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Thursday, June 18th, 2009
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9:00 pm - deperately seeking student experiences
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its_prurience
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Hello all!
I am applying to grad school for a Masters in Art Education for Fall 2010. So far my list of schools includes Pratt, MICA, and a local Georgia university AASU. I have visited Pratt and MICA.
I want to add a few more schools to my list, but it's been impossible to find info regarding what are good, quality art education programs, so I'm asking you all for advice! Are they any schools you all would reccomend that have a worthwhile two year program? Also, are there any schools I should avoid at all costs? haha
It's really important to me that I get the most out of graduate school, for reasons that I suspect are obvious.
Another thing- when I visited Pratt and MICA, I brought up the money issue. The current students said the program was totally worth the tuition, and I believed them, but I'd still like to hear some other honest opinions. I'm already 100K in debt because of undergrad. Should I really possibly dig myself further into student loan debt to pursue this degree? A lot of people say money doesn't matter and shouldn't hold you back from furthering your education, but reality says there are bills to pay. What say ye all?
current mood: groggy
current music: dark shadows
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(11 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
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10:34 am
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hermiones_twin
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Hello, all!
I'm a new member - I was directed over here from the ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) teaching community.
What I posted there:
I just completed my freshman year of college. I'm an Art major with K-12 licensure. I know it varies from school to school, but at my college, Art Ed is an extremely time-consuming major. However, especially with the economy the way it is, we have had it pounded into our heads that we need to double-major or have a minor or what have you in order to get hired with such a low-demand subject area as art or music or even English.
I'd love to get a history minor and possibly take the exam to get licensed for 6-8 or 9-12 Social Studies (in my state, if you have one education major, like Art Ed, and get licensed from it, then you can simply take the Praxis II and get licensed for another subject). I adore history.
My academic advisor is pushing me to get a Spanish minor and get licensed in ESL.
My Honors English professor from last semester wants me to get a Professional Writing minor.
I've thought about the pros and cons of each. For any of the above minors, I'll have to do summer school for my two remaining summers (It is imperative that I get out in four years because of my scholarship program), which is not included in my tuition, so I'll have to find additional financial aid for that. I'll also have to take an extremely heavy courseload every semester, which might not be such a bad thing - rather that simply having a ton of studio art classes, I could have a writing or Spanish or History class to break it up.
With the history minor, it's extremly time consuming. I'm not sure I could get it done even in the time I have remaining.
With the Spanish minor, it's less time-consuming, but the ESL major focuses a lot on education classes that are corequisites and I don't have room to take four education classes together at a time, so a Spanish minor would likely not help me get an ESL license, and frankly, I don't want to teach ESL.
With the Professional Writing minor, I could likely get it done because a lot of the classes overlap with art or graphic design classes, but honestly, how useful would that be?
I don't know what to do. In North Carolina, teachers are being let go left and right (like everywhere, but still), and since my primary licensure is in a subject that is "low demand", I'm worried. I've considered changing my major, but the only thing I would change it to (history) is also fairly "low demand" since SO many people major in that.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm meeting with my advisor this afternoon.
current mood: confused
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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11:35 am - drawing
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| Monday, May 18th, 2009
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7:05 pm - best project ever!?
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coffeewhore
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After hanging up my section for the District Art Show tonight, I am feeling sort of bittersweet. It's my third year in the district and fourth year teaching so I feel like, while I've grown a lot as a teacher, I still have tons to learn. Mostly, I want to be able to make projects that look really cool in a big art show! I've got some things here and there, but I'm kind of learning by trial and error and I'm the newest art teacher by YEARS so it is sort of noticeable in my opinion when you look at other schools' work compared to mine!
so, I'm asking you guys to help!
Whats the coolest thing you've done this year? What projects did you do that your students loved and learned a lot, but also that looked good to a common art viewer? I teach elementary K-6 but all projects are welcome! Come on and brag a little!! :)
current mood: curious
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(9 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, May 11th, 2009
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7:02 am - Posthumous fame....
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justamy
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Help! I need a list of artists who gained more success after death than in life.
So far I have Van Gogh and Gauguin....I'm still researching but I need the list sooner than later.
Will you help please? Who can you add?
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, April 16th, 2009
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10:24 pm - Survey for my research project!
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alliegee
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Hi fellow art educators! I am seeking art teachers who are willing to do a 15-minute online survey for a research project I'm conducting for my MA in art ed.
The survey will show you an artwork (by a first grade student) and ask you to assess it on a simple rubric. So far, I just have a few participants, and I definitely need more! I would love it if some of you could do the survey. Also - most of my participants are from my local area, so it would be AWESOME to have some teachers from other areas as well. The survey is at the link below:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=H7Wil0AVt_2f8M4Egeyc3ohg_3d_3d
THANK YOU so much! :)
PS: If you fill out the survey, please also email me at gypsyallie at gmail dot com, so that I can privately record your name, # of years teaching, and location.
current mood: hopeful
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(comment on this)
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| Tuesday, March 31st, 2009
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9:21 am
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kindofgirl
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I'm trying to organize a mural to be painted on the wall in our high school. What type of paint would be best? I am planning on using acrylic paint and then I'm going to ask the custodians if they can do some kind of clear coat over the top to protect it. Has anyone else done something like this? Any tips or ideas?
x-posted
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, March 29th, 2009
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10:11 pm - social networking for art teachers!
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5:36 pm - Unmotivated 8th graders.
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ominousspectre
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At this point in the year, I'm probably only going to see each of my 8th grades 9 or 10 more times. They are so unmotivated compared to my other classes that I have no idea what to do with them. A major issue is that these kids have never had an art teacher who spent more than a year working with them - so they really don't know anything about drawing and are still at the stick figure stage. My 7th graders struggle but they at least TRY (and a lot of them have picked up so much in just the few months we've been working together that I'm really proud of them). My 8th grade, on the other hand, has already given up.
I've looked online at lesson plan sites like the Incredible Art Department but everything is either too far out of their league or it's honestly too "corny" for this population. I know that it's too late to stuff 9 years of art instruction into these last few months, so I just want to make the last lessons as painless as possible. As for the kids who want to continue with art, they're starting to come after school for extra help so that I can try my best to prepare them for the high school art curriculum.
If it helps, my two most successful projects with these kids were having them create their own album covers for CDs and their names using block lettering and one point perspective. As of Friday, I introduced a lesson on storyboarding a scene from a prospective movie to one group (the least motivated of the 4 classes) where half of them groaned and moaned the entire time about how much they didn't want to do it. I expect my other groups to be more interested based on their enthusiasm for the album art project (this group was the only group that disliked that project) but any advice on how to spice up this project would also be greatly appreciated.
Also, it might be worth noting that while most of my 8th graders are 13 or 14 a very large portion (maybe 30%) of them are 15 or 16 due to being ELL students who were kept back a few years or put back a few grades when they were younger.
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(21 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, March 20th, 2009
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11:55 am
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| Monday, March 9th, 2009
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8:34 pm - Summer Programs Abroad?
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ominousspectre
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I'm curious to know if anyone has any information about summer internships, artist colonies, courses, or professional development programs abroad for the Summer of 2009 (specifically programs for art educators). I know that in the past I've heard of programs where teachers can even write grants to study abroad, with the idea that they can then bring whatever knowledge they gained back to their students and fellow teachers. I would absolutely LOVE to do something like this with my summer "off", but my google searches aren't yielding many real results - mostly ads for graduate programs or search sites. I'm an OK grant writer, I just can't seem to locate exactly what I'm looking for (although I'm sure many grants have been pulled recently due to the economy).
I've spent nearly every week of the past 3 years, summers included, working with kids and I just don't think I can face another camp job this summer! I'd love to travel, so professional development or not, I'm planning to leave the US this summer. However, it would be nice on my first-year teacher salary to find a way to subsidize the experience.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, February 9th, 2009
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4:53 pm - clay slabs warping
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jasper_su
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howdy!
I'm going to have kindergarten kids make some clay texture tiles by pressing found objects into slabs of clay. I am using old clay that it slightly too dried out for hand building, but that cuts easily enough with my wire tool. The slabs are ending up roughly 7 inch by 7 inch square and they're between a centimeter and half an inch thick.
I did this project a few years ago and I remember that the slabs warped a lot when drying. Is there any tip or trick that would help avoid too much warping as the pieces dry??
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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| Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
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4:53 pm - printmaking without ink?
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jumitheklutz
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Hello! I'm trying to come up with some printmaking activities where access to printmaking materials/facilities is not necessary. The obvious ones I've come up with are monoprinting and some sort of relief printing (possibly scratch board or lino).
My big question is: what kind of paint works well if printmaking ink isn't available? I've found some stuff online about using tempera for monoprints, but I've never tried it myself. Has anyone had success with that? And if so, would it work with reductive monoprinting or only with additive?
I'm really clueless about what would work for relief printing. Would tempera work for that?
any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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4:33 pm - interactive websites
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dotted_swiss
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I'm currently doing my student teaching and I need to do a lesson where the students are using technology. My mentor teacher just finished up a lesson using www.mrpicassohead.com. I was wondering if you knew of any other interactive websites like mrpicassohead that students could use.
thanks.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Thursday, January 22nd, 2009
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6:42 pm - Art ed article
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lady_jessi
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I was wondering if anyone knows of any articles that I can read that talk about the benefits of teaching art to students. I googled it but I couldn't really find anything that I liked.
I know of some like it raises critical thinking skills and things like that, but I want an article to be more sure.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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| Sunday, December 14th, 2008
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5:07 pm - M.Ed's, applying and submitting portfolios.
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ominousspectre
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I'm interested in starting to apply to Art Ed programs in my area. All of them are requiring that I send in a portfolio that displays recent artwork. I've been creating a few pieces here and there over the past year, since graduating but I'm worried that nothing I've created is of a high enough caliber to use for graduate program. In fact, some of my pieces from when I applied for my bachelor's are probably stronger as all of the pieces I've done lately have been in a "just for fun" kind of mindset.
I'm curious to know if anyone here has found themselves rejected from an Art Ed Master's program based on the quality if the artwork you submitted. Did you submit work from college? I graduated in '07 and haven't taken a studio arts course since '06. I have a few small sketches of my boyfriend, 2 or 3 paintings, and 5 very strong photographs from a project I did my junior year but all of my printmaking and sculpture stuff is from my foundations classes that I took in '04.
If you were me, would you try submitting what you have? How recent was the work you submitted? Is it worth mentioning in my statement of purpose that I've been teaching/working non-stop since graduating and, thus, haven't produced much original work due to my dedication to my job? Also, have you made your own slides or own digital photos of your artwork? (My high school photo teacher did all the photography for my slides when I was applying to college). I have a decent camera and there are nearby photo schools where I might be able to use their lighting apparatuses.
If it matters, I'm looking at decent schools such as Boston University, MassArt, Lesley University and Tufts. The only nearby state colleges that offer Art Ed programs for certified teachers would require that I have a car. I would wait a year and try to create a stronger portfolio but I'm worried about running out of time to get my Professional certification (received my initial in '07 and I think I need to finish my Master's by '12 to keep my certification or else I'll have to get an emergency waiver...I could be wrong, though).
Any advice would be great. Thanks!
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(9 comments | comment on this)
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| Saturday, December 13th, 2008
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6:45 am - passing on a tip
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jasper_su
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I've been teaching elementary art for a few years, and any time I've used colored chalk or chalk pastels, it has been a mess. Way back when I started, my mentor teacher described how she got sick from breathing all the chalk dust from a unit where kids were doing a very dusty chalk project for several days. We talked about ways to keep the kids from blowing or flapping so much dust into the air. But we never really addressed how to avoid copious amounts of dust in the first place. So all these years, any chalk project I did was a real mess- for tables, for hands, for clothes. Apart from the clean-up hassle, always there were kids who didn't enjoy the work because the dust made them uncomfortable. And, of course, we went through the chalk supply with most of it ending up as dust, and a fair amount rolling off the table to get stepped on.
Now, many of you probably already know this technique, but it was a revelation to me, so I want to pass it on as a tip here. At the TAEA conference, I saw a vendor using a scrap of t-shirt cotton to apply chalk pastels. So I wanted to see if it would work with our colored drawing chalk. I got my new boxes out- the round colored chalks that come in two trays per box. I sorted the chalk into the two trays making one the warm and one cool colors, then gave each kid two 5 inch squares of old t-shirt material so they could "paint" the chalk onto their drawings (which happen to be larger simple drawings done with black glue (glue+tempera) on white construction paper.
This was very successful. They kept the chalk in the trays and, wrapping a finger with the cloth, rubbed the side of the chalk to get the color. To blend colors, they could rub their cloth between two chalks then "paint" in small circles on the page. Beautiful color, no wasted chalk, very minimal dust and only a few fingertips to clean. Oh, and the students were 2nd graders.
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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| Monday, December 8th, 2008
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12:02 pm - fiber dvds?
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jumitheklutz
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Hello all,
can anyone recommend any good, kid-friendly DVDs about textiles? It can really be just about anything: weaving, quilting, fiber sculpture, sewing, etc. as long as it involves fiber and would work well for classroom viewing.
Thanks in advance!
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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| Friday, December 5th, 2008
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5:04 pm - All Kids Can... Create!
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vsaartsakcc
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I want to let everyone know about this great opportunity for their students!
VSA arts and CVS Caremark All Kids Can announce All Kids Can…CREATE!, a national call for children’s art Submission deadline: March 6, 2009 For the second year, VSA arts and CVS Caremark All Kids Can are encouraging children to share their creativity by submitting artwork to All Kids Can…CREATE!. The theme, “Celebrating Who I Am,” invites young people with and without disabilities across the United States to create visual art about their interests, talents, and dreams. All artwork submitted before the March 6, 2009 deadline will be included in an online art gallery. One artwork from each state and the District of Columbia will be displayed in a national touring exhibition that will debut June 2009 in Washington, D.C. Ten of the selected artists will be invited to a congressional reception to celebrate the opening of the exhibition. Teachers are eligible to receive $1000 for use in the classroom by submitting their students’ artwork and answering a few short questions. Please visit www.vsarts.org/allkidscancreate for more information, including eligibility, entry instructions and a link to the online application. All artwork must be submitted electronically through Artsonia (www.artsonia.com/allkidscancreate).
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(comment on this)
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| Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
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11:23 am - Computer suggestions
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hazelbear
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Art teachers, which kind of computers do you use for personal and professional use. I was told by some colleagues that some schools give teachers laptops but I doubt they include art teachers or do they? How often do you bring technology into the classroom? I went to Best Buy and the Apple store. Frankly, I just don't know what kind of bells and whistles are needed.
Currently I have a seven year old Gateway that uses Windows XP and only reads CDs. With my recent hard drive crashes, I think I'm due for an upgrade.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Happy Holidays!
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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