Avoid Free-For-All Chaos in favor of Deep Dives.​ "Mockingbird" by Emily Uwabor, Acrylic on Canvas, featured at the NCMA in 2024. A portrait of her sister. ​When I say “independent,” I mean student driven but with clear expectations. “Do what you want” is a recipe for shallow explorations and wasted supplies. In a school, I want them to learn something more than using their time to make an image or create a “thing.” It’s important that every exploration we do, guided or independent, meets 3 requirements. ​ 1.They need to learn more about themselves 2.They need to be exposed to the art outsid ..read more

Advice, tips, and cautions for teaching privately. ​While being a public-school teacher I have also taught privately for over 25 years. I have seen requests in Facebook groups asking questions about teaching privately, so I will share my thoughts and advice here.   Your first consideration should be of liability. The USA is a litigious country so you need to keep that in mind when you plan. For example, I DO NOT RECOMMEND giving private lessons where you are the only adult with a child. (Nor do I recommend private lessons to adults.) Even in my own classroom, if I am tutoring a single st ..read more

Researched illustrations of historical figures. Names are an easy way to build in originality and uniqueness. We have done student international name illustrations before HERE, and faculty/staff name HERE. They were a big hit and proudly displayed on staff doors! We have even done entire alphabets HERE, but a name is not quite as overwhelming as 26 letters. However when we ran out of staff, I had students pick from a list of important historical figure names to illustrate. They had to write 10 facts about the person they selected and incorporate what they learned into the imagery of their na ..read more

An exploration of literacy and languages in art "Peace, joy, pancakes" is a German phrase that describes a superficially intact, seemingly peaceful and carefree facade within a society. It is often used to express that one displaces problems rather than solving them I strive to make my culturally-tied lessons authentic because students learn more about themselves and appreciate the diversity around them. For this exploration we reflected in writing on their own cultural backgrounds. Students were assigned homework to speak with their parents about their family history. If a student was adopt ..read more

Exploring hatching, crosshatching, and Stipple through publishing I wanted to have my students learn about stipple and crosshatching in a practical way so I have applied it to an exploration using Zines. We know that these techniques reproduce well as prints. We can even see examples of it on our currency. Zines give us an opportunity to share knowledge and use these techniques and create an 8, 14, or 16-page publication.   Some subjects students were encouraged to explore were: Story Poem Joke Teach Inform Entertain   Though we could explore this at any size, I had tabloid paper ..read more

A literacy connected lesson for art students They say a picture is worth 1000 words, but is 1000 words enough for a picture? Schools across America are struggling with falling literacy rates. Approximately 40% of students across the nation cannot read at a basic level according to the National Literacy Institute. Because of this, schools are looking for ways to incorporate more literacy across the curriculum. My National Board Certification focus was on literacy, and since then every exploration I do in art has a literacy component, and I even wrote The Art & Literacy Workbook ..read more

A new resource to inspire young illustrators!  I have used sketchbooks and have written about them HERE. Sometimes though students get stuck for ideas, or prompts feel forced. If you are looking to incorporate more literacy into your program and enjoy teaching illustration, this series of "Illustrated by Me" books might be just what you're looking for!  Research shows that drawing taps into visual, kinesthetic, and language areas of the brain at the same time, so information is processed more deeply and establishes more connections across the brain's neural network. These classics h ..read more

What do you buy when money falls in your lap? It is rare that we get enough money for all the art supplies we want (or even need). If you are struggling, THIS POST was created for you, but what if money just lands in your lap unexpectedly?   What to buy with a surprising influx of funds? Schools often have to spend EVERYTHING or their budgets are cut for the following year because they did not use it all. I always email our budget person at the end of the year and ask if there is any left-over money they need spent… Usually it’s a no, but sometimes this means a lump of money may fall in ..read more

What can you do while students are engaged in artmaking? What do you do when students are focused and engaged in artmaking?   First, you should pause, soak it in, take a picture even. Remember rare moments like these. Teachers are often “putting out small fires,” keeping students on task and focused.   On a regular basis we are: Monitoring phone use/misuse Monitoring material use/misuse Redirecting distracted students Watching the clock so bathroom passes don’t become free-roaming passes Giving directions… again and again Reminding students to have a proper set-up Giving individual ..read more

Engaging all student from talented to challenged in the same class. Art teacher Amanda asks, “…I have a drawing class of about 15 kids.    About half the class has super high talent.   They turn in great work … the other half works fast, and their work is below average ability level for high school.  Of course, I redirect, ask them to add details, refine etc.   They almost always finish WAY before the other group.  What suggestions do you have?  More practice work for early finishers?”   Though it feels like Amanda is asking for some scaf ..read more