Hi there! I have been teaching art for 6 years now but I still have never figured out how to get tempera paint out of clothes. I used to use student grade Blick paint and now I am using sax versatemps. I figure if I cant get it out of my clothes then it must be ruining student clothes oops!

I am currently working on getting certified to teach art in my state. I’m applying to jobs and I’d like to have some lesson plans to take with me to interviews. How detailed does a lesson plan need to be? Should it just be some ideas I have for classes or something more detailed? Im in unfamiliar territory here.

Students created 3D models of food trucks and a group of African American students painted a watermelon on the side of the truck as their logo. The truck reflected a food menu of foods from their culture. A parent complaint was reported because they viewed it as offensive. When it was brought to the students’ attention, they explained that their image had nothing to do with the stereotype (they were all familiar with the image in history). They did not use the image for any other reason than to show one of the foods they were serving. How would you as the art teacher handle this? Administration had them paint over the image.

oh hi there! i was curious to know if anyone who has recently taken this test had a big difference in their unofficial score vs official score for praxis 5134? or did your score change at all?

i passed with my unofficial score and am waiting for the official results but thought someone here might have some insight to my question.

thanks in advance!

Hi! I’ve taught elementary art for the past five years, but I’m burned out and interested in trying something new. Would love to hear what types of positions art teachers have sought after leaving the classroom?

Hey y'all I wanted to get a feel for this here, I graduated college with my bachelor's in art ed last December and started teaching right away, I did an elementary-middle school split where I taught at both everyday for half the day, it was in a pretty bad part of town and there was frequent violence and lockdowns, I broke up a lot of fights.

I now teach elementary only but I'm still split between two schools (two days at each with an alternating day each week) and it's just exhausting from an organizational perspective, I'm hauling so much shit between the schools, I'm having to make different curriculum for each school because one is worse than the other behavior wise (both are bad!) and we keep losing teachers and TAs so I end up teaching combined classes with no help (pre k+K+another K or 2 gen Ed 4th graders ECT...) Some of the kids are really resistive and just defiant by nature and I want art class to be fun and easier for me too!

I'm thinking about how I could try and do a TAB set up, these kids are heavily controlled and told what to do and how to do it at all times and struggle often with making their own work or they so badly want to just do their own thing they flip out when they learn we are painting that day instead of using the pastels like they wanted.

One of the biggest issues is just some of these kids can not be near each other and I really worry about that for a TAB set up because they all talk about freedom of movement but these kids will spend all their time insulting each other and just being vicious to each other of they aren't separated and kept quiet or close to silent, they are kept that way in their homerooms too and it's kinda like trouble can start at any second, I frequently break up fights and their homeroom teachers do too. I'm making it work for better or worse, it's not falling apart or anything and the kids are working but it's just incredibly draining and stressful, I think I might end up having to be back at both schools next year and I want this to be easier, I just can't keep doing this it's just too much.

Some kids do super well when they are given freedom and get super engaged to the point where they stop talking and fighting and just do their work but there's just so much going on and so much change at all times I don't know what to do for trying to implement a TAB system, I can't imagine having centers or anything but I know while what I'm doing is technically working it's not long term viable, I'm just really trying to make it to the end of the year really!

Hi art ed! I am in the process of deciding between 3 schools for my master's in art education, and I am worried I might make the wrong choice (all 3 lead to certification.)

• Reasonably priced MA in Art Ed at a city college
• Reasonably priced General MST (with a focus on Visual Arts) at a liberal arts school with a more general teaching program that focuses in on "how to teach kids" (psychology/methods/culturally responsive teaching)
• A fancy art school

I wonder if my job prospects are better if I have a general master's in teaching MST rather than an MA in Art ED? (I already have an art-focused undergrad BFA.) Classroom management is one of my biggest weaknesses so I am drawn to the General MST with a light focus on Visual Arts.

BUT, one of my big worries about choosing the general MST program is not having enough resources to create a curriculum that actually draws students in. In that case, classroom management would go out the window anyway because students are not actually invested in the work. I feel like the more I teach art, the more I need to really dig into how to do it well. In the MA I will be building curriculum with other candidates and feel these resources would actually help.

Finally, I feel drawn to affordable schools, but I wonder if my future job prospects are better if I go for the big-name art school? They have a big focus on digital art which is a plus.

I feel like there are positives to all three programs, and I am not really sure what admin is looking for when hiring teachers (especially art teachers.) I am torn because I am aware of the salary differential among teachers in the U.S. I just want to make a living wage and if that means shelling out the $ now I guess I would do it?

I think this question might seem silly, but it is really causing me stress. Any thoughts are appreciated!! -And thanks for reading

Every year my principal has a particular thing she hyperfocuses on. This year it is what my early finishers are doing with their time.

My grade 3-5 elementary classes all have sketchbooks that, when finished with a project early, they can work in for "free draw" time. This is of course after I approve that they completed their artwork. I also have how to draw books available and coloring pages for those who rather do some stress free coloring.

Well this is just not good enough for admin. While it was praised that students knew what to do when they finished a project, they should instead be working on an extension of the project. The free choice time that students love, and allows them to explore their creativity, must instead be turned into a structured task related to something they've already accomplished. Not to mention I'd basically have to plan two lesson.

No, I can't try to explain it to admin because they expect everything they see to fit into the gen ed box. But I needed somewhere to share this and see if anyone else has similar experiences.

Time to explore and play being frowned upon is another thing that depresses me about this career.

How would you have handled this?

I was subbing for my CT today because she is ill (was a sub before I began student teaching, so already cleared and I don't use sub hours toward my course hours). I had a kindergarten class consisting of 19 students from one class, plus 3 from self-contained. All three tend to roam the room, and when my CT and I are in this class together, we are generally able to redirect the three inclusion students to participate while assisting the other students as well.

Well, today I had one of the inclusion kids wandering around and playing with materials, one going back and forth between working on the assignment and trying to turn the Sharp screen on and off ..and one who pulled all of the books from the bookshelf in between grabbing another student's hair and banging on my computer. Meanwhile, the rest of the class needed ongoing assistance and monitoring with the day's activity. Since I was attempting to engage two wanderers and redirect the student pulling books down and messing with the computer, the other students began leaving their seats to bring their materials to me for help. And one sweet boy dumped half a bottle of glue into his hands. 🙃

I always try my absolute best to provide differentiation in lessons and assist everyone according to their needs. The activity provided student choice and multiple modes of expression to try to engage everyone. And this is the first time this has ever happened in 2.5 years of subbing. But I ended up calling the teacher for the self-contained room to come and get the student who was grabbing books/hair/computer.

I really do believe in providing LRE, but I felt that at this point, the majority of the class was being negatively affected by the disruption and losing any kind of meaningful instruction. At the same time, that student also did not get anything out of their one day in art for the next 2 weeks.

Any advice on how I could have handled this differently instead of sending a student out of the classroom?

*cross posted in r/CanadianTeachers
I am a current BEd student researching secondary art curriculums across Canada, and I was wondering if there are any teachers in Alberta that could maybe answer a few questions about the current Art curriculum.

The only Program Guide (is this the correct term for the curriculum document for Art 10-20-30?) I could find appears to be from 1986. Is this the most up-to-date Program Guide that teachers are using?

In other provinces, the terms "General Curriculum Outcomes (GCO's)" and "Specific Curriculum Outcomes (SCO's)" are used and indicated in the Curriculum Guides in order to have clear assessments. Would you say the equivalent for Alberta's Program Guide would be "Goals" and "Objectives?"

Finally, what would you say is a strength of Alberta's Art curriculum? I know this is subjective- but when I've spoken to other teachers, we tend to dwell on the negatives and I'm hoping to find some positives in order to recommend improvements for other provincial curriculums.

Has anyone here done the year long art 21 educators cohort program?? If so, what did you like? And what did you not like? Thanks!

I posted on here a couple weeks ago and I really appreciated the feedback I got.

I'm graduating at the end of this year with a degree in film. I want to set myself up as a freelance art teacher and DONT know where to start, like at all. For the past five years, I've been gathering experience teaching by volunteering at schools - a prison one time, I've created my own art teaching curriculum and piloted a youth community program, done teaching research, and most recently I'm an after school teacher. It's a good amount of experience but by no means is it a California teaching credential.

I'm trying to get a position this summer at a summer camp of some sort to really cement my experience as an art teacher - with the hopes that will be the "final" boost to my resume to really give me the appeal to employers and maybe lead to further opportunities. Plus I would like a little more experience before I stand in front of a classroom completely by myself.

I decided I wanted to be a FREELANCE art teacher like, a few months ago. It just made sense as I looked back at all my past experiences and even my art - there was always a teaching and community component. Freelance is a key word here because I still want(and NEED) that flexibility to explore my other interests (and my art), and live the life I want. But how does one find opportunities. What are even the choices possible - is what I desire even possible? I only remember the art teachers I had throughout my k-12 education, and they were all full-time staff. There's college teacher - but that's like if you're far in your career... Appreciate y'alls response in advance.

TL;DR - how do you become a freelance art teacher? where are the jobs - is there some kind of list you subscribe too to find opportunities? Do I need a credential?

I just made a group specifically for art professors, r/artprofs, for discussing and sharing considerations of teaching that are unique to higher education. Please join if you are interested!

Hi all! I’m always curious how other elementary art teachers balance out their curriculum or really lessons or “projects”??? For example, if fifth grade is doing something involved like printmaking, what do you have K-4 do? For my sanity, and other logistics, I can’t have them all printmaking. (Not to mention 5th is super slow and will take a month or longer to do a printmaking unit, and kinder will be done in a week or two lol.)

Here’s my big picture so far . . . I’ve come up with seasonal themes. For example, I have three K-2 binders: fall, winter, spring. Fall is building up the basics: a variety of projects that teach line, color, and texture. Winter is shape, portraits, and functional/cultural art. Spring is more about space and composition (balance, symmetry, etc.) along with clay. 3-5 is similar vocab, just more advanced. I infuse a lot of diverse artists too. Really the elements and principles are just the way I organize it. I also do inquiry-based, so I am somewhere inbetween choice-based and teacher-driven.

This last trimester of the year is great because students now have the knowledge to take on things like clay, printmaking, weaving, etc. HOWEVER, it is way too much for me to do that many special projects at once. Especially because I teach 6 classes a day with very little transition time.

I’ve been teaching art for 14 years, yet many job changes plus the pandemic has made it difficult to come up with a consistent program.

Thank you!!!! I hope this all makes sense!

I decided to do a mini printmaking studio with 6th graders but my first day of block classes went horrible and now I'm stressed. I need to repeat the lesson on Monday to my next block and need it to go better. I can only have 5 kids out of 30ish print at once. I had other activities for the rest of the class to do while kids were printing but if they were off task it was pulling me away from the students that were printing. I demo'ed the process first, talked through expectations, and had printing students show the next group how to do it and it still was off the rails. Didn't help it was a Friday and we still have a week before spring break so the kids are nuts. I had to stop kids from shoving each other, wandering around the room, and crowding the printing table. I even had one girl put ink in her mouth after she read the non-toxic label...I mean wtf. To make matters worse I have a formal observation mid-week and now I'm doubting this whole unit. Please help me with any procedure tips or sponge activities for the kids not printing. I'm stressed!!

I have a TON that admin ordered and I have no idea what to do with it/what sorts of activities my 5th-8th graders might enjoy.

For context I’m a long term art sub with no experience. I’d love for them to make something they can take home but it’s non-hardening and I don’t have access to an oven anyways.

Any ideas/advice?

Thanks!!

How do you navigate displaying student work?

1. I have a school of 300 kids (elementary and junior high) and one bulletin board so clearly I can't hang all student work. However, there might be some extra wall space that I can use. How do you decide what is displayed and what isn't?

2. The junior high students don't want their work displayed. I think they've done a great job for the most part so I'd like to hang their work in the school. I basically told them that I'm going to display it whether they want me to or not, but I don't want to stress anyone out and make them feel uncomfortable. Do you deal with this? How do you navigate it?

Me and a second teacher were just given the go ahead to develop and submit a class for digital arts. However, we already have digital photography and video production that basically uses the designated resources that one would need for a digital arts class.

Does anyone have any experience with non-desktop tools in the classroom? Obviously iPads and Procreate would be the go-to, but I am wondering if there are any other more cost friendly options. We have been pushing for a digital arts program for a while and have met resistance, so we want to try and prevent it from becoming "too costly" an investment.

Thoughts or experiences?

I’m graduating from Columbia college with a BA this semester, and I’m moving to the middle of a cornfield afterwards. Could I get some recommendations for some schools that offer a masters in art education that is online? I want to be an elementary level art teacher, but going through the process of getting my PEL seems pointless if I can get a masters in art education (kill two birds with one stone because I would be able to teach at the college level as well) program has to be online unfortunately, and as far as cost, I’m pretty open but I’d like to keep it more on the inexpensive side.

I need to take the art praxis in the next month or so. How much time do I need to set aside to study? I have been told that The Annotated Mona Lisa is the best way to study for art history on the test. What about Khan academy’s art section? And lastly, what would you recommend studying for the rest of the test?

Hey all! I have somehow found my way into a middle school art teaching position even though I did my student teaching in English. I have an art background but teaching it is waaaay different, SO if this comes off as a stupid question that's why.

When you're teaching acrylic painting, what material do you typically have students paint on? I don't think canvas or canvas pad for 30 kids is practical ($$), but also is any specific kind of paper sturdy enough for it?

For context, I work in a district that doesn't ask students to buy supplies, we provide them, and I am a part time teacher working with two full time teachers who have had first dibs on the budget so I gotta keep it lean.