Examples of the Sneakers my students designed

These are some of the sneakers my 8th grade students made. They did both a large paper and guache one and they also used a white ked or old white tennis shoe to paint or sharpie marker their design on.

Fish Bowl

At my school I'm the only art teacher, my best friend at work is the performing art teacher, but neither of us really know anything about each other's work. 

My goal is to support a community of Visual Art teachers to share their triumphs and struggles in the classrooms through their curriculum. At my school we do a fish bowl exercise amongst the "specials" teachers, but I imagine it isn't nearly as effective if we shared or lessons and student's work amongst other art teachers; getting feedback from professionals who have experience in an art classroom.

When I return from Valparaiso I am going to work with NYU to make this happen. Until then, please feel free to post curriculum ideas, successes, failures and constructive criticism here in this space. I will try and get some more of my lesson plans and hopefully some pictures of student work as well.

This photo is from the Tate Modern Facade. I went back to visit last summer for the Street Art exhibition; definitely an inspiring show for an urban art educator (my students LOVE street art, and why shouldn't they!) This was my favorite.

art teacher making some art

I have decided to take a leave of absence from teaching art in order to make some art. In fact, I'm leaving NYC and traveling to Valparaiso for 3 months to do that. Tomorrow I'm actually going in to ask for the leave of absence, so technically I could be an unemployed art teacher making art, but lets hope for the best.

I've noticed in my 5 years teaching, not too many art teachers have art careers. Not that it's necessary to have a 'career' as an artist, but not to many of them have time to make art either. For me I don't have the time, the energy, or the spirit; working at a charter school sucks up your time and your energy. English literature teachers have the time to read; it doesn't take preparation, space, or even a significant amount of energy- you can read on your subway ride home, or when you crawl into bed at night. But artists need studio space, which in NYC is never in your tiny apartment, unless maybe you're a graphic designer. 

Like most things in education, the powers that be, just don't get it. I'm a better teacher if I'm excited about what I'm making in my own work. Right now I feel so far removed from the practice of art-making, I made the decision that I didn't want to teach until I rediscovered some of that. If I forgot how to make art, it doesn't compute that I would do so well teaching art. 

I love my job, I love teaching, and I really love teaching art. Not many people get as excited as I do about my job, and that makes me really lucky.  Still it's important to me that my educational practice is strong, and I feel that slipping as my memories of art-making fade into the distant past.

This photos are from my trip to Peru a few years ago. I was doing a lot of painting about animals, and these animal parts we found at a food market were really interesting, there is an element of humor in the snouts and the colors and textures were really beautiful... I thought. My friend Sonja did not agree.