Final Thoughts On 2017

A Look Back

To say that 2017 was a great year, would be an understatement. Every year since I started this blog (which was a New Year's resolution in 2011), I think that there is NO WAY the following year can top what we did in the last 12 month cycle. Then the new year comes and shows me that I am silly to put any kind of restriction on the potential of future and everything that is both known or unknown within it. 

This was quite a year for me and my students. Below is a highlight from each month to showcase some of my favorite moments from 2017:

January

We started the year with the installation of a Lego Wall thanks to a funded DonorsChoose project and the genius of my students in the Michigan State University MAET program. I have been teaching for MSU since 2016 and one of the assignments asks for students to rethink their learning space. One of my students shared how they were redesigning the maker space in her school to include a Lego Wall and I knew instantly that we, too, needed that wall for our school. I am so thankful that this project was funded and installed so that students could use it to create images in such an interactive way!

February

Demonstrations can take a lot of time and be somewhat difficult, especially when students are not doing them along with you. I have been trying something new this year with having "Speed-Dating Demos" where students have shorter amounts of time at a station with a card that explains what to do. Students experiment with the process and then rotate to the next station. I had done it before with drawing/painting media, but this year I tried it with other methods, too. The above image was our attempt with printmaking. I am still working on the best process for this type of learning activity, but I am excited to share that I have written an article about it that should be published sometime in 2018!

March

This was probably my favorite STEAM collaboration of the year. We worked really hard to learn from our architecture unit from last year and make improvements to planning. I am hoping to write an article for this lesson to be published in 2018!

April

Going to The Lab School of Washington, D.C. for the 2017 Power of Art Conference was a game-changer for me this year. If you have not applied for this opportunity, you should drop everything you are doing right now and apply. It was such a great time learning and seeing Arts Integration in action as well as touring our Nation's Capitol. I was particularly inspired by the school-wide Rauschenberg Day collaborations and came back energized and ready to figure out how to apply it with my students!

May

This is one of the largest installations I have ever done with a group of students. Ever. Inspired by the Professional Development at The Power of Art Conference (mentioned above), the STEM teacher and I decided to engage students in this collaborative work inspired by the aesthetic of Robert Rauschenberg and Caledonia Curry. This action-packed project took about a week's worth of time during State tests. What made it even more exciting was that we were going to be able to put into ArtPrize 9 and then find a permanent home for it in our library. It looks amazing on display and I am already thinking about what we will do for ArtPrize 10.

June

Ending the year with this project is one of my favorite things. Students go onto our lower grade level Artsonia sites and select works to animate using Photoshop. Thanks to the sharing of teachers (Ian Sands for this one), I am able to improve my craft and draw inspiration from others throughout the year.

July

I actually went to Alaska at the end of June, but I thought it fitting to place it here. I have been to Alaska three times; each time I go, I learn something new, I try something new, and I see something new. I am so thankful for opportunities like these to grow as a person.

August

This year I decided to get more involved with writing DonorsChoose projects. I have been active on the site since 2011 and have had roughly one or two projects funded a year - that is until this year. This year we have had FIVE projects funded (many of which have pushed new technologies to my students). All of these projects have had matching Donors and I want to send a warm thanks to them for helping get them funded even faster. The Gates Foundation, 3M, The Carnegie Corporation, and 3Doodler have helped with their matching funds this year and I am so thankful to all of the parents and community members who helped us reach our goals with their donations, too! I am already thinking about what projects we can post in 2018!

September

Always looking for new ways to engage my students starting on the first day of school, I decided to start a rock painting collaborative installation that corresponds with a reading of "The Dot" by Peter H. Reynolds. We are not quite done with the installation because our 2nd semester students have to paint theirs when we change electives at the end of January. I am excited to finish this project in Spring!

October

ArtPrize 9 was so exciting this year. ArtPrize is always a great time for my students and me. We enjoy the field trip downtown and voting for our favorites. It is a whole new experience when you also have work on display! Not only was our student work on view, it was on view at Monroe Community Church! This venue made it on the Juried Shortlist for Most Outstanding Venue and when that was announced, our work was featured on the news (multiple times). I am so thankful to Steve Fridsma and the rest of the Monroe Community Church family for connecting with us, displaying our work beautifully, and just being good people. It was a great experience and one I am hoping to have again in 2018 with another student-generated work!

November

One of my favorite things over the years has been presenting at conferences like the Michigan Art Education Association. Believe it or not, I have presented at around 30 conferences in the past ten years! This year's MAEA conference was an amazing experience in Detroit and I really loved sharing it with one of my best friends (and fellow presenter). I am super excited for the conferences that await in 2018 - and to present in Seattle, WA for the National Art Education Conferences with TEAM Middle for the 4th year in a row!

December

Playing video games is something I enjoy as much as my students. They actually have introduced me to a new one on PS4 called "Fortnite" that is sort of a hybrid of "The Hunger Games" and "Minecraft." It was great to turn that interest into a lesson where students learned how to work as teams, code using scratch, and develop art using a variety of digital tools. This STEAM unit was an awesome way to end 2017 and I am excited for ways we can improve it in the new year!

Thinking Ahead

When we return from break on the 4th, there is going to be a race to the finish for the first semester. There are so many awesome things to look forward to in 2018 and I cannot wait to get back and get working on making those things happen. Just so you can see I am not exaggerating, here is just a sampling of eight wonderful things I get to do in 2018:

1. Scholastic Art Award Notifications are January 5th
2. 3D Dual Enrollment Class starts through KCAD at the High School
3. 3Doodler Pens from our latest DonorsChoose Project arrive in January
4. MAEA Regional Show Adjudication February 3rd
5. NAEA Conference in Seattle, WA in March
6. STEAM class will start second semester (many of our DonorsChoose projects this year were to fund this new curriculum)
7. ArtPrize 10 piece will be a district-wide work 
8. Arts a la Mode in May (with awesome button making activity thanks to DonorsChoose Project)

As you can see, this is only some of the things for some of the year. 2018 is poised to be the best one yet. I hope everyone has their list of things they can look forward to, too!