I’m teaching HS Art for the first time, and I’m thinking about how I want to organize my classroom library. I have a decent size personal collection I want to bring in. How is yours organized? And managed? TIA!

What lessons have you taught to adult learners that were particularly successful? I am leading a team art lesson next week and need some ideas.

“All the things I could do… if I had a little money - it’s a rich man’s world!”

Context - This is the second year the school is providing an art class. The school opened in 2018, so it is still very new. It’s like starting from scratch. We are a Title 1 public charter school in FL… yes that explains it doesn’t it!

I just discovered that my first year art classroom budget is $365 for the entire year… and all the materials I need just for Q1 alone exceeds that. I’m sending my wishlist regardless, and will see what my Principal says. Am I crazy and over ambitious or… am I in my right mind to say that is barely anything? I mean, maybe we are super fortunate compared to other schools struggling worse with their art budgets. So what I want to know…

How old is your art program? What is your yearly supply budget? Did you start a school art program from scratch and how did it go? Has anyone sought outside funding or grants for their program?

TIA for your responses and tips are always appreciated ;u;

Sincerely, a first year art teacher!

Trying to make a decision about grad school. Any guidance appreciated!

For those of you who teach middle school digital art- What are your students favorite projects? What projects get them excited? What programs or resources do you use? My kids are 1:1 iPads, so I’m limited to that.

I’m brainstorming for this school year and want to do a refresh! I just feel like everyone is bored including me!

Hi all,

I am switching to a new school and district to teach. I am moving to a new area and I wanted to move in with my partner.

I was offered a job position, and I was excited knowing that I would be working with a student population I am familiar with and share a similar background like mine.

However, after talking to the principal some more, she mentioned I will be split between two schools. She also said I will be sharing a classroom with the music teacher.

At this point I thought, no problem. But after meeting the second principal (which I had to set up a meeting myself and wasn't present in the interview), she informed me I will be art on a cart.

Now, the district had closed down multiple schools and merged some together. I will be getting 800 students, give or take for the second school, and 400 for the first school.

These two schools are also located 35 mins - 1 hr away from my home, which I do not enjoy at all!

I am tempted to say no, but I started applying so late, I am scared of not being able to find a job.

Any advice?

EDIT UPDATE: Hi all, I wanted to thank you all for your advice. I decided not to pursue this job after all. I haven't let them know since I am not too sure how to word my rejection. I am very worried since I am still on a job search, but how I looked at it this way, I rather be stressed for a couple of months rather than unhappy and burnt out for a year.

So, how can I professionally turn down this offer? I feel bad since I have been going back and forth with them for about three weeks.

hi hi i’m swapping from an elementary school to a middle school this fall & am STRUGGLING with how to switch up first day routines. last year i had students share what they thought a good art class room would look, sound & feel like to help make rules together & i can’t decide if that seems too childish to do with middle schoolers.

Hello! I am a new teacher and was asked to teach four sections of a digital photography class in the fall. The admin has asked that it be a bit more "creative" so we're going to shift to a mixed-media style new media class. Students will have chances to create hand drawn animations and to answer leading questions such as "how can you depict motion in a still image" in class.

I am looking for tips from other teachers on how to help the students take interesting photos with our dslr cameras in a school setting. The students will complete "skillerbuilder" assignments with cellphones cameras outside of school but how can I give them the chance to take interesting photos in the classroom?

I might have to do a demo lesson soon *fingers crossed* and Ive never done one before. Im generally nervous about the whole thing but Im particularly nervous about looking like I dont have control over the room. Im a little soft spoken. "One ,two ,three eyes on me...." has worked well for me with the kids I currently work with but Ive never had to actually introduce that attention getter to them because its what was being used before I started working there. So is introducing an attention getter worth doing for a (probably) 30 min demo lesson?

Also for people that have done demo lessons before ,what's a simple but engaging lesson idea that they can finish in a short time. Ive been doing so many multiday or one hour lessons that Im drawing a blank right now. (Grades can be anything from k-MS I dont know what I will get for the demo)

Hi! I started teaching fiber art at a fancy private school’s summer program recently. I have a small class of students aged 9-11. Today a new boy was introduced to our all-female class. He is Chinese and isn’t confident with his English. I instruct him one-on-one so he can get his stitches done correctly, but he doesn't want to share with the class (even about topics he likes) or play with his classmates. How can I help him feel included?

I taught HS ELA for 8 years in some very tough schools, then wrote ELA curriculum around DEI for 4 years. Last year, I started working on my visual arts k-12 cert, got my conditional, and was offered a job last week with an alternative HS teaching art. I'm not a romantic about the state of education, but I can say that I may have just landed one of my dream jobs.

I'm extremely confident and skilled at classroom management and curriculum design, BUT I haven't been in an art room since I was in high school myself. At my last job, where I worked for the largest high school in the state, I piloted pbl for senior ELA, and piloted workshop model (it's hard to believe they weren't already doing that) at the freshman level. So I feel good about what I bring, but I'm losing confidence because of my lack of experience with my new area. I'm back to a place where I have no expertise, and that's scary for me.

For the first week, I thought we'd start with a silhouette style "identity portrait," where students begin working right away. That's always been my approach: we start with a project that helps us get to know each other, talking about rules and expectations as we go. I thought this was a good start because I have no idea what supplies I have available, and it's easy to do with paper and crayons or pencils. I figured we'd learn expectations while we're working, and I figure kids might like a break from all the ice breakers. I am moving toward the TAB model, which parallels my "guide on the side" teaching philosophy. I plan to ask students what they're interested in doing this year, and offering workshops.

In English class, I used to read Ken Liu's short story "The Paper Menagerie," and students would vote on a class origami figure, then look up instructions and help each other make them. It was a lesson on doing a hard thing, relying on each other, and also on self-directed learning, because I'd be learning the figure along with them. We then decorated our room with all the figures they made as a reminder of how they were able to meet a challenge. That's always just been my approach, and it's worked out well for me and my students. I feel like my silhouette lesson isn't as good as my origami first-day lesson, so maybe somebody can offer advice on how I can make it better?

I thought I'd have student pairs doing the silhouettes for each other, while I go over my example and provide a framework for the process, and then, while the students are waiting their turn to trace silhouettes, they can brainstorm the components of their identity portrait. After a few classes, we should have some nice portraits ready to hang.

Thoughts?

hello i’ll be teaching pk-4th and i am trying to figure out ways to do rewards wether it be candy/ squishies/pencils what do yall do that works best for you ?

Hi!

I’m working on creating a basic plan for my first year of teaching art to PreK-5th grade. Right now, I look like this as I have sticky notes with scribbled ideas covering my dining room table.

I’m confident in creating and teaching lessons, but I’m debating whether to develop unique lessons for each grade within a shared theme or to group grades and use similar lessons with modifications for older students. For example, I could group K&1, 2&3, and 4&5 together.

I lean towards creating different lessons for each grade. This way, I can avoid repeating lessons in subsequent years. If I use the same lesson for two grades, I’ll need to create a two-year rotation (A and B years) to prevent repetition I guess. I just have ideas written out but am now noticing that it would be easier for each grade to do a unique project with grouped themes rather than just carrying lessons for both grades idk!

For example, I love a 5th-grade lesson I've done during internships about community, where students make clay envelopes representing what they want to bring with them to 6th grade. I wouldn’t want to do this with 4th grade, but I could create a related lesson for them, like making community posters advocating for something important to them.

I feel I'm not explaining my question very well lol so I’d love to hear how others have approached grouping lesson plans, or if you don't, how you create unique ones for each grade. Any advice or lesson ideas would be great!

Thanks!

Ita my first year and so to give myself a fun hobby for mental health I decided to make sculpey earrings based on things I'll be teaching. For the first week I have one that is the word Miss and the other will be the first letter of my last name to help the kids remember. This is a middle school position and maybe I'm overthinking and should just let my weird art teacher flag fly 😅

Hi all! I just recently transferred from a community college to a university. While doing a degree audit, my advisor informed me that it would take me 6 semesters to graduate (Spring 2027) with my BA. The program I’m in is Art Education with K-12 Licensing. I would receive teacher licensing and my last semester would be spent student teaching.

My plan is to be a high school art teacher and teach art at a college level (I plan to pursue my master’s at a later point.) I looked at the Art and Design major at my school and with the credits I currently have, it would only take me approximately 3 semesters to graduate with my BA.

Is it worth it to spend another year in college making up credits to get my Art Education degree? Or should I just do an Art and Design degree and take an alternative pathway to be a teacher?

If it helps, I currently teach art classes at my job to kids ages 11-17, so I have some experience.

Edited for typos.

Hey everybody! I just got hired as a high school art teacher in Virginia and I’m struggling with lesson planning and curriculum. Does anyone have any advice they with they knew starting out or curriculum/ideas sites I could use for lesson planning? Or even another good subreddit for art teachers! I’m running low on time until school starts and this is a dream job for me but I’m on my own and feeling unprepared. Anything is appreciated💕!

As a first-year teacher (going into my second) I missed the initial weeks of school due to a late start last year. I am aware of the significance of the first few weeks...

Could you kindly share your plans for the first two or three weeks? What will you be going over or teaching. How will you be doing that? What things will you do to keep them engaged? When do you start your first lesson? I instruct Prek-8th grade, with the same middle school classes daily. I am attempting to avoid overthinking it, but I feel overburdened and concerned about how to approach my lessons for the upcoming term. I have the feeling that time is running out and I'm stuck.

I have a lot of ideas but I can’t organize my thoughts. (Neurospicy)

Not sure if this post has repeated.

Hi art teachers!

I've been working on MixColors.app, an interactive game designed to teach color mixing and color theory. It's simple and engaging, but I’d love to get your expert feedback and ideas for improvement. Obviously it's a little game for younger kids, but I'd love to see what this community things.

Current features:

• Top left and top right colors mix to create the bottom color.
• Click the top colors to generate new random colors, or manually select colors for different combinations.
• Click the bottom color for a new random mix.

How can I make this tool more useful for your art classes? Is that even realistic? Any suggestions or features you'd like to see?

Thanks in advance for your input!

I'm wanting to focus on teaching visual literacy, but a lot of books I've found on the topic seem to be more about literacy using visuals. What are some good options for fine art focused visual literacy?

Hey again art teachers!

New art teacher starting soon. I wanted to ask what type of clothing is acceptable for this job? I usually dress very casual, jeans and t shirt. I got some business casual clothes but not a lot. I'm femme presenting but prefer more gender neutral clothes so no skirts, dresses, no heels or flats. What types of outfits do yall usually wear to work?

Thank you!

Hi 👋 I'm restocking my studio and have an excess of yellow markers but no other colors. Ideas for projects or creative ways to use up yellow markers so that they don't go to waste. I have an entire bin 🤯

I got a position at a school that heavily loves ceramics. They have wheels and a pug mill even. I haven’t done clay in a while and have no idea how the flow of the room should be for clay. (I have a whole room separate from the normal art room just for clay) Any tips of room set up/flow, teaching or anything would be appreciated!

Edit: Thank you everyone who took the time to comment! My class today was far better than the first one, the kids were engaging and managed to understand the lesson using hands on work instead of step by step processes. Also thank you to the person who suggested Play-Doh as a winding down activity, I managed to make some for the whole class and they absolutely loved it! Overall thank you all for the advice, now if only I could get them to clean up on time haha but that's for another time.

Hi, everyone, for context I'm not a certified art teacher (yet), I have experience mainly teaching high schoolers and middle schoolers and some experience lesson planning, but right now I'm teaching an art class for elementary school kids (ages 4-6) at a summer camp, nothing's graded, they just want the kids to have fun and learn the basics. My most recent class, the kids didn't understand the lesson and after 5 minutes they didn't want to do it anymore and only wanted to draw certain things. I kinda folded and had them draw their own things but told the counselors to make sure they're practicing shapes, half the class did, but I felt like it was unsuccessful. Does anyone have a similar experience? If so what did you do about it, how did you get your kids to engage with the activity? What method did you find effective?

I’m currently prepping to teach middle school (6,7,8) and I wanted to know if there were any school appropriate playlists or song suggestions I could use during the work periods. I have a hard time sitting in silence and wanted there to be options. Should I ask kids for suggestions? Any advice would be appreciated!

Hey art teachers,

I recently got a job as an art teacher. I don't have classroom experience and have a background in art but not in education. I teach art lessons for adults and teens so I know how to run through a lesson but the classroom setting will be new to me. I need some tips and advice for this from some folks if you can! Age is grade school.

Do they provide a base curriculum or will I be expected to show up day 1 with a full curriculum? Will they provide supplies and what do I need to cover on my end?

I'm super overwhelmed, but also excited to start the job! I think I'll love it, I'm just nervous to get my feet in the door. I have about a million ideas for cool projects for the kiddos but I don't want to overwhelm myself or the students. Tips super appreciated! 😄

Hi, all!
As summer (sadly) nears its end for my district, I'm looking to revamp my classroom organization for next year. I currently have two full-time buildings (there 2-3 days) and one half-day building (shared space, not something I organize/decorate).

I use the standard three "pocket" plastic caddies at my schools currently, but it's a struggle to ensure all of my students can access the baskets as needed. We have 6 tables with 5 chairs (2 on long ends, 1 at the head) in both of my rooms. I'm looking for those rotating/lazy susan baskets, but they all seem to be $20+ PER BASKET, and I simply cannot swing $20 x 12 tables. Has anyone done this as a DIY by putting a caddy on a normal kitchen lazy susan??

Does anyone have a table organization method they love? The baskets are fine, but I hate the arguments that happen when student X is trying to get a pencil, but student Y has the basket in front of them to get their supplies, etc etc...it's just too much time wasted. I'd also like to find a way to store more supplies at their tables (glue, scissors, extra paper), but I'm worried that small carts would be too much to maintain (and also expensive).

Last year a lot of students in my HS Art 1 class gave off the impression that they seemed to think I wasn’t doing enough. This isn’t something they said verbatim, it was more of a feeling I got from them.

Just an Example:
I taught middle school for over a decade and I know that students can really develop their observational and fine motor skills by practicing still life drawings. I used to leave out still life objects and have students draw every day for 5 minutes as a “bell ringer”(start of class activity). I never taught them how to draw a flower or animal bone or whatever still life was there…however, I did talk them through the process of breaking the objects down into shapes and how to sketch lightly to plan their drawing…in middle school that was enough! They could sit for 5 minutes quietly and draw and their drawings almost all improved just through this 5 min a day. I tried this last year in my High School class and almost all I got was students telling me “I don’t know how to draw a flower.” I tried to help by breaking the object down into shapes for them, but then a lot of times they will look at me helplessly like this isn’t what they want, they want me to literally just tell them how to draw a flower. I’ve seen kids sneak look at online videos for little kids of “How to draw a flower step by step” while they are doing a still life flower. I even had a few students huff at me and say things like “I’ll just find a video…” when I begin to show them how to observe things as shapes…

With every single activity/project we did it was like this for a majority of students. I got the feeling that the way I taught (successfully for so long at the middle school level) just wasn’t enough or what these students expected. It was like they expected me to be a fountain of 20 second “how to draw videos”, or something…

Is this just a 2024 thing, a MS vs HS thing, or what? What changed? How do you handle students in your class who seem to expect something they don’t get from your class?

Hi there!

I’m in my 7th year teaching middle school. I teach “digital art” (Using quotations because no one in my school seems to know what this means. Including me). No one have ever told me or clarified what this class should actually be.

This year I have been tasked with teaching only digital art. No traditional classes. I need help making this class fun! I have been focusing a lot of digital drawing and painting but the kids just seem bored and I want to do better this year. I’m bored, so they have to be bored. Help me spice it up. The kids are 1:1 iPads. We also have procreate and stylus’ for all the kids.

Help me with ideas! What projects do you do? Bonus points if you have ideas that give them physical products in the end!

Some things that I do/plan on doing this year are:

7th grade: Snapchat geo filter design, Temporary tattoo design, GIF creation

8th grade: Sticker set design, Coloring page design, Character story board