I know that we should all still be in the thralls of summertime, laying out by the pool, drinking lemonade, and forgetting what day of the week it is. But, if you are like me, you have already had that first back to school dream (or nightmare) and have started to make strategic goals and plans for making this upcoming school year one the best one yet. Well, I have partnered with Scholastic to get your thinking about your classroom in this post and offer you a giveaway!

When thinking about plans for the fall, one that it a no-brainer for me is the inclusion of Scholastic Art Magazine to my curriculum. For those of you not familiar, it is a resource for your classroom that connects students to artists using a variety of timely themes, genres, and materials through print and online media.

I was lucky that I was first introduced to this resource during my student teaching days back in 2004. My mentor teacher said it was the single most important resource for her classroom because it organized artists and their work in ways that made it both relatable and age-appropriate for students. She had stacks and stacks of magazines that dated from decades before and that we both used them as ways to connect students with content in our lesson plans.

13 years later, I not only have stacks and stacks of my own Scholastic Art Magazines dating back over the last decade-plus that I can use with my students in various ways, I also have access to an online portal that allows students to view the content of current and past issues whenever they want. In addition to the text of the issue, students can access videos, slideshows, and other resources to deepen their understanding of artists, media, and concepts through the online portal. 

Here are a few of ways I use this resource in my classroom:

• Integrate reading and writing strategies in my classroom. 

If your school is like mine, we are always looking for ways to meaningfully weave reading and writing strategies into all of the curriculum. Using Scholastic Art Magazine offers an easy way to do this. Not only can you adjust reading levels on the online portal, you can also print reading comprehension questions at various grade levels to differentiate instruction based on your student population and needs. I use it most often for a writing prompt I call "Artist of Interest" where students use a specific-standards based rubric to write about an artist of their choice from any of the issues offered. 

• Easy substitute teacher plans.

Sometimes it is easier to go to school sick rather than figure out what to have students do when you are gone. As an art teacher, the amount of mess you might come back to when you leave your classroom can make the the idea of going to Professional Development Conferences seem impossible, too. With the amount of grade-level resources included in the subscription to Scholastic Art Magazine, I know that I can be away from my classroom without leaving a basic project behind for kids to do. I can use the worksheets, activity guides, and other resources to engage students in learning that can deepen their understanding of what we are learning in the classroom without the worry of it getting lost through a substitute. ​

• Connect students to Art Careers.

One of the more emerging areas of interest for me is connecting students to a career opportunities. There is a strange false narrative out there that artists can't make a living. I am not sure where it started and why it persists, but it is really not true. All you have to do is turn to the back pages of Scholastic Art Magazine and read the various careers they highlight in their issues. In addition to interviewing various professionals in the field (ranging from Crayon Engineer to Roller Coaster Designer and Wildlife Photographer), Scholastic Art Magazine's online portal showcases these careers in one spot and allows students to learn more about the professions including skills and education needed and even range of salary. I want my students to make art because they enjoy it and I want them to understand that they can also make a living from it.

I have also shared various projects my students have done on this blog using the magazines for research on their Elements and Principle Videos from several years ago as well as their Artist Rooms from just this past year.  I am also obsessed with the student showcase offered in each issue from former Scholastic Art Award winners and use that as a way to show students what their peers are doing in the art world, too.

So, now that you have heard some of the great ways I use Scholastic Art Magazine in my classroom, it is your turn to tell me how you would use it in yours! Thanks to Scholastic, one lucky teacher who comments below about how they would use a Scholastic Art Magazine subscription in their 2017/18 classroom will win a class set! Deadline to participate is July 17th! 

I am excited to read how you would use this great tool for your students, so please share your ideas! Then you can go back to drinking that lemonade, evening out your tan, and wondering what day it is... or more likely start prepping for the school year. 

I am incredibly thankful that I get to work with the talented students and staff at BCPS and each year at our k-12 show, I that feeling is magnified. It was great to showcase the works of our students in this show that will run into the end of next month at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center and close out Youth Arts Month with a reception that honored those student-artists on display. 

We finished out our 3rd collaborative project this year, just as we close out 3rd marking period and leave for Spring Break. I had my doubts about whether or not we were going to keep these kids engaged so close to break and how well they were going to pull off the work required with only 8 working class days to get it done. As usual, students did not disappoint and really turned out some of the most creative and interesting interpretations of artists works as various rooms. 

To cap off the project, students presented their slide show and work to other members of the class and then placed them on display in the library.  With the help of our LMC specialist, we got out the Scholastic Art Magazines students used and placed them between the maquettes. It is a great display and one that we plan to keep up for the rest of the year. Another great way to close out Youth Arts Month as well as March is Reading Month. 

Students really started applying all of the demonstrations we went over last week as they made final sketches before diving into creating the work for this Challenge. The theme this time around is Biography/Autobiography. It has been fun to see the different people students have selected to highlight in this work and the narratives they have shared and created to turn their ideas into concrete works of art for others to see. 

Here are some of the highlights as students make their work this week:

I even got in on the fun and was able to bring in elements of a piece I have been visiting for the last two months and finish it. I enjoy demonstrating my process to students so they can see how I struggle through solutions and work with a variety of media to figure out exactly how and if something is done.

Working side by side with my students is something I just started doing in the past few years (really since I adapted a choice-based or TAB studio). As my students were encouraged to become artists in their own right, I found it was more powerful if I did the same. This helps me practice what I teach and it helps students 

This week, we watched the TEDx clip of Austin Kleon's talk, "Steal Like an Artist." I show this to students to encourage them to gather ideas and use them to make new work. I even took part of one class period to do some independent research and writing about artists using Scholastic Art Magazine.

​I love using this resource in my classroom because it is easy to get students to use it and the content is so rich for our subject area. It is always fun to see what students select as being the work they want to write about and why. My hope through doing activities like these is that students will be able to "Steal Like an Artist" and use the ideas offered in ways that make sense in their own work.

Here are some of the responses given:

The second assignment in our DE Intro to Photo for Non-Majors course is all about capturing movement. Students worked on various methods and means to capture motion with most of the focus being on controlling the aperture and shutter speed. 

Here are some of the highlights from their work with this challenge:

February is tough. At least it always seems to be for me.  I wish I could say it was easy because it is so short, but it is not. I think that is why it is a shorter month. And although everything is starting to come to a fever-pitch with competition deadlines and notifications, it is nice to come back from lunch to a note like this on my board. 

I love what I do and am so thankful I get to go it. I cannot imagine anything other than being an Art Teacher to children, even when it gets a bit tough. 

I love to share what we do in the classroom with others. I talk to my students all of time about how their work is being viewed by teachers from across the country and that they are really the thought-leaders and models for what great Art Education looks like. 

This weekend, the sharing continued as I participated in The Art of Education Online Conference. I shared how I transitioned my classroom to choice and I really cannot imagine a better decision I have ever made in my career. 

Today was a day students have been working towards since the start of school (and some even earlier than that). We found out whose work was recognized for the West Central Michigan Regional Scholastic Art Awards. 

Our Byron Center 7-12th grade Visual Arts program had a stellar year, breaking our previous record of award-winning works! You can see the full list of winners here.

​The following are pieces from my 7-12th grade students that will be honored at the celebration March 5th. The thing that makes me most proud of these works is that all were imagined, designed, and executed by my students through their hard work and willingness to push further with materials and ideas.

I am so thankful to the TAB community for encouraging this type of teaching in all classrooms. I feel so fortunate to have finally adapted a more open model in my classroom so that works like the ones below could come to life. 

Riley DeJong, Jewel Richardson, Abby Boyle, and Abbie Clum
What is Beauty?

Jewel Richardson and Gabby Vitali
​The Little Crayon

Lexi Brummel, Cameron Rabideau, Austin VanderMarkt, and Alexis Wierenga
​Be the Sun

Gabby Vitali, 8th grade: One Tenth

Jessica DeRidder, Katie Hauch, and Sarah Koenes 
​What if?

Denver Lahay, 8th grade: Choose to be Good

All Gold Key winning works will now move onto the next phase at the national level and we will be notified of outcomes by early Spring. 

If you have any students awarded, please share the work and celebrate the success with us! This is a great competition with an over 90 years of honoring students' creative ideas and skills in the classroom! 

The Scholastic Art Awards are right around the corner, with submissions due early next week. BCPS students have participated in this annual competition since 2008. Each year, I wonder how students will manage to top the year prior, especially since last year was our most successful with the third most pieces recognized in our region and three of our students receiving medals at the national level. 

I think our chances of topping the success from last year is as good as it could ever be, though. Students have stepped up to the challenge, creating some of the most innovative, evocative, and skillfully crafted works I have seen over my years of encouraging students to submit. 

The following works are not all of the pieces we are submitting, but a sample of some of the great work that will represent BCPS when we compete in the 2016 Scholastic Art Awards!

This past Thursday was the 92nd Annual Scholastic Awards celebrating young Artists and Writers from across the country. I had two National Medalists this year and was thrilled that one of them was able to attend the ceremony at Carnegie Hall! I was also able to attend due to funding from DonorsChoose. In addition to the ceremony, which featured special guest speakers Whoopi Goldberg, Chelsea Clinton, Tom Otterness, and David Lipski, we were able to spend a few days in NYC to tour museums and the city! Here is a highlight reel of the awards ceremony: 

I was also excited to see both of my students' works on display in the gallery at Parson's. It is still a little mind-boggling to think that I have student work in an NYC gallery that will also be going on a two-year tour. It was SO inspiring to see the work representing the best of the best our country has to offer and I am so excited to bring back the images from the show in hopes of inspiring my students and sparking new ideas! 

Another awesome moment from this trip was our time spent at the MET, Chelsea Market, and the High Line trail. Each offered a different view of the city and I am so thankful I will be able to take the inspiration from this event back to my classroom in hopes we will make it back here again next year with another winner! Thank you again to DonorsChoose and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for helping make this happen! 

Maybe it is because I also earned my teaching certificate in English, or maybe it is because that is how I am wired, but I cannot imagine having Art without the writing that explores the intent of the artist. I also cannot image Art without the time and space to interpret and explore ideas other artists present. 

Today in class students spent some time on their Artist of the Week entry. For this, they login to our classroom Scholastic Art Magazine and select an artist to discuss. They then use evidence from the artwork as well as the reading to support their thoughts about the work. This resource is thanks to the gift of generous donors who gave to our DonorsChoose request earlier this school year.

Here is an example of the type of responses students submit:

I was able to get another photo of the 2015 Scholastic Art Award winners today. Everyone was excited to get their certificates and celebrate in the success of each other. 

Students moved from their sketchbooks and into the Scholastic Art Magazine Archives to research and interpret work cataloged there for their viewing pleasure. I cannot fully express how thankful I am for this resource as a result of the funding from our last DonorsChoose project! It was great to share the online content with students today and watch them search through the archives to find artists that spoke to their interests and then share that with the class via our Artist of the Week Schoology Discussion board. I am so thankful to those who helped make this resource available to my students! Students are also starting to think about The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and seeing past winners showcased in the magazines is very inspiring to those hoping to achieve winning works this year. 

Check out the progress of Emma's Cootie Catcher Dress that she is working on for this year's Scholastic Art Award's competition. I think she has a great chance of achieving recognition in the Fashion Design category. This will be the first time I have ever entered student work in this category during the 8 years of entering this competition! 

7th grade students also worked on their Artist of the Week posts using Scholastic Art Magazine. Once done, they completed their knots by turning their designs into a symmetrical image after transferring the first quadrant onto the other three across the horizontal and vertical lines of symmetry. We will use these papers to transfer the image onto a heavier weighted paper and add color starting tomorrow! 

This past weekend has been a whirlwind of activities. From meeting with award-winning students and teachers from across the country, to hearing inspiring speeches delivered by notable creatives in the industry of design, literature, and film, I had an amazing time in New York City for the National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. 

It was such an honor and thrill to see Makenzie get recognized by this organization that has a 91 year history of saluting outstanding student talents in Art and Writing, fostering many to become standouts in creative industries. In addition to seeing the work, learning with teachers, and enjoying the celebration, I also had a chance to explore and be inspired by the city. Some of my favorite moments include walking from Central Park to Battery Park, passing through Rockefeller Center, Times Square on the way to Parsons to pick up our tickets, and proceeding onto the 9/11 Memorial and then Battery Park. I was excited to be invited to The Pratt Institute gallery and hear from leaders in the field as we discussed how to best prepare students for their next experiences. I also enjoyed exploring the High Line Park and viewing the work on display at Whitney Museum of American Art (who is moving location in 2015). 

I want to give a special thanks to everyone who donated and helped Kenzie make it to this celebration. I want to give a special thanks to the Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters, who foster so many creative experiences for our students in Byron Center, as well as BCPS Superintendent Dan Takens, Fine Arts Director Marc Townley, and BCWMS Principal John Krajewski whose support helped make all of this possible. I work in an amazing district that helps students develop and reach goals, bringing them closer to their dreams.

It was a great celebration of creativity and hard work. I am proud to have had this opportunity and invite my students to start thinking over the summer about what works they might start to land them in NYC next year. 

In two weeks, I will be heading to NYC to join my student, Makenzie Reid, at the 2014 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards National Ceremony. If it is anything like ceremonies from the past, it will be filled with special guests, awesome art, and inspiring stories around the power of creativity. 

I also want to thank everyone who has given a donation to help Kenzie afford the opportunity to attend. From her efforts on the GoFundME page and scholarships awarded from the Byron Center Fine Arts Boosters and our Parent Group, she is almost there. If you would like to help, please donate here. This is her current message to those who have helped and those who plan to help her get to Carnegie (also her birthday is the week of the celebration - so you could think of your donation as a birthday gift, too):