I am not going to lie and say I am totally ready for what the next few days bring. I am still working my way out of a pre-Spring slump and I am super excited to fully loose the grip of the Winter Blues when I meet up with my favorite teachers from across the country tomorrow! 

This year marks my 4th NAEA and I have a feeling it is going to be better than ever! 

To reflect on the awesomeness that is going to ensue, here is a recap of some of my tips from last year and how I am planning to apply it this time around:

1. Connect... 
2. Include Others...
3. Be Inspired...
4. Explore the City...
5. Give it up...

One of my favorite things to do at any conference is connect with others whom I normally chat with over posts on Facebook or Twitter face to face. I am excited to say I even get to present with a few of the folks who started out as people I admired from afar online. I am really excited to get to see the "gang" again as we all get together, many sporting the #arstedpln shirts as designed below by Tales From The Traveling Art Teacher, Heidi O'Hanley.

It was super fun to encourage my sister and friend to join the NAEA madness over the last two years. This year, I am excited to see some more local MI teachers at the conference for the first time this year, taking advantage of the location being so close! I cannot wait to get with some of my colleagues after we get back to our schools and share resources and take-aways from the weekend! 

It is hard to predict exactly how inspiration is going take shape as I imagine the conference. I know that the vendors will not disappoint with their displays and samples. I know that the sessions I have lined up using the NAEA App will also allow me to leave Chicago with a head full of ideas that will energize me through the rest of the school year! 

Being from Michigan, I have visited the Windy City many times over the years. Although I have been there a bunch, I am excited to venture off to new places and experience new adventures with my fellow art teachers. I am especially excited to hang out with local teachers who have insights in what needs to be experienced while in town. 

I am very excited to present in two sessions this year. It is so important to share your work with others and gain the same when others share with you. I always feel like I get way more than I give at these conferences and I am super excited to take those ideas back to my students.

​If you get a chance, come and see me present with an all-star line-up on Friday and Saturday morning! 

I hope those tips help you have a great #NAEA16! Above all, have safe travels to Chicago and enjoy the time to gather with other teachers to celebrate our craft! If you are unable to attend, you can follow the fun on Twitter.

There is a month left of freedom until I spend my days dictated by alarm clocks, hourly bells, and brief bathroom breaks. As I continue to plan for the upcoming year, I am spending quite a bit of time figuring out the activities for the most important day: the first one.

Since you can only make a first impression once, it is important that students get a clear understanding of what the class is going to be like and who I am. How I behave and what activities I plan sets the tone for every day that comes after. Instead of falling back on safe measures that bore students into complacency, I put forward a vision and challenge to my students to "Elevate to Excellence" as we dive into the school year. 

I have been lucky to have given presentations on this at the NAEA Convention andMACUL Conference and shared many of the ideas and reasons behind why I do what I do and how I manage it all. In case you missed it, here is a quick breakdown envisioning the best first day ever: 

Be Brave: 
Being a teacher is an act of bravery in itself. Anyone willing to put themselves in front of children every day and engage them in a way that helps learning stick despite all obstacles, is brave. The bravery that I am discussing for the first day of school should be a piece of cake compared to that. A few years ago, I threw caution to the wind and took a chance on my students and myself to do something on day one. Instead of doing the safe rules and expectations speech, I decided to engage students with the materials I know they long most to use each year: clay and paint. In order for this to work, I had to have faith in myself and move beyond the initial worries about messes and misbehavior. Instead of focusing on what could go wrong, I lead by living my vision of Art education with my students. We still went over rules and expectations; I just did it as students worked through activities like making collaborative paintings for our school and clay bowls for our annual Empty Bowls night. It has been five years since that first act of bravery, and I cannot imagine going back. 

Be Bold:
A student once told me that I was the second weirdest teacher in the building. I am not sure if it was the dancing, the rapid arm movements as I fast-talk, or what that got me that place, but I would like to think that my bold vision for my classroom and my students helped. As the Art teacher, I have the distinct opportunity to show learning everyday. Because I work with visuals, my students learning is evidenced through drawing, painting, photography and more and shared almost instantly with others; because I post and share online, it is archived, distributed, and can take on new forms and interactions that are both unplanned and offer deeper connections for my students. My students are shown this from the start, even before they enter my classroom. Using Artsionia (which automatically updates grades from the other building to my gallery - so AMAZING), I send out newsletters to parents and even invite students to participate in a summer upload. It has been awesome to see art coming in and for students and parents to get a glimpse of what the Art class is going to be like before they enter the classroom. When they do arrive on that first day, I share our activities and even get responses by artists we are already inspired by in class. By sharing my vision for my classroom in this way, students enter with a sense of purpose and are ready to be a part of the bold vision I have planned.

Be the Bearer of Possible:
It can be easy to be a Debbie Downer. The world is a tough place with a lot of scary things going on every day. I am not advocating forgetting that in place of a know-nothing mentality, but I think it is important to act as a light of opportunity for students so they can see what is possible. Art is the act of making the unseen seen. It is my job to help students reach within themselves and figure out what they want others to see so their voice is heard. I start the year with the motto "Elevate to Excellence," setting the tone for what is expected when they become a part of the program. Each year, the k-12 program does a presentation for our Board of Education, highlighting the accomplishments from the year. I use that video to finish off the first day, right after we have cleaned up our paint or clay. I am proud to say that many of my former students who have taken that challenge have been awarded various recognitions at the local, state, and national level. I want my students to leave my class on the first day of school with messy hands and their heads full of ideas for what they are going to do next because they were inspired by those that came before them.

If you are interested in hearing more, I am excited to talk about this and more on Tuesday with the guys from AOE Live:  

Now, the Give-Away: 
I have some back-to-school goodies to send your way if you leave a comment below about your favorite take-away from Tuesday's AOE Live, featuring even more ways to make this school year your best one yet. 

Congrats to Katherine, from the last give-away - check your email and I will send your FIA goodies post haste. 

Thanks for reading and I will see you 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 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, 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:

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!)