I want some imput and advice. I teach 9th grade Art 1, my 2nd year teaching. This year has been going well so far with kids wanting to try more challenging art. I noticed the students use a website to create an AI image of their ideas in the most recent project. We are about to talk about references and how to use them creatively. I really want to talk about trying to find real photos/ taking your own photos/ looking at expert artists as references.

My thing I need advice on is how to go about the lesson/ discussion. The primary problem I am facing is even if they look up images on like Google or Pinterest it is oversaturated with AI already and they cannot distinguish the difference.

1. Is Art 1 appropriate for a discussion on AI (like the students understanding it or should it be an Art 2 discussion with students who are more invested in their own art.)
2. How to go about discussing references and how to use them.

3.How do you navigate AI art in your classes? 4.Do you have websites you use for real images and references? ( I'll take all of them from human anatomy to landscapes)

Thank you! I really appreciate your help on this topic :) (Just for clarity I also posted this on R/Teachers as well)

How do you store air dry clay? I tried sealing it in air tight plastic bags and it still dried up! I’m not sure if I’m just not making it air tight enough or if there’s another way? Any advice??

My MS students are constantly wanting to look up reference images on their phones, which easily derails into just messing around on their phone. I don't have a printer in my room, and the staff printer is on the opposite side of the school, so I can't easily just print off what they want in class.

I'd love to hear what books or other reusable print resources that you have used with your students to reference!

I’m a student teacher for highschool art. I was for elementary school punishing was easy “do we really think that’s a good idea?” The actual “no”.

But high schoolers they don’t care! It doesn’t help I’m 5 foot and they all tower over me. I don’t want to treat them like elementary kids. What do you all do? Biggest issues is phones and talking rather working

i take my praxis tomorrow afternoon, ive been studying nonstop for the past 2 weeks and i’ve learned so much but i still dont think im gonna pass. i dont know how to physically study more, its so broad and i cant just teach myself everything.

i took the ets practice test form 1 last weekend and got a 65, and then studied my wrong answers and now im consistently getting 96s which is great but i doubt those exact questions will be on my test. like, i dont think i actually learned much from that i just memorized the answers to the questions.

so i spent all week learning all i could about printmaking, basket weaving, and a bunch of art history. ive taught myself over 300 terms at this point and memorized them all. i used the official ets study companion. but i just took the form 2 practice test and got a 67…. how??

its absolutely the art history bringing me down. these questions are so insanely specific. i took 7 art history courses in college and im still finding things ive never heard of in my entire life.

im going to now review my answers for form 2 and memorize them, but i feel like tomorrow’s test is still gonna bring up new topics ive never once heard of.

edit: just wanna let everyone know i passed by one point!!! but a pass is a pass!!!! minimum score in my state is 158 and i got 159!

I’ve recently taken a job as a HS art teacher at a school without an existing art program. The schools received a grant to establish an art program and they’ve advised me to run wild with my supply list and look for “big ticket” items. I’ve not been told what the budget is but I’ve no idea what to even consider.

I’ve looked at standing easels, Wacom tablets, light tables, portable sinks, archival printers. Not sure what to look at. Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated.

We’re primarily focusing on studio art (i.e. drawing/illustration, watercolor, pastels and charcoals.)

They drive me insane. Constantly breeding chaos. I dread having them at the end on the day every day. Throwing things, messing with other students, just constantly acting up. I feel powerless. Any one else relate?

Mods, can we make a pinned thread of schools? I know this is a repeat question - I apologize.

I’m looking into the online MA at UMassD. I’m in Connecticut and can advantage of the New England tuition, but I’m having a hard time finding any information about this program. Has anyone done it? My state doesn’t take AEOU before anyone asks.

PreK-6 art teacher. Hello, I have an electric sharpener, but only longer pencils can go in it without getting stuck, so I need to have a lot of little hand sharpeners at the kids' tables for any shorter pencils, and especially for colored pencils that are shorter.

So I bought a bunch of mini hand sharpeners, but they are seriously tiny, and they keep disappearing (I think kids are tucking them in their pockets). Also, they only sharpen No.2 size pencils, and I also have the wider MyPal pencils in my room (and some of the colored pencils are thicker as well). They also look like the little plastic sharpeners all the kids have from home, so there's no way for the classroom teachers to tell if they swiped one from my room.

Does anyone know of any larger hand sharpeners (large enough that would be hard to hide in a pocket), that are distinctive and unique-looking, so would be obvious it was from the art room? They'd have to work well, of course, and bonus points if they don't have a zillion little pieces that will come apart and break. I saw some cool-looking wood ones online, but I have no idea if they sharpen well.

If I can't find any that work well, I'm seriously just going to start hot gluing the little plastic ones to old rulers or something, to make them harder to steal and conceal!!!

I have fourth fifth and sixth grade after school four days a week. I see them each for 50 minutes and I’m having a tough time coming up with projects to fill that time.

It’s hard to think of lessons after teaching and i’ve been told we can’t do the same thing we’re working on in class. Are there any cheap engaging lessons that can fill up almost 4 hours a week?

How long did it take? What courses did you complete?

I already got my Masters and honestly thought that was it... Recently I was made aware of my county reimbursing tuition for professional development credits for the MA+30.

Since it's only my 2nd year I figured I'll take it easy on myself, but I'm just curious how long it would actually take. I saw one sculpture class being offered for credit, but not sure I'm ready to start getting back into that classroom setting as a student again (especially on some days after work!). I might consider if for next year since I wouldn't mind the pay increase.

today has been a hot mess. i’m about to start my second to last class and the first three had me want to pull my hair out. i started to feel drained and overwhelmed from students not following directions, misusing supplies, and putting hands on each other in an aggressive way. i dreaded the thought of staying another hour after school for my art club. it only has three students but my energy is just gone. POOF! i do feel guilty for canceling though and hate that may have made the students upset. was i wrong for canceling? all i want to do is go home and sleep and try again tomorrow.

I am thinking of doing a political propaganda art lesson with my high school students and my one advanced middle school student. We would talk about what political propaganda is and how it is used, the historical context behind it, and look at various points in history when political propaganda was used, different artistic techniques, and how they affect the meaning of the artwork. We would also discuss the ethical implications behind it.

I then want to have my students create their own art piece focusing on today's political climate. They would write a short artist's statement about their piece of art and then present both their artwork and statement to their classmates.

I am a little worried about what some of my students might create since I work in a rural, conservative area, but I want to teach my students that art has power and that they have a voice. Open to any and all suggestions on this.

I hate the one the school provides

Hi everyone.

I am starting at a new school and from what I’ve gathered from students as I’m starting mid year, is the last teacher had choices with resources on the assignments online. I am trying to follow this but I’m having a hard time because typically I do a lot of whole group instruction with techniques and so on. I think it’s also hard for me because I have two main routes right now for the unit I’m planning they can take and within those routes are also seemingly endless possibilities and I want them to understand they have ALOT of choices and also have some specific techniques and tutorials to do to work up to a creative project.

How are y’all structuring a choice based curriculum for hs?

I have also worked with pre-k through middle , for elementary I was mostly able to honor choices and allow kids to access various materials at the same time. With middle I did more structure but that was also because of the school and the number of students/ admin.

Also doesn’t anyone know where that post when about anchor charts and choices based art room for highschool? Could you link me because I can’t find it but I swore I saw it!

I teach at a K-5 elementary school. I am so tired of hearing all about Squid Game every single day since we got back from break 😭 I personally have watched and enjoyed the show, but it’s way inappropriate for children. And the obsession with this show spans all grades, including k and 1 (seriously, parents?).

Any time the kid’s have free art time, they’re making the ddakji game by folding and coloring papers (and then slamming them down as hard as they can). They’re using small balls of play doh to play gonggi. I’ve seen various drawings of characters in green tracksuits, characters with black masks and pink jumpsuits, etc. I had a kindergartener today using wooden blocks to recreate the “red light green light” game. I am sick of ittttt 😭

Anyone else having this issue? If I have to hear the phrase “I’m a legend, Thanos!” one more time it might set me offfff.

hi all,

this is my first year teaching, and i unfortunately have to break my contract and resign because i have to move. the area i live in currently is really expensive and my boyfriend was laid off in october. we have to move somewhere less expensive, so we don’t have much of a choice there. my salary doesn’t cover our cost of living :/

any advice for how i should go about resigning? if i do it within the next few days the school will have a month to find my replacement.

i also don’t have an interest in teaching again so i am not worried about any repercussions with my county if i break my contract

thanks!

My college has told us nothing about getting certified. Is there any advice you have for ether?

Have a 6 yr old who is looking for inspiration for a talent show submission. They want to do something that people will say woe I can’t believe a 6yr old did that.

Kindly drop suggestions

Hi! I’m doing my master thesis on women artist in education. You could help me a lot by answering my questions :-) What women artists are you teaching in your classes? What ages do you teach? Of the artist you introduce in class, what percent of them do you think are female? What country do you teach in?

Like the title says, and he’s in my intro painting class so how is this going to work when I teach color theory? We’re currently doing monochromatic portraits so they understand value and he randomly brought it up. Any advice?

I hate cleaning out the tiny circles in those paint pallets, is there a tool that's good for cleaning them. Also does anyone have any other cleaning hacks?

A student set their painting on a drawing that a student has been working VERY hard on. I know you can’t tell because it’s a close up of the problem area but the paint is on a very intricate drawing. How do I fix this??

Hi all,

This is going to be a LOT and a lot of ranting and rambling, so I really appreciate if you read it. TLDR at the end. Thank you in advance!

BACKSTORY: I teach art to 6th-8th graders at a charter school. I am a first year teacher. This has been a tumultuous school year already, with a multitude of incidents including someone bringing a gun to school last week that was just never brought up again. Recently our middle school and high school buildings also merged together because we were too broke to keep the middle school building and so now the middle schoolers are mixing with the high schoolers and it's a whole mess. I have some incredibly high-behavior students across all grades that don't have IEPs or paras or anything but are just a lot to deal with (stealing supplies, constant backtalk and interruptions, hurting other students, throwing supplies, etc) and the consequences are little to none. Basically a student might get detention but then all of their friends also have detention so it's not really a punishment, or they might get suspended but then hooray, they don't have to come to school! And there is just really a lack of support for the teachers (I know this is not just an issue at my school, I know this is nation wide where teachers are expected to be social workers, security guards, disciplinarians, friends, parents, etc) and I have really been feeling it lately. A few weeks ago for example I had a really bad panic attack (my first in many years- I am medicated for anxiety) because of a lot of behavior stuff that was happening during MAP testing which I was expected to proctor (a state test, by the way, and I was not instructed on how to proctor it effectively which led to so much freaking anxiety), among other things. I stayed during that day despite wanting to die and on top of everything it was my birthday (lol). The next day was equally bad and i had to leave early because of a panic attack. So anyways I have really been going through it.

Cut to today, it's the first day of quarter three and I had no idea I was going to have my same 8th graders again. Art isn't a required class for middle school so you would think people could CHOOSE to take it (that is how it was when I was in school) but instead you have a bunch of kids that would rather be in gym or whatever instead of being in my class). My first class of 8th graders is full of incredibly high-behavior kids. They do not listen to me at all, do not listen to redirection, they are constantly backtalking, throwing things, talking incredibly loudly, etc.

Three girls showed up 5 minutes late to class as usual and sat in the back by a stack of chairs (not a table, as I told them about 15 times). They continued to talk very loudly despite my reminding them that last week when they did this, I reached out to their parents. They continued refusing to move seats. I then had to go across the room to deal with another situation of 3 boys who were throwing playdough that they stole from a bookshelf; I asked them to give it to me because they clearly can't handle having it and being safe with it and one of them put it inside of his jacket literally in front of me and then pretended like I was crazy for asking for it. So that was really frustrating because I just constantly feel small and disrespected and like literally nobody listens to me at all.

So i honestly started tearing up because 15 minutes had passed and we still were on like the second slide and the kids who wanted to learn were suffering because this group of kids would't stay, and I am not allowed to kick them out of the classroom because they will straight up elope half of the time. Anyways I finally am able to get through most of the presentation (which was about graffiti, by the way, which I thought was cool) and then one of the girls goes over to one of the boys and pretends (except it looked real) to strangle him???? literally out of no where???? what the hell??? so I now have to deal with this situation and I basically have to message the school and be like um can someone come help with this except it's a miracle if anyone answers or takes it seriously because at any given time there are 400 other instances of this happening.

ANYWAYS i am finally passing out the work with about 15 minutes left of class, feeling awful and like a terrible teacher and person because I can't control this class, and I am also constantly having kids be like you haven't given me the work yet and complaining that I am being too slow when all of a sudden i feel something hard hit my back. And i know exactly what it was and who threw it. I don't even care if it was intended for me or not it is really the principle of the thing at this point.

So I am standing there obviously upset eyes closed trying to do my breathing exercises while the kids are still oblivious and asking me to give them the work and complaining that I am being too slow about it and BY THE WAY the whole time I am there I have a coteacher who sits in the back of the room and is the director of the entire program and has not once intervened despite my obvious suffering which I guess is on me for not straight up asking for help??? idk anyways I go to him and I start crying because again I am having a panic attack and I can't control it and I ask him to cover my class and I can hear one of the boys basically making fun of me in the back and I go sit outside in the middle of winter 11 degrees outside trying to calm myself down because I can't be there anymore and then I go back in and the kids are all staring at me which makes me start crying again and I just left school and came home and now I am seriously considering quitting because my mental and physical health is suffering but I have no idea what to do. I don't know if I should finish out the school year, request something (I don't even know all of the benefits I have because I can't get into the freaking website to check LOL and it isn't sending me the password reset email) or what the hell I should do but something has to change I am miserable.

TLDR: Had a really rough class today with high behaviors and a student threw something after being reminded about 100 times not to throw things and having it taken away (he stole some more) and it hit me in the back and I basically had a break down in front of my 20 students and went home and now I am incredibly embarrassed and have no idea what to do.

I’m an undergraduate in college studying Art History. Will get my BA in 2027.

Was wondering what internships I should be doing to get a competitive resume. Interested in elementary or high school teaching. Also can I teach Art with an Art History degree and not a Fine Art degree?

Practicing artist who teach, how do you maintain your practice/ set time aside to work on your own projects?

One of my biggest fears going into art education was not having anytime for my own practice. Currently I'm in my masters program (recieved my bfa in undergrad) and I'm observing classrooms, sometimes assisting the mentor teaching in organization and cleaning, or assisting students with feedback.

I worry at the end of the day I'll be too tired and get sloppy at my own practice? Any tips or advice is appreciated.