The idea of time travel and getting the chance to meet artists throughout history piques my imagination.

Imagination makes us aware of limitless possibilities. How many of us haven't pondered the concept of infinity or imagined the possibility of time travel? In one of her poems, Emily Bronte likens imagination to a constant companion, but I prefer to think of it as a built-in entertainment system.
Alexandra Adornetto

One of my favorite clips from the show Doctor Who was when the time lord-Doctor Who character brings Vincent Van Gogh into the future to see how his art work has impacted others. Van Gogh painted over 9,000 paintings but only sold one in his life time. He never truly knew the inspiration he would have on others or how loved his work would become by the art world.

I love to share a variety of artists with my student to allow them to explore how others have created art. Each student can explore and choose from a variety of time periods, styles, cultures, mediums and find what might inspired the next great master piece. My classroom has access to a variety of tech resources and my students can be guided to explore a variety of online websites. I created a ThingLink image that has embedded links to a variety of my favorite online resources for art history time travel and exploration.

Websites are linked to the image below. Hover your mouse over the image and you can visit a few of my favorite web resources to help time travel through the world of art.

What are your favorite web resources are for sharing art history and artists with your students?
What artists, cultures or time period would you travel back in time to visit? What would you want to learn or experience? I would love to hear your time travel dreams!

Until next time... stay smART!

Technology is quickly changing the art education paradigm. The National Arts Education Association along with the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards recently published new National Media Arts Standards along with new Visual Arts Standards. My first glimpse of the standards came in the form of two huge posters with very small print. Overwhelmed would be a good way to express my first impression right before they were quickly folded up and stashed in a bag. But, my mother did not raise me to shy away from my fears and so I must brave try to comprehend the new standards and put them into practice in my art program.

Over the last year I was fortunate to be in a school that had mobile ipad labs that could be checked out and used in my classroom. Scheduling conflicts and time restraints made incorporating the technology into our class routine difficult. In late spring a Transforming Technology Grant opportunity was shared by my district and I jumped at the chance to apply for resources for my classroom. Drum roll please, I won! August will bring the return to a classroom set of ipads for the Capitol of Creativity! Thirty ipads will now transform the way I teach, assess, and how my students will create in art.

The debate has begun among #artsed peers between those embracing new technologies vs those immersed in traditional mediums. My own beliefs stem from looking at history and how new technology tools have changed the art world. Technological advances have made an impact on art creation can be seen in the invention of the printing press, camera lucida, photography, to digital creation and interactive virtual reality environments of today. It would be difficult to list all the innovative ways artists' have adapted new technologies into their mode of expression throughout art history. We as art educators can not ignore the quickly changing way our world is interacting with technology.

I started teaching twenty years ago in the fall of 1994 as an itinerant art teacher in five elementary schools in rural Virginia. My five elementary schools started getting computer labs and the discussions of how teachers would incorporate the computers into their day was heard throughout the halls. I did not have a computer at home but my principal Mrs. Carpenter allowed me to stay after school to figure out these new computers and to get on Virginia Pen boards to connect virtually to other art educators, I was fascinated. Four years later "You've Got Mail" is seen in theaters and AOL is in my home. The ways we connect to each other quickly changed my perspective on professional development. Networking with art educators started with the Incredible Art Department yahoo list group to the variety of social media sites like #artsed PLNs on Twitter, FB art teacher groups, google+, Art Education 2.0 ning, and instagram. Now, I have the opportunity to bring the benefits I have embraced in my own learning into the hands of my students.

My journey of transformation is just beginning in how the new additions to my program will change the way my students learn, create, are assessed and even how we share. Fear not, for the art room will still be a place to squish our fingers in clay, to learn to see color mixing on the tip of a brush, and a place for our students to be makers. The future is what we are willing to embrace and what we make of it. I am fortunate to be part of the innovative #artsed PLN that share ways of incorporating technology into their classrooms and they will serve as great resources throughout the year ahead. The swirling list of applications I will chose to use is growing thanks to Tricia Fuglestad, Janine Campbell, Cathy Hunt, Theresa McGee and Hillary Andrlik for helping to inspire ways of incorporating technology into my classroom. Last week I took part in the Virginia Center for Excellence in Teaching Fine Arts Academy at George Mason University and part of my project for the year ahead will be how to best embrace the new media and art standards into my new technology rich classroom. Consider this summer my cocoon where I am researching to prepare for the fall when my classroom will hopefully emerge to fly to new heights of technology integration.

Last week brought a new addition to the art room at SCIS. It felt a little bit like Christmas meets a dream when our wonderful tech walked in with a Sympodium in her arms. The bundle of joy will bring a bit of a learning curve that I am excited to put to full use in the weeks to come. (A sympodium uses SMART technology to make the computer and demonstrations interactive.

As students jump into one and two point perspective drawings this week, I hope to give students a chance to interact and use the technology to demonstrate their understanding of drawing in perspective. Students will be able to label vanishing point, horizon line and demonstrate how to make shapes into 3D forms. We are all excited with the new possibilities of the interactive lessons with technology integration!       

Our kinder students are having a grand time learning about penguins. Kinder teachers and I have created an interactive bulletin board with a qr code to link to a video filled with our students telling you facts about penguins!