Prepare for Art Teachering Success!

by Elizabeth Van Allen for scribblesbyartteachervanallen.blogspot.com

Being a good teacher is hard work, but being a successful teacher takes some serious trial-and-error.  As a gift to other art teachers out there, I'd like to share ten tips and hard-learned lessons I've learned that make my everyday teacherin' life a little bit easier.  Everyone makes mistakes (see #10), but in sharing my experiences I hope to help other teachers enjoy more moments of success and better preservation of their sanity.

Preparing to Succeed: 

An Art Teacher's Guide

My grab-and-go kit: Rory's Story Cubes,
color & shape bingo, Beautiful Oops, paper,
instructions for simple book making projects,
crayons, colored pencils, and coloring pages.

1. Have a grab-and-go class coverage kit ready at all times
When another teacher's parent conference or last-minute absence happens during your prep period, you might get called on to cover their class.  Getting advance notice of a coverage is often a luxury, so prepare yourself with activities that are suitable for a variety of ages and are easy to modify!

2. Always leave your classroom sub-ready

You never know what is going to happen after you exit school for the day, so make sure that nothing is left to chance.  Lock up things that are not for students, have sub plans easily accessible, and make sure the room is tidy.

3. Streamline your paperwork

I like to have frequently used data at my fingertips.  Behavioral notes & attendance are on my seating chart, and contact info & grades are on a roster sheet.  The pages face each other in my binder for easy access.

4. Find an organizational system that is easy to maintain, then stick with it

Have easy-to-understand systems for organizing student work, paperwork, and student procedures. Being disorganized in an art room is like trying to clean up a gallon of paint with one paper towel.  It might work eventually, but you'll have a heck of a mess on your hands!

5. Keep guidelines clear and simple
When you clearly post simple rules and procedures, you eliminate confusion and frustration for you and your students!

6. If a student can do something, let them

There is no reason to clutter your mind with project distribution when you are tasked with facilitating the education of 30+ students while also keeping them safe.  Use your first few classes to teach and reinforce classroom rules adn procedures, then hold them accountable.  Make your classroom a more student-driven educational environment while keeping your eyes and ears open for teachable moments and potential issues!

7. Common sense is not the same for everyone

Positively worded rules get better results!

Dictionary.com defines common sense as sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence.  Remember: sound and practical looks very different to an adult from the suburbs than it does to child from the inner city. 

8. Become indispensable
When school and district budgets get tight, art education is one of the first areas to get cut.  This is often due to the perceived expense of running a quality program.  Make yourself an important part of your school's culture and a valued member of the school community by volunteering for initiatives and building committees.  Being an intrenched, highly visible, and POSITIVE influence makes keeping you in your position a higher priority.

My art advocacy bulletin board 
features Eisner, Gardner, and 
tons of art-based career choices!

9. Be an informed advocate
Advocating for your subject, program, and students makes you a force for positive change.  Gandhi is often quoted as having said "Be the change you wish to see in world." Show, tell, and demonstrate why and how art is important, but check your facts first.  If you're not sure where to start, try looking up the philosophy research of Elliot Eisner through reading his work or hearing him speak.  You can also print a copy of his 10 lessons the arts teach to post in your classroom!

10. Learn from your mistakes
We all make mistakes, it's part of life.  The biggest mistake that I made during my first few years as an art teacher was taking myself too seriously.  It stunted the development of my relationships with both my students and other adults.  The first few years of teaching is hard enough as it is, I made my own life far more difficult than it should have been by leaving my sense of humor at home.  Recognize when you've made a mistake and take the time you need to reflect.  What went wrong?  How it could be fixed or done better in the future?  Ask for help when you need it and don't forget to celebrate your victories... you earned them!

Bonus tip: Test run every project with the exact same supplies that your students will be using.  It may be a pain in the neck, but troubleshooting your lessons in advance makes for a much smoother and enjoyable classroom experience for everyone!

What would you add to the list?

Share with us by commenting below!

“You're An Actual Teacher, Not Just An Art Teacher!”

by Elizabeth Van Allen 

for scribblesbyartteachervanallen.blogspot.com/

That statement, made by an English teacher, was honestly meant as a compliment. I decided to take it as it was intended. Until this was said to me, I didn't realize that my peers had no idea that my education in art and teaching was on par with or exceeded their own. I know that many art teachers (and music, PE, computers, etc.) often feel overlooked and under-appreciated. The truth is that we are required to be highly educated, qualified, and certified teaching professionals; often in more grade levels and with more subjects to cover than our 'core' teaching counterparts.

This all began near the beginning of the second semester when one of my co-workers was literally run over by a student who was chasing her friend around the classroom. The teacher ended up having emergency surgery and was on a health leave for the rest of that year. After a few weeks of unsuccessful substitutes, my principal made an executive decision and re-assigned several teachers to his classes for the rest of the year.

I was assigned to take over one of that teacher's 7^th grade Social Studies classes with about a day's notice. After I had been with these students for about a week, a friend of mine started relaying positive comments about my teaching style that were made to her by another colleague. This pleasantly surprised English teacher's classroom happened to be on the other side of our shared folding wall. For anyone out there who has not had the pleasure of teaching in a school with fold-away walls, they do almost nothing to dampen the sound between two rooms. In the short time that I had been teaching in that room this previously out of control class that did nothing but yell, sing, fight and break things in the classroom was coming to class relatively on time, staying there, raising their hands to ask questions and adhering to a very rigid routine every single day. I used this opportunity to open a dialogue with my colleague next door. He soon started observing the class and taking notes on what I was doing to facilitate such progress, and I was happy to share my time and techniques with him.

The secret to my success with this class was simple. I provided these students with the same type of structure and firm adherence to rules that I use in my art classroom. My consistent behavior facilitated an atmosphere of respect and high expectations. Our routine was set in stone and the students knew what to expect every day. It's not that I had some magic formula, I simply enforced and reinforced my expectations of respect until it sunk in. It also didn't hurt that I don't flinch at calling any parent for negative behaviors or positive progress, be it after school or during class.

Classroom management in the art room should not be dependent on promises of paint, clay, or any other special material or experience. In fact, an art teacher's classroom management has to include having control over potentially dozens of children who are all using messy stuff and getting them all to clean up after themselves on a schedule. That we art teachers are 'actual teachers' is an understatement in my opinion. None of us are perfect and every class has different needs, but with honest dialogue between colleagues and minds that are open to different ideas, together we can make any class want to succeed.