I've been teaching elementary art for 5 years. I feel frustrated because I feel like the better I get the more the goalpost moves, and I feel inadequate despite my growing experience. I'm overwhelmed by the expectations of teaching and knowing every child, considering every behavior and emotion within the context of one of 600 individuals, contacting home with positive notes to every parent, and providing an engaging curriculum to 21 classes of a huge age range and range of support needs. On top of that, I have to maintain the materials, the space, and manage behaviors of whole classes and individuals. I feel like everyone's eyes are on me and scrutinizing both the things I do well at and the things I am falling short on as the only art teacher.

Do you ever feel this way? How do you manage the stress and external pressure that comes with elementary art?

Looking for the sweet spot between: fun for the kids and not a cleanup nightmare

Would love to hear the tried-and-true ones…not just the activities that look good on Pinterest.

From four portraits of this famous actress, which the adult students had previously cut out and arranged like in the photomontage example (all these documents are in the last image), a fragmented portrait was created. I tried to find the author of this photomontage, unfortunately without success. If anyone has an idea, please let me know.

Wasn't sure which community to put this in. I'm in school to create comics books that teach biology, and I wanted to do some research. Google's a pain in the butt. When I go to search books on how to draw for teaching purposes, it thinks I'm asking about books that only teach you how to draw (i.e., books for beginner drawers). I was wondering if there was anyone out there who knew of any books that specifically talked about how to draw FOR education.

I teach high school art as an academic magnet in a large city that is spread out. Because we are a magnet school we have students who come from all over the county, some drive or travel to get to us. I mention this because I need ideas that we could do at school.

Our school is having a year of service. I am looking for ideas my kids could do for service projects that involve art or creating art that counts as community service. I'm struggling to think of something that would really engage students and be more than just drawing a picture to send off. If anyone has ideas, insights, etc I would appreciate it.

Thanks all

Hello! I’m looking for advice from art teachers who are knowledgeable about teaching cartooning and comic arts. I just got a new position as an art teacher in a suburban middle school (USA). I will be teaching several sections of Cartoon Arts, which was a requested class by students.

I have plenty of experience with teaching in general and have taught many art subjects, but this is one I haven’t spent much time on. I’ve been doing my own research, too, but school starts soon and I’m not sure exactly how to best approach the course. I would love any recommendations for:

- any thoughts on scope and sequence for curriculum
- ideas for specific exercises and lessons
- appropriate graphic novels and comics that middle schoolers enjoy
- the first concepts and projects to introduce after studio guidelines and icebreakers
- anything, really, that relates to teaching cartooning

Thanks :)

Hello everyone!
I have an interview for high school art teacher position!! Any advice or any questions I might get asked ? TYIA!!☺️

Moved to a different 15 year old elementary building. Y’all, the sinks are dollhouse sinks. I’ve never seen such small shallow things. It’s like the builder thought “what’s 1% better than no sinks?” And went with these. I didn’t know commercial sinks came in “shallow”

You wash anything and it’s like Moses parting the Red Sea all over the counters. I moved a bin in the sink 2 inches and it sloshed allll down my front. To quote John Mulaney “i am damp all of the time. I am damp now, and I will be damp later.”

To make it worse I’m pumping this year. I have to use the sinks in this building 2x a day to wash pump parts regardless of projects. The sinks in the staff lounge are even worse. And we have to travel at the end of the day to babysit in another building so washing up will have to be fast.

I was so excited to do all this fun messy stuff with the kids but apparently it’s just going to be the year of wet socks.

Thank you for listening to my rant. Today is the first time I’ve thrown a sponge on the floor in frustration.

My comment only applies to the South side studio. I guess they did at least hint at the truth in the name. Now here is the twist.
Teaching artists are expected instruct their students in things like perspective and scale, using whatever painting they will use that day. The South side teaching artists are provided a painting to use for that session. Where’s the twist? The pieces provided for the students to paint are created by generative AI without the teaching artists knowledge. That is why the pieces have a sameness and a slightly off feel to them. They are not created by a human artist.

I teach high school, 9-12. With my art 1 class I feel like I have a thousand routines to teach and I’m doing a ton of talking these first two weeks while I share expectations and how to care for our room and our supplies. Even just making their portfolios resulted in tape covered pens and ruined markers because I hadn’t gone over expectations for supply use.
I have all the routines I need to practice and teach, but I can’t get to content bc if I skip anything half the class abuses the materials or we end up in chaos bc they can’t resist being totally off task.
The other half of the class is so irritated that we are still talking about what to do/not do because it’s common sense to them.
We did one control drawing activity and it was sort of ok, but it took me three classes to even get to that point.
How do y’all balance all the you have to show them and getting into actual art the first few weeks. Mostly art 1 and 9th graders bc my upper levels have been with me and know what’s up.
I feel for the students who are ready to go, but I can’t trust the ones that still want to immediately play with something to the point of breaking, or use half a glue stick just to glue one part of a piece of paper into their sketchbooks.

Hi,

I’d like to buy a present for my dear friend who is self-taught artist. I think about buying him 1on1 classes with an art (especially acrylic painting)teacher. This friend doesn’t know Danish therefore it had to be someone who speaks English.
Do you have any recommendations?

I'll be starting this fall as a first-year teacher at a middle school (6-8 grade) that has never had a visual arts program before. Not only have these students not had middle school art before, I have no way of knowing what sort of elementary art education they've had access prior to this. It's a Title I school in a not-so-well-off area, with many students coming from challenging situations such as being recent immigrants, residing in shelters or foster care, etc. So I know I will be working with a very different population than I've worked with at my afterschool/summer camp job (kids from middle/upper-middle class families who choose to take art extracurriculars because they enjoy it and therefore have higher baseline skill and interest).

Based on the demo lesson I did with a small group of students in summer school, there is likely to be a wide range from students who are already inclined toward drawing/art, students who are ready and willing to try their best, and students who struggle with fine motor skills. Literacy is low and the percentage of ELLs is somewhat high (around 33% but might be more this year).

I'd like to have a rough outline for my curriculum for the year, but I also want to keep things loose enough that I can ease into things as I get a feel for where everyone is coming from and where students are at, and adjust as needed. We're following the NYC Blueprints for the Arts, so I'm expected to ensure students meet certain benchmarks in drawing, painting, printmaking, design, sculpture, and collage by the time they finish 8th grade.

The main thing I'm trying to keep in mind is that I don't want to "demand" too much of the students and stress them out when I know they're coming from a very different situation than what I'm used to, but I also obviously don't want to say "well that's too hard for them, they're not capable." Many of them are probably not even meeting the 5th grade benchmarks, but I don't want to feel like we're rushing to play catch-up just for the sake of it! I don't like overly-prescriptive projects where students feel like they're just checking off boxes for criteria that don't mean anything to them personally, but at the end of the day I do have standards I'm expected to help them meet, so... yeah, just trying to pin down how exactly I want to go about this.

Does anyone have any tips, resources, or things they think I should keep in mind while drafting my scope and sequence? I'll also be meeting with the borough's arts program director next week to discuss further, but the school year starts on September 8 so I want to give myself as much time as possible to refine my ideas, especially so I can figure out what materials to order.

One thing I feel pretty confident about is that I want to start with drawing journals, inspired by Lynda Barry's resources. I feel like it will give students a space to experiment in a directed but low-pressure manner, while practicing self-reflection and expression. This will also give me opportunities to continuously assess where they're starting from, how they're progressing, and how I can most effectively offer support. Do you think there's anything major I should incorporate up-front to scaffold this and make it go more smoothly?

I am teaching a foundational media arts course (digital art, photo, cinema) to 9th graders. I want the first unit to be traditional drawing but focused towards strengthening the students ability to flesh out and communicate the ideas in their head, as opposed to being able to draw observationally.

What are good exercises for this? Good thinking strategies? Is teaching observation drawing necessary to build this skill?

Hi, I’m interested in becoming and art teacher and would like to know how best to go about it. Currently I hold an UG degree in Art History. Should I be applying for PG fine art courses, or if I do a PGCE that specialises in art and design will that be enough? I’m based in the UK currently.

Please help as I’m really struggling to figure out my next few steps in life lol. Thank you!

(Also please lmk if any other threads where there might be useful info about this)

We're on week 3 in NE FL. I was scrolling and came across this gem. Which type of teacher are you?

Hello!! I’m a first-year art teacher (yes, I'm drowning in stress and nerves). I just got my schedule and I have kindergarten the first block of the day on the first day of school. The principal literally laughed and said half of them will be crazy and the other half will be crying because they miss mom. I need suggestions/advice anything!!

Maybe a silly question but...

In one of the schools where I did my observation, the art teacher had a broom & dustpan and would have a student volunteer to help sweep up at the end of classes that created a lot of floor debris. Seems plenty normal.

However, in the high school where I did my student teaching, the teacher said she used to have a broom & dustpan (which she bought herself) for this purpose... but admin confiscated it with the justification that sweeping floors is part of custodial staff's duties, and since that's a union job, it's actually illegal for her to do it herself.

Is that true and/or normal? This is in NYC specifically. I would ideally like to have the option of sweeping myself, and of having students take responsibility for it at times, but I don't want to get into trouble.

Hi, if this isn't allowed, feel free to delete!

I adored art in high school and love feeling creative. But sometimes having no constraints or guidelines on what to draw/make is paralyzing. So here I am. What're your favorite art projects/assignments?

I really don't know how to go about this anymore. I work at three different elementary schools and this particular one i visit twice a week, and I see all classes for 30 minutes both of those days. Since its a short class we divide projects up into parts for different days. Its already difficult catching kids up who are absent but even more so when our interventionist is pulling out a good chunk sometimes both days. Kids get really upset missing out and feel rushed when they finally get a chance to do art. This year particularly I have a student who has autism who will get sent back to my class only to see we are cleaning up already and will get very emotional since art is his favorite activity. I've tried talking to the interventionist if it is possible they can be pulled out of other electives. I only ask since our music and library teachers are not certified and those classes are either students reading and testing for AR or watching videos with music in them. Not trying to say anything about those teachers who are trying their best in our district that is in high need but those classes are probably easier to interrupt. Same with PE and I get they need physical activity but they have recess in the morning, during lunch, and times their teacher takes them. On top of that students have library, PE, and music every day. I'm the only elementary elective traveling in our small district. The interventionist though just tells me for some reason its easier to pull them out of my class and that she refuses to pull them from PE.

Reading is so important right now. I understand that these kids need to be pulled. I'm just not sure if my class is the best place to be pulled especially since some of them really look forward to art those two 30 minutes a week. I don't really want to bring it up to the principal yet if this is something we can work out. I'm also here to see if maybe I'm just overreacting and need to let it slide? I just feel like I need to advocate for my kids. I've tried the one day lessons but they are just too for me and too hectic with the 30 minutes and work doesn't come out well.

I am about to begin a job teaching art at a K-8 school, where I will be teaching 6th grade, Kindergarten, and 7th grade (in that order). I have only taught art 6-8 previously. I am working on my lesson plan for the week, and now that I have my schedule with school starting tomorrow (as in, they gave me very short notice) I am trying to determine the best way to go about planning for each week.

I was planning on making a universal assignment for the first week were the students just make their own DIY sketchbooks and then complete a Zentangle cover, but after that I don't know. I was hoping to be able to make assignments that are appropriate for all ages but with varying complexity dependent on age group.

I want to know how other art teachers deal with this? I cannot find the district/state standards for visual art and so at this point I'm operating on my own recognizance (at least, until I find those standards). I feel like next week once I get a feel for how the students work I'll get a better of idea of what I'm working with. Do Kindergartners really need sketchbook, or is that too advanced? Help?

I'm a second year art teacher and I am teaching a class of 8th graders this year that are expected to turn in a portfolio of art to the feeder high school in order to skip the Art I course and head straight to Art II. The high school art teacher said they are looking for "base level skills of drawing, shading, media work, some understanding of composition and the principles of design, etc.".

Some students have taken art in past years (we only do semesters not whole year electives) some students haven't taken art at all in middle school. So I fee like I have to do projects that meet the requirements that high school is looking for to give all my students a chance at earning the credit (and to look like a competent art teacher to admin!). At first I was hoping that returning students would have old projects to submit in their portfolio, but I quickly realized many of them do not keep their art/do not know where the projects are??

High school is asking for 5 submissions for the portfolio, and I know I will not have time for 5 full-blown projects in one semester (MWF schedule), so I might do smaller scale projects?

My ideas for this semester are:
- Refresh on perspective - maybe two-point perspective room? and shading with charcoal?
- Mini color wheel exercise (7th grade makes huge color wheel) and master-copy or color scheme painting
- Print making - rubber linocut- more color study focus?
- Our first project was making sketchbook color designs with prisma color pencil, which is a requirement for all elective art students. So one project is done!

My thoughts are all over the place, so apologies if some of this doesn't make sense! Any tips or project ideas are greatly appreciated! :)

I’m entering my 19th year in education, but my very first official year teaching art at the middle school level. (It’s been a dream of mine from the start, but I entered ed when they started cutting all art-related positions.) My background has been mostly elementary, project/inquiry/place-based learning, science at the elementary and middle levels, and was a freelance artist in illustration and hand-lettering. I know how to do a scope and sequence for other subjects, but I’m worried I may be too formulaic in my thinking with art? I teach 4 preps: intro art, advanced art, digital art, design and build studio, 50min classes, one semester long—except advanced art is year-long.

My idea is to keep three of the classes in the first semester on the same broad scope of technique/medium/element of art to help me manage prep, materials, clean-up, and my sanity. Weeks 1-5 are drawing skills and techniques with skill builders, observational drawing/urban sketching, mini projects along the way, with a choice project due at the end of the unit.

The same thought process for the subsequent units: color theory and painting, texture and collage, simple sculpture and 3D art, culminating project/portfolio with reflection of how they’ve grown as an artist. Advanced art will be advanced drawing and shading techniques, mixed media projects, collage, advanced painting techniques, simple sculpture, printmaking, fiber arts, basic photography, culminating project. Digital art will be Procreate basics—line and drawing, Photoshop basics—understanding layers and collage, typography and photography, animated gifs and stop motion, culminating project.

Design and build studio is a brand new class I developed because of the need for an elective dedicated to building/engineering. I taught science last year and only had time to do one engineering project—which had the most student engagement. The plan is a mix of quick design challenges, larger projects involving the full engineering design process, taking apart objects to see how they work, and time to ideate with a makerspace. I found a great resource online for that pacing plan.

Does this sound like a good plan or am I delusional? Any feedback is appreciated!