Ep. 013 - The Death of Art Education

05/10/16 • 24 min

In this episode, Andrew shines a light on a pretty serious and worrying thought... the death of art education. While this may seem a bit melodramatic, there are serious shifts underway that are undermining and changing the status quo of art education. Right off the bat, Andrew brings on special guest Danny Gregory whose blog post, “Let’s Get Rid of Art Education in Schools,” had the art teaching world all worked up.

Love it or hate it, the article brings up some interesting points and got Andrew and fellow Art Ed Radio podcast host, Tim Bogatz, thinking about the current reality of art education (7:30). Tim and Andrew discuss advocacy strategies and how art teachers can take a stance in the face of shifting paradigms to champion our programs, whether these programs are more traditional or new and more inclusive to the world outside art (13:50).

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Ep. 012 - STEM, STEAM, and PBL: 3 Acronyms You Should Actually Care About

In this episode, Andrew will shed some light on new acronyms from the art ed world including STEM, STEAM, and PBL. He'll share how to start incorporating these teaching philosophies into your classroom in order to get your students thinking like designers. He'll even talk about why having the STEM vs. STEAM debate isn't worth your time.

Joining Andrew will be his longtime friend and colleague, Ryan McInry. Ryan is a fellow Iowa art educator and a bonafide STEAM expert.

Andrew and Ryan discuss the unifying threads of STEM, STEAM, PBL and art and why these new paradigms don’t have to be a source of fear or confusion for art teachers (16:00). They also talk about how STEAM and PBL can lead art teachers to collaborate with other teachers in the building (21:00). Finally, Ryan and Andrew discuss how art teachers can be leaders when schools start adopting a STEAM or PBL approach (24:00 ).

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Ep. 014 - Talking Dirty: Dealing with Student Immaturity

In this episode, Andrew brings up a topic that we all agree happens on a daily basis: student immaturity. It's a topic we don’t always feel comfortable sharing as somehow confessing this is an admission of classroom management failure. If creativity is the currency of art teachers, immaturity is the currency of our students. Be it fart jokes, sexual innuendo, or “that’s what she said” remarks, students revel in immaturity. Teachers deal with these antics in their own ways. Some see them as inevitable and harmless little quips that can lighten the class mood or build rapport. Others see them as a huge distraction that can completely derail your class and undermine everything you’re trying to do as a teacher.

Andrew and Tim begin by sharing some memorable stories of how student immaturity reared it’s head in their classrooms. You won't want to miss the epic fart story that Andrew tells (7:45)! They then discuss tips and tricks to deal with or circumvent immature and offensive behavior (11:30). And finally coming full circle, Tim and Andrew discuss ways that masterful teachers can navigate and even leverage immaturity into teachable moments to build a healthy classroom environment and strengthen rapport (21:00 ).

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