One of the best parts of my job are key moments during the year that give me opportunities to pause, reflect, and pace my actions to build and maintain momentum both personally and professionally. Spring Break is an important marker every year. Those ten days of time spent away from grading, lesson plans, and time with nature, art, and my family help me take a beat to breathe and visualize how I will finish the school year in a way that propels the upcoming school year even stronger than this one. 

This Spring Break, I had the opportunity to travel to a long-time favorite destination of The Smokies in Tennessee. In addition to hiking up to Charlie's Bunion with my husband, we made sure to spend time exploring the Art Museum and River Arts District in Asheville, North Carolina. It was nice to take this time and focus my energies on physical and mental fitness, both of which allowed me to reflect on my classroom and how I can bring in aspects of mindfulness and exploration into the fold of art-making, rather than sticking with the daily grind. 

This year has been an interesting one for me professionally. I have had a lot success with students and received professional recognition in the process. It is also the year I have given the most control to my students through the use of theme-based inquiry with choice in the classroom. It is a year that I have grappled with still having one foot in a more open studio, with another in the realm of teacher directed methods. 

During my time exploring art in Asheville, I could not help but feel a responsibility to continue on my journey towards leading students to view themselves as artists and push them to explore ideas using methods and means that invent along the way. This became searingly obvious through the work I viewed in the Art Museum and during my time in the River Arts District. 

The Asheville Art Museum is a pleasure to attend. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it. It is an intimate space that has a wonderful collection of work that includes some of my favorites like Chuck Close, Jim Dine, and Louise Nevelson. It also features an "Art Play(ce)" where children (or people like me) are invited to play with manipulatives to explore ideas with design and space. 

In addition, they had an installation in the museum by Sharon Louden called Community, encouraging participants to interact with the shimmering display by photographing themselves within the space and using social media to share their experience. This ability to easily interact was something I enjoyed about this Museum. Even the bathroom was a testament to the accessibility of art through a street-style mural that included broad mark making, wheat paste overlays, and sharpie designs. If you are in the area, I strongly suggest you check it out (and then have lunch at The Chestnut, because it is delicious).

The River Arts District was also a great stop to make. I enjoyed being able to enter smaller gallery spaces and working studios where artists were busy at work and focusing on the creative process. It is always inspiring to see what work is being made using a diverse set of materials for a variety of purposes. I particularly enjoyed the artists who took the time to talk with me and offer me insight to their process as well as leads on how to get free supplies. If you are ever in the area, I would recommend stopping by Stephen Lange's studio to see his works created with reflective tape as well as the stampbord work by Stephanie Grimes. It was a reminder to push my students to find their voice as an artist by opening options in the classroom. 

 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, part two here, part three here, part four here, and the final below:

I have a strange confession. I have only been a member of the National Art Education Association for about half of my teaching career. And even so, I may have even let my membership lapse a time or two along the way. When I started teaching right out of college in 2004, I did not understand why I also needed to be a member of my State and National Art organizations. I figured that I got a job and was competent in what I was doing, so I was set. 

I was wrong. 

Luckily, the friend I mentioned in my post about including first-timers, invited me to become a member when she also invited me to present at my first-ever conference. It was at that time and through the relationships I made as a result, that I found the community I did not even know I was missing and I am so glad I did. MAEA and NAEA offer such awesome support and resources to their membership and I am very proud to not only be a member, but contribute to the organization by actively presenting at conferences. 

You might be like how I was about five years ago. I thought I did not need NAEA or my state organization, either, to be successful in my job. And you might be right. But for me, everything clicked once I started getting involved at the State and National Level, not only presenting, but gobbling up the resources offered to members through PD, reading, and the amazing connections with such talented teachers. It helped give me the resources and confidence I needed to survive three pink slips, the crazy amount of self-doubt, and helped spark the tenacity to try and get my students work out there in competitions, exhibitions, and festivals. 

If I have learned anything from this year's conference or any other since I have been attending, it is that the more you give, the more you get. I know it is cliche, but it also happens to be true. I am so happy I was able to present again this year and hope I can continue to to contribute to this tradition of sharing and learning and bringing Art Education to a higher level for improving all programs. 

Here are some highlights from my time at the sessions this year: 

I love to present. 

It must the be 14 years of dance class in my background, but there is something very comfortable to me about being on stage and performing in some sense. I feel it when I am teaching students and when I get to share with other teachers about what I get to teach my students. It is even better when teachers share back what they have done with what they have learned at my presentations. I was especially taken with Cassie Stephens' shout out earlier this year after she adapted content from one of my most popular presentations "Dancing on Chairs (and other strategies for student success)." 

If you happen to use any of my whacky ideas in your classroom, please share. It makes me and my students happy to know we are not the only crazy ones out there. 

I am also so inspired by many of the ideas and teachers I saw present. I want to thank Peter Curran for introducing me to a new term "traditigital" and affirming what I am already doing with blended learning in my classroom. 

I was also inspired by the group participating in this year's curriculum slam. It was amazing to hear teachers share ideas about failure, exploration, and student centered learning through the promotion of choice and voice in the classroom. I especially enjoyed Steve Ciampaglia's explanation of students creating unwinnable videos, Olivia Gude's impassioned vision of student empowerment in the classroom, and Jake Myers take on video production. It was a great session and one I look forward to attending again next year (maybe I will even apply to be in it)! 

And finally, it would not be a complete conference without some great stuff to take home. Thanks again to Kimberly Cairy, September Buys, and the rest of the Middle Level group for organizing great give-aways like the one below. This combined with all of the loot given away from vendors in the exhibition hall was awesome and I am excited to share these goodies with my kiddos in the classroom as we finish the year out strong! 

If you were like me about five years ago and need an invitation to start getting involved, consider this it.  I ask for you to do so selfishly because the more teachers like you that get involved and share and present and post their ideas, the more I get to learn and become better, too! 

I hope my five-part series of #NAEA15 in NOLA was as fun to follow as it was to share. I hope you will all join me in #NAEA16 in Chicago for more dancing! 

Until then, see ya on the internets.

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, part two here, part threehere, and here is part four:

This is the first year I gave myself permission to skip some of the sessions and venture into the city for small adventures. This included finding a Banksy, cementing my reputation as the ultimate speed walker, admiring artists with their art in Jackson square, exploring the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and being inspired by the sights, sounds, and smells along the way. 

Even though I was not in a room listening to a speaker, I learned so many things during these times away from the conference and look forward to introducing my students to the new artists, ideas, and concepts conceived as I wound my way through the city in search of sights and sounds I can't find anywhere other than NOLA. 

Luckily my #artsedpln was just as interested in finding a Banksy as I was. We walked together (maybe a little too much and a little too fast) during a two hour gap in our day. It was interesting to finally get to the piece to see it was tagged. We tried to find another one what had been located close by, but it tuns out it was already painted over. That is the breaks when you are dealing with street art. If you want to go on your own Banksy adventure while in NOLA, check out this Google Map to help locate pieces. I want to thank Chris, Donna, Holly, Stacy, and Tim for venturing out to see this with me! 

One of my goals at this conference was to visit a museum. Luckily, I was not the only one. My sister and I went to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art after I heard Craig Roland recommend it at the #artsedpln meet-up. I am so glad I was able to check out the unique collection and I am so inspired to take these artists' works back to my students. 

I was particularly taken with Jim Roche's variety of works and Benny Andrews mixed media paintings. I am not sure I would have been exposed to these artists had I not left the convention center. Now, I am thinking on how I can use the symmetry seen in Roche's work when we create things like this or how we might incorporate fabric and clothing in painting or mixed media like Andrews. 

You can see more of the museum below: 

One of my favorite parts of the conference was when I crossed paths with two other art teachers (Matt and Craig) on the way back to the airport at 4 a.m., well after the conference officially concluded. When checking out of the hotel, we realized we were all headed in the same direction, so we split a cab. As we talked about our schools, students, and sessions, we also realized we shared the same flight. 

Our conversations about curriculum continued all the way up until we boarded our flight, proving that PD can happen anywhere. They shared their conference presentation and I shared mine. I learned about a free digital painting tool called Alchemy. I was so impressed with the work their students, I made sure to grab their information so I could share it with my students, too! If you are interested in seeing more student work like the image in my above tweet, check out Matt and Craig's website. They are both dynamic teachers whose students are lucky to have them in the classroom! 

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, part two here, and here is the third: 

Every conference I attend offers something that I can bring back to my classroom and help improve learning for my students. There is something extra special about the National Art Education Association Convention, though. It is so strategically placed in lively cities where visuals grab a hold of me constantly, leaving me wondering how I might adapt them in my classes. They also somehow manage to bottle that energy inside the convention in the excitement and delight that is the exhibit hall of vendors! 

I was particularly captivated by one group in the exhibit hall this year: Ymm Art Education

The picture above is from their booth. If you did not get a chance to see their combination of large sculpture, small installations, and fashion design, you missed out on an opportunity to be blown away with the attention to detail and beautiful craft. They start offering fashion design courses to students as young as 6 years old, and continue offering programming through the age of 18. It was incredibly inspirational to see the work from students and hear from their leadership; it made me rethink some of the ways I could bring this back to my own classroom and how we consider the way art is offered to our youngest of students. 

I would never think to start fashion design with such young ones, but now that I have seen what is possible, I wonder why I would ever deny a child this type of expressive opportunity at any age! Conferences like this one push my thinking and help me reconsider notions I have about art, education, and what it can look like in any classroom. I have already started talking with the STEM teacher on how we can collaborate on a large sculpture and an architecture unit based on the work I saw there.

In addition to having a great time with the other vendors and getting my super cool Artsonia shirt, I also ventured out into the city with my #artsedpln (which I will talk about in part 4 of my #NAEA in NOLA series). There was so much to do and see and I am so excited to share all of it with my students in hopes they will be as inspired as I am by all of the things I witnessed. 

Check out some additional images below: