Thursday, July 30th marked The Art of Education’s fifteenth online conference! Over 3,000 registered attendees viewed and participated from around the world–the largest NOW conference ever–all from the comfort of their own homes!
The Presentations
The day was jam-packed with dozens of incredibly relevant topics, and two amazing presenters. Author Peter H. Reynolds discussed creativity, artmaking, and the important role that art teachers play everywhere, and contemporary artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh joined from Brooklyn to talk about street art, her career, and her political activism. All in all, there were 24 dynamic presentations curated to match the needs of art teachers and to provide the freshest and newest ideas happening right now in art education.
So far today @theartofed #NOWconference…. How many more ideas can we fit in today?! pic.twitter.com/4E9DF1Crfl
— Kathryn (@MrsAMusicArt) July 30, 2020
In addition, every 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 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 inspiring tweets and photos from our attendees!
Hour 1: Instructional Strategies
The first hour of the conference was all about instructional strategies that can help you in the coming year. The conference started with Libby Beaty, who shared some of her best lessons for distance learning. She was followed by Caitlyn Thompson, who showed ideas for exploring alcohol inks, and Nic Hahn, who covered some of her best ideas with teaching through Careers in Art. The hour was closed by Janani Nathan, who shared strategies for helping students find their voice.
Hour 2: Social and Emotional Learning
When the second hour rolled around, the focus shifted to social and emotional learning. The hour included learning about service learning, trauma-informed teaching, our students’ social and emotional needs, and so much more.
Hour 3: Contemporary Art and Art History
After a quick break, artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh joined to share the ideas behind her work, her process, and what she is saying with her art.
Let Black Men Be Soft wheat paste mural by @fazlalizadeh in Brooklyn, NY. pic.twitter.com/22NECTZMO8
— Amplifier (@amplifierart) August 2, 2020
Fazlalizadeh was followed by Yvonne Lopez Taylor, who gave an engaging and entertaining presentation with ideas for collage. The hour ended with a great idea from Rachel Albert on Artist Un-Birthday Parties.
Hour 4: Celebrating Creativity
The fourth hour began with an amazing keynote presentation from author Peter H. Reynolds. He talked about his career, his art, his books, and his connection to art teachers everywhere. It was entertaining, inspiring, and motivating!
Following Peter was Stan Dodson, sharing a lesson idea from AOEU’s FLEX Curriculum. The hour closed with Khadesia Latimer introducing the Procreate app and Jocelyn Stephens sharing new ideas for teaching the elements and principles.
Hour 5: Ideas for Going Digital
Hour number five was all about the digital tools needed for distance learning and online teaching. From creating videos to utilizing YouTube to combining digital and hands-on learning, it was all here!
Hour 6: New Ideas and New Ways of Thinking
Even though adding the sixth hour made this the longest NOW conference ever, attendees were still going strong!
@theartofed @tweetsfrom44 Staying strong til the end! 8 pages of ideas and not even finished yet! Can’t wait to integrate new concepts and technical knowledge for the new school year! #NOWconference pic.twitter.com/E9WVNTRuc7
— Alicia York (@yorkart2111) July 30, 2020
Janet Taylor and Matt Milkowski began the hour with ideas and strategies to support advanced students. Joel Scholten worked with gel medium, Tara Barnes brought in some art history, and Abby Schukei closed the conference with her always-creative ideas about art room materials you didn’t know you needed.
Join Us Again Soon!
It was a great day of learning for teachers, and we look forward to doing it all again in February 2021.
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!
Click here to register for NOW Winter 2021–you don’t want to miss it!
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.
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