Educated in Seattle

I am back home from attending the 2011 NAEA National Convention in Seattle. It was such a wonderful experience. Seattle is such an artsy place. Everywhere I went I enjoyed beautiful art work and sculptures. Chuhuily glasswork and prints adorned places like the motels and convention center. It was exciting to visit the Seattle Art Museum.

I visited the Seattle Central Library. It is 11 stories high made out of glass and steel. It was voted # 108 on the American Institutes of Architect’s 150 favorite structures. It is a work of art itself.

If you are a teacher and have never been to a National Convention, YOU MUST GO! It is so exciting is surrounded by thousands of Creative people just like you. That factor alone is worth going for. There are guest speakers, speak out sessions, and hands on workshops. There are tours available and special discounts to museums. 

The Crayola event was held at the Experience Music Project museum. There was a Jimi Hendrix sculpture consisting of a variety of instruments. The outside of the museum was iridescent colors. The largest moon visible to the earth was visible that night. Craylola had an exhibit of the Dream maker Visual Voices Contest displayed on the upper floor. I was proud to accept a plaque for my student Brayden during the award ceremony. The contest is an annual online gallery event that showcases art and writing from select students from across America. A few artworks are selected, framed, and then displayed in US Department of Education Buildings. I would personally like to thank Crayola for their support of art educators and the art education programs. They are offering a grant now to a select few schools for participating schools to use an integrated art curriculum. You can get more information at the Crayola Website. The Crayola event provided teachers a place to try out products and offered a sweet treat bar. Thanks for being so sweet, Crayola!

Many different vendors set up and gave away numerous samples of art supplies and showcased new products. Some offered opportunities to make and take projects. Another big shout out thank you should go out to all of the hard work and support from the various vendors.

I attended many good sessions and I will try to sum up my thoughts on what I learned. I think that all educators are facing difficult times ahead. Seems like there is always some type of movements on the horizon. Everyone agrees that the children deserve to be taught in a way that will teach the whole child. We as art educators should be at the forefront being mentors of our schools curriculum changes. We need to be a part of the changes by giving our ideas and suggestions to policymakers. We are the creative thinkers and problem solvers; we need to unleash our voices.

However, the new curriculum guidelines are being set, and we need to go ahead and be prepared for the changes. I attended a wonderful session by Jeryl Hollingsworth and she shared the way she keeps e-portfolios. At the beginning of the year, she has all students draw a self-portrait of themselves and they draw another one at the end of the school year. She keeps these portfolios and they move up with the children each year. She keeps them in alphabetical order by grade. That way, each year you only have to add the new students and will always have their files. The files will move up with them on through high school. The art can be compared, and improvement can be measured, by observing the drawings. You can add more artwork throughout the year. Several teachers that already have these e-files of artworks can also use the images to upload to the Artsonia website. Artsonia allows another way of storing students artwork and family members will have access to the artwork and can buy items with their child’s art at anytime. The teacher gets a percentage of sales to buy more art supplies for the classroom. For more information, check out their website at http://www.artsonia.com. You can go to the NAEA convention presenters link to find out more information on Jeryl’s presentation.

Another class I attended was concerned with every child and their right to express their self freely without always having a concrete desired outcome. In Spontaneous Painting, they referred to how every person is born with a creative instinct. Teachers need to find ways to guide children to tap into that powerful creativity from within. Even children have many stressful situations that they deal with on a daily basis. Creativity allows one to problem solve and find unique solutions to everyday life events. We cannot only teach children to answer the same way on a test. Students need to learn to take they knowledge they learn and how to put it to use. Student learning needs to be a collaborative event between all teachers no matter what subjects they teach. They need to see the relevance and commonality of the information given to them. One suggestion was to have a notebook or journal where students can come into class, listen to soothing music, (without talking) and to simply write how they are feeling that day. Whether they are happy, sad, or confused, they need to learn how to put it in writing for their (and teachers) eyes only. They may draw to express that feeling. This can be a warm up session before starting a lesson. The teacher can look at their work and words and they will know that they are not alone and someone else is aware of how they feel.

The world of teaching is ever changing and we need to roll with the tide. Attending the convention reinforces the fact that you are not alone. There is this grand network of educators that are willing to share their experiences with you. It is a great springboard for bouncing off ideas from each other and a way to renew your enthusiasm for teaching. We, as art educators, know how important our job is. We just need to tell the world how important it is. Let your Creative Voice be heard. Please “Step Up and Speak Out for Art Education” with me.  

Your Voice is needed! Please submit ideas on how you or your state will expect you to show student growth for the new evaluation standards process.

-Jackie Spaulding-Wright