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A Zinester’s Guide to Creativity

Friday, May 17, 2024 | Megan Newton

If creativity is the destination, how do we get there? What methods of transportation could we take? Might I interest you in a popular vehicle, the zine? The zine (pronounced zeen) is a sturdy and rel ...

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Article

Exploring Alternative Mark-Making

Monday, April 15, 2024 | Frank Juárez

This project came at the perfect time, after my Drawing Intensive students had completed a large-scale realistic drawing assignment. I wanted to give them the freedom to experiment in their mark-makin ...

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Article

Choice Sketchbooks

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 | Nicole S. Herbst

After twenty-seven years of teaching art, I was thrilled to be granted permission to offer an art class based solely on the creation of a sketchbook art journal. The idea is for students to be evaluat ...

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Article

The Gratitude Project

Monday, February 12, 2024 | Tim Needles

The best mindfulness projects are the ones that impact the culture in a meaningful way; the Gratitude Project is one such project. A few years ago, my school district implemented a social-emotional le ...

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Article

Creative Collaborations

Thursday, December 14, 2023 | Jeanne Bjork

The classroom is abuzz with activity as students perform a variety of tasks to complete their work, such as signing out to interview clients, heading to the innovation center to use the 3D printer, la ...

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Article

Paper Microbes

Thursday, November 9, 2023 | Kasmira Mohanty

Students decided to go in the opposite direction from the enormity of space to explore the world of microbiology. Based on this decision, I introduced them to the paper sculptures of Rogan Brown. The ...

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Article

Light the Dark

Wednesday, October 4, 2023 | Monique Dobbelaere

Tasks that may have become routine can always be refreshed, and using black light is a fantastic way to do that. Begin by sharing visual examples and the prompt for students to choose a subject for an ...

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Davis Desk

Visibility

Tuesday, September 19, 2023 | Julian Davis Wade

An article I recently read offered this advice, “publicly displaying students’ art engages parents, arts education advocates, and the community in conversations about the importance of art ...

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Article

American Sign Language and the Arts

Monday, September 11, 2023 | Monique Dobbelaere

American Sign Language (ASL) is kindred to the arts as it is a visual language. Combining the arts and ASL is one of many ways you can create an inclusive climate in your school community while celebr ...

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Article

Retro Fun with Parody

Monday, September 11, 2023 | Michael Kerr

We start by discussing where we see satire and parody in pop culture. Students naturally wind up talking about “Weird Al” Yankovic or SNL (Saturday Night Live) Weekend Update—things ...

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Article

Alter-Ego Books

Thursday, August 3, 2023 | Trish Klenow and Slater Mapp

What if there was a way to connect all of the beginning art exercises like perspective, value scale, and faces into a cohesive story? What if there was choice and depth from day one of your first art ...

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Article

Contorted Portraits

Tuesday, May 9, 2023 | Wendi Sparks

Using oil pastels, my Advanced Drawing students tackled portraits with vibrant color and expressive style. My strategy for helping them work with bright colors is to first research examples of differe ...

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Article

Postmodern Portraits

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | Trish Klenow

When creating a great postmodern portrait, embrace the cellphone, the selfie, and TikTok. They are ever-present resources for this generation. We’ve come a long way since glamor shots at the mal ...

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Article

Light Painting Portraits

Thursday, March 9, 2023 | Rebecca Cauchon Sutphen

Students love to explore photography through light painting (also called light drawing or light graffiti), a technique of moving a light source while taking a long-exposure photograph. Recently, my ad ...

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Article

Prepare Yourself

Thursday, February 9, 2023 | Betsy DiJulio

In years past, for the last quarter of the school year, I assigned students in my drawing, painting, and printmaking classes one final project that was ambitious and appropriately demanding, usually a ...

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Article

Oodles of Doodles

Wednesday, December 14, 2022 | John Zilewicz

Recently, I was swiping through Instagram when I stumbled upon an art style called Doodle Art. Doodles are defined by Wikipedia as “simple drawings that can have concrete representational meanin ...

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