About Me

About Me...

I am a high school art teacher in Michigan. This is my eighth year of teaching and I've never loved it more. I also teach AP Art History and Art Appreciation for Michigan Virtual University. I recently completely revamped my curriculum, adding in three new classes. I now teach Art I, Art II, Advanced Art, AP Studio Art: 2D Design, Art History, 3D Sculpture, and Digital Photography. It has proved to be a tremendous year of growth as I stepped completely out of my comfort zone after years of teaching many of the same lessons I developed when I was student teaching. It has challenged by ideas about what is important to teach in art education and how best to do it. And what the role of technology needs to be in doing so.

I have always been a very traditional art educator. As others moved toward technology I stayed firmly planted in the land of graphite, charcoal, soft pastel, watercolor, acrylic, and oil paint. I wanted my students to have a strong grasp of the elements and principals of art and design. I wanted my students to have a good understanding of Art History, despite still not knowing how to best incorporate that into the art production end of things. I wanted to incorporate Art Criticism and reflection as well but had been at a loss of how to do that in a meaningful way.

As my school went 1:1 with iPads it seemed that I too needed to modernize my views on education, tap into the technology that students are already so familiar with by utilizing this resource that everyone now had access to. I have also recently gotten hooked on Twitter (what an amazing professional development resource!!!) as well as having been introduced to flipped learning. It turns out that the technology I resisted while stuck in my traditionalists ways might actually be the answer to all my questions and concerns about art education. In theory it will help me connect further with my students, help them continue to develop 21st century skills, and work in Art History and Art Criticism in meaningful ways without taking away from their art production time. Let's put theory into practice and see what happens. I'm staring small with my upcoming Art History class by incorporating flipped learning into how I format my instruction and working to incorporate the use of iPads as much as possible. Eventually I hope that the changes work their way into all of my classes by next fall. In my attempts to update my curriculum and my views on education it was suggested to me by a friend that I blog about my experience. I've decided that was a great suggestion so here we go.