In my last post, I wrote an overall recap of the National Art Education Association conference. I also gave a summary of the artist Jesse Reno’s speech. In another post, I put together a little art history quiz of artworks from the Art Institute of Chicago.
Today I am going to share with you some highlights from a few of the presentations. If you would like to see all of the handouts from the presentations that were uploaded, they are here: http://naeaworkspace.org/naea16/
The first session I will talk about was called Evidence Based Successful Teaching Strategies for Art Students on the Autism Spectrum, by Gillian Furniss.
I went to a session given by Artful Artsy Amy. Curating Compassionate Student Leadership through Dynamic, Group-Based, and Divergent-Thinking Art Units. Amy shared a number of different group art projects that gave students the chance to work together, solve problems and use the talents of their peers. The handout she gave was shared on the NAEA website here.
I was particularly impressed with the large cardboard castles her students made together. I have my students make clay castles individually, but I like adding in a collaborative aspect. Amy also has a ton of useful presentations on Slideshare.
Another memorable presentation I went to was given by Janine Campbell and Cassie Stephens.
They were generous enough to put the whole presentation online.
The Dryden mural was created by Tricia Fugelstad’s students.
After seeing this schollab on Cassie’s blog, I went and bought a bunch of Todd Parr’s books. We are going to use The Peace Book
Culturally Sensitive Art Education – An NAEA Handbook for Teachers was a presentation given by Marjorie Manifold, Steve Willis, Enid Zimmerman. “Editors and authors of a recently published NAEA handbook for teachers, Culturally Sensitive Art Education in a Global World, present models and guidelines for culturally sensitive art curricula.” The book has chapters by many different authors and at least 5 or 6 of them presented. This was a really, really good session. They could have used another hour to talk, as some of them had to speak quickly and they clearly could have elaborated more on their topic. I went to this session because I wanted to buy the book but I think it was about $75 in the bookstore and I didn’t want to spend that much money. It looks like it is cheaper now on their website, unless I am not remembering the price right. However, after going to the session, it just made me want to buy the entire book, so maybe I will buy it anyways.
Finally, the last session I went to in the conference was also really, really excellent so I’m glad I stuck around late on Saturday. It was Leading Versus Reacting: A Compassionate Approach to Teaching Art by Nan Waterstreet. “Leading through a compassionate teaching approach improves classroom behavior and rekindles the passion for teaching and creating. Participants will learn strategies for curbing disruptive situations and art lessons that promote compassionate behaviors.”
She gave many examples of projects that incorporated kindness and doing things for others in their class. One simple idea was to create clay animal sculptures and display them at a school art show. Leave a donation jar at the same table to collect $ for the local animal shelter, so families will donate money as they take home their clay projects. As the kids create their sculptures they experience doing something to help others, because they know it will be used as part of a larger plan.
Another example she gave was making paper mache art cars that had a theme of raising awareness for a cause or for a need in the world. For example, a whale themed car was to raise awareness for saving the whales. I wish Nan Waterstreet had a blog, because she had a lot of really great ideas.
I did not recap the general sessions or super sessions, because many of them were recorded and posted on the NAEA website here.
Did you attend any interesting and useful conference sessions? Share in the comments!
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THanks for sharing your conference experience. Your post was insightful and informative!
You’re welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.
It was so fun chatting with you. Thrilled you enjoyed our presentation! I loved presenting with Janine, I learned so much from her! 🙂