Back from NAEA14 San Diego!

For Spring break I flew to sunny San Diego for the 2014 National Art Education Association Conference. That was fun! Here is a quick look at the people, place and presentations I met, went to, was involved with...

The Place:

The conference was held in downtown San Diego right next to the Gaslamp District. It was also pretty close to Pacific Beach (see photo above). I tell you what, I liked this place. Except everyone in California runs.. after a while I felt like yelling at them to sit down and take a break!

San Diego is not far from LA and there is a lot of famous street art in LA.

Now, there is a lot of street art in San Diego...

No, actually I created both these on my iPad on the plane ride back. Virtual street art :)


The People:

On Sunday Morning I joined the old gang for a Davis sponsored coffee Art 2.0 Meet Up. This is an amazing line up of educators including Tricia Fuglestad, Theresa McGee, Craig Roland and Art 21 Star Samantha Melvin to name a few..

Janine Campbell was there, participating in International Bring A Scone To Art Class Day.. keeping it international because she is from Canada.. well, Michigan, but close enough.

I also had a chance to hang out with a few of my Teaching for Artistic Behaviors friends like Katherine Douglas. Here I am sitting with Nan Hathaway. She is my new BFF as you can tell because she sat right next to me.

I also spent some time with the Art of Education peeps! Cassie Stephens who has a new art related outfit every day, Mr. E who has a new bulletin board every week, and Jessica Balsley to whom I send 4 new articles every month. Wow, I saw a lot of people!


The Presentations:

The one complaint anyone can have about an NAEA conference is that there are too many great sessions to choose from! I'll tell you upfront if there was one session that was my "Wow" session it was Art 21: Teaching With Contemporary Art. It reminded me of all the great things theme based teaching has to offer. So more of that to come! I also sat in on some great TAB/Choice sessions. So yes, more student direct teaching to come.

In between going to sessions I also presented. Above is from the ignite session. it was 20 slides in 5 minutes. The slides change automatically so you have to talk quickly.

Above are a few photos someone took from that same presentation and posted on Twitter.  Interesting, the slides chosen..

* Opening slide,
* International Scone Day slide,
* Nicholas Sparks same stuff inside different shell outside slide,
* and Picasso was a jerk slide.

Photo of the sun setting on the last night in San Diego...

The 2014 NAEA National Convention!

If you're looking for me you better be heading to California! This week I will be attending the 2014 NAEA National Convention in San Diego, CA.

So first, if you’re a convention attendee, you are probably looking for that free book. Well here is the link! It will be available free from March 29th - 31st.

Project Flop: Good Lessons From a Bad Teacher

Free download: Click Here!

Now, the 2014 NAEA National Convention? What's that you ask? It's a gathering of more than 5,000 visual art teachers, university professors and museum educators. We all get together with the common goal of advancing art education.

Presenting You Say?

Yes! Not only am I attending but I'm also presenting. How exciting, yes I know! Chances are I might even talk about a project you worked on or even show a photo of your art.

On Saturday I'll be co-presenting with Jessica Balsley on a presentation titled Using iPads in the Art Room. Jessica is the founder of the Art of Education blog. Did you know that I was a contributing writing for the Art of Education? See, you learn something new every day!

So Sunday morning, between 11 and 12, I'll be at the Art Of Ed booth #310 for a Meet and Greet! The AOE Team will be representing this year’s NAEA Convention. There will be 8 great team members in attendance! Alecia Eggers, Derek Balsley, Jessica Balsley, Kelly Berwager, Nic Hahn, Sarah Dougherty,  Sarah Welch and me!.  Stop by and say hi! Stop by and say hi!

On Sunday I'll be co-presenting with Robb Sandagata, Sherri Fisher and Jack Watson. That’s a pretty amazing lineup! We are presenting New Weird Ideas! How appropriate :)

Then, also on Sunday, I’ll be presenting in the main ballroom! Yes, the one that holds everyone! So needless to say, I’m a bit nervous about that one... It’s the Ignite Session. 20 slides in five minutes!

As a special added bonus I'm pretty sure that Davis Publications will be handing out free copies of the April issue of SchoolArts Magazine that just happens to include and article about the Singing Tiger project we did right here at Apex High School! 

So that’s the deal. I’ll be back after Spring Break and if this year is anything like last year, I’ll be coming home with some very innovative ideas that will keep Apex at the Peak of Great Art making!!

Oh, one more thing... Look for my business cards. They come complete with crayons so no matter what, at least you can have fun coloring in the Zonkey!!

...

AOE Conference Winter 2014

On January 25, 2014, I'll be presenting at the AOE Winter Conference!

'Project Flop: Good Lessons From A Bad Teacher' - Ian Sands (AOE Team) 

All project start off with the best intentions. Whether you create the lesson from scratch or borrow it from someone else, in your mind you envision success. You write your lesson trying to plan for every situation that may arise. The supplies are laid out, a presentation and a demo are reviewed and practiced, and everything should go off without a hitch. Then, be it fate, a misalignment of the planets or perhaps the art gods are angry, the lesson falls apart. Regardless of your preparation the students don’t understand. As for your enthusiasm, the class simply doesn’t share your zeal for the project. You try to pull it all together but in the end, for lack of a better word, it fails. Worse off, you take it personally. You feel like you failed. You will be happy to know that you’re in good company.

If you haven't signed up, check it out online here!

It's going to be a great conference! See you there!

Art Of Education 2013 Online Conference

Tuesday, June 25th, I presented at the Art Of Education 2013 Online Conference.. How very exciting! Yes, I know! And not only presented but I went first! Feeling pretty good about being the opening act :)

There were two parts to this conference.  The first part was a pre-recorded video that went live for attendees at 11am EST. There was also a live chat during the same time where I tried to answer questions. 

The second half is ongoing as the presentations have been posted to the Art Of Education Ning site. There is also a forum where attendees of the conference can post questions.

Above: A photo I snagged off of Twitter

So what was my presentation about? Well, here is the intro...

Art Vs Education!

Art teachers are creative beings. We teach a creative subject with creative materials. However, the bureaucracy of education; pacing guides, standards and even the curriculum can jab, punch and often KO an art teacher’s creative endeavor. In this presentation we’ll toe the line with the issues that put art teachers up against the ropes and we’ll learn how to knock those concerns out of the ring. Let’s get ready to rumble!

Grand Rapids Art Museum

This morning I'll be taking part on a panel discussing Technology and 21st Century Skills in the Art Classroom at the Grand Rapids Art Museum.

According to the flyer we will be:

Exploring best and emerging practices for applications of technology in the art room.

Engaged with a wide ranging panel of experts (that's me :) on the topics of social media, essential skills, classroom management, curriculum development, assessment, and contemporary art.

Connecting with educators (me again), artists, and administrators through online dialogue.

Discovering new and exciting ways to use technology in your classroom, while working with teachers from across the state to discuss and brainstorm solutions to potential stumbling blocks.

If you're not in grand Rapids, you can still follow along on Twitter. For starters, follow me @iansands

OK, here we go!

NAEA13 - Fort Worth TX

I'm back from my trip to the National Art Educator Association's 2013 Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. Look, they hung up "Art Matters" banners all around town because they knew we were coming. Mayor Betsy Price even gave a formal proclamation.

Anyhow, since so many people have asked me, "How was Texas?" I thought I should write a short post highlighting just a few of the events.

The photo above is from one of the general sessions. Most everyone attends these sessions that are held in the ballroom. Not sure if you can count them all but there are probably some 4,000 art teacher present. So I guess there were a lot of subs back home. I was sitting on the floor when I took this photo cause there weren't any seats left.

Besides the general sessions that everyone attends, there are break out sessions going on all day long. I attended many of these sessions. The photo above is of Olivia Gude who is one of my art teacher heros. Doesn't it look like she is pointing at me? I think she was pointing at me :)

This is a session with Jessica Balsley. If you don't recognize the name you might recognize the blog. She is the founder of the Art of Education blog. it's the one we received our blog award from. She even mentioned our blog during her presentation.

So this is where it gets kind of corny. I am friends with a lot of art teachers on Twitter. Some, like  Jessica Balsley, I had not even met in person till this week. Still, we help each other out, share lesson ideas and information online all the time. We call it our PLN (personal learning network). 

Just for fun, we all decided to buy super hero shirts to wear from Ink Pixi to the conference. One of the teachers, Stacy Lord, made the image of us as lego people. On Saturday morning we all met in person for coffee. It was a chance for a first time photo opp. I'm the 3rd lego from the right.

Part of the convention includes a huge room full of venders who sell art supplies and the like. One of those venders is Davis Publications. Not only does Davis publish a lot of art ed text books, they also publish the art ed magazine, SchoolArts.

Davis is so nice that they gave away this month's issue of SchoolArts. In this month's issue of SchoolArts is an article about a project we did right here at Apex High School. Hannah (seen above) was nice enough to let me take a photo of her holding up the magazine turned to the article.

Not only did I attend the conference but I was a presenter. Seen above, I'm presenting about one fo the Computer Art projects titled the Barbie Project. To the left of the photo is my con-presenter Robb Sandagata.

Craig Roland and I (who I claim responsible for really helping start our PLN) looking super!


There was way more.. too much to post. I will tell you that I got a lot of great ideas!! For example, after compiling all the information, I have a new approach to teaching that will really empower the student to make choices with his or her art. I plan to roll out in Art Two next year.

Stay tuned!!

Ian Sands

K-12 Online Presentation

The K-12 Online Presentation, How Technology Helped Me Paint With Mud with your host Ian Sands is now available! Click here!

Presentation Description: In today’s high school art curriculum there is a separation between the visual art class and the technology class. The current high school art curriculum’s focus is on traditional media with very little integrated technology. Technology is separated from traditional visual art classes and given it’s own course titles such as Computer Art.

Likewise, there is a separation in the selection of art medium. Though the art world has evolved to using a plethora of new materials, the majority of art class storage rooms are filled with pencils, tempera paint and other traditional media.

Our challenge as art educators is twofold. First, merge new technology into our everyday art lessons. Second, share with students concepts and ideas that use both traditional materials as well as branch out to media traditionally not consider art material.

In this presentation we will explore ways to incorporate technology into the full range of an art project. We will explore everything from jump starting the ideas, to developing maps and templates, to critiquing online and digital grading. Furthermore, we will accomplish this through the exploration of such nontraditional materials as post-it notes, glow sticks and mud.


Go now! Check it out! Click here!

Davis Publications 2010 Virtual Retreat!



This week Davis Publications offered a virtual retreat for art supervisors across the country. Based on my work at Apex HS, I was asked to be a presenter.

i was excited and humbled to be selected as part of the retreat. I had the chance to work along side of teachers that are part of my online PLN and that I've been following for a while like Jeff Hall, the Fine Arts Dept. Chair at Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School in Richmond, VA. and Craig Roland, an Associate Professor at the University of Florida to mention a few.

You can follow along post retreat news at the Art Education 2.0 Ning.