Tag: NAEA

Categories
Creativity Spirituality

NAEA Town Hall – Leading with Creativity

leading

Town Hall

The National Art Education Association Town Hall is a monthly panel discussion where educators come together to discuss a topic. Our topic was Leading with Creativity. NAEA and Crayola teamed up for the 75th anniversary of NAEA. They developed Creativity Week in January, and invited 75 teachers from around the world to be Creativity Ambassadors, I was one of the 75. James Wells, Crayola’s Education Manager, was leading the discussion and invited me to participate in the conversation.

Leading

Creativity Panelists

Panelist bios are available here.

  • James Wells, Education Manager, Crayola
  • Lauren E. Burrow, Associate Professor of Education Studies, Stephen F. Austin State University
  • Raine Dawn Valentine, Art Educator, Ridgely Middle School; Adjunct Instructor, Notre Dame of Maryland University
  • Mari Atkinson, Instructor, Shack Art Center; Student Teacher Supervisor, Western Washington University

Here is the recording of the discussion! My part starts at 42:00 <3

Leading with Creativity

When I got the email about the town hall and the topic of discussion I was really excited! Even more so when I received our questions and saw what I was being asked to share. Talking about how creativity is spirituality, is one of the things I am most passionate about. I love leading my live with this mindset. I had so much to say during the town hall but only had a short amount of time! So I decided to write about everything I wanted to say.

Creativity is the use of our imagination, original ideas. Creativity is Spirituality, which is the quality of being concerned with the human spirit… which is the seat of our emotions and character. Our emotions are a natural instinctive state of mind deriving from one’s circumstances, mood or relationships with others.

Leading with Spirituality

Art making is inherently spiritual. Art is the expression or application of human creative skill or imagination. To express is to convey a thought or feeling and make them know. We express ourselves through relationships with others, nature and the divine… connecting through sharing, reflecting and celebrating.

Creating is the means by which I form my identity and self. Through self reflection, self awareness and self actualization, I create and live. My art practice is a way of seeing, understanding and conveying what I see, feel and hope for.

I do this through my choice of ritual. Through maintaining a life if intention. Choosing my daily ritual for the highest good, then celebrating the rewards the commitment and intention will bring. Actions Rewards Truth. A.R.T.

In the teachings of the Annishinabe creativity plays a huge part in the role of original man. Waynaboozhoo was lowered to the earth and give the responsibility to name all the things. He was building relationships with all things, and learning how to see himself through different perspectives. He learned to create a canoe from the beaver, and learned to swim from the fish. He also learned about the beauty in creation and destruction, and about life and death. Through his observations with the world, and his ability to creatively live, Waynaboozhoo survived and learned many things.

He lived life creatively, to recognize every moment as a moment to reflect and form our identities which are ever changing and forming. It is our job to live creatively, and find ways as humans to keep creating a life we desire. Creativity looks like exploring, experimenting, questioning, expressing and reflecting. Laughter, learning, and love. Where we remember we are all connected. That our places in this life are just a valuable and necessary as the next.

When we start to live creatively we stop from living out of fear. I start turning the fear energy into trust and knowing. We start to allow ourselves to be vulnerable with each other, and to open up and share. When we share with each other we remember how connected we are.

LIVE CREATIVELY. REMEMBER WE ARE ALL CONNECTED.

Categories
Art Class

Crayola Creativity Ambassador

What is a Crayola Creativity Ambassador?

To celebrate the 75th anniversary, 75 NAEA members were selected for the opportunity to be early adopters of the January 2023 Crayola Creativity Week while participating in special leadership team-building experiences in preparation of the nationwide Creativity Week celebration.

The National Art Education Association (NAEA) and Crayola Education partnered to offer the NAEA–Crayola Creativity Ambassadors Program, providing visual arts education professionals with professional learning, resources, and support to cultivate Creative Leadership Teams within their learning communities.

75 Educators from around the world were selected to participate in this program! We have been meeting virtually to learn new things about leading our communities in Creativity week in 2023!

Creativity Week

Creativity week is January 23rd- 29th 2023. There are so many perks for signing up which you can do HERE!

Free Creative Learning Resources!

Everyone who signs up will get FREE video activities and downloadable Thinking Sheets.* And the best part? It isn’t limited to just 7 days. Every educator will have free access to digital resources for cross-curricular creative learning fun all year long!

Giveaways!

With giveaways, challenges from celebrity creators, and virtual classroom visits, it’s a celebration the whole school will want to be a part of!

Create Connections!

Share students’ ideas, projects, and work in a secure online gallery, and connect with creative classrooms around the country during the live Celebration Assembly event.

Creativity Schedule

There is a fantastic lineup of creatives that will be sharing their stories, inspiring us to get creative!

Crayola Creativity Ambassador
Categories
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!

Categories
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.

Categories
Divine I Am Earth Existence Green Lifestyle Most Popular

Steady

Steady moving along… through the raging storm.

My trip to Minneapolis for the NAEA conference has been halted.  BCPS has restricted all out of state school field trips and work related PD for teachers due to the coronavirus.  This means I can not attend the conference. I am beyond bummed.

I look forward to this conference every year; Seeing old friends and making new friends… learning new things to bring back to my classroom and feeling invigorated with a new spark to share my passion of art… and traveling to new cities, spending time there learning about their history and visiting their museums.

My heart is a little broken today, I’m not gonna lie. When I got the message last night from our Superintendent I wasn’t surprised, but it didn’t really hit me until this morning. Things have reached my reality… and are shifting around me.

I have so many thoughts on these shifts. I could go on and on about what I think and how weird this all is… and part of me wants to, but also I do not want to debate or discuss what it could be or what should be. Neither of those things is proactive from the perspective that most of the time we allow ourselves to get carried away in those thoughts and lose sight of our own power.

So the most important thought I want to share is…

Keep your vibration up, and your self centered.

Use this time and energy to focus in on what you truly want in your life, and what you hold on to that no longer serves you. Use this time to detox and break free from the attachments you’ve made that are only holding you back. Spend your alone time, breathing deeply in and out. Teach your children the importance of sacred time, and self care. We are well when we are balanced in our ways. Spend time with mother earth, letting nature heal you and bring you back to center.

Keep moving forward… Steady now… there is something great coming. This is the calm before the storm, which will eventually produce the largest rainbow you’ve ever seen. <3

 

Categories
Art Divine I Am Earth Education Existence Green Lifestyle Intuitive Henna Most Popular Spirituality

2019

This year has been so abundant.

So much packed into one year.

The beginning of 2019 started off with learning more about the local connections with environmental organizations on my area, experiencing my first Maryland Association of Outdoor and Environmental Education conference, and recertifying my school as a Maryland Green school! We also were awarded two grants for environmental education projects! I also took the green club on a field trip to Sandy Point state park for a green school celebration! One of the best field trips ever.

 

In March I attended the National Art Education Association convention in Boston. I visited and fell in love with two new museums, the Isabella Gardner Museum and MFA. I learned the importance of networking and sharing who I am with others and found my place with the Caucus on the Spiritual in Art Education.

 

The spring was busy with my student teacher from Towson, who accepted a job this year! We also had our schools annual Arts in Action event!

 

Summer came and my intuitive henna took off. Sharing my gifts with many, some even had their designs become a permanent part of their lives.

 

I painted “en plein air,” at Cromwell Valley park with BCPS teachers.  It was such an awesome experience, and I am so looking forward to it again this coming summer.

I also attended an AVID one day intensive training, where I learned a lot about different ways to teach students, that I have been using this year! I am excited to say that I was asked to attend the week long training this summer 2020.

Working for St. Paul’s summer camp this year was a new experience… all camps combined, in a new location. It was a wonderful summer with amazing coworkers and campers! Visiting Irvine Nature Center and the Senator Theater were some of my highlights!

Then August came… with a bang. Breaking my wrist 2 weeks before school started for the new year. This was by far one of the most testing time for me. Testing my faith and trust that I have the power within to heal and come back stronger than before. Testing my sense of self…. am I my right hand? As an artist I began asking myself, does my identity come from my hands? Can I create even if my hands don’ work the same as they always have? This was a powerful time for a deep dive within.

I healed faster than the doctors have seen from a 30 year old. The whole process from break to out of cast took 6 weeks, and the doctor was so surprised at the amount of healing that occurred. My mobility was about 90% back to normal! I attribute my healing to my mindset, words and movement. I constantly used healing words over broken words. I visualized my wrist healing and strengthening. I stretched and stretched, and slowly got back into yoga, and stretched and stretched.

My 12th year of teaching began and I became an adjunct professor at Notre Dame of Maryland University, teaching Methods in Secondary Art Education. This was a huge milestone for me and my own self awareness. I love sharing my passion for teaching and art, especially with other passionate teachers. It was such a blessing to teach this course.

The workload for 2019 was intense, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. So much growth. Like a seedling, breaking through the concrete. Learning when to rest and when to reach. Realizing the activeness of balance. Balance in work, life, love, relationships, creating and resting. The balance of self care and self growth.

2019 was an abundant, and it was beautiful to watch the balance unfold.

Thank you to everyone who shared in this past year with me. I am forever grateful for you. <3  Excited and open to receiving all that this new year has in store.

Migwetch and Gizagiin

Raine Dawn

Categories
Art Art Class Earth Education Existence Most Popular

NAEA 2019 Boston

National Art Education Association held this years convention in Boston. A place I had not yet visited as an adult, but was excited to have the opportunity to experience.

20190313_100807

I arrived at the BWI airport at 5am on Wednesday, and was in Boston by 8am. When I arrived it was a little chilly, but it felt like Maryland weather. I caught the Logan Express  to the Sheraton hotel in Back Bay.  After checking in I decided to take a walk to the Isabella Gardner Museum.

This museum quickly became one of my most favorite. The detail that went into the collection and the curation of the art, was in itself an art.

After the Gardner Museum, I went to the Museum of Fine Arts which was open until 10pm on Wednesdays!  The museum was just the right size… with art from many different cultures, and a Frida Kahlo exhibit. I enjoyed myself so much I walked about 10 miles that day!

The convention was fantastic, so many great presentations. I went to one about the role of Art Educators of students with Trauma. The women who were presenting wrote a book called Art for Children Experiencing Psychological Trauma. I am reading it and so far it is fantastic! So informational about the different types and effects of trauma. This is so relevant for the generations of today, who have experienced many school related as well as home related traumas.  I know art is life, so it must assist in releasing traumas and helping people move forward to create a life they wish.

Another great session  I went to was Soul Collage. This was a wonderful workshop to create cards that represent certain emotions you want to portray.  This cards can later be used to pull from as inspiration.

The exhibit hall was wonderful as always! Many make and take art stations as well as wonderful posters and opportunities to get students involved in different types of art. I also received a load of new art materials to experiment with!

I saw a session by … which was about turning science into art through basket weaving and music compositions! The correlation between data and art is so intriguing.

I also got to see Howard Gardner and Amy Sherald! Both were fantastic speakers and so inspirational!

Howard Gardner discussed the Studio Habits of Mind, along with Grit Vs. Wit and how important it was to know thyself, engage and care for others, and be aligned with your ethical compass.

While Amy Sherald talked about her inspiration for painting, and how her life has influenced her work. She speaks of photography as “Artistic DNA.”  My favorite quote from her was that portraits were more important in shaping our future than law making. This made so much sense to me and should really connect with these times.

This years convention was so fulfilling and definitely one of my top 5! I met a lot of new people and got to see some old friends!

This was a convention to remember, so many experiences and so much love. Thanks for another great year NAEA! See you next year in Minneapolis!

<3

Categories
Art Art Class Existence Most Popular

NAEA in NYC

This year I attended the 2017 National Art Educators Association Convention in New York City. I have attended this convention more than a few times and every single year is amazing. Not only do I take home lots of art goodies, I take home new ideas and inspiration for my teaching.

Aside from attending a fabulous convention, I am blessed with opportunities to visit different cities and make friends with people from all over the world! There are so many benefits from attending the NAEA convention!

 

There are always awesome pre-conference workshops to attend, so I arrived a day before the convention started to attend the Journal Fodder Junkies workshop! Eric Scott and Dave Modler are two very talented art educators and wonderful people. I really enjoy seeing them every year, and following their artistic journeys! This workshop was a great opportunity to explore materials and learn new techniques for journaling.

 

I was blessed to stay at the Warwick hotel with a few of my colleagues and other amazing art educators! We had such a fantastic time learning and exploring NYC! My dear friend Linda made us beautiful friendship bracelets and took us on a perfect tour around the city. It was Saint Patrick’s day weekend so we ate lunch at an Irish pub called the Pig and Whistle. It was delicious!

 

I was able to be a vendor at the Artisan Gallery this year. There were many amazing artists selling their works! Its so awesome seeing art educators with their creations, very inspiring.

 

There were 7,000 attendees this year at the convention, the most ever! The exhibit hall was packed! This year, the hall was divided into three sections which I feel made it a lot easier to navigate around all of the people! There were wonderful make and take learning stations and many new art supplies to experiment with… and a few famous people I had to take photos with ..

 

The middle school round table session was one of my favorite sessions. We were able to see 7 different art educators and learn about their favorite art unit and receive resources.

 

My most favorite part of the weekend was the Caucus on the Spiritual in Art Education Issues Group studio event with Peter London. This was EXACTLY what I needed. The whole weekend was not only a great professional experience, but it was also very spiritual and eye-opening for me on a professional and personal level. The session was a hands on experience that allowed the participants to open up and see art education from a more holistic perspective.

the work on the left was how I was feeling in that moment, and the work on the right displayed the best I hoped for the future.
Peter London discussing how we see people from their appearances, but when we see people from their art we are getting a truer sense of them.

 

The last night I was able to meet up with friends I made back in New Orleans in 2015, when I attended my first #K12ArtChat on twitter! I simply love these beautiful souls, Matt and Laura Grundler. If you are on Twitter, you should check them out!

All of this was packed into a 4 day weekend, full of learning, growing and building lasting relationships with amazingly talented artists.

 

To all of my old friends and new, thank you for being you
<3 Raine Dawn

Categories
Art Class Most Popular

7 Deadly Sins: Mixed Media

Michael Bell and David Modler presented a hands on workshop at the NAEA convention in Chicago that was the highlight of my convention experience.

The workshop began with each participant in a group of 4, there were 7 groups…this would work perfectly for any classroom.  Each group received a laminated card with one of the seven deadly sins. We were asked to keep the word a secret from the other groups, as we would be guessing at the end who had which word.

To begin we were asked to brainstorm anything that came to mind when we thought of this word…this would help us start to feel the word which made it easier to visually represent the word. The group I was in had the word Greed.

Once we had finished brainstorming, each of the group members took turns making marks while being blindfolded for 3 minutes. The first two people used vine charcoal and only made geometric shapes, while the third person was able to choose any material they wanted while making lines, and the fourth person created texture with any material of their choice.

After we each blindly made marks to express our word, we discussed what we wanted to do with what we had to make it feel and look more like greed. We started brainstorming the symbolism of our lines shapes and colors, and began adding more definition to our design. Each group member had a minute without being blindfolded to add to the work what they felt showed our word. We then began to work together to finalize our piece…

The results of each group were truly unique and individual but each group really captured the energy of their word. I knew quickly this was something I had to try with my students!

When I returned to school on Monday, I had revised the activity to be age appropriate for middle school students and instead of using the 7 deadly sins, we represented the emotions Love, Happiness, Peace, Excitement, Anger, Hate, and Loneliness.

My students did an AMAZING job visually representing each word, and they all enjoyed themselves. A few students in each class asked if we could do it again! Not only were they able to show each emotion using only colors, lines and shapes…they were also able to talk about how it represented their word!

This would be a fun activity to do with teachers as well, perhaps for a professional development activity. Teachers could use the 21st century learning skills as their prompt.

Collaborating to create one piece of art could sometimes be seen as a challenge, one person might have a hard time letting go of their concepts and ideas. Blindfolding each group member worked to help everyone let go of their expectations and to be in the moment, while taking turns created a space for change. Spontaneity helps a person to let go and be present in the now.   This was a perfect example of a theme directed intuitive art making process.

<3 Thank you Michael and David!

 

Categories
Art Class Existence Most Popular

LEAD! #NAEA16

The National Art Education Association held its annual art convention in Chicago this year! A big change from last year’s convention in New Orleans.

The convention asked us to Lead, and Share our vision for Art Education. This was a powerful convention, full of STEAM, Arts Integration and Holistic learning. We proclaimed our importance as Art Educators to the universe with Jean Houston. She was truly the most inspirational speaker I’ve had the honor of hearing. I see her vision clearly, and she is a wonderful model for creating a shift in our world.

Each session I attended was jam packed! It was great having the NAEA app to keep my schedule organized and to see resources the presenters shared.  Such a 21st century way of communicating and sharing.

At the artisan gallery I sold my dreamcatchers and some quote paintings. It was a wonderful evening meeting art educators from around the world! One of my dream catchers is living in Panama now!

Laura and Matt Grundler at #K12ArtChat and Susan Reily, who is a HUGE arts integration advocate,at EdCloset hosted a wonderful twitter meetup! It was wonderful seeing and meeting everyone I twitter chat with in real life:

Nic Hahn … the energy behind MiniMatisse
Tim Needles…Vine and Art Educator guru
Chris Sweeney… master of the MakeyMakey
Joy Shultz… an amazing teaching artist who uses choice based learning
Cassie Stephens… Art educator fashionista blogger

On Saturday I attended a hands on art workshop presented by Michael Bell and David Modler, of the Journal Junkies, The 7 Deadly Sins: Mixed Media Collaboration. All I can say is, amazing. It was by far the best workshop I’ve ever attended at a convention. I really enjoyed how Michael and David’s energy flowed and interacted with the participants! It was interactive and engaging… If you ever get the chance to attend a workshop or session by either of these teaching artists, I would definitely recommend attending.

I have been honored to represent our school at the National Art Education Association Convention for 3 years now, and every year it is an amazing learning and networking experience.

 

<3 Thank you everyone for such great resources, ideas, memories and friendship!