As a young art instructor, new on the block, Marlene Nall Johnt went looking for an instructive manual about successful art education techniques. To her dismay, she never found one. Now retired, Johnt realized what needed to be done: she needed to write just such a manual for the young teachers of today. A Retired Art Teacher Tells All is an educational guide and workbook with detailed tips for running a successful art classroom. It is a step-by-step lesson for teachers, with comprehensive instruction and thought-provoking questions intended for reader response. Within its pages, Johnt shares the logic behind time-tested teaching techniques with true-to-life stories from her own extensive career. Unlike most art instruction textbooks, which read like art autopsies, A Retired Art Teacher Tells All adds the human touch, dealing mainly with real students in real life scenarios. It is not a collection of lesson plans, but a collection of relational plans, aimed at guiding you to be the best art teacher you can be.

A Retired Art Teacher Tells All

100 Simple Tips to Help Teachers Become Efficient, Inspiring, and Happy EducatorsBy Marlene Nall Johnt

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Marlene Nall Johnt
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-4976-8

Contents

Preface: My First Day as a Teacher................................1Acknowledgements..................................................5Introduction: How to Use This Book................................7Chapter 1: Starting the Term......................................11Tips for Beginning Art Classes....................................29Tips for Advanced Art Classrooms..................................45Tips for General Classroom Policies...............................59Chapter 2: Classroom Organization.................................83Chapter 3: Finances...............................................119Chapter 4: Lessons and Grading....................................131Chapter 5: Personal Tips..........................................179Chapter 6: Relating to Your Students..............................227Chapter 7: Promoting Your Program.................................239Chapter 8: The Art of Teaching....................................253A Final Reflection and Brief Personal History.....................300

Chapter One

Starting the Term

Tip 1: Create a List of Questions for Your Principal

Find out what you will be teaching, how many students you can expect to teach, what room(s) are you in, names of contact people, and any money issues involved with your classes.

If you've been hired at the last minute, you might have accepted a teaching position before you have even seen the room you will be teaching. In general, though, the following questions will be answered in a departmental meeting, a new teacher seminar, or a general faculty meeting before the school term begins.

1. How many students can I expect to teach? What administrator has this information?

2. Will the courses last one half year or a whole year?

3. What grade levels will I teach? 4. Are there mixed grade levels in your classes? 5. Is there an art fee to be collected? 6. How is the art fee to be collected and by whom? 7. If I collect the fee, to whom do I turn it in and who will explain the procedures for collecting these fees? 8. How much money is there available for me to spend now and who is the person I can get this information from? 9. Is there state and federal money available for me to spend on supplies other than from Student Fees? Who is in charge of this account? 10. Where are all the art supplies stored now? 11. Whom will I work with to get and process purchase orders for art supplies? 12. Will students be sitting at tables, individual desks, or drafting tables? 13. Is there a sink or sinks in the art room? Do they have clay traps in the drains? 14. How much storage will I have and where is it in the art room? 15. Will I share the art room with another art teacher or another academic teacher? 16. Will I have a homeroom? 17. What are my duty assignments? Who is in charge of duty assignments? How will I get hand soap, trash bags and paper towels? Who is in charge of maintaining the art room? 18. What principal will I be working with regarding discipline? 19. What administrator may change student schedules after school starts? 20. Each day, how will I communicate attendance records to the office? 21. How long is the class period?

Do not ask for more than 15 minutes of the principal's time if you are still unclear about the above topics. Do not stay longer unless he or she asks you to stay longer. Do not be surprised if he or she passes your questions on to someone else.

Of course, if you have already seen your new room, you will already have many of these answers. Keep the answers to these questions handy at our desk. You may very well be feeling overwhelmed now. Do not worry. As you read on you will digest it and it will make sense.

Tip 2: Create the Right Classroom Environment

If you carefully plan the first days of school, you will set a solid foundation for the day-to-day operations of the entire term.

Two important considerations in any classroom are adequate seating and a visually stimulating room. I make sure all tables and chairs are clean and inviting. For many students, at first, the art room might be a scary place. Try to make it as friendly as possible. I count chairs and make sure there is room for each student. I check this against the class roster that has the largest number of students. It can be embarrassing for a child to stand and wait while you obtain for him a chair from another room.

Also, make sure you have a variety of styles and periods of art displayed around the room. For instance, I have examples of Impressionism, Expressionism, Non-Objectivism, and Realism placed on my walls. These pictures stay up all year. I have examples of architecture, additive sculpture, and subtractive sculpture displayed on high shelves. The sculptures also stay up all year. I display collections of excellent works created by former students. These works are to inspire my new students. I display a wide variety of styles and techniques. I make sure none of the work is falling down. Although on the first day I do not discuss all this displayed work, I certainly want it to help set the mood for our learning environment.

The day before you meet your students, be sure to have the following:

1. A supply box on each table filled with pencils and erasers (see Tip 32); 2. Your classroom rules posted in a prominent area (see Tip 16); 3. Five different punish-work assignments, each in a zip-lock bag (see Tip 17); 4. Printouts of class rolls of all students by class period, laid out in order; 5. Enough paper for a drawing assignment; 6. A "worst case scenario" plan for discipline (see Tip 17); 7. Examples of some of the projects the students will do during the course (see Tip 5); 8. Arrange student tables or desks (see Tip 24).

If you have prepared all of the above, you certainly will be able to handle your first day with grace, confidence, and humor.

Thought Provoking Questions about Your Room Environment

Look around your art room. What would you think about coming into this room every day if you were a new student? What changes can you make? What changes would you like to make later, down the road? How does the room reinforce who you are, their new teacher?

Write down your observations and plans for changes below:

Tip 3: Mix Up Activities the First Week in Beginning Art

In your Introduction to Art or Art 1 classes, mix up the first week by having drawing activities, organizational duties, and student and teacher introduction.

My classes were 96 minutes each and, oh, let me tell you, this time can be an eternity if one is not flexible with different activities. You will need 10 minutes to start class and 10 minutes to clean up, so shorter classes have less interacting time. I loved the long block-scheduled classes because of the longer uninterrupted creative time. You may need more days for your first week activities depending on class length.

...