The Dusty Art Room

The Illinois Art Education Association is an organization of art teachers that are dedicated to their field of teaching.  Each year, the IAEA hosts a student art show of 45 student artists that are selected by a jury from over 800 entries.  Hester is lucky enough to have an artist featured in the show for the past two years in a row! Emily Kwazny, currently in 7th grade, had her monochromatic self-portrait painting from 6th grade selected for the show this year.  The artwork was featured at the fall conference in Normal, Illinois where students and their families were invited to attend a reception honoring this achievement.  Emily was unable to attend, but Ms. Zill was able to select the award on her behalf.   The student art show will travel the state for the next 9 months visiting a different location each month celebrating the accomplishments of the students.   Here's a few pictures from the show: 

Part of being a good teacher is continuing to learn yourself.  The fall Illinois Art Education Association Conference is one of my favorite places to learn and grow as an art educator!  For the past 5 years I have both attended the conference and presented different sessions and workshops.  This year I hosted a workshop on creating plaster masks and a session on ditching the grade book and using feedback to inspire learning.  In addition to hearing several PHENOMENAL keynote speakers, I attended several sessions and workshops. The conference was held at the Marriott Hotel on in Normal, Illinois right on the Illinois State University Campus.  The conference opened up to speaker Cassie Stephens, one of my favorite art educators from Tennessee who has found her passion in fashion and dresses each day to match her lessons!  Her energy and enthusiasm for the profession is an inspiration!  After hearing her speak I was fortunate to work with Cassie in a sm...

Once a year I get the opportunity to meet with the fine arts department at Leyden as well as the other middle school art teachers from the feeder schools to discuss what we are doing in our classrooms as well as how the students are transitioning to Leyden.  Although it is always hard to be away from my classroom, I LOVE getting to see some of my former students in action during the short visit.  I make a point to check out all of the work on display to see how my former students are succeeding in their creative endeavors.  I was lucky enough to catch a few of them still in class this year!  Here is some of their work: