The End (for now)

Over the last 6 and a half years I have been on a teaching journey. Little did I know back when I was in college pursuing my dream of becoming a teacher that I would start my career in such an interesting way, teaching students online. In my first year, I tackled translating the visual arts into the online setting with help of those who had been doing it for years before me (my AMAZING co-workers). Like my students, I found this type of education to be exciting, fulfilling, and innovative.

Every day was an adventure and I felt a part of a community of educators doing something special, something amazing and different. I was helping students reach new heights, find themselves, and along the way, I found myself as an educator. My love for my job was all-encompassing, my love for my students and my colleagues and everything we were working towards was off the charts. I was not only able to be a teacher to my students but also found ways to teach other teachers, leading professional development, pioneering new technology in my classroom, writing my Master's Thesis project, creating my own Art TV show, and sharing my love of art with thousands. Teaching online has given me more opportunities in 6 and a half years than many teachers get in a lifetime.

It was with great sorrow when I lost my position several weeks ago when my school closed. I am mourning that loss. The loss of something special. The loss of a community. The loss of my students. More than anything, the loss of my opportunity to teach. A job loss can affect anyone negatively of course. Financially it is a blow; finding health insurance, searching for a new job, rebuilding networks and connections are all difficult. For a teacher, it might also feel like losing a dream, losing a calling, or even losing a sense of self. Who am I if not, "Art Teacher"? It is hard to feel complete when one's mission in life is put on hold. However, I have always taught my students to never give up and that life has a way of working out even when it seems hopeless. Each day we must start anew, hold on to hope, and push towards a better tomorrow. I don't know where my next journey will lead, the online classroom, brick and mortar, or higher education, but I know for certain that education is where I belong. Thank you for joining me on this journey, and know if you are struggling with a loss, you're not alone.

Welcoming

Over the last week I have been preparing my classroom for students. Now, of course that doesn't mean I am putting up posters or arranging chairs and supplies. For me, it's all digital organizing. I've been pulling web content together from my Gold Course (houses all of the Art 1 curriculum pages) and making my own adjustments. One of these adjustments includes a welcome video message to my students which I hope will help ease their fears of being judged on talent in my class. A common barrier I run into with students is their belief that they cannot draw, and therefore will fail my class. I spend many phone calls convincing them that this isn't true. This year I created a video to address this concern right away, and it also let's them see my face on their first day.

I also created another Glass video about my Pattern Project. I am hoping to engage and excite students with these videos year. Tomorrow, my students begin the 2013-2014 school year. I look forward to our adventures!

Developing an Online/Blended Studio Art Course

I have recently been asked by a former cooperating teacher to share my incites about creating an online art class. His department is being asked to do this for their brick and mortar school. So many schools are starting to create blended learning programs within their schools and I decided to share my ideas I'll be presenting to these teachers here as well.

Important Points to Remember

• Set a timeline and due dates-This allows a flexible class to still have structure and keep students on track with their work. See image to the left.
• Provide multiple forms of instruction (written instructions, visuals, student examples, videos)-You should provide everything you would in a traditional classroom but in a digital format. If you were to do a demonstration, make a video. Images of artwork and student examples can really get students interested and communicate the content better.
• Provide multiple forms of assessment (quizzes check reading, project demonstrates mastery, reflection questions show understanding)-I use projects as the biggest form of assessment in my classroom but I find quizzes and written work show another view of what students understand and are taking home from each lesson.
• Simple materials unless provided-Unlike the traditional classroom where you order supplies, in many cases students need to provide their own. Keep it simple when choosing supplies keeping in mind safety and cost.
• Be available for questions-Students need to know they can reach you if they need help by email, telephone, or in person.
• Give feedback for every grade-Written feedback is essential for communicating to students who are working independently about how they can improve or what they are successful at. In my classroom students are also able to make corrections and resubmit work for a better grade. This is something I have found to work well but it is up to you.

Sample Lessons

For a complete look at all the elements I include in the lesson visit my What Does a Lesson Look Like? post.
Here I have provided some images of what the curriculum pages look like in my classroom.

 

Art 1 Sample Lesson

This Art 1 lesson includes many visuals, some vocabulary, and many written instructions for students because this is an introductory course. I also included a video in this lesson to show what it looks like when someone is doing the shading techniques. I encourage students to include objects in their still life that tell a story. For most Art 1 projects they have a week to complete them.

 

Art 5 Sample Lesson

By contrast, this Art 5 lesson includes lesson visuals, more writing, and a project about concept rather than technique. The students in Art 5 should have much more experience in working independently on projects and are working on creating a portfolio for colleges. For Art 5, students have multiple weeks to complete projects but I ask for in progress work checks to provide feedback and direction when needed.

Remembering to Make a Difference

I have spent the last two days filling up my brain with new knowledge about teaching. I learned about motivating students, new technology I can use, how to involve parents and guardians, and various other techniques to improve my teaching strategies. I am excited to implement new multimedia into my classroom and to increase attendance of my live lessons. I am excited to try new ways of motivating students to make the right choices in their education despite their many barriers. I am excited to work even more closely with my inclusion teacher in a more effective way that helps us be a team. However, I took home more than just helpful tools this week. I was reminded of a philosophy that sometimes gets pushed to the backs of our minds. As teachers, we are here to change lives, to teach students more than simply our subject matter. Our first keynote speaker, Steve Gilliland told a story about the 5 people in his life who have made the biggest difference, one being his 6^th grade teacher. I remember the teachers who impacted my life and who made me want to do the same. Sometimes as teachers we get sucked in to our daily tasks. For me its grading, making PowerPoints, and trying to reach out to those reluctant students I have in my classroom. And sometimes they get lumped together and its call after call and answering machine after answering machine that I am speaking to. But Steve’s story reminded me that I want to be the teacher that students tell stories about later in life, long after they are no longer students. I want remind students that they CAN do it, and that someone believes in them. Though I have been learning about new tech programs and approaches I can use in my classroom, the fact is that none of this matters without remembering to make a difference. I can craft the most wonderful lessons and creative projects but at the end of the day I must always remember my purpose. I am a teacher and I am here to change lives. Every moment of extra time I take to learn about a student and talk on the phone about things that don’t always have to be about art class, every time I stop to appreciate a student’s work, or commend a student on working through a personal challenge, these are the moments that matter. My goal now as I move into the end of the first quarter of our school year is to marry my new knowledge of practical skills with my enduring passion for teaching to make my students successful not only in my class but in life.

Congratulations

It is my birthday today and I couldn’t ask for a better present from my job than a conversation with an excited graduate. Scores for the OGT’s (Ohio Graduation Test) were posted today and I knew of a student from my first semester class who was just waiting to pass science to find out if she could graduate this year as an 11^th grader. I went to check her scores this morning and found out she passed. We talked this morning all about her future plans and all the excitement she is feeling. She plans to go into nursing. I have been speaking to many of my seniors this week, making sure they are on track to pass and graduate and it is a wonderful experience to see their hard work finally paying off for them. Some of these students are the first in their family to graduate high school and many of them didn’t see this as a possibility for themselves but they are accomplishing this because of the opportunities online school has offered them and their strength to stick it out. I am very proud!

Sick Day

This week I have come down with a cold and yesterday I took a sick day to try to get myself better. This is the first sick day I have ever taken as a teacher and I started to think about the preparations I would have needed to make had I been in a traditional brick and mortar classroom. In the online classroom, substitute teachers are only needed when teachers are out for a number of weeks. This means I did not need to write sub plans. Though I was out, my classroom kept functioning for students. I was not able to answer questions via phone but catching up from yesterday was fairly simple. I replied to emails and returned voicemails. This same concept applies to my students as well for when they might be sick or out for several days. I do not need to re-teach content and that student should not get too far behind. Students also attend school when teachers are at professional development meetings, another day they would have had off. During winter and spring break many of my students logged on to catch up on missing work and they had access to recordings of lessons and content. Online learning is not bound by time constraints or holidays, which provides flexibility for all.

What Does a Lesson Look Like?

Screen shots of lesson pages

This week I am teaching a lesson about color theory and I realized I have not actually shown how the classroom looks for students as they complete a lesson. Translating content from the traditional classroom to online means presenting all of the content you would have lectured about, demonstrated, or delivered in other activities in a way that can be understood using only web pages in the classroom. It is important that the content be engaging and clear to help students understand without a teacher standing in front of them delivering the content. All online education platforms look different but I will share elements I believe to be important for framing an art lesson in my classroom.

Important Elements of an Online Art Lesson:

1.    Introduction-I use the introduction page to explain to student what they will be learning for the lesson or unit. The page also offers a printable version of all classroom content for students who prefer to work away from their computers.

2.     Content: This is what I would describe as the online “text book”. This is where students read about new content that I also deliver in my live lessons. I include images to engage students and promote understanding of art concepts.

3.    Assignment: Most weeks students complete one art project for my class. The assignment page lays out the instructions for the project and some requirements I am looking for.

4.    Examples: Just like many brick and mortar art teachers show teacher examples and student exemplars in person, I share them online. Students can use this page to get a better idea of what the assignment could look like.

5.     Demonstration Video: For some lessons myself and other art teachers in my team create demo videos to show student techniques for their projects. This is just like doing a demo in the brick and mortar classroom, but students can pause and watch as many times as they need!

6.    Practice: For some lessons I offer students a way to practice their new knowledge in a risk-free non-graded worksheet or web page. This week students can use this work sheet to remember different color schemes for their quiz.

7.    Quiz: I implemented a quiz for this assignment to measure student understanding of the different color theory terms. This also encourages students to read the content because they know they are being held accountable for knowing it.

8.    Rubric: Like many art teachers, I recognize that grading art is difficult! I include rubrics for each lesson that remind students and myself of what I am looking for in their work.

This is the first time I have used this project in Art 1 so I am excited to see what the results will be. I will share student examples when they are completed.

Pre-Made Curriculum

Today one of my colleagues directed my to a pre-made online art curriculum. During our visit to the NAEA national convention we visited a room full of samples of products that we could use in our art classrooms. Not having a traditional art classroom, most of the products could not be applied to my classroom in particular but my colleague stumbled-upon something that could. Studio Space by McGraw-Hill is “a unique, fully digital art program for secondary educators”(quoted from their facebook page). I explored it today to find useful lessons, fun studio projects, and excellent resources all presented in a beautiful way. I am not “plugging” this product, however I find it extremely interesting that it exists. I often feel alone as an online art educator but the fact that such a product exists means that K-12 online art education is alive and well. The way that information is presented in the Studio Space is beautiful and makes me want to do a bit of an overhaul for my classroom pages.

You can learn more about Studio Space here: https://www.facebook.com/mhstudiospace

Writing New Curriculum for Art 5

Snapshot of the current Art 5 classroom

 Throughout the year I have learned many techniques that work well for teaching art online in my Art 1 class. I have been offered the opportunity to teach Art 5 next year and I want to put my learning to use when creating this class. There is an old Art 5 curriculum in place but it has not been used for a number of years and I would like to put some of my ideas to use. Art 1 is a very large class with around 200 students, which makes some ideas I’ve had more difficult to put into action. The purpose of the Art 5 class will be for students to prepare portfolios for art schools so that will be my end goal for students. Knowing this, I will focus on portfolio development and artist statements as an advanced art class in a brick and mortar school would as well. I have been brainstorming ideas specific to teaching an advanced art class online that will help my students get a rich experience and come out with beautiful portfolios.

An issue I have always run into in Art 1 is the limited supplies. Because Art 1 is an introductory class and many students need to take it, the supply list is rather basic. For Art 5 I plan to let students decide the media they want to work with in their assignments. I will include a manual of basic instructions for many art materials so students can get ideas and decide what they can afford and would like to work with. This will allow students to experiment with new media or work with something they are comfortable with so their portfolio really shows who they are as an artist.

My assignments in Art 1 are very structured, however I want to try more broad assignments with my Art 5 students. Students will have at least two pieces they need to plan, design, and create. They will fill out a planning sheet that describes their concept, what supplies they need, and a time line for their creation. Teaching online as I have said before, does not allow me to see the whole process of a student’s art making. In Art 5 I want to work towards more in progress critiques as a class in WebEx, but also between teach and student. I will require students to turn in sketches and partially completed pieces for feedback so they may improve the work before it is done. Though I might allow up to four weeks for a student to finish a piece I will require them to show me something each week.  

I have created a rich community of students in my Art 1 class through live sessions and a discussion board in the classroom. Students post artwork they like and that they have created in and outside of class for their classmates to see. Since the beginning of the semester the “Share Your Art” discussion board has been viewed more than 600 times! I plan to continue this idea in Art 5 as a place for students to share ideas with their classmates when a live session is not going on. I hope to create a community between these students in the small group class that it will be. I also believe that using the discussion board as well as WebEx sessions to share their work will motivate students and hold them accountable for completing work on time.

I am excited to put everything I’ve learned into a new course and I cannot wait to see how it turns out.

Extracurricular Activities Online: Art Club

The welcome page for Art Club

 
This being my first year teaching, I wanted to get involved in anything and everything at my school so I volunteered to be one of the three Art Club advisors. This is the second year that Art Club has been around at my school. It began last year as a social extracurricular option for high school students. Each month, students come together in WebEx and lead discussions about their favorite artists and their own artwork. Because this is an optional activity, it is not graded and is just for fun! Our Art Club members have the opportunity to participate in the many art contests we hold throughout the year even if they are not enrolled in an art class. The big contest we are working on right now it the senior t-shirt design contest where students submit designs for a t-shirt that 2012 graduates will receive. Students in Art Club are also invited to attend any art field trips to local art museums throughout the year where they can meet other students interested in art and friends they’re made in art club. Last week during our March meeting we shared pictures from our recent trip to New York and students shared their artwork. Our Art Club members are working on a collaborative doodle project where they create doodle drawings on small pieces of paper that has been mailed to them and later my colleagues and myself will combine them into a large collage. We will be completing the project at a family night where students are invited to attend and help with its construction. Art Club is a great opportunity for students to feel involved in their school community.

An Experience Like No Other



Today, three art teachers from my school and I presented at the National Art Education Association Conference in New York City. We presented on the topic "Teaching Art Online: How Does that Work?"

Prior to the beginning of our presentation I was nervous. About to deliver my first ever presentation at a national conference, I was worried about how many people would come or what questions they might ask. Would they find our presentation helpful? I was worried about many scenarios but I was completely surprised by the one that actually occurred.

By the time I looked up from reviewing my notes prior to beginning our session, I saw that the room was almost full. Many people continued to enter as well throughout the presentation and by the end, we ran out of chairs. I was confident that I and my colleagues had put together a presentation that was both visually interesting and dense with information. I had no idea there would be so many interested in what we had to say. Delivering our presentation went smoothly with few questions are we spoke, mostly technology questions that we could answer quickly. The real magic occurred after we concluded our PowerPoint slides. Many people asked us questions about how we connect and relate to our students. People told us they are trying to teach online or they do teach online and they looked to us to learn how they might improve. One girl approached me because she is also researching the question, “Can we teach art online?” and she wants to interview me for her research. I hope this experience leads to more of these types of connections. I feel we presented a vibrant picture of what we do and that not only can art be taught online but it can be taught well. Never have I felt so much like I am not alone or that everyone feels art education online is somehow less relevant to the field. Our audience was excited, interested, and intrigued. Several of my professors from undergraduate school were present to support me and learn what I do and seeing familiar faces in the audience made me so proud of myself to be teaching other art educators in this forum.
I have never thought of myself as a researcher or an expert in anything but now, more than ever, I feel that teaching others about this amazing phenomenon of online learning is exactly where I need to be. I am becoming a resource for those learning about this field and I am already sharing my experiences now. I feel like a valuable part of this profession and I will definitely continue to teach others about the unique experience of teaching art online.



Motivating Students and Other Online Challenges

Danger of failing letter sent home to failing students

I spent today contacting many of my students who have fallen behind or have failed to start my class. It is the 6^th week of the semester but I still have a number of students who have yet to complete any assignments or attend class. How is this possible? One of the biggest challenges of teaching online is motivating reluctant learners. Unlike a traditional classroom where students can be motivated to work by looking their teacher in the eye every day, my students can hide from me. I contact these students through email, phone calls, and most recently letters in the mail. I sent a “danger of failing” letter out to all my students who had not started working about a week ago and since then, many have begun to complete work. However, I still have some stragglers. It is a myth that art teachers do not need to motivate their students to do work because it is a “fun subject”. There will always be students who don’t enjoy my class, but in an online setting students seem more likely to disengage in their learning entirely. I’ve already talked before about how online learning requires more self-motivation from the student than traditional learning, and this fact is extremely clear when looking at reluctant learners. I continue to find new ways to engage these students and I feel it is something I’ll always struggle with.

My mom reminded me of another challenge I face in my online classroom with her question: How can you make sure the work students turn in they actually did themselves since you don't always see them working?

This question is an issue that has inspired a policy at my particular online school. I am required to proctor students about their completed work once every 9 weeks. When I call students about their work, I ask them about their ideas and how they created their artwork. I embrace these moments as a time to really measure and learn what students are retaining and putting into practice. It is also a time where it is easy to tell if a student did not actually make this artwork. Many students who turn in plagiarized work in my classroom are easily caught. With tools like Google Image Search, I can upload the image a student submitted and search for others like it online. I also look for similarities in style between different projects done by the same student. It is easy to see if a student who was struggling is suddenly creating work far beyond their previous skills. Though authenticity will continue to be a challenge, I feel comfortable that my students are being held accountable for what they submit.

Managing My Online Classroom

As I met with my thesis project advisor this week, we discussed many factors that make my situation unique and different as an online teacher. One of the main challenges of any first year teacher is classroom management. We are generally young and semi-unseasoned in our experiences other than during student teaching where we have a cooperating teacher to step in. High school students have always been my favorite age group to work with and I have always been able to connect with them well and establish rapport. However, I was nervous about managing a high school classroom, as I look rather young. Teaching online negates many of the challenges of classroom management because students are not physically present in a classroom with one another, though we do meet in a virtual classroom once a week. A colleague of mine once said that she has always wanted to work with an at-risk population of students but that in her experiences in the brick and mortar classroom, distractions and discipline took over almost all of the learning time. Now that she teaches online, she is still working with the same types of students but is able to work with them one-on-one and distraction free. I feel the same about this, I am no longer worried about discipline and classroom management, which leaves room for real learning to take place and for me to be the best teacher I can be. I feel comfortable relating to my students and talking to them on a personal level because I do not worry about coming off as soft and opening the door for students to take advantage of my kindness. Students are not constantly being distracted by their peers or frustrated because they want to work hard and their classmates want to cause trouble. Even when students are meeting in our digital classroom, they only have the opportunity to talk to one another when I allow them to through the software I use to deliver instruction, which makes controlling the situation easier than it would be in a brick and mortar classroom. Even when students choose to go on a tangent in the chat box, I find them to be more respectful of my request for them to return to the class discussion than I have experienced in traditional classrooms. From the perspective of classroom management, I feel teaching online is more productive for both my students and I.

Assessment Over the Computer Screen

Assessment is always a challenge in Art Education as the field is referred to as subjective where right and wrong are not so black and white as they would be in a subject such as math or science. In a brick and mortar classroom I often graded final projects based on the work I witnessed students completing in the classroom. I was able see their challenges and triumphs, as well as the amount of effort and time they put into it. Therefore, my methods of assessment have changed since moving to an online classroom. I now use three different methods of assessment for each unit. I still use a traditional project that students complete to show their understanding of concepts and techniques. This project also encourages creativity and problem solving as a traditional project would in any art classroom. However, a project alone does not tell me the whole story about my students’ understandings of content. This semester I have added reading quizzes. Students begin each week by reading the lesson content in my classroom much like a textbook chapter. Previously, I had no way of assessing understanding of their readings until I added quizzes. This week I am teaching linear perspective and the quiz that students take help me assess what students are having trouble and what ideas I need to emphasize in my live lessons. The quiz also helps motivate students to read the lesson, which promotes a deeper level of learning. I also use the quizzes as data to determine the success of a particular lesson and to group students by their level of understanding. My special needs teacher can use them to monitor IEP progress based on the reading level of the quiz content. The third way I assess students in my classroom is through reflective questions about the project and student learning. Students answer two questions that often ask them to share their experiences, proof of learning, and changes they would’ve made if they were given the opportunity to do the project again. Reflection encourages critical thinking and growth and helps me understand what students feel they gain through the lesson. Overall, I feel these three methods have been helpful and thorough in measuring student success in my online classroom.

Oh, How We've Grown

To wrap up my first semester class, I decided to do something fun and special for my students in my live lesson today. The students will complete a final test so I knew I wanted to review for it and I have always wanted to play a jeopardy game in class so I needed to find a way to play a team game through the technology I have. The SMART Exchange has many jeopardy templates for use in SMART Notebook. I built a game using all the questions from the final and today I got to play the game with my students. Can students really play this kind of team game online? Yes! I am consistently surprised at how skilled my students are when it comes to working together in a virtual classroom. I started the lesson with a discussion of several examples of the final project for my class that students had turned in so far. My students have improved so much when it comes to discussing and critiquing art. I am so proud every time I get to see their learning in action. I continued the lesson with my SMART Notebook jeopardy game where I divided my students into two teams and had them discuss with their teammates through the typed chat box. They were so supportive of each other and even rooted for both teams. I concluded the lesson with an inspirational video about creativity and not being afraid to share their art with the world. I was met with many happy comments and thanks for being their teacher. I have developed a real relationship with all of my students this semester. I know their personalities, their artistic styles, and their interests. I truly will miss these students, but I am excited to do it all over again. So, can an online art teacher really get to know her students and create a positive and supportive learning environment? Definitely!
Here are some of the students' final projects:

 

Working as a Team

In a few short weeks, I will begin my second semester as a full time online Art Teacher. My class is only a semester long, so I am excited to teach the same lessons again with the changes I have made through reflecting and analyzing the results of the first semester. There are three teachers including myself who teach Art 1 at my school. Aside from speaking with each other on a weekly basis, our curriculums are linked together in what we call a “gold course”. I was reminded of how our gold course is a unique feature of an online school. It is a classroom that all three of us can enter and make changes that affect all Art 1 classes. These changes include the lesson content pages, quizzes, and projects. Having a central hub like this allows more than just my reflections to improve my students’ achievement. It opens the door to my colleagues’ reflections, changes, and wisdom as well. We are able to divide tasks and work closely as a team to better our curriculum. In many brick and mortar schools I have observed, the curriculum between the same courses taught by different teachers is often not uniform. I believe this is usually because it is difficult for teachers to find time to compare and evaluate curriculum before the end of the year. Communicating with my colleagues and collaborating on new lessons and projects has never been so flawless as it has been this year via email, live meetings, phone calls, and working on the gold course. We are also currently working together to create our two presentations for the National Art Education Association Conference in New York City this spring. We are each able to work on a shared Powerpoint presentation through the technology provided to us that makes it easy for us to collaborate on this effort too. Though I only see my teammates a handful of times a year, I never feel as though I am working alone.

Valuing the Artistic Process

As an art educator I believe that making art is not simply completing a beautiful product, but the process that students go through to create the product. Sometimes the product does not come out beautifully, but the process should still be one that encourages problem solving and critical thinking. My job as a teacher is not to guarantee that all my students become artists, but that they gain an understanding of visual concepts and an appreciation for art. For myself, making art is always an adventure where I often learn about myself as well as the subject matter that I am capturing. I hope to create this experience for my students. However, many students come in with the idea that their artwork must be perfect and are worried I will grade them based on perfection and copying cookie cutter examples. This is not the way I teach art, and encouraging students to create identical products would rob them from an experience where they use their individuality to create and learn through that creation. Thus, I have always been more invested in the process of art making, rather than in the product that results. This belief leaves me with a challenge in my online classroom. I assign students a project, and then they submit it when it is complete. I rarely get to see an in process piece of work. In a brick and mortar school, I spent most of my time supervising students working through their artistic process by circling around the classroom. Even in my experience as a substitute teacher I was granted the pleasure of watching students work on extended art projects throughout the year as I would see them during different stages of their process. I do miss this experience in my online classroom, but this experience is not all lost. In my own class I watch students grow throughout their various projects and critiques that they complete. My students have noticeably improved their use of art vocabulary, knowledge of art history, skill in creating art, and (my favorite) they have become more comfortable with creating personal, unique artwork. Though I could not walk around the classroom and watch them each create the artwork that I see every week, I am still able to appreciate the process of growth in my students. As students progress through the different levels of art at my online school, they will be encouraged to write about each piece of art they create, as they do for some assignments in my class. Students are asked to write about the process they used to create their work, how they feel about the result, and if they would do anything differently. I believe reflection is a powerful tool for students and sheds some light on their process for me. At the end of each semester students complete a final exam that requires them to reflect upon their new knowledge and experiences. I will be sharing student responses in the coming weeks. See below one student’s growth process in my Art 1 class:

The Other Side of the Coin: Accelerated Students Online

I have spent a lot of time writing about my at-risk students because they are the majority of the population in my class. However, I have students from all kinds of backgrounds and there are many different reasons that students choose an online education. In my own classroom I have a student who chose an online school so she can attend college and participate in community service while in high school. She has college classes all day and then returns home to complete her high school classes. She is a senior in National Honor Society and has been recognized for her academic achievement by the College Board. Her artwork is always creative and well done. Another student of mine is a successful musician and has a busy schedule because of performances, tours, and recording. He chose to finish up his high school career online because of the flexibility it offers and he will be graduating in January. My school also caters to students who are professional actors, dancers, and gymnasts. These students are generally very self-driven and goal oriented. I push them to do more with their assignments and encourage them to continue taking art classes or join art club (yes we have an art club!). There is a belief that students who choose online school have all dropped out or are underachieving, but that is not the case. This type of environment supports the flexibility that many students need.

Here are some examples of work done by these busy students:

Never Quit

I am spending this week focused on calling all of my students who aren’t engaging. This is a difficult task, and unfortunately I have a big number of students on this list. A student emailed me this week explaining that she is so sorry for not completing any work yet this quarter. She says the transition between the brick and mortar environment to online has been difficult for her when it comes to keeping herself focused. Online education requires a majority of independent work that students must push themselves to complete. As a teacher, I am always there for their questions and when they need inspiration and ideas but one of my biggest obstacles is breaking through to them that they need to pick up the pencil and begin. I emailed the student back to give her encouragement to take control of her learning. I let her know that I believe she can be successful, and that she will be a stronger person for it. In an educational environment where students are required to work independently, I truly believe they will be stronger as a result. They won’t need to depend on authority figures to schedule each part of their day, instead they will have time management skills that prepare them for college and other situations where they must self-direct and take responsibility for their actions. However, this is extremely difficult, especially for the high population of at-risk students that I serve. So, I call. I relate to them. I leave voice mail messages encouraging them and send emails. When they turn in projects, I give praise for work and push them for more. There is a student I call every week just to remind that I am here, I care, and I want him to succeed. But it is not all rosy and I do not reach them all, but that doesn’t mean I ever stop trying.

A Video Overview of my Classroom

I made this video as a preview for my semester 2 students to see as well as for my NAEA presentation in New York this spring. It gives a nice visual overview of what students will experience in my Art 1 class. Isn't technology fun?