Best Practices
- Get your students attention.
- Positive Incentives for students who are doing well-recognize them.
- Tell students to see shapes first then add the details later.
- Give expectations to your students as they write them down on the back of their projects so they have ready access to them.
- Talk to your students not at them.
- Learn with them on new projects.
- Let them know that you are human complete with faults.
- Be happy and smile.
- Call home for the good things.
- Take time to talk to your students.
- Go to extra curricular events.
- Show off your students hard work.
- Meet your students at the door everyday, shake hands or high five, call them by their name and ask them how their day is going. This sets a great tone, establishes mutual respect, and builds rapport.
- Theme your clean up time-clean like an animal, clean like a machine, clean like a grandparent, etc.
- Don't forget to give praises to students, even if it's the smallest success.
- Give students free time to create what they love.
- Share art samples with your students.
- Make art while your students work on theirs.
- Set time frames and communicate with students when time is about to run out.
- Get in touch with local art museums and art centers to see if they want to partner with you.
- Attention grabbers Mona Lisa, Marco Pollo, hand claps, class, class class class.
- Don't argue — state the facts, give corrections, then move on.
- Love all of your students, they know if you do and will do anything for you.
- Remember why YOU love art.
- Show your kids your passion for art making.
- Make art don't just teach it.
- Respect is a two way street.
- Remember why you are there.
- Give authentic praise to each art student.
- Use media maps to help keep supplies on tables returned.
- See the good in all.
- That's a great beginning.
- Keep it real.
- Invite students to generate and purpose their own projects or just questions they would like answered over the course of the school year or unit-it is fun to honor their curiosity.
- Say THANK YOU to your students-encourage them to do the same.
- Be original; you aren't a copy so your artwork shouldn't be either.
- Be authentic to the students, they can tell when you are bing fake.
- Buckets of supplies at table groups for things used daily.
- Cell phones are put away when demonstrating.
- CARE about who you teach and what you teach and how you teach.
- Humor Humor Humor.
- Use the best materials you can get-makes your students feel like real artists.
- Write name in a notebook when you catch them being a STAR-give a small reward.
- SMILE.
- I am a safe place for you.
- Rather than shouting out "I am done", have them give a silent thumbs up.
- Second emails to coworkers about who is displayed in the hall.
- Show students your own mistakes to prove that we still grow as adults.
- Thank students at the end of class for their effort.
- The Power of Yet.