IAEA Conference 2017

One of my favorite times of year is the annual Illinois Art Education Association fall conference because I get to teach and learn with hundreds of art teachers from around the state.  This year I presented two workshops: Recyclables to Magnificent Papier Mache Sculptures and Involving Students in the Assessment Process.  Both sessions went great and had a positive response from the participants.

In the papier mache workshop I explained to teachers how I approach teaching papier mache at Hester and then let teachers dive right in to create their own sculptures.  Here are a few photos from that session:

After lunch I attended a session from an amazing teacher, Michelle Lynn from Downers Grove South High School (who is one of the teachers I student taught with) on using blogs and tumblr to share, critique and assess student artwork.

Then I presented a session on involving students in the assessment process.  This session was a packed house with about 40 art teachers in attendance.  I went through my assessment process that I use with students from how we assess our weekly work habits to how I assess projects and determine midterm and final grades.  The teachers had some great questions leading to a fabulous discussion!  Afterwards, I was approached by a teacher who loved what I shared and plans to visit Hester to check out our process in person - what a compliment!  Then I spoke with a department chair who invited me to present this same session at an Institute Day in his district.  It was amazing!

And if that wasn't enough teaching and learning for one day - I then attended a workshop on metamorphosis drawing and learned some tips for teaching students how to create a series of drawings that "morphs" an inanimate object into a living creature.

The next day started off with attending the student art show where 8th grade student, David G was recognized for being selected as part of the show.  Almost 700 works were submitted and only 45 were selected for the show that will travel the state of Illinois for the next 12 months.

Here's some pictures from that event:

Next I attended a workshop on Latin America Art taught by one of my friends from college and her art department.  We made a Huichol yarn painting and I can't wait to teach this idea to my students soon.

Here's some pictures from that workshop:

After lunch I attended a session on teaching empathy through adaptive art and a planning session for next year's conference.

All in all I had a wonderful, but busy two days of both teaching and learning.  Special thanks to all the conference planners and wonderful art teachers that made this such a great conference!