ART IN ANY CLASSROOM  Attributed to the Taft Museum Art Education Program

Lesson Plans: Upper Elementary

Impressionism & Impasto Painting

In the nineteenth century attitudes about landscape painting changed slowly. Anew cross-disciplinary attention to nature meant that artists began to take an interest in specific sites. Specific locations at specific times of day were made popular by a series of paintings by Claude Monet (French, 1835-1926) of the cathedral at Rouen. Impressionists were able to paint en plein air (outdoors) because of the invention of paint in tubes, which meant that oil paint could be prepared and taken into the countryside.

Felix Ziem

Read more →

Guest Author Terry Heick

His blog is one the best on learning in the classroom

08/26/2012, Terry Heick,

Implementing iPads isn’t exactly a just-add-water proposition.

While they’re wondrous little devices capable of enchanting learners for hours, to get the learning results you’re likely after will take planning, design, and reflection.

It can help to start out by asking yourself some important questions, such as “What can the iPad do that is not possible without it? Put another way, what problems does the iPad solve?”

But the learning environment you’re starting with can make a big difference as well. It’s one thing to come up with individual lesson plans high on the wiz-bang factor, but low in terms of sustainability.

Below are 4 distinct areas of instruction and instructional design that can help frame the concept of iPad integration. Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, and Integration. Read more →

By Caleb Jacobo, Guest Writer

Creative Commons 4.0 Attributions

Nation of Change photo Credit Creative Commons 4.0 Attributions

With my daughter soon to be entering the public school system, I’ve become more and more concerned with the quality of exposure to the arts that our public schools provide for our children. That includes music classes, drama clubs, and any other ‘extra-curricular’ activity that is suffering from budget cuts. Read more →

Here is a List of jobs-and-careers-in-the-arts PDF

Types of Art Jobs and Art Careers 2012

An art job involves employment with a company relating to training and skills as an artist. Most artists dream of working for themselves, as a self-sufficient artist. That may happen eventually, but even famous artists have had to work at jobs outside of the art field early in their careers. This is a necessity for most, since money is required for bills, clothing, rent, food, etc… not to mention art supplies.

Today, with the advancement of new technologies, the need for qualified creative people with an artistic background is growing as well. Certain jobs require imaginative, critical thinkers. Employers who are searching for such employees tend to give preference to people with a Fine Arts background.

An art student just entering the art field or finishing art school may be encouraged to know that there are several art related careers that they can apply for. Most require extra skills and training, so set your sights on developing these to land that dream art job. Read more →

I would like to preface this editorial by saying that Terrance Pratt could just as well be talking about the state of education in America. Education is being corroded by extreme right wing tax policies that are literally cutting the budgets of schools to the point of even closing schools. These ideological policies are destroying the foundations and principals that built a strong educational and Democratic system. Today reform is the hot topic and exactly what ideology prevails in the short and long term is what will determine the building of a strong social society or one that plunges our children into poverty and all the misery associated with it.

We have a moral responsibility to give our children the strongest education we can.  The Born to Draw art education platform advocates visual literacy, integrates art into core curriculum and it gives children and adults the permission to express the creativity of the Human Mind.  As Terrance Pratt so rightly states,

We study art, not because it will get us a job at Atlantis, but because it shows us and allows us to express the creativity of the human mind. In short, a good education system awakens in its students a sense of awe and wonder and engenders in its students a love of learning for learning’s sake.

I am a life-long learner working on the third, maybe fourth, act in my life which is allowing me to give back to a system, that when it was strong, gave me the tools to help change children’s lives. Let us develop a common core value for a future of critical thinkers who will pass the torch and allow light to shine on our Democratic principals on keeping our society strong in all the correct ways. Read more →