Did you know today marked The Art of Education’s eighth online conference? It’s true! Over 2,200 registered attendees viewed and participated from around the country—and around the world—from the comfort of their own homes!
@theartofed Loving attending this conference from my comfy home studio especially with all this fun swag. #ArtEdNow pic.twitter.com/YDVyCDDGEW
— Heather Burdette (@GTE_art) February 18, 2017
The Presentations
The day was jam-packed with dozens of incredibly relevant topics and included three very special Featured Presenters. All in all, there were 20+ amazing presentations curated to match the needs of art teachers and to provide the freshest and newest ideas happening right now in art education.
Plus, each presenter made sure all teachers walked away with something relevant to their practice, whether they taught Pre-K, high school, or anything in between!
The Freebies!
Let’s not forget that SWAG box this year—it was simply amazing! Teachers couldn’t wait to share the pictures of the goodies delivered right to their doors. The box included samples from Mod Podge, Rigid Wrap, Jack Richeson tempera cakes, and more!
What to make, what to make. AOE swag boxes always get my brain churning with ideas! #artednowswag pic.twitter.com/Jqq8h4KHZt
— Jennifer Carlisle (@Carlisleartclas) January 27, 2017
In addition, other companies provided hundreds of dollars in online discounts and freebies. And that was just the start! AOE Founder, Jessica Balsley, hosted the event and gave away thousands of dollars in materials and giveaways throughout the day.
The Hourly Breakdown
We want to give you a complete look at all the conference details, so here it is—the hour-by-hour breakdown! Check out the outstanding presenters, the best information, and some amazing tweets and photos from our attendees!
Relaxing,studious,geeky,artsy Saturday w/ @theartofed #artednow #artteacher #artteacherlife #artist #art #artclassroom #drwho #dunkindonuts pic.twitter.com/jZGgupbIJ8
— Emma McGowan (she/her) (@OriginalEmmArt) February 18, 2017
Hour 1: Perfecting Your Instruction
The first hour of the conference was all about Perfecting Your Instruction, and the presenters did not disappoint. The always amazing Cassie Stephens shared how to take your instructional videos to the next level.
She was followed by Matt Young and Craig Huffman, whose “Toss the Tests” presentation had teachers both laughing and thinking. AOE writer Lindsey Moss shared some of her favorite instructional strategies, and Julie Read talked about the best ways to keep your drawing curriculum current.
Hour 2: New Student Experiences
When the second hour rolled around, presenters started to talk about New Student Experiences. From Plein Air painting to moving toward choice-based education to a better way to do fundraisers, there were a plethora of new ideas for the classroom! People were working furiously during these amazing talks!
@theartofed Loving the winter conference #ArtEdNow. @SunnyBonitaElem pic.twitter.com/sNMWXcFvlG
— David Martin (@BSE_ART) February 18, 2017
Hour 3: Literacy
Literacy was the theme of the third hour, and it was bookended by two featured presenters, who also happen to be amazing writers—Mike Venezia and Drew Daywalt. Mike Venezia, author of the Getting to Know series, let us get to know him with a look into his studio, insights into his working process, and a tour of some of the places that have inspired him.
Venezia was followed by informative and inspiring talks from AOE writer Abby Schukei and the Journal Fodder Junkies. Their inspiring ideas left teachers with many new strategies for engaging their students.
The hour ended with a great talk from the one and only Drew Daywalt, author of The Day The Crayons Quit. He talked about his career as a screenwriter, director, and now author. More importantly, he talked about why art teachers play such an amazing and important role in their students’ lives.
If you want to hear even more from Drew, he was also the guest on a recent episode of the Art Ed Radio podcast.
Hour 4: Hands-On Artmaking
Next up was the hour for Hands-On Artmaking. This was the chance for teachers to create, and create they did! With presentations from Mod Podge, ceramics guru John Post, AOE Writer Kelly Phillips, and AOE video star Luke Nielsen, there were multiple opportunities for artmaking. Check out some of these awesome projects!
https://twitter.com/eabussey/status/833026461179191298
Reflective page from my #AOEjournal from the #artednow conference! So much info one page of many. #dekalbartteachers pic.twitter.com/GEaiASAHiI
— Kendall Siddiqui (@KendallArtsAlot) February 18, 2017
Hour 5: Inspiration and Motivation
Art Ed Now’s final hour was all about Inspiration and Motivation. The third featured presenter was Michael Linsin, who literally wrote the book on classroom management. He talked about how you can regain control of any class, which was a welcome message for many teachers this time of year. If you want to hear more from him, take a look at his interview, “Why You Shouldn’t Care if Your Students Misbehave.”
After Linsin was finished, Jessica Balsley shared her secrets on life hacks for visual people. AOE writer Matt Christenson closed the conference with his discussion on how students can develop an identity through a graffiti-based curriculum. All of these presentations had takeaways teachers will use the rest of this school year and beyond!
Join us this summer!
It was a great day of learning for teachers, and we look forward to doing it all again this summer. We hope you’ll join us because participants definitely found the conference worth their while:
Very productive PD day spending my Saturday online with #ArtEdNow Winter Conference. Inspired and excited to bring all this back to class. pic.twitter.com/UlhRS7tRGN
— MsArchilaART (@MsArchilaART) February 18, 2017
Attendees were inspired:
https://twitter.com/artsmart64/status/833041280020180993
And they loved all of the new suggestions for their classroom:
Thanks, Kelly, @HopkinsArtRoom for a great presentation and creative ideas. Can't wait to try the attachment challenge! #ArtEdNow #STEAM
— Jennifer Hutzler (@jbhutzler) February 18, 2017
Now it’s time to put these ideas to work! Use what you saw at the conference to inspire your teaching and inspire your students. Work yourself out of the winter doldrums and reinvigorate the energy in your classroom with all of these new ideas.
Hope to see you next time!
Did you attend the conference? What was your favorite presentation?
Who would you like to see present at the next conference?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
Article 
