The 2015 MAEA conference was definitely a nice experience for me. When I arrived at Centennial High School, in Ellicott City, I was happy that there was plenty of parking available because there were a LOT of teachers attending the conference. Teaching artists lined the halls with their own personal art for sale, and there were a decent amount if businesses with information and free gifts.
Julia McTighe was one of the teachers vending her creations. She makes the most unique and fun earrings, necklaces and bracelets. Along with hairpins other great art! Her shop is called A Marvelous Spark, and she is definitely that! You can follow her shop on Instagram. Julia is an art educator for Baltimore County Public Schools.
Dick Blick had a nice pencil case that included a small sketchbook, a tube of paint, and coupon for 20% off of orders of $49 or more, and free shipping. Sargent Art had a gift pack of acrylic and tempera paint samples, Sculpt-it! clay, a pencil, and lesson plans. Sax school art supplies had a small pencil case with Crayola construction paper crayon sample, a colored pencil, metalic Sharpie, Prang classic marker, and Faber-Castell gel stick sample.
There were a few schools vending like Virgina Tech, Community College of Baltimore County Catonsville, and The Art Institutes. The programs at CCBC Catonsville look fantastic! I took a lot of my art classes at Harford Community College and my teachers were also professors at MICA and Towson. My years at HCC were definitely valuable, and I learned a lot from the professors.
Art with a heart had a table, as well as The Phillips Collection, Walters Art Museum, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. The Phillips collection had a great lesson for Arts Integration called Prism.K12. It is awesome! Check it out for resources for arts integrated lessons!
The keynote speaker was Cindy Foley, an art educator who started changing the minds of people everywhere about what art education actually is… Teaching thinking. She works at the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio. Cindy spoke on TED talks about the importance of teaching students thinking. Her vision lined up nicely with the CEEQER model!
