Explore how art education can contribute to a more just and sustainable planet. Making the case that ecopedagogy and eco-art can transform and enrich art education, Bertling introduces these two burgeoning movements and then outlines how they can be infused into K-12 art education. Seven innovative curricular strands are presented to help art…

Skills in creativity are needed to meet the needs of today's organizations, and design thinking is a process that one can learn to become more creative. Yet the diminishing exposure to and pursuit of humanities courses, which have traditionally developed these skills, has put pressure on business schools to fill the gap. This experiential learning…

This full-color resource will help educators teach about current art and integrate its philosophy and methods into the K-12 classroom. The authors provide a framework that looks at art through the lens of nine themes--everyday life, work, power, earth, space and place, self and others, change and time, inheritance, and visual culture--highlighting…

Writing lesson plans is often considered busywork, but it can be a useful path for discovering what is important about artmaking and teaching. This book shows teachers how to slow down, breathe, and linger over the process of unit and lesson plan writing to uncover how much this process can support them professionally, creatively, and personally.…

Digital culture and creativity are often framed as immaterial (Casemajor, 2015), distinct from traditional media, such as paint and clay, and divorced from the immediate, embodied, and political realities of the arts classroom. 3D printing troubles this distinction, providing a concrete way for students' digitally created artifacts to manifest in,…

Students of all ages can learn to think like artists! "Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education" changed the conversation about quality arts education. This new publication shows how the eight Studio Habits of Mind and four Studio Structures can be used successfully with younger students in a range of socioeconomic…

In this semester-long activity, I describe how to create a collaborative cabinet of curiosities that engages critical methods of inquiry as an alternative summative assignment. Courses: Communication Pedagogy, Gender and Communication, Performance Studies. Objective: The objective of this assignment is for students to identify and analyze how…

In this article Christine Woywod contemplates what her students' artworks would look like if she taught in a way where art was transient, not about objects, but rather experiences. As an example, she describes experiencing an exhibit including interactive works by Nathaniel Stern where she got to jump and swat at projected words that floated past…

This column discusses resources and science topics related to students in grades preK to 2. This month's issue provides an activity on documentation panels to encourage students to reflect on their actions and thought processes. Young students benefit enormously from visual aids. Documentation panels--chronological arrangements of photos, student…

It's easy to see the connections between science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) in daily life, but they may not be so obvious in the classroom. This month's lessons allow students to explore the components of STEAM through a favorite art supply, the crayon, and a beloved American tradition, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day…

Designed for a broad audience, including educators, camp directors, afterschool coordinators, and preservice teachers, this investigation aims to help individuals experience mathematics in unconventional and exciting ways by engaging them in the physical activity of building geometric shapes using ropes. Through this engagement, the author…

Engaging with the quilts of Gee's Bend offers a rich opportunity for students in grades four through eight to develop appreciation for pattern, rhythm, and innovation while learning about history, entrepreneurship, and political activism. By easily accessing print, film, and Internet resources teachers can include these vibrant quilts and…

Could you use a superhero to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem solving? While seeking the answer, secondary language arts teacher Maureen Bakis discovered a powerful pedagogy that teaches those skills and more. The amazingly successful results prompted her to write this practical guide that shows middle and high school…

Middle School students present unique challenges to visual arts teachers, who wonder how they can touch the academic, emotional, and social lives of students entering their early teen years. If lessons are to rate high with them, they must not only appeal academically to their inquisitiveness, but also to their social an emotional development as…

This article describes how contemporary costumes, expressive techniques, and mixed media can take "the ordinary" out of figure studies. To pique student interest and create a meaningful figurative study, students are instructed to bring in their latest fashion accessories (hats, shawls, neck warmers, denim jackets, etc.), or shop the local thrift…