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New Ideas in Art: Text as an Element
Editor’s Note: Welcome to the third installment of our series New Ideas in Art. If you missed them, check out Ian’s previous articles Time as an Element and Perspective. This week, Ian tackles text....
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New Ideas in Art: Destruction
Editor’s Note: Welcome to the final installment of our series, New Ideas in Art. Over the last month, AOE writer Ian has brought us ways to incorporate novel ideas into our classrooms. If you missed...
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When the Art History Carnival Comes to Town!
As we near the end of the school year, the days are winding down, but our students are winding up. Working on a still life is out of the question when the kids can’t even sit still themselves. The sun...
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Rocks vs. Sucks: Follow-the-Teacher Lessons
Hey AOE Readers! We’ve noticed something interesting about the art ed world. For a group of individuals with a common goal, it’s amazing how different we really are. There are so many passionate...
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Yes, You Can Write a TAB Lesson Plan
There are many teachers hoping to try out a TAB model in their classrooms that get stuck at step one: Lesson Planning. How do you create a lesson when the kids are supposed make most of the decisions?...
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Six Inexpensive Sculpture Ideas to Start the Year
In a time where budgets are seemingly always being cut, many of us are looking for ideas that won’t slice into the precious few dollars we have available. So, if you’re waiting on your budget money to...
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How to Help Your School Break Free of the Gallery Mentality
Art has always had a high brow quality about it. Traditionally, fine artworks have been adorned with elaborate frames and hung in museums and galleries to be viewed only by elite visitors. In many...
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5 Ways to Take Wearable Art to the Next Level in Your Art Room
For art teachers, the term “wearable art” probably evokes a vision of one of two things: an accidental collision of a new white shirt and a kindergartener’s art project or a tie-dye t-shirt. However, a...
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Give Your Students Time to PLAY
As art teachers, we appreciate it when artists come up with new and innovative ways of using materials. Whether it is new painting techniques or ways to melt glass into sculptures, we respect the...
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My Love-Hate Relationship with Social Painting Parties
If you haven’t experienced one yourself, I am nearly positive you’ve seen it on your friends’ facebook pages or run across it as a Groupon: those social painting parties are HOT right now! You know...
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When Making Art Doesn’t Make Art
I used to work with a teacher who would never give an assignment that didn’t end with a product. Her thinking was, time is precious, portfolios need to be filled, and every project should end with a...
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5 Ways to Teach Architecture Without Linear Perspective
Incorporating architecture into your curriculum has been on your to-do list since the start of the school year. Structure and perspective are vocabulary words you want your students to understand but...
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3 Ways to Transform Toys from Playthings to Learning Tools
Editor’s Note: Today we’re thrilled to welcome a new member to our AOE Writing Team. Tracy Hare comes to us from Minnesota and is passionate about teaching 21st Century Skills and creative problem...
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Make Your Stagnant Still Lifes Come Alive!
One of the best things about teaching middle school students is the fact that they are quite willing to try some unconventional ideas when it comes to creating art. Some of my students’ greatest...
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Making Time for Making Art
Before the days of curriculum, before you sat at the teacher’s desk, before any student had heard your name, you loved making art. You wielded your brush or threw clay like a master. Now, what was once...
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11 Things Successful Teachers Do on the Weekend
The end of the day on Friday seems like the end of a long marathon. Exhaustion sets in, and you proceed with your Friday night like a zombie, crashing as soon as you can from the busy work week. By...
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Why Not…Start a Simple, Ongoing Collaborative Project?
With packed schedules, the thought of embarking on a collaborative project can seem daunting. Plus, there is the question of ‘who gets to keep it’? You can take school-wide or class-wide projects in so...
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How to Utilize Art History to Add More Variety to Your Lessons
Vincent Van Gogh’s textures… Piet Mondrian’s lines and primary colors… Pablo Picasso’s faces… We all know certain artists make it easy to create wonderful lessons about their artwork. I know that when...
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The Best Art Supply Store Doesn’t Sell Art Supplies!
If you’ve been an art teacher for more than two months, your mailbox is already filled with art supply catalogs. There are any number of both local and nationally know companies jockeying for your art...
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Why Every Art Classroom Needs a Shopping Cart
As art teachers, we are known for being ingenious with unusual art supplies and mediums. Using recycled garbage, food, or home improvement materials is no problem when it comes to uncommon projects or...
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