First year art teacher here. I’ve been teaching an element or principle a week with slideshow and notes Monday, an exploration/practice worksheet Tuesday, then a project Wednesday through Friday. Today my principal told me I’m getting complaints about my class, and he suggested I disregard standards and curriculum maps and “make it more fun”. He suggested breaking each period into blocks- like in elementary. He suggested I teach the way I would have to my former 5th grade students. Thoughts? Suggestions? Resources? TIA

This week, we began learning about grids and how to use them. I copied my materials from last year and went to the website we’ve always used to grid photos and it was gone! I looked around for a few different ones, but can’t find any ones I like. Do any of you other art teachers have a website you use to put a grid over pictures? Thanks in advance!

I wanted to share this with you all in case this is something that concerns you.

In the new Indiana diploma draft, art has been relegated to Flex Credits (not required at all for any diploma and listed last as a choice)

Flex credits must include five (5) credits in any combination from the following: (A) Additional courses to extend the college and career pathway. (B) Courses involving workplace learning, which may include the following courses: (i) Career exploration internship. (ii) Preparing for college and or careers, or both. (iii) Business cooperative experiences. (iv) Cooperative family and consumer sciences. (v) Industrial cooperative training. (vi) Interdisciplinary cooperative education. (vii) Marketing field experience. (C) Advanced career-technical education college credit. (D) Additional courses in: (i) language arts; (ii) social studies; (iii) mathematics; (iv) science; (v) world languages; or (vi) fine arts.

So art is no longer a requirement to graduate.

Hi everyone, this is my first year teaching and this month I've been put sick a lot, this past week I got the flu and I'm back in the classroom but feeling so utterly exhausted and unmotivated.

I'm not feeling like the great teacher I thought I would be in grad school. My lessons aren't always as planned and thought through, I'm not introducing a lot of content besides how to use materials (I runa TAB at a k-8).

All my friends and colleagues say I'm doing great but I still feel so overwhelmed and like I'm letting a lot to be desired with showing artists, making connections, etc etc.

I'd love to get some motivational stories of people overcoming their first year teaching art because I'm feeling so lost sometimes. Perhaps when I get my health back I'll feel better but holy cow this has been so draining and anxiety-inducing. I don't want to give up on this job but my mind keeps going "ruuun!!"

I teach at a HS with at-risk students. Most units I begin don't even get started by a good third of my kids, and are finished by maybe ten percent. It's rough. This is my first year teaching art. (Veteran in another subject, recent second license) I called out Monday because I had to go to the ER. Turns out it's pneumonia. I told them I'd only need two more days, which was stupid; it's freaking pneumonia, and today I realized I needed the rest of the week. I'm still short of breath, and even though I'm getting better, I'm still feeling pretty sick.

I had no official plans. I had an unopened box of origami paper, so I said they could have fun with that. Today I texted my (pretty amazing) principal that I'd be out the rest of the week, and said that there were get to know the artist videos in Google classroom they could watch on their iPads, or a few watercolor/drawing tutorials posted in Google classroom they could do, and if worse came to worse, they could do coloring pages (a staple in many classrooms at our school) or free drawing.

I just feel so guilty for taking the whole week. I know I shouldn't, but I do. I'm sick, and I have no idea why I'm worried about being judged harshly. In the past, I've left perfect lesson plans with notes and all the extras for each class, but this time it was just a text. I'm barely writing formal lessons at all because it's been such a hard adjustment, and lesson planning has always been one of my strengths.

I think I'm looking for people to tell me to stop worrying. I'm missing parent conferences tonight, too, so I'm just, like, feeling like a failure. Like I'm worried I didn't do enough or I offered too much. My rational brain won't kick in today, so I'm just anxious instead of resting.

Im still in high school and thinking about what I wanted to be when I grow up. I think im pretty good at art and I really want to do this because I had this one art teacher who SUCKED. I thinking teaching would be fun because I could help teens like my teachers helped me!!

I know some stuff like get a masters/ bachelors in art or education (or its a combination idk) and then like normal teaching steps.

I also want advice on what art schools are like because im not that smart so I don’t even know if college would be good for me.

So if you have any advice I would very much appreciate it. Thanks!

First year teacher here. What are first day activities for kinder-8th

I am particularly nervous about kindergarten.

Now that the election results are out... is it worth getting into This particular field? It seems like arts would be the first thing to go when schools lose funding. I was really excited to pursue teaching art but now it seems like a bad idea. Any assistance or words would be wonderful.

I was nerding out on introducing surrealism after pop art and not to toot my own horn but was just on fire, the kids were into it and have been doing good work lately. I teach Intro to Art to Art, 7th and 8th grades, 6 periods a day. In the afternoon a student said "that was the most interesting lesson [we've had so far] and I'm not even being sarcastic."

EDIT: link to my slides

hi all,

I started teaching art this year and I don’t think it’s a great fit so far. I’m looking at other job opportunities to pursue once my contract ends (or even before tbh) but I keep getting ghosted or rejected. If you left Art Education what did you pursue instead? Was it better or worse? How was the transition?

For context I’m 23 and I have my B.F.A in Illustration. I have a year of internship experience in design (which is what my ultimate career goal is). I’m also bilingual and run half my classes in Spanish essentially (don’t get paid extra for it either woohoo!). Other experiences include customer service, retail, and medical reception.

I am trying to think of an interesting place to travel to where I can gain some artistic knowledge through a unique experience. I’d like to bring back some information to share with both my students and my colleagues. Does anyone have any suggestions??

I've done some research and am a bit confused so thought i'd ask here!

I'm 30, a mostly self-taught artist & I never went to college. My thing is ceramics, but I also love painting, drawing, photography. etc. I would have gone to art school after high school but I had people tell me not to and I listened. I realized it would be a shame not to do what I love.. so I started thinking about how I can pursue art as a career, and I've decided on teaching.

The question is, what degree do I need to teach art at a k-12 level? I've read that I need a bachelor's degree in fine art education, but I can't find a college near me that offers that specific program and I assume I cant do this online... I've also read I need a bachelor's degree in art, and then a teacher prep program.. but does that mean I need to spend 4 years getting my bachelor's degree and then another year on top of that in a teacher prep program?

My plan was to find a program, take prerequisites at my nearby community college and then transfer to finish my BA.. does anyone know of any colleges in or around the Seattle area that offer what I need?

Thanks in advance!!

I hope it’s okay to ask this here. I am trying to put together a basket of art supplies for my 9 year old niece (3rd grad) for Christmas and am looking for suggestions from people in the know. lol

She loves working with clay, painting and drawing. She is a bit hard on herself when it comes to how things turn out if she is working on a specific thing/project so buying her project kits are out. I would like to get her a drawing basics book IF there is one you think wouldn’t be too stressful for her.

Any suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Hey! My school does a 1-4 grading. For the first grades of the year, I’m a bit stumped on what to give some of my students. Especially for those I’ve only seen around 4 times so far.

I factor in a few things like artwork completion and behavior. But for students that I barely have seen or students that do wonderful art but have behavior problems I’m not sure at all.

hey all,

im currently working towards getting my alternative license. im gonna try to take my art content praxis before december so that i can start applying in time for the next school year. i feel like theres so little guidance when it comes to going in this direction and i really need some help. i know every state is gonna be different but any advice will help.

besides taking the praxis, i have everything completed for my licensure EXCEPT, in new jersey it says that we need to present a study in drawing, painting and ceramics/sculpture. so i have my BFA in Illustration. when it says “study” im not sure if thats referring to an entire course in that field or not. i have taken multiple drawing classes so im not worried about that. i have not taken a specific painting class but painting was the focus of a lot of my major coursework so im sure i can make an argument for that.

the one thing missing from my transcript will be a ceramics course. however, i have taken a 3d digital sculpting class, and i have done ceramics projects in some of my beginning art classes, although ceramics was not the focus of the class. does anyone know if this will disqualify me from receiving my license?

i emailed the board of ed to ask them, and they said they cant tell me unless i apply. but i havent taken my praxis yet and i need to know now if i need to enroll in a ceramics class for the spring semester. i also really dont wanna have to pay to apply twice, nor do i wanna spend 4 months in a ceramics class post graduation if i dont need to. plus, if i cant even apply for my license until may then i wont be able to try and get a job for the next school year.

sorry, i know this is a whole bunch of information and whining lol but any advice will be helpful as im just really confused where to go from here.

I saw another post in this group about scheduling and it got me curious about what its like for other art teachers. This is my daily schedule at one of my schools this year. It is so hard. I do also teach at a 2nd school part of the week with a much better schedule.

I STRUGGLE with my lunch time (which is never enough time to eat because I have to set up for the small kids) and my afternoon classes having no transition time ruins my day everytime. My morning "planning" consists of rushing to set up to teach 7 classes in a row pretty much nonstop. And the afternoon is cleaning up the room after the back to back littles. It is absolutely exhausting.

Elementary teachers, what does your schedule look like? And what has been your favorite schedule and least favorite schedule you've had?

help when you are putting a project on top of bulletin board paper what do you use so that you can return art projects to students … we will be doing a family wide collab and i need to be able to return their pieces so i cannot use glue or stapler ??? would double sided tape work or would it come off ??? HELP

Hi there! I just started as a new art teacher about a week ago and inherited all sorts of stuff from the previous teacher. Among my cabinets and cabinets of supplies were a bunch of these little bean bag things. They were tucked away with the drawing pencils and charcoals if that helps at all in IDing these 😅 thanks!!

My district has an art opening for k-4. I want the job so badly! I have worked in the district for 8 years. Four of them in childcare (preschool) and four of them in 5/6 high needs special education as a paraprofessional. How do I stand out as an applicant? I know administrators at other elementary buildings but not this one. When I was in preschool my room’s focus was social-emotional learning and art. I built a school years worth of lesson plans with this as the focus. So I have a lot of experience in a classroom but I want to know how I can make myself stand out in comparison to other candidates. Any ideas?

Hi y'all. I've been on a cart for 5 years as a traveling art teacher. This year I'm finally at a single school, but still on a cart. Anyone else have tips for art on a cart to share?

Here's my list of tips:

• pick a material first and base all projects for the day around that.
• make pre-printed name labels for TK and K and slap them onto their work as soon as you hand them supplies.
• keep a cord for your laptop, extra HDMI cables, and anything else you might need to help you out in case of tech troubles.
• if the classrooms you are traveling to don't have sinks, bring a spray bottle with soapy water to spray directly onto the kids' hands.
• put together small bins or trays with all the supplies needed for the art project. It will make pass out and clean up faster.
• when kids inevitably stop you on your way from classroom to classroom to ask you questions, keep it vague and noncommittal. "What are you doing in our class today?" "A really fun art project! You'll find out more when I get there!" It doesn't invite more questions that will take up your time traveling between classes.

What else would you add?

Hi everyone! I am loving my new job as an elementary art teacher after teaching secondary for forever! I know as an art teacher, we’re pretty isolated, but I feel like some of the teachers at my school don’t like me. I don’t think it’s a personal thing, just more of I’m a babysitter so “here’s my kids, see you in 50 mins”. I had an aide tell me she was sad the other teacher left. No follow up, so I wasn’t sure how to take that… I’m not very good at making friends to begin with so I’m feeling very lonely and trying not to take it personally lol So I guess my question is, does anyone else feel like this? Did you feel like this when you first started but now love everyone you work with?? How did you get there?? Thanks everyone! Good luck with Halloween tomorrow and the Friday after 😅

I am a high school art teacher looking to raise funds for our department. Thus far I've been told I can only take cash and checks if we run some kind of sale (tshirts, cards etc). Seriously inefficient! Has anyone here started a art booster 501c3? If I do that I can take credit cards and online sales.

How do I handle this? they say they can’t find it. Not sure how hard they are looking for it. It seems nothing was categorized..no records were kept. This doesn’t make sense to me. Why so careless. Not sure who to contact to make sense of this. Any suggestions?

I have been tutoring this student for 4 years now; she is incredibly capable and has shown high levels of skill and understanding since the 4th grade. Her issue is she is not able to work for more than 10 minutes without breaking focus. She will then lose interest and rush her assignments. She has admitted her foundational work doesn't give her the "instant gratification" of her relatively quick sittings on procreate. I am all for digital art, but I want to build her foundational skills before she applies to art high school. She struggles with value in graphite (in NYC, her portfolio must include graphite pieces).

She loves mixed media work in her sketchbook, and my plan is to incorporate value studies in graphite into a mixed-media style project. Any advice on how I can 1. further incorporate this theme into her foundational practice 2. increase her working stamina

As an artist, I chase the "runner's high" feeling of hitting a point in my artwork that is almost unconscious, relaxed, and trance-like. I'm trying so hard to get her to value that feeling, but she just wants her artwork to be finished quickly! :(

I’m an art director at a local art studio that specializes in using a Montessori based curriculum.

This is week 3 of 5 of our Wildlife Artist class. We learned mostly all about Robert Bateman (and artists alike. Did you know his favourite bird is the Owl?

All of our classes have a story & a taught portion. This time we learned about colour harmonies by taking inspiration from our hand dandy colour wheel!

I let the kids have freedom on how they paint their owl but they must stick to the project guidelines and I help them place the colours in appropriate spots so it doesn’t look muddy.

:)

ETA: thank you all so much!! I have a whole arsenal of ideas here to tap into now. Art teachers are the best.

Feeling a little unsure about what to offer my fifth graders. I want them to feel challenged, and I don’t want to treat them like babies. They are the oldest kids in the school. What’s your favourite project for this grade level? I’ve never taught 5th before.

TIA.

I got observed today and it was a shitshow my kids keep talking over me … we’ve gone over rules and they’re super chatty i wanted to do a reward system but i have 36 different art classes and keeping up with a physical chart that i will remember about is difficult HELP

Does anyone have any tips for preventing clay footprints in the hallway? I used to have a doormat that students would spray with water and wipe their feet before leaving but I think it got moldy and had to throw it away. I’m wondering if there’s any specific material that is thin enough to fit under the door and won’t get moldy with water. Or any other tips to just make the custodian’s jobs easier?

Hello all. I’m hoping to gain clarification about whether my educational pursuits are what I need to be doing. My goal is to be an art teacher(preferably elementary but open to all grades). I was wanting to do fully online school so my idea is to do WGU online for the dual CERT bachelors for special education and elementary. Once I have my education degree, I was hoping I could just take the art education GACE vs getting an art education degree. The reason for that is because it’s hard to find fully online programs for that in Georgia. Affordability and the quickest route are considerations. Would doing it this way you want me to teach Art?