When we first found out that we would all of a sudden be moving instruction online and no longer be teaching in a way that I have only ever known (as both a student and teacher), I was a bit frozen with fear. How could I still connect with my students, teach them content that was both rich and relevant, as well as help them work through any feelings they may be going through, using art as an outlet and uplifter during this unprecedented time. 

I had a choice to make: completely overhaul everything and start anew or stay the course and keep moving forward using the processes, units, and activities I would have done if we had been face-to-face. 

I chose the latter. I was lucky in that I had already had my students in the art classroom for about a marking period of time and they had taken STEM the semester before, so they understood the process from which we could follow to create the works we were going to make. 

Design Thinking is something I have shared before and it has helped me shape my classroom into a place where students are able to make choices and stay organized and focused on results they are interested in obtaining. Finding ways I could adapt this process to teaching remotely was a challenge, but as you will view in the video, it was worth it. 

The graphic above is one I made last summer using the iPad app Procreate and my Apple Pencil. I had been using Design Thinking for years before coming up with this visual representation and now that I have it, I feel even more strongly about how important this organizational tool is for me and my students as we navigate the work created in the classroom (even when done remotely). 

By having a graphic to show go along with each step, it helps me better communicate to students the how of what we do when we try and solve visual problems. This can also be applied to other content areas (I see a lot of overlap with Science, for example) and it has been an awesome thing to share with my teaching partner in the STEM room so we can use common language about how we are going to help students walk through the work they do in our classes. 

I consider my classroom a choice-based place, meaning my students have the opportunity to decide what materials and processes to use when they create their final works. We work within a broad theme and use DICE as a way to organize the process. 

Usually we have enough time during the semester to cover four unit themes. I use the same theme for both 7th and 8th grade, understanding that because students are getting to select what and how they make their art, the results are always going to be different and the units change year-to-year. 

This year our themes were "You, Me, Everybody," "Spaces and Places," "Things You Leave Behind," and "Something Old, Something New." These themes allow me to cover some recurring subjects you will find in the work of artists like portraits, landscapes, and still life as well as focus on students demonstrating growth through a review of their Artsonia portfolio and reimagining what they had created before through the new lens of what they now know and can do. 

Each theme has a set of artists we use as reference who come from different backgrounds and use different media to address the topic and students also have a series of skill builders and bootcamps they complete to get a better understanding of art concepts and media they can then select from as they complete their work. 

By moving to a thematic structure that offers choice as a result of skill builders and mini lessons that give a variety of tools to use, students come up with dramatically different results that help them establish their own unique voice while also showing me they know and understand what is being examined through the process of creating the work. 

Here are some examples of the planning sheets I use for the themes we covered and continued to cover, even when moving to remote learning: 

For each of the challenges, I also created review sheets that students could use to house the information they learned in that unit and then we would have summative assessments based on that. In addition, students had standard-based rubrics that guided them through their creation of their works and artist statements when they posted to Artsonia (all of which fell under the category of the 4 C's when evaluating art: Creativity, Craft, Composition, and Content). Finally, students had the chance to be reflective of their own learning through a series of self-assessments, too. 

All of these components offer a chance to assess learning through lenses of what students were able to learn and retain through application, what students were able to produce and communicate through application, and how students felt about the learning, production, and application of the processes selected. I am still working how summative assessments, like quizzes the reviews were used to do in my face-to-face class, would work or look like when teaching remotely. Right now, I use the assessment feature on Schoology for this and hope to be able to adapt that to whatever our system looks like in the fall. 

If you are interested in a closer look at the final exam review I offer for students, you can check out the file below:

I am already planning for next school year. I am thinking about the themes we will cover and the artists we will reference. In addition to making sure I plan for ways to integrate the Design Thinking process within the way I teach Visual Arts remotely, I am also preparing myself for the potential that I will not have the same luxury I had this year where students were able to learn it face to face from me to start so we could continue it online. 

One way I envision myself organizing my online space is through the use of Google Slides and through the "Bitmoji Classroom." I also am really excited about SildesMania, where there are a lot templates that can be used for this and are offered for FREE! 

I also have been working on a series of works using Procreate on the iPad to illustrate images of the artists we reference in our classes. I started this during our stay at home order to better hone my skills with a tool we use in class and I am planning to continue it to complete the series for next year's set. 

I envision having something like the image you see above, which was created using Google Slides and allowing the images to be clickable that would then allow students to learn more about the unit. 

I am also working towards more diverse representations of artists we use as reference in the art classroom. People from different backgrounds and countries should be represented. This is something that is really important to me because I am a child of an immigrant. As an Arab-American, I have grown up experiencing and continue to experience what it can feel like to be seen through a limited lens. I share this because it is important to seek understanding within ourselves and each other and grow in the process. Being mindful and purposeful of inclusion when seeking out which artists I teach will help me be a better teacher. And seeing art made from different points of view helps us understand the world in new ways. 

I am excited and nervous about a new school year. There may be a lot of unknowns, but what I do know is I am so lucky to teach who I do and where I do and I cannot wait to get working with my students once we do start up this August! 

We started a new semester two weeks ago, and one thing that is very important when getting a new group of students is exposing them to the materials and concepts being taught right off of the bat. One project that we have used this year to do this is called the "Symbol Selfie" where students use basic symbols in the iPad program Procreate to make an image that shows what their preferences are using a "this or that" menu of options. 

This low-pressure, high-success skill builder helps students understand and use the basic functions with the drawing app while also letting me in on some of the things they enjoy. What is even better about this is that it is a quick 1-2 day process before students are also able to upload them to Artsonia and get used to doing that through the app, too. 

This project is adapted from Ms. Koslow's ArtRoom (@mskoslowsartroom) via Instagram. She has posted her version as well as examples of this using colored pencils online. 

Feel free to use the worksheet below or adapt as you see fit for your classroom. If you use it, please give my class a shout-out because we love seeing how others adapt our ideas! 

One fun thing about the end-of-summer-ramp-up-to-the-new-school-year is that you get to enacted ideas because there is time to stew on them and actually do them some justice. When the school year starts, much of what we are doing has been planned and tested and worked on during the summertime. 

This summer, I was inspired by teachers who use the word ARTIST as a way to chart expectations of behavior. As a teacher who leans heavily on choice in the studio, I wanted to also link these behaviors with Studio Habits and think I was able to come up with a compromise of language that both works for my students and will help foster a positive and productive environment in our classroom. I know it doesn't have everything, but hopefully when paired with the DICE design thinking (shared in the previous post) it will ALL be covered. 

Our school also focuses on "I can" statements, so I guess you can say I've got that covered, too! 

My husband and I just celebrated 15 years of marriage this week and when we got married, one of the first major decisions I had to make was whether or not to take his last name. Being a Warhol fan and the opportunity for imagery like these posters wasn't the only factor in my choice... but I would be lying if I said it wasn't - I mean, it is perfect! 

I have had multiple requests to post these for others to use (even some who want to pay me - how flattering!). I do not have a TPT or anything like that because I am ok with sharing resources, for free, with other teachers that are used to help students in the classroom. If you would like to use them as is or modify a blank version, the files are below for you to use.

I just ask that if you use it, you give credit or a shout out when you share/display (tag me so I can see it on Twitter or Instagram) and if you are feeling generous, you can donate to our DonorsChoose.org page - we are currently $168 from completing our current project. 

It is August and that means it is time to start thinking about how I am going to get myself organized for the school year. Thinking about what I want students to be able to understand and do becomes a central organizing principle for me as I ease back into the mindset of teaching and learning.

One thing, if nothing else, that I want to help my students understand about being creative is that you CAN DEVELOP a process for it. That if you are "bad" at art or making things or coming up with ideas that are interesting and new, you can use a process that will help you develop the stamina to push through roadblocks and find interesting solutions. 

About five or six years ago, I went to MACUL and attended a presentation by D'Andra Clark that explored design thinking in her classroom. She is an art teacher who had partnered with the technology teacher and they decided they needed to come up with a common language to help students see the commonality in their classes. They used DICE (illustrated by me above and below) as a way help reframe the approach to design thinking. 

I knew as soon as I heard this what had been lacking between Art and STEM all of these years at my school. We needed to adapt common practices and ways of working that would help students see a routine in the way we work and shared language in our content areas. 

You are welcome to download the files and print them out or make them into bigger posters. If you do, please just credit the illustrations and do not copy and sell them. I would love to see how you do use them, so please make sure you share what you do with them, including @campbellartsoup on Twitter or Instagram.

When I had shared that I was planning to post these, many teachers said they would like to offer some kind of something for their use. If you would like to support my classroom, you can donate to our current DonorsChoose.org project or purchase my illustrated works on items in Artsonia's gift shop (20% of purchases goes back to our school). All of these were created this summer using the app Procreate with the iPad and Apple Pencil.