Tag: Art Education

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Education Art

Connected Arts Network 2022

In March I applied for a Connected Arts Network (CAN) Teacher Leader position, and was accepted into the program. I will be part of a virtual, nationwide Professional Learning Community (PLC). Over the course of five years, I will learn and collaborate with other visual arts educators, gaining resources to positively impact your students.

Arts educators are expected to increase their self-efficacy in and use of practices that incorporate equity, diversity, and inclusion; social-emotional learning; and leadership in their standards-based arts instruction. For students, this will lead to improvement in their expression of their identities, cultural backgrounds, and beliefs; understanding of their peers’ artworks and processes; and knowledge of the societal, historical, and cultural context of artworks.

Connected Arts Networks

What is CAN?

CAN stands for Connected Arts Network.

The National Art Education Association (NAEA), in partnership with the Educational Theater Association (EdTA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) is launching Connected Arts Networks (CAN), a five-year grant initiative to create nationwide virtual Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) with educators in visual arts, music, theater, dance and media arts. The overarching vision for CAN is to build a sustainable model of professional learning for arts educators to strengthen their pedagogy, instruction and leadership skills in order to better serve students. This project is modeled after the successful structure of the PLC program in New York City, initiated by the Office of Arts and Special Projects (OASP), another partnering organization.

https://www.arteducators.org/news/articles/839-connected-arts-networks

As a Teacher Leader I will receive specialized virtual training to build my capacity to address Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion and Social-Emotional Learning within arts education. After year two, I will facilitate my own virtual PLC of arts educators of my same art discipline and student grade levels.

I am very excited about this opportunity and feel this is the beginning to something big.

Overall goals of the project

  • To develop highly effective arts educators, building their capacity to address ED&I and SEL in their standards-based arts instruction through sustained, intensive, and job-embedded blended professional learning.
  • To develop a local and national cadre of Teacher Leaders in the arts by building their content knowledge and leadership skills in order to expand the impact of arts learning for students and their communities.
  • To develop accessible arts-based instructional materials, strategies, and toolkits to disseminate to arts educators nationwide, including synchronous and asynchronous professional development programs and digital resources.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

  • Diversity is where everyone is invited to the art studio
  • Inclusion means that everyone gets to contribute to the artwork
  • Equity means that everyone has the opportunity to explore

These there aspects of the human journey are great to consider when collaborating and co-creating. To me they are no brainers, to create a world we all desire… we must encourage all people to find their self expression and support their journey to that the best way we can. For the Connected Arts Network teachers, we will be supporting through resources, workshops and sharing our stories.

Social Emotional Learning

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success.

Creativity is the number one way to assist in developing self-awareness and self-actualization. Interpersonal skills are developed through creative expression as well. When a person shares their stories with another, they are learning about themselves through a new perspective while teaching the other person something new as well.

We are all Connected

I am so excited to be apart of the Connected Arts Network, and to be able to have a platform to share my stories, ideas and experiences so that others might come to a place where they feel safe to fully express themselves.

So far we have had one meeting with each arts network: Visual Arts, Music, Dance and Theater. It was so inspiring to be with such amazing art educators!

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Art Education Spirituality

CSAE 2021 Chair-Elect

CSAE stands for the Caucus on the Spiritual in Art Education, and is a group of individuals that come together to support the connection between spirituality and art.

The Caucus on the Spiritual in Art Education (CSAE) seeks to:
• Study the relationships between the spiritual, the visual arts and art education in ways that advance pedagogy, research, scholarship, museum and artistic practices related to the spiritual in art education at all levels of practice and in diverse teaching and learning contexts.
• Embrace the study of inclusive and diverse content, images and ideas related to the spiritual within contemporary and historical multicultural art and visual culture and a holistic art education paradigm.
• Develop and nurture a community of art education professionals committed to advancing the understanding and application of the spiritual in diverse art education contexts.

CSAE Chairs

I was recently voted as Chair Elect for CSAE, which means I will serve as Chair from 2022-2024. I will follow an group of amazing leaders.

Peter London was a Co-Founder for the caucus back in 2008.

CSAE

Peter London is an artist, master teacher, art therapist, international lecturer, and author of many texts on art, spirit, and nature, including No More Secondhand Art and Drawing Closer to Nature. He has offered his holistic approach to teaching art to thousands of students of all ages, from “art phobics” to professional artists in museums, colleges, art centers, and centers for holistic studies. He is Chancellor Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the National Art Education Association. 

His book No More Secondhand Art was an inspiration for me when I transformed my project based classroom into a studio based classroom. I was introduced to the book when I attended a Summer Teacher Institute at MICA back in 2009. We were asked to create a tree that symbolized our life and our journey. It was a powerful exercise in visualizing parts of self.

Peters work with art and spirituality has been inspiring to me, and I am so honored to be building off of what he helped to start!

I have had to pleasure to meet and work with three other former chairs, Patricia Rain Gianneschi, Nancy Brady and Sheri Klein. I am so grateful for such a wonderful team of people to work with on bringing more light to the spiritual in art education!

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Art Class Education

Art Expo 2019

One of my favorite art lessons to do with my 8th grade is the Art Expo!

Art Expo Lesson Plan

For this lesson I began by talking to the students about art supply businesses and the NAEA convention!

We observed videos I took during the NAEA expo hall experience, discussed what it means to be a vendor, and created theatrical characters that students performed as in the final day of the unit!

Students loved researching and becoming the expert of materials, and then sharing what they learned through acting and presenting! We invited other teachers, administration and parents to our final Art expo day.

Character Development

Each student was tasked with creating a character that was an expert on an art material. Students completed a character development worksheet, that identified their characters name, birthday, education, and work experience with the art material.

Art Expo

Art Materials

The first year I did this with my gifted and talented students and I allowed them to select which materials they wanted from a list of materials I premade. I did not want students to use things like colored pencils and markers since they have so much experience with them already. When I retaught this lesson to my academic art class, I allowed them to choose more typical art supplies.

Vending Tables

Students had to create a table set up that included history, techniques, and types of the material. They also had to show 2 examples of art using the material, and have a 5 minute activity that visitors could do to explore the materials.

The students LOVED this project, and so did the Admin! Its student centered to the core.

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Art Class Education

Together Again

It has begun! Students and teachers are together again! I have missed my students a lot. Seeing them in the classroom, creating and smiling. Its been too long since we had this type of interaction. There is nothing like creating art together with other people.

Over the past year I have taught students art virtually. In doing so, I have learned so much about myself, teaching, and digital space. Learning what I love and what I can let go of. Seeing what I have to offer my students, even without being in their presence. Realizing that our energies can still influence each other, even if we are miles apart.

Now that we are together again

I missed seeing my classroom full of students creating. Walking in to my classroom filled me with anticipation!

We can create as a community. We get to gather and share. We get to feel that energy flowing through the classroom. Even though we are missing a few of our fellow artists in person, we have been able to nicely integrate both in person and digital work space!

Together Again

RMS Together Again

Our PTA is the best ever, I just have to give them a huge shout out. They are so supportive of the teachers at Ridgely, and always go beyond to show us how much!

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6th Grade Early Entry

Today we had 6th grade early entry for new students to our school. Since I teach art, we have two groups of students… A day and B day students. Today we met with the A day students for 15 mins on google meets for a team building activity!

Usually in normal circumstances, I would have students come in and paint their hands and stamp them on a canvas for our class mural.

We talk about making our mark, and expressing ourselves as artists. I ask them to think of a symbol or design that would represent who they are. We discussed collaboration and how we come together to make a masterpiece. Each one of us an important part of the whole.

Since we aren’t in school… I wanted to create this same experience in the virtual world. One tool I learned about this week in our professional development meetings, was Jamboard!

Jamboard is a google app that allows people to collaborate in order to create. There are different tools, such as marker, pen, paintbrush, and highlighter. Sticky notes are great for adding text.

So students got to work on their digital class mural, making their mark and expressing themselves in the digital world.

  • 6th grade

It was so amazing watching the mural to unfold! Seeing the students mark making in the moment and how everyone was working on their own ideas and at the same time we were all working together!

This was a great team building activity, and I we had a final piece of art after 15 mins!

I am looking forward to doing this with the rest of my students.

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Art Art Class Education Most Popular

Maryland Art Summit

I am so honored and proud to be apart of this years Maryland Art Summit as an ambassador and a creative co-host!

This year’s 2nd Annual Maryland Arts Summit is going VIRTUAL! The Summit is full of  presenters with years of experience in the field.

This 4 DAY EVENT will feature everyone from Independent Artists to Arts Organization’s Executive Directors to Advocates of the community. With so much information in one space, it would be a shame to miss out.

Did I mention that it’s FREE?! That’s right FREE! Head over to mdarts.org/summit to register for this amazing event.

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Remote Education

Wow. Yesterday was tiring.

Between doing my own work, and getting Landyn and Element to do their work…. whoa. Element was more interested in the magic she found from dangling her pen from a strand of hair, then creating a word math problem. We took a few breaks, made rice crispy treats! Their work is to complete online packets, sent by their teachers through Google classroom. They go to school in SYCSD in Pennsylvania. It’s interesting to see the different between the two school systems approaches. I had to stop and take some deep breaths a few times.

Overall, the professional development BCPS created for us was easy enough. There were a few things I had to figure out on my own that could’ve been described better, however it wasn’t that difficult just a little time consuming.

The county has created a streamlined remote learning template for all BCPS teachers to use on their class pages. We were asked to put all of our previous materials in a folder labeled “Previous Q1 Q2 Q3”, and then create a few new pages and folders to reflect the BCPS default layout. Once those folders and pages were created in one class, I was able to easily copy each of them to my 9 other courses. There’s a weird glitch in Schoology when I try to copy folders to all of my other courses at once, some of the courses don’t receive the folder so I have to go in and copy it again individually.

All of my classes have been set up to the default template, and I am awaiting our art teacher meeting on Wednesday so I can see what lessons we have available to upload. The Visual Arts office and a team of awesome art educators have created lessons for us to use, so if we do not have the ability to create our own we do not have to. What’s nice is that we have the ability to alter or create our own if we want to!

I just finished setting up and creating my first Google Meet so that I can meet with my students!! I am so excited to see them, I’m going to send out an email to all of them to see if they want to meet up to say hi!!

I have to say this morning was a lot smoother than yesterday.

At 1pm today we had our first virtual faculty meeting! We used Microsoft teams. It was a good meeting, learned a lot about the expectations we have as teachers…

wp-1585685530518757477118472494855.jpg

  • Upload 2 mini-lessons by 8am on Monday morning, with a due date set for that Friday by midnight. Each lesson should be about 20-25 mins in length,
  • Have a live virtual meetup for 30 mins with each class… I will only be teaching my students on Thursday and Friday mornings between 9-11:30.
  • Maintain 2 hrs per day of office hours for student and parent questions and concerns.
  • Provide students with feedback at least once a week.

This all feels a little better now that I know the expectations!

Happy day 2!

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Glenstone Museum

The Maryland Art Education Conference this year was split into a two day conference, with Friday being a field experience day at different museums around the area and Saturday being conference workshops!

On Friday I attended the Glenstone Museum for my field experience.  This was my first time at the museum and I was blown away. I have been to many museums from Seattle to Boston, and Glenstone is by far the most unique experience I have had a museum.

Glenstone is a private museum, owned by Emily & Mitch Rales.

We envision Glenstone not only as a place, but a state of mind created by the energy of architecture, the power of art, and the restorative qualities of nature. At the core of the museum is a collection of post-World War II art, a very personal project driven by the pursuit of iconic works that have changed the way we think about the art of our time.

Glenstone is open Thursday–Sunday 10 a.m.–5 p.m. with visits scheduled on the half hour until 3:00 p.m., always free admission. They highly recommend reservations, though they do allow you in if there is space available and you have no reservation.

The museum encompasses two buildings, several outdoor sculptures and nearly 300 acres of landscape. To fully experience Glenstone, you should be prepared to spend time outside on foot. There are many beautiful trails to experience.

The artwork inside the gallery is curated in such a way that you are forced to realize you are apart of the experience just as much as the artwork.

Between buildings are many outdoor sculptures, which to me felt like little moments in time that I am put into a different reality. The way the sculptures interact with the environment and myself as a visitor, was really wonderful.

The spiral sculpture and the sound forest were such a dynamic experiences. Words are hard to find to describe the experience.

The food was delicious and locally sourced.

One of my most favorite parts of the museum was visiting the environmental center!

Their Environmental Center is a multi-use maintenance and education facility that offers experiential learning. You can learn about composting, organic landscape management, waste reduction, materials recycling and water conservation—and how to take these practices home with you.

They planted trees, understory vegetation and groundcover flora as part of their reforestation efforts. They plant only native, regionally appropriate species, which require the fewest resources to maintain and provide appropriate food and habitat for local fauna. They use local ponds as well as three new underground cisterns to manage rainfall flow throughout the property and recycle the water for landscaping purposes.

In addition to its water recycling program, Glenstone has committed to restoring the two depleted tributaries of the Potomac River located on the property. In close coordination with Montgomery County, in 2015 they implemented a plan designed to improve water quality, reduce sediment reaching the Potomac, and renew the wildlife habitat for aquatic organisms.

I am definitely planning to visit the museum again! Thank you MAEA for setting up this amazing field experience!

Raine Dawn

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Art Art Class Earth Education Existence Most Popular Revealing Treasures in your Own Backyard

Hampton Art Experience

For the past 6 years the Historic Hampton Inc. non-profit has hosted an art show for any Maryland students and teachers to submit work inspired by Hampton National Historic Park.  It was always a wonderful show, however this year we decided to work with BCPS Visual Arts office to create our first Hampton Art Experience at the historic site.  I took my 8th grade GT students!

Teachers in Baltimore County signed up to bring 20 of their students to the Hampton mansion for a full day art experience.  Students rotated between 2 of the 3 art stations which included:

  • Gardens & Light where students learned about the history of horticulture at Hampton Mansion, and about the properties of light as they created cyanotypes using natural objects located on site.
  • Understanding Architecture where students learned about the history of the architecture and engineering at Hampton Mansion, and were able to work on creating their own mansion, or recreating the Hampton Mansion in a drawing like an architect.
  • Fibers on the Farm where students learned about life on the Farm at Hampton Mansion and used fibers to create artworks that were inspired by Hampton.

My students attended the Understanding Architecture station, lead by architect Anne Boyce and Gretchen Maneval.

and Gardens & Light station, lead by Carroll Cook.

On Saturday, the student work was on display in the orangery for a reception.  Families were able to come and see their students work, as well as take a tour of the Mansion!

This was by far the best art experience and we are looking forward to hosting our second experience next year.

<3

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Spirituality in Art Education

What does spirituality mean?

It is the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things.

Every human possess a certain spirituality in some manner. For all of time, humans have searched for a power grater than themselves. We all have questioned and formulated a belief we had or still have in the soul. Whether is through religion or some sort of life altering experience.

So, as an art educator I naturally ask the question…how do we define spirituality in the context of art education?

Or better yet…how do I explain that the two are intertwined?

We process all of life’s experiences through the mental/spiritual and material/physical. These are the yin and yang that make up existence.

When we are concerned with our soul we go on vision quests, we seek through meditation and prayer, we call to a force outside of our material world, and deep within ourselves. We have always seeked to connect to source, creator, or our definition if God.

Art is, too, this way… deep within us. Since the beginning of time we have used art to record and to express our inner thoughts and visions.

Spirituality in Art Education

When we are concerned with our soul, a beautiful things happens… alignment. We begin to create beautiful things without a second thought. We begin to find our authentic voice, which allows us to best communicate our truth to the world.

This alignment allows for a redefining of the word art… as an expression of ones inner self, rather than only the ability to perform a skill to create something new, such as observational drawing in order to make something look realistic.

*Dive deep into the meaning of words.*

When we leave words at their base definitions, we lose a whole world of possibilities. When we dive deeper into what a word means to us, and pay more attention to the intentions behind our words…we begin to find synergy.

Art and spirituality are one in the same.

As educators we strive to assist our students in knowing themselves better, and teach them how to be creative, curious, and caring citizens. Art and Spirituality are vital parts to the human experience and should be celebrated, explored, and discovered through expressing and creating.

I would love to collaborate with you in expressing and creating a dialogue on the importance of spirituality in art education.

So, how we can assist learners of all ages to tap into their inner self to create and express themselves in whatever life experiences they have. This is the C.E.E.Q.E.R. model.

The C.E.E.Q.E.R. model is a way to use the tools around you to uncover a clearer sense of things. It stands for, Create, Explore, Experiment, Question, Express, Reflect.  These 6 things bring art and science together.

Please leave your questions, comments, or ideas….lets start a conversation!

The best way to find answers is through dialogue, with others or with self.

❤🙏