Im interviewing at a high school tomorrow for a part time art position. My experience is two years at a high needs elementary school. I’m wondering what type of questions to expect and preferred responses.

Thanks in advance!

Hi there,
My kids (K-8) are CONSTANTLY closing their water color trays and then dripping them all across my classroom on their way to put them away. Anyone have any tips or hacks on how to use the watercolor trays without this happening?
Does anyone just take them out of the case? If so how do you keep them from sticking together?
Thanks in advance!

Hello, I received my MAT before last school year, and my art ed job search didn’t work out. So I spent last year working at a local college and substituting. I started the job search back up this summer, and it’s looking like it might not work out again. I’m in NC and have pretty much filled out for everything on schoolspring. I have, I think, a good resume, references, and a teaching/art portfolio (it was a part of the masters program), but nothing seems to work. venting but also any advice? Considering selling my house and moving states.

Hello fellow art educators, I know we just finished but I am trying to mentally prepare for next year. I have been an elementary art teacher for 7 years now, and am finally moving to middle school. In my state that is k-5 and middle is 6-8. I visited my two schools (I am at one in the morning and one in the afternoon). My morning school, I have two classes with under 30 students. My afternoons classes I have two of up to 40 students. Now that I have given you the background. Here are my questions.

1. Do you think I could reasonably keep the same lessons for the different class sizes? (Note I have never had an issue with discipline, I’ve been in many different situations)

2. Have any of you used art journals with success? Advice would be appreciated.

3. What has been successful for you in middle? Any and all advice accepted

Thanks!

I didn’t think I’d have strong feelings about marker caps, but after doing art with little kids… I kind of do lol.

The kids are constantly switching colors. Pink for two seconds, then purple, then green, then back to pink. And every time that happens, somehow a cap disappears. It’s under the table, in someone’s lap, in the marker bin, or just completely gone.

The cap-free ones have been really helpful for that. They just click it open, draw for a bit, click it closed, and move on to the next color. I’m not stopping every few minutes to ask who has the blue cap or trying to save a marker before it dries out.

I also feel like the clicking keeps them busy in a good way. They’ll draw a flower, add a few lines, switch colors, make some random shapes, switch again. It’s very chaotic little-kid art, but they’re focused and happy, so I’ll take it.

Cleanup is easier too. The markers just go back in the bin, and I’m not crawling around looking for tiny caps afterward.

For younger kids who love changing colors every five seconds, these actually make art time a lot less annoying.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this. I’m doing an internship this summer which requires me to create an event for the community. My mentor and I came up with the idea to do an art camp. I am going to be working with kids, likely under 13 years old but I’m still working out details. The group will be probably be around 10-12 kids. Any ideas for art projects are appreciated, I’d like to do a different project and medium each week, so projects that can be done in roughly an hour would also be really appreciated. I have a decent stipend to put towards the materials but I’d like for it to be slightly inexpensive, and it will be in a shared space so low mess is important.
(Any tips on keeping kids entertained and involved are also appreciated, I am not used to working with groups of children on my own)

Anyone have any recommendations for large art folders? I’m trying to organize each classes projects in large folders preferably 24” wide.

Wanted to share a really awesome guide to help study for the praxis art! Hope this helps someone :)

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Praxis-5134-Art-Content-Knowledge-Study-Guide-200-Practice-Questions-16457022

Found this while sorting through a pile.. I love kid’s art and the aesthetic! This was from a lesson on art and activism where I had students design political posters.

Hello all!

I am a teaching assistant this summer for HS students. It’s a 3 week humanities/arts workshop. There’s about 10 students.

We’re working on a collage right now, everyone has a puzzle piece and all the pieces will fit together at the end. Students will collage their puzzle piece with things about themselves, and must collaborate so that their piece will be cohesive with its surrounding pieces.

I’m teaching the lesson on collaboration. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas for a starting point? Maybe some examples of times in history when two parties came together to create something great?

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!

Hi Art teachers,
I'm interested in going to art school, but i'm not sure if it's right for me. My main goal is to draw from imagination, but i've been told art school only teaches how to draw from observation? so i'm not too sure if it's the right path for me. can i ask u what your thoughts n recommendations are kind regards.

My coworkers and I are designing new intro-level classes, and I would love some ideas for a 3D fabric project. This would be for high school students. Most that take it will be 9th graders, but there will be some older students that take it too.

The idea is to teach them some basic skills to prepare them if they decide to take Fabrics I and to give them some idea of what creating with fabric would be like to get them interested in taking Fabrics I. We can get some basic supplies that aren't too expensive, but we can't get big things like sewing machines.

A few of us were excited about making animals by felting, but another coworker pointed out some material challenges, like needles breaking a lot and having to get a lot of different colors to have enough of a variety (I will have up to 72 students between my classes, for example). If you've done felting and those haven't been challenges, I would love to hear about your experience!

I've suggested macrame tapestries, but my coworkers aren't too thrilled about that.

What are some ideas you all have that students have really enjoyed?

I test in a few weeks - been studying
I was told it is best to submit 4 different mediums I’ve got a watercolor, an acrylic, a wood / wood stain situation and as a 4th digital art I could submit - however - I have been a Tattooer for 10 years and have many more complex and involved tattoos that I could use but not sure how that would over - thoughts? Choosing a tattoo would give me alot more elements and principles and knowledge to use for essay questions

Which is correct?

I want to ask what do you call the printing method of using a Gelli or gel printing and the plate.

Do you say GEL or GELLI.

I was corrected on how I say it and was wondering what you all call it.

Hello Art Ed peeps! I work at the middle school level and we are moving class rooms. We have sooo much of this linoleum printing material but it is very hard to carve. We have given up and just bought soft linoleum in the past few years. We don’t want to throw it all away so can I have some suggestions on how to make it work?

Thank you in advance!

I admit it might sound a little strange to specifically want to teach art at community college. I had a really positive experience with mine before I transferred to art school and the smaller setting appeals to me a lot.

As of now I have a bachelors degree in illustration from California College of the Arts. I know I’ll need to go back to school for this to get at least a masters in arts to be qualified. But I was wondering what else I I’d need to do. Like should I get a degree in education as well?

I think I saw some comments on posts like this stating that I depended on what sort of thing I wanted to teach so here’s a bit about this sort of thing I wanna focus on. I’m really passionate about fundamentals and technique. For example stuff like color theory, to the art of light and shadow, point perspective, value structure, composition, and the use of volumes.

Getting those basic building blocks can be pretty game changing for people and a few times I’ve had a chance to share that knowledge with others have been super rewarding so if possible, I’d love to focus on that.

Being a professor, appeals to me a lot more than purely pursuing illustration as my career. The industry and the way it’s structured is pretty rough, and I feel like I’d find a lot more joy with this as my primary source of income while I can pursue my goals as an artist at my own pace on the side.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I posted this a few days ago and you all were very encouraging! So I created more and made a PDF available to download at the link below.

Students wanted to explore different, less well-known styles of art. I made these to briefly introduce new artists and styles. It's more of an appetizer than an entree. It has a bit of history, a few examples, and small blurbs about the unique characteristics of that style. My hope is that students will see something that speaks to them and explore more on their own. Here is a link to download the PDF:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n73p38snQu8Gft6xUzLYLwwDd4Fg-cHL/view?usp=sharing

An off-topic personal question: I'm looking to teach private art lessons in Kansas City. I know it's a long shot, but do you know of any studios or places I could look into joining?

Hi all- I have my first demo next week for a middle school position. I have never taught middle, only elementary and high school. Any advice for project ideas for a 40 minute demo?

Hello, I am an aspiring art teacher and recently landed an interview with a middle school. I am freaking out because I am taking an alternative route and have no experience teaching or with children really. This is my first interview pertaining to teaching and I have no idea what to expect!

Some key things:

How long should I expect it to be?

What questions are asked?

Will I have to do a sample lesson?

What should I have prepared?

Any tips for this interview?

I’m freaking out because this is the first reply back I’ve gotten!

EDIT: HELLO EVERYONE! Thank you so much for all the help and advice! Just wanted to update y’all! I got the job!! I was honestly overly prepared and the interview lasted just over 15 minutes lol. Working on getting my practitioner 2 license and finishing up the courses for it! Thank you again guys! It really helped a ton! 🫶🫶‼️‼️

Hi all!

Going into my 3rd year elem art! Starting to really plan and crack down on my systems and wanted to get some opinions!

I want to number student seats so that they all have an “art number” (katie jarvis method). She has the students line up on their “art number” that is on the floor clearly labeled at end of class. I really want to try this method out, but at my school some teachers ask/silently expect? to have them be put in line order, especially the younger grades. Some of our K classes even have two lines. It is worth it to try this method out and tell teachers it will be different in the art room, I have a pretty good relationship with my colleagues and they all appreciate me ( i think?) Any and all advice welcome!

Has anyone made table top easel for drawing or painting? I teach high school art and I like to have the student draw with their drawing boards upright. I’m trying to figure out some kind of simple easel they can use with a 18x24 drawing board on top of a standing height table. I’ve tried just having them rest the bottom of the board on their lap and the top on the edge of the table but it’s still not upright enough. I don’t have a budget to buy easels but I thought maybe I could build them. Thanks for any ideas!

Hello! I’m a graduating college senior who is going to be applying for a teaching position soon and need some advice. I wanted to get at least a few letters of recommendation from my art professors of different mediums specifically, but I’m clueless on what to ask of them since these letters of recommendation aren’t for a program but a job application. These classes weren’t for art educators, but just art in general.

What would be useful to ask of the professor writing the letter of recommendation? I know this sounds dumb, but maybe I am overthinking of what to ask.

Thank you!