Conference Time!

It seems lately that we have been out of school a lot. That's just how it goes sometimes I guess. This week, although I missed being in my art room, I did have a really good time at a conference I attended. It was really nice being able to talk to other art teachers in my state, as well as to hear and see a lot of new and different ideas.

During my first session, we talked about the book "Beautiful Oops" by Barney Saltzberg. I already own this book. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Its all about taking mistakes and making them into something great. My students, especially the smaller ones, love this book. I think I have read it to them no less than 10 times this year :) Anyway, the presenter for this session showed us a couple of different projects to go along with the story; one being creating an image from a spill of paint and the other was to create an image from a torn piece of paper. Here are my creations...

In my second session, the presenter showed us a variety of projects that were created using recycled materials. After looking at all of them, I decided to create a bracelet using strips of tee shirt and the tabs off of a soda can.

I actually got the chance to present during the third session. Since most of the teachers in my session were not art teachers, I discussed with them the importance of art integration, or including art in all of the subjects they teach. I also shared with the both the art teachers that were present, as well as the other participants what we have been working on in my art room this year. Additionally, I gave them a variety of examples of projects they could work on in their own room. After my presentation, I had the teachers create the Mondrian Shape Banjos that I created with the K4/K5 about a month ago. I chose this lesson to share with them because there are so many things that you can discuss with your students. Here some of the examples of their work...

During the last session of the day, all of the art teachers gathered again to discuss lesson ideas and best practices. It gave me some really good ideas of things I will be trying out next year. I can't wait!