulous virtual show templates - HERE). This post will be dedicated to preparing for and hosting an in person show in gallery space. If you are in the early stages of teaching ..read more

I’m starting to see a theme…skills...confidence...success... This post focuses on successfully teaching one of my all time favorite mediums - Colored Pencil - on a scaffolded model. Listen people, at the end of the day I just want all my students to discover untapped skill and talent they never knew they had. Even if I only see them for 18 weeks and never again, they've seen a personal victory in my class. This personal victory is one of my favorites...mastering Colored Pencil. Every time I sit down to type a new blog post I come back to the same recurring Essential Questions - (for all my fel ..read more

Build skills. Build confidence. Build an atmosphere of excellence. Build an unstoppable art program filled with amazingly confident artists. Artists who are willing to tackle anything you set before them. The scaffolded approach to teaching drawing in my classroom plays out in this order: Visual Autobiography Line Drawing Drawing with shapes Drawing using Negative Space Drawing using Value Drawing using Reverse Value (a.k.a. High Contrast Drawing) Drawing using Color And that’s it. 18 weeks of skill and confidence building that cements a shared attitude of excellence in the art room. Today w ..read more

At the forefront of every teaching experience. Student Behavior. How do we cultivate a classroom atmosphere where good behavior is a given? A guaranteed constant where every day we walk in and the students are ready to work hard and treat us and everyone in the room with kindness, support and encouragement. Sound like Utopia? It’s not. It can easily be your reality every single day. I'm no Behavioral Specialist, but one thing I do know for sure is how to create and cultivate an attitude of productivity, commitment and excellence in a classroom full of kids. There are several methods and mantra ..read more

We’ve all been there. The contour line drawings are SO good. The proportions are spot on. The perspective is on point. The student confidence is soaring. Then the shading begins. Pencils are moving frantically all over the room. Students are shading like the ship is going down. And for some of us it’s a big ship - 35 plus students and only one of us. As we walk around the room we see a variety of scenarios. Pencil strokes that are so heavy they nearly cut through the paper. Blending that is harsh and so frantic with no chance of ever being burnished. Values that are too light, values that are ..read more

Somebody call 9-1-1. Hold the phone. It's not an emergency. But it is a breakdown. This post is devoted to teaching acrylic painting successfully at the middle or high school level. On a scaffolded approach - with great results for all students. I will get to the particulars in a bit, but let’s start with the basic questions. The things we as artists and art teachers already know but the kids - not necessarily... ,How fast does this stuff dry? ,How do I decide which brush is best? ,How do I clean the brush? (Clean...not just rinse LOL) ,How do I load the paint on the brush? ,How do I move the ..read more

Alright now we’re gettin’ down to it….Value. Graphite pencil shading techniques. Realistic drawing. So much fun to teach and so much fun to watch students learn - the foundation of student confidence in the art room. If you’ve been reading my blogs or following my Instagram (@mrs_tfox) you may have noticed a theme. My teaching style focuses a LOT on skill building and my approach is deliberately scaffolded to allow for mastery in all students all the time. Excellence in the art room...my personal mantra. When it comes to Art Curriculum in general, there are a ton of philosophies on what to tea ..read more