Saturday, June 21, 2008

What do art teachers do in the summer? Terri's Summer

We have attended a lot of meetings for the arts planning for a wonderful upcoming new year! Barb and I started off with our meeting with Sonia and Mike from the Fort Wayne Hilton and Grand Wayne Center where we are planning to hold the 2010 AEAI State Conference. That was a well spent block of time looking at the facilities and dreaming about the possibilities for our future conference. I have been reading all about Ansel Adams and his ground breaking work in landscape photography and trying to pick up a little of that inspiration and compositional sense we see in his work. I will be traveling to visit Glacier National Park and Olympic National Park and taking photos as we walk in the footsteps of Ansel Adams provided by the Lily Teacher Creativity Award. And after that, printing out some wonderful shots too. Rich and I each printed a large digital photo from our work earlier this year for the FWMoA artist's show opening July 18th. This will be our first art show here in Ft Wayne. We are really excited about that!
Meeting with the District 2 people for lunch last week was also great fun, lots of good ideas exchanged about art and the upcoming AEAI state conferences. We drove to Rockville to meet with Connie, AEAI president, Patti , 2008 AEAI conference coordinator, and Leah, AEAI past president, to learn about creating a master schedule for the fall conference. It was quite a lesson in using the left and right sides of the brain. My most relaxing activity has been to plant my vegetable garden and walk a mile in the morning with my friend Jenny.
That is what this art teacher is doing this summer. This is just a small snapshot of the summer break before June 15th. Seems like we have a lot of ground to cover before returning to school. I am off to leadership training for the Western Region of NAEA this Thursday through Sunday where Brad, AEAI president elect, and I will meet with other representatives from the western region.

What do art teachers do in the summer? Clyde's Summer

"When art teachers are not engaged in professional development classes, or teaching summer art camps or involved in other learning opportunities, we might be involved in advocacy work, research, curriculum development, grant writing, traveling or creating art.

In my own situation, I am currently involved in advocacy work. This past spring, AEAI formed a new advocacy committee charged with creating new strategies and tools that members may employ in order to strengthen policies that affect art education at the legislative level. We are planning other strategies and actions also. This work is ongoing.

Also during the summer I am involved in developing an art education news magazine Indiana art teachers will receive later in the fall.

Of course, those of us with families continue to be involved in the lives of our loved ones and taking time off for well deserved vacations."

What do art teachers do in the summer? Kim's Summer Activites

I'd have to say that my summer activities vary between loafing and cramming in as much as I possibly can!
I love getting outside and hiking, riding my bike; I also try to catch up on my reading, and painting and pottery, paper making etc! I love watching movies and just spending quality time with my family (which always seems to get put on the back burner during the school year! I am trying to finish a mural for one of the kid's classrooms at church and I work with our youth groups at church as well.

Mostly I love catching up on my SLEEP!

What do art teachers do in the summer? Brenda's Summer

I teach elementary art full-time+ during the school year and in the summer I gel all those ideas I have had swimming in my mind all year, and apply them to canvas or paper. I will participate in 3 art shows this summer and a calendar contest. That means 10+ new pieces of art work by the middle of July. I do watercolor and pen/ink usually, but this summer so far, I have experimented with acrylic on canvas and paper with watercolor and have even done a drawing on aluminum foil of barns! I also read fiction books I have saved during the school year, until the wee hours of morning, and at least 2 non-fiction books pertaining to education during the summer. I have a huge garden, both vegetables, and flowers which I enjoy working in too. This summer I am also helping a youth theatre group with backdrops for plays they are practicing/performing in July, and am scheduled to teach art for grades 1-4 for a new summer school program started in a small town near my home (not my school district) for a couple of weeks at the end of July. By the middle of July, I focus on my lesson plans and new projects I want to introduce to my students next year and make a trip to school one day a week to work on my room and samples/displays/element books that I need for the beginning of school Aug 11. It sounds very full, but I add time with my teen-age children, husband, elderly parents/parents-in-law, church, friends and just some down time on the deck. I love summer, but I miss my students and the excitement of teaching them the appreciation for and the ability to do great art.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

What do art teachers do in the summer?

Art teachers are busy learning new techniques and developing projects that will inspire their students in the summer. I am happy to report that I have been spending a great deal of time doing just that.
When you view the slide show from Spring Mill State Park you will see the inspirational elements that I strive to bring to my students.