While we are fortunate to have a Music teacher, we teach our own visual arts. Many teachers in BC have not received training other than a 9 week course during pre-service training and after that we are on our own with the occasional pro-d session. Teachers know how to use the common materials, but I for one didn't know the first thing about watercolour paint or salt dough. I have gotten good ideas from Pro-D sessions, I have used very little in the classroom. Same with the professional books I have bought. Why? I think it is because we either don't have the materials available (what public school stocks watercolor paint and paper? - not mine) or I need more support. The lessons I use most are those that I get from colleagues. I can ask questions (lots if I need to, over the course of many days if needed) and usually the materials are in the school.
Being introduced to blogs and RSS has changed the way I learn about and do visual arts in the classroom. Blogs are interactive which means that I can ask questions about process or materials that I might have - and I do ask questions. With books I can't do this, nor can I with the after Pro-D notes that you often get. An additional bonus of blogs is that they have an archives that I can look though for past lessons and those that use the materials we have on hand.
Now being 2/3 of the way through the school year I have broadened the materials I use in lessons and have had good results. First off, kids love to use materials that they don't often get to use (I don't think my grade level is the only one in the rut). It increases the interest in the lesson and I think the creativity as well. Kids are being encouraged to play with the materials and to problem solve some of the challenges they encounter while using a particular material. Both of which are skills they need in the future.
Secondly, kids who don't do well with the standard crayon-marker-paper-glue do great with some of the other materials. For instance, paint is much faster to use than marker or pencil crayon, so kids who get tired of colouring (and then their colouring gets messy) are less likely to get bored of a particular art project if they can use paint.
Lastly, some of the projects I have used in the past I have used this year but with increased knowledge from reading the blog posts of more experienced art teachers I have tweaked lessons. For instance, I know now that the paper I often had kids pain on was too small. By increasing the paper size, many more kids have experienced success this year.
Below are some of my favourite Art Teacher Blogs. I have also created a bundle of the blogs listed, plus more 10 more, that can be subscribed to if you use google reader.
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