I am still not fully recovered from all of the learning, laughing, and dancing while conferencing it up in The Big Easy this past weekend. It was an amazing time and I had so much fun with the more than 4,000 other Art Teachers who headed down South for the 2015 National Art Education Association Conference. 

I have a lot take-aways from the conference I plan to share, but if I do it all at once, this post will be forever long. 

So, I am breaking it down into five parts, part one can be found here and this is the second: 

My first conference was three years ago in Fort Worth, TX. I went by myself at the urging of my #artsedpln. I had such a great time that I have made it a mission to try and get others who have never been to the National Conference to come along with. It was so much fun to spend time with my long-time friend (who I convinced to come with me last year) and my forever friend (sister, who I convinced to come a few months ago) this year, taking goofy pictures as we crossed the city.

Remember what it was like when you first went to a NAEA Conference? When you bring someone along with you for the first time, you get to experience what it was like to be overwhelmed with all of the awesomeness and help them navigate their way through vendors, sessions, and making time for moments outside of the convention center. Think about who you might want to urge to attend the 2016 conference and start making plans on how you can make it happen! 

We are already making plans to attend next year and who we will convince to come along with us in Chicago! 

I am still not fully recovered from all of the learning, laughing, and dancing while conferencing it up in The Big Easy this past weekend. It was an amazing time and I had so much fun with the more than 4,000 other Art Teachers who headed down South for the 2015 National Art Education Association Conference. 

I have a lot take-aways from the conference I plan to share, but if I do it all at once, this post will be forever long. 

So, I am breaking it down into five parts and here is the first: 

My world of PD and connecting with other educators opened up when I joined various social media sites over the past decade. We share ideas, take away resources, and learn along side each other on Facebook and Twitter every day. It is so awesome to have some time at the conference to be with these people in person and actually talk about our passions for art, education, technology, and what we do to help our students be successful. If you would like to join in the fun, just jump online and seek us out - the more the merrier! 

I want to thank Craig Roland and Davis Publications for helping foster a meet-up at this year's conference so we could have time to connect, share, and put faces to Twitter handles! 

We also got a chance to hang out at dinner, where we shared stories from our classrooms and new ideas from the conference. Thanks again, Holly, for organizing this evening out! 

Some of the #artsedpln joined in on the fun from miles and miles away... If you want to hear some great advice about decompressing after a conference, check out Ted's blog. 

Hard to believe that by this time next week, #NAEA15 will be over and we will all be heading back to our classrooms after experiencing big fun in the Big Easy! I am extremely excited to attend again this year and learn, share, and dance with all of my art teacher friends! 

If you are interested in dancing along side me, check out when below: 

12:30 PM - 1:50 PM: Middle Level Division Awards: Celebrating and Connecting
Award Function / Convention Center / Meeting Room R05/Second Level
I am going to give a little presentation titled "Hedgehogs, BHAGs, and Purple Cows: Turning the Flywheel to Your Best Year Ever" as I get recognized as the NAEA Western Region Middle Level Educator of the Year. 


4:30 – 5:50 PM: Conversations with Colleagues 
Convention Center/Meeting Room R05/Second Level
(Attendees attend 2 out of the 4 sessions within the time frame)
1 | Nikki Kalcevic: | TAB / Choice Based Art Overview 
2 | David Watt, 8th grade science and Sarah Goodall, Art: Integrative STEAM Design: A Four Year Journey
3 | Pamelia Valentine: SLICK & QUICK! Implementing the National Standards in a REAL Classroom
4 | Janine Campbell: Navigating the Digital/Traditional Continuum through Technology Integration

1:00 – 1:50 PM: TEAM Middle
Convention Center/ Meeting Room 205
Stacy Lord, Holly Bess Kincaid, Theresa McGee, and I will share how we work our magic in the middle level art room to provide quality instruction to students with great results! 
** I plan to share how I use technology to blend learning with Schoology and Artsonia, how I incorporate writing and assessment in classroom practice, and how my classroom has transformed into a space of working Artists through the incorporation of TAB methodologies.  

11:00 – 11:25 PM: Dancing on Chairs
Clay on the first day of school? Of Course! Dancing on chairs to learn vocabulary? Why not! Students evaluating teachers? Definitely! These are just a few strategies to help foster a caring and creative environment that allows for students to be silly and have a say in their learning. In this session, participants will walk away with resources and ideas to design enduring and engaging experiences. Lesson plans, examples, and dancing will be shared in this action-packed session designed for all! (This is a repeat of last year's packed presentation with some fun updates for all!)

I had quite an end to my week, as we wrapped up a major community project at my school and I rushed to Detroit to learn and share for the 2015 MACUL conference. 

I love March. Basketball is all the buzz, Youth Arts Month is being celebrated, and it is major conference season. One of the conferences I have made a habit of participating in is MACUL. I started going about six or seven years ago and it opened my eyes to the potential of technology integration in my classroom and in turn, opened many doors for my students and myself to learn, grow, and share. 

This year was no different. Although I was only able to be at MACUL for one day, I connected with a lot of great people, learned some great new things I hope to use in my classroom, and shared some ideas that I hope open some doors for others as they return to their districts and classrooms. 

In my first presentation, I shared how I use various tools like CheckThis, Schoology, LiveBinders, Camtasia, Artsonia, and PBS LearningMedia to Flip, Blend, and Remix my classroom. It was fun to get everyone up and dancing to start (thanks again for playing along, even at 8:30 in the morning) and then get down to how we can rethink our classrooms to engage students in content that allows them to work at their own pace and share their voice with others in authentic ways. If you were unable to make my presentation, please check it out below: 

I also was able to learn about some great tools and take away key ideas that I know will help me improve my classroom craft. 

One session I attended was about Sketchnotes, with Karen Bosch. I have had the pleasure to get to know Karen online for the past few years and I was really excited to hear her talk about her process of creating images like the one below of the MACUL closing keynote: 

Karen was so generous with explaining her process, sharing her resources, and inspiring so many to take a hold of that pen and doodle their way to understanding! I am so glad I finally got to hear her present! 

The other presentation that really got me thinking was given by a fellow Art teacher, D'Andra Clark and her colleague, Steve Weller, who co-created a course that delves into using the Design Thinking Process to explore computer technologies. 

They did a great job offering their take on Design Thinking using the DICE model (Design, Ideate, Create, Evaluate) and giving specific examples of both the success and failure they experienced as they ventured on this new journey together. They were genuine and sincere in their presentation and really have me excited to get to work with my STEM counterpart on how we can incorporate some of these ideas in our curriculum. 

I feel honored to be a part of the Lightning Talks this year and sharing how we use clay on the first day to get students going for the school year. It was fun to share what makes me passionate about my work and hear the other speakers share their passion for teaching, learning, and big ideas. 

Although I had a shortened time at MACUL this year, it was still as impactful and I am ready to implement new concepts in my classroom. I also enjoyed spending some time in Detroit at the Detroit Institute of Arts exploring the special exhibit of work by Diego Rivera and Frida Khalo and the stunning views from my room.