Professionalism

The October Mailbag: Better Schedules, Personal Practice, and Art Teacher Energy (Ep. 538)

In this October mailbag episode of Art Ed Radio, host Tim Bogatz welcomes back Amanda Heyn for an honest and practical conversation about the challenges art teachers are facing this fall. After a long introduction and some great introductions (skip to about 14:45 if you just want the mailbag), Tim and Amanda answer listener questions about back-to-back elementary art classes, advocating for a more workable schedule, protecting time for cleanup and preparation, and finding realistic ways to make a required curriculum more meaningful for students. The conversation also explores whether teachers can (or should!) continue a personal art practice when their work may be considered controversial, and why educators deserve grace when their energy changes throughout the school day.

Resources and Links

Transcript

Tim: Hello, everyone, and welcome to the October mailbag. We have exciting news: Amanda Hein is back. Amanda, how are you?
Amanda: Great! I’m so excited to be back. How are you?
Tim: I’m doing well, and I’m thrilled that you’re joining us once again. I had a lot of fun with Jenn doing the last mailbag, but it’s not the same without you. I’m very glad that you’re back.
Amanda: Me too.
Tim: For everyone who is new and listening—especially all of our new teachers who are in month two of their first year—we need an introduction from us. Amanda, can you go first and introduce yourself?
Amanda: Sure. My name is Amanda Hein, and I’m the Director of Community Engagement at The Art of Education. That means I lead the team responsible for the fabulous things you see every day, like the podcast, the magazine, the YouTube channel, Art Ed NOW, and the community. I used to be an elementary art teacher in a past life, so I’m very excited to be here for the mailbag.
Tim: I love it. I also used to be an art teacher—some elementary, but mostly secondary. For the last decade-plus, I’ve been working for The Art of Education, doing the podcast and the Art Ed NOW conference, among other things. We have a lot of exciting Art Ed NOW news coming soon, so be on the lookout for that.
I also host Art Ed Radio every week, which I love doing. There are always a lot of cool things happening at AOEU. Amanda, you mentioned the YouTube channel as part of what your team oversees, and we’ve been getting a lot of attention there lately. The Art Club series is fantastic, and the Sketchbooks series is starting to come out as well. If you need some inspiration or just some entertainment, I recommend heading over to The Art of Education’s YouTube channel.
Amanda: One hundred percent. There’s a lot of good stuff happening over there.

AOEU Community Events

Tim: What other housekeeping do we have? Can you tell us about Art Club coming up soon?
Amanda: I sure can. Art Club is October 8 at 6 p.m. Central, 7 p.m. Eastern. It’s a hangout where you get to hear from an expert and then do a little bit of artmaking. Jen Lieben, our community manager, and Janet, who is also very active in the community, are hosting this one.
Because it’s October, we’re doing a trick-or-treat theme. As Jen says, it’s “Ween,” and we love this season on our team. We’ll make art that tricks your eyes with tessellations, and we’ll give you a free lesson plan as your treat for joining us. I’m very excited about it.
Tim: And can you tell us about your favorite event?
Amanda: I can. You talked about Lunch Bunch last week during the mini mailbag, and we had one on October 2. If you weren’t able to make it, another Lunch Bunch is coming up on October 16.
It happens during lunchtime. People come to the community, hang out, and watch a livestream with Jen and another guest. Sometimes the guest is a member of the Art of Ed community, and sometimes it’s an AOEU team member. It’s simply a time to get together, have lunch, and hang out.
If you don’t like eating lunch by yourself but don’t want to visit the teachers’ lounge, Lunch Bunch is a good alternative. It’s very low-key. Come talk about art teaching, life, or what you’re having for lunch. If the time doesn’t work for you, everything is recorded, so you can watch later.
Tim: That’s at noon Central on October 16, right?
Amanda: Yes.
Tim: What else do we have coming up toward the end of the month?
Amanda: On October 21, we have Pop-Up Studio. If you need an accountability buddy for making your own art, that is a time when we literally get together and make whatever we want. It’s a dedicated hour of artmaking.
To see all of our events, head into the community and look along the left-hand side for the heading “Events and Replays.” You can find out what’s coming up there.
We’re also having a costume contest this month, which is very exciting. I’m usually decisive about what I want to be for Halloween, but this year I don’t have an idea. If anyone has a suggestion, please let me know.
My ten-year-old told me he wanted to be the scariest costume ever. In his mind, that means “Homework Man.” He wants to take all of his math homework and make a suit out of it. I think it’s a very fun idea. He’s in advanced math, and math is one of his best subjects, but the homework is not for him. I’m excited to see that vision come to life.
Tim: I like that a lot. As a parent of a kid who is struggling with calculus at the moment, I can say that it’s definitely on the scary side.

Recommendations: What to Watch, Read, and Listen To

Tim: We usually have stories to share about what’s been going on in life or old stories from the classroom. I don’t have anything good this month, so I was hoping we could do some recommendations. I did prepare you for this, so you were able to put things together. Your recommendations are always better than mine. Would you give people something to watch, something to read, and something to listen to?
Amanda: I would love to. I pride myself on having the best recommendations. Multiple people—good friends and strangers alike—have told me that, so I’m happy to bring my skills here.
I think it’s because I really love to follow an internet rabbit hole about the best thing for me in my situation. I’ve done the research.
First, for watching: Alone. I don’t know if I’ve talked about Alone on this podcast before, but here’s the thing: I do not like to go outside. I want one of those shirts that says “indoorsy.” I’m an indoor cat.
Something about this show, where people are dropped into the wilderness in the Arctic Circle three weeks before winter arrives and have to survive, completely captivates me. They film all of their own footage, and whoever lasts the longest wins half a million dollars. No one dies, to be clear, but they do have to survive on their own.
Season 13 has just been released, and it’s one of the best seasons of any television show I’ve ever seen. I cried at the end, I laughed, and it was spectacular. You can find it on the History Channel or purchase a season through services such as Amazon.
Tim: Which specific season is this? Is it better than the other seasons?
Amanda: Yes. It’s season 13, and it’s better than the other seasons.
Tim: Good to know.
Amanda: My second recommendation is a new-to-me show called Taskmaster, which was recently added to Hulu. It’s already one of my new favorite shows.
Taskmaster is a British show. Each season has ten episodes, at least for the seasons I’ve watched. Five comedians are presented with a series of creative tasks that they have to solve, and it’s incredibly funny. I think there are some implications for classroom use—not that you would show it in a classroom, because there’s a lot of swearing. It is not safe for work in any way. Do not watch it with your child.
But the way different people approach the challenges is hilarious. It’s laugh-out-loud funny and heartwarming. I recommend starting with season 21.
Tim: There are a lot of seasons.
Amanda: I know. It’s exciting because now I have so many things to watch. Also, as a sneak peek, we might be doing something with Taskmaster at the Art Ed NOW conference. If you want to do some homework, go watch it.
For reading, if you want a vibey, short book for the Halloween season, try Vigil by George Saunders. I’d say it’s a medium-good book but an excellent book for October. He wrote Lincoln in the Bardo, which is one of my favorite books. Vigil has similar vibes—slightly spooky, but not too spooky.
Also, everyone is reading The Calamity Club. You should read it. It’s good. It’s a big, fat, honking book, so if you need to sink your teeth into something—if you need 700 pages—I recommend it.
For listening, I have two podcast recommendations. One is called Love Trap. It’s about a former Bachelor contestant. I’ve watched exactly one season of The Bachelor, because there was someone from Madison, Wisconsin, on it—and I happened to meet her at the grocery store. That’s a story for another time.
Love Trap is about a woman who traps a man by faking a pregnancy. It’s so much more than that, though. It’s wild, very binge-worthy, and a long series.
The other is a short series called Believe in Magic, which is about Munchausen syndrome by proxy, one of my interests. It’s also great. Those recommendations are a little darker than my others, but they captivated me.
Tim: That is a diverse set of recommendations.
Amanda: I contain multitudes.
Tim: Excellent. I don’t watch a lot of television, but I did find a show—or, more specifically, my wife found a show—called Death Incorporated, and I really enjoyed it.
It’s a show from Spain, so you can watch it with subtitles or use the English dub if you prefer. Imagine that The Office took place in a funeral home. It’s a mockumentary series with dry humor, completely unexpected storylines, and memorable characters. There are four seasons, and they just released the fourth and final season.
It has short episodes and is fun to get through. Watch a couple of episodes, and you’ll know whether you’re into it. I really enjoyed it.
For reading, I just finished a spectacular book called What We Can Know by Ian McEwan.
Amanda: Atonement?
Tim: Yes, he wrote Atonement. What We Can Know is fantastic. It was pitched to me as science fiction, which is not really my thing, but I read it and thought, “This is not science fiction at all.” It’s a great story.
It begins in 2014 with a well-known poet who writes a long, illustrious poem for his wife and gives her the only copy at a dinner party. Then the story jumps more than 100 years into the future. It’s 2119, severe climate change and nuclear war have occurred, and this is simply the future now.
Two historians are trying to reconstruct the poem, find the original copy, and recover the work of this poet. The story takes some wonderful twists and turns, leading to an incredible ending. I don’t want to ruin it, and I don’t want to cry on the podcast, so we won’t go into it. I’ll just say that it’s an absolute masterpiece and the best book I’ve read in a long time.
Pause the recording and put it on hold at your library.
For music, I’ve been listening to Blondshell. She has a new album called Violins Out. It’s sort of singer-songwriter, but also poppy, and we can rock out a little when needed. I’ve liked her work for a long time. She played a festival in Omaha over the summer, and I got to hear some of the new material. It was great.
My son and his friends have also discovered the Arctic Monkeys. He came home with a vinyl copy of their first album, and I was delighted. Don’t you love when your kids have good taste?
Amanda: It’s so gratifying.
Tim: He’s been listening to it, and it reminded me how much I love that band. I’ve been going back to AM and listening to it over and over.
If you love the Arctic Monkeys, go listen to them. If not, find something from ten or fifteen years ago that you used to love but haven’t listened to in a while. It can bring you some joy.

Listener Question: Back-to-Back Elementary Art Classes

Tim: We’ve spent far too much time talking about things that aren’t art teaching. Are we ready to jump into the mailbag?
Amanda: Let’s open the mailbag.
Tim: As always, these are questions from our podcast listeners. If you want to send in a question, email podcasts@theartofeducation.edu or timothybogatz@theartofeducation.edu.
Our first question is from Carter in Ohio:
“I teach elementary art in my own classroom, and teachers bring their classes to me. My schedule has no time between classes, and the kids are lining up outside my room before I’m even done with the class that’s in there. How do I handle this? I don’t know if it’s an issue with preparation, transitions, talking to teachers, or asking my principal to change the schedule. How would you deal with this situation?”
Amanda: I have been there, and I think a lot of us have, especially if we teach elementary. Unfortunately, this is really common, but it is manageable.
First of all, this is a scheduling issue. It is not an individual teacher issue. You haven’t failed to figure out a clever enough hack; this is poor planning at the building level. Teachers need time between classes to adequately serve their students, so I would advocate to the principal accordingly.
If it’s an issue for specialists across the board, band together with the other specialists. If the music teacher and PE teacher are also back-to-back, there is power in numbers.
When you advocate, focus on how the schedule impacts students—not on the fact that you’re annoyed because you don’t have time between classes. Explain that students are dysregulated when they come in because they’re seeing friends in the hallway or because things are happening during the transition. Explain that you’re losing class time and that students may be getting significantly less art time across the year.
You might also be unable to do specific types of projects. Maybe students won’t do clay this year because you can’t feasibly set up for it. Think about how the schedule impacts students, and lead with that.
Be solutions-oriented, too. What ideas can you bring to the table? It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Do you want no more than two consecutive classes? At least five minutes between classes? Could the same grade levels be scheduled back-to-back so there’s a greater chance they’ll use the same supplies? Could classes be shortened by five minutes so that you get a break?
I would also ask whether you can sit on the scheduling committee. I got myself on that committee, and you better believe they changed the schedule the next time. I think administrators often don’t realize that nobody spends as much time in your classroom as you do. They may not fully understand what back-to-back classes are doing to your instruction or to the students’ schedules.
Tim: Absolutely. They don’t know your story or your experience unless you share it. I knew you were going to say something about being solutions-oriented because that phrase comes up in almost every mailbag.
Amanda: It does.
Tim: Carter, you asked whether this is an issue with preparation, transitions, talking to teachers, or changing the schedule. It’s none of the above. This is not a classroom-management issue. It’s a scheduling and logistics issue that probably needs to change at the building level.
Unfortunately, the most likely outcome is that you’re stuck with this schedule through the end of the semester, or maybe through the year, and you’ll need to figure out how to manage it. Amanda, I’m going to send this back your way for some specific tips on how to handle it.
I would say don’t be afraid to end classes a little earlier than normal. Have an alternative activity planned so that students stay busy and you don’t have downtime or chaos. Give yourself enough time to clean up properly and get ready for the next class.
Amanda: One interesting thing to consider is what you truly want. Sometimes people get five minutes between classes, and that five minutes is counted as their preparation time. Do you want nine five-minute segments, or do you want one 45-minute block? Think about what would actually serve you.
This situation is doable, and I did it for a long time. You need to become an expert at planning ahead. Cleaning up earlier is one piece. As much as possible, use the same supplies for back-to-back classes so you’re not setting up a dozen different materials. If everyone is painting or printmaking at the same time, you don’t have to get out 16 different art materials.
I would also avoid bringing out another materials-heavy activity in the last few minutes. Instead, plan something quiet, such as a game or a read-aloud. It shouldn’t be free-draw time, because that still requires cleanup. The goal is to be fully cleaned up while engaging students in another way.
Early finishers can help you prepare supplies for the next class. If a second-grade class is followed by kindergarten, and kindergarten students can’t fill their own water buckets, an early finisher would probably love that job.
Make your beginning-of-class routine extremely clear and consistent, too. Students should know what to do when they enter the room. It shouldn’t be different every time. Maybe they go to their seats and get their folders, or they come to the carpet and read what’s on the board. A consistent routine means you’re not redirecting students while two classes are passing each other.
The last idea requires more effort, but you can start small and build over time: create videos to explain projects. You can clone yourself. If a demonstration is playing, it gives you a few minutes to clean up from the previous class, prepare supplies, or take care of something else.
That requires coordination, but it can be especially helpful for projects with a lot of setup, such as clay. Think about the projects where a video could buy you a few minutes. Even three or four minutes can make a huge difference.
Tim: Those are all excellent suggestions. Thank you.

Listener Question: Continuing a Personal Art Practice

Tim: Our next question comes from someone who wants to remain anonymous. They begin by saying:
“I hope you understand why I want to remain anonymous. I want to ask your opinion on continuing my personal art practice outside of school and making what some would consider controversial art. Being an artist is a key part of who I am, and I want to continue to speak my truth. But I also worry about how my work might be perceived by families, students, or colleagues. I know my public presence can affect my classroom, and I don’t want to draw unwanted attention or get in trouble.
“Do I continue making work and sharing who I am? Do I make work under a different name? Do I take a break from showing while I establish myself as a teacher? I would love to hear your approach.”
Amanda: This is a big question, and I appreciate you asking it. It’s something a lot of people deal with, especially in the age of social media, oversharing, and self-promotion.
The answer is nuanced, and only you can decide. We can offer our thoughts, but this is deeply personal.
One of my figure-drawing professors in college made extremely disturbing work—almost Hieronymus Bosch-level work. He had a piece at the local art museum that had to be moved because parents complained about it being in the entryway.
That’s a tangent we don’t have time for, but he made every nude model in the class pretend they were dying or dead in some way.
Tim: Why?
Amanda: I have stories for another day. This might be a future podcast. Please write in with your own awkward life-drawing stories.
Obviously, college is different from the K–12 level. Professors are expected to exhibit their work, and everyone involved is an adult. In your situation, I would think through a few questions.
First: How controversial is “controversial”? There’s a wide range. Is the work connected to your identity or to a marginalized group? Do you use symbolism that might be slightly edgy? Or are you depicting graphic or overtly inflammatory subject matter?
Second: Would you be embarrassed or uncomfortable if a student saw your work and knew you created it? Would it cause problems in the classroom if a student brought it up?
Third: How would you feel if colleagues or parents found the work on social media, shared it in a group message, or sent it to your principal? Are you comfortable being associated with it in that way?
Tim: Those are all good questions. I also want to acknowledge what you said about being an artist as a key part of who you are. This is something you need to do, and I don’t want to tell you to let it go.
The idea of a pseudonym or alter ego is interesting. Offering yourself that level of protection is worth exploring. It might also be an interesting thought exercise to bring more symbolism into your work or push it in a different direction. The subject matter could stay the same while the imagery changes. Maybe this becomes a new body of work as you find your footing as an educator.
Amanda: I like the idea of having new constraints. We talk all the time about how constraints can breed creativity. Maybe this is a time for a new direction in your work.
Tim: Exactly. This isn’t something we can answer for you, but there are important things to think about and discuss.
If it were me, I would probably continue making the work because that’s important to me, but I might not show it publicly. I may be overly paranoid, but parents can get worked up about some unexpected things. A few safeguards can be beneficial.
I don’t know how established you are as an artist or whether your name is already out there, but a slightly different name or pseudonym could help you stay one step removed from the work. If people can’t draw a direct connection between your teaching and your controversial work, that may offer some protection.
One non-negotiable is that your art-teaching presence and your personal art practice should be separate. If you use social media to share classroom content or art-teacher content, keep that fully separate from the artmaking content you’re creating for yourself.
Amanda: That’s an important caveat.

Listener Question: Making a Required Curriculum More Meaningful

Tim: Our next question is from Rachel in Texas. She says:
“I’m a first-year teacher, and I’m feeling really discouraged. Things started great at my school. I have wonderful colleagues who are supportive, and I like my principal. The problem is that my curriculum is terrible. It doesn’t feel meaningful or engaging, and it isn’t especially connected to how artists actually work. It’s just one-off projects, vocabulary, and worksheets, and I feel sorry for the kids. Who wants to do things like that?
“It’s a required curriculum, so I can’t do much differently. Can you tell me how to give my students a better experience and make the curriculum better without straying too far from what I’m required to do?”
Amanda: That sounds hard. I had a prescribed curriculum during my first year of teaching, and it was definitely not the curriculum I would have chosen. It was very Eurocentric and not aligned with how I wanted to teach.
Sometimes you have to play the game. If something is required, you have to do it. However, I have some sneaky ideas.
Could you complete the worksheets with more interesting materials? Could students complete the worksheet and then respond to a creative prompt on the back or in the margin?
Could you complete several worksheets in one sitting and free up time elsewhere? Could you project the worksheet on the board and complete it as a class? Could you assign only a portion of the worksheet?
You may need every student to complete every worksheet as part of the assessment, but you can still think about what “fulfilling the requirement” means and look for opportunities to play with the format.
You also mentioned one-off projects. Can you make those projects more interesting by changing the materials, scale, or subject matter? Where can you offer choice?
Build in a rationale in case you’re asked about the changes. If students are required to make a portrait with colored pencils, you might say, “I interpreted that requirement as learning how to blend dry media, so I gave students a choice of colored pencils, crayons, and oil pastels.”
Tim: I like that.
Amanda: Could you add a mini boot camp or mini lesson that connects to something meaningful in pop culture or art history? Could you add an extra step at the end of a required project that takes it further? Could some projects become collaborative?
Look for ways to play within the rigid structure you’ve been given. You can also think about the bigger-picture issue. Is there a way to advocate to your supervisors about how this curriculum doesn’t serve students? Can you propose something else?
Maybe they would be open to a flexible curriculum—something standards-aligned that still allows you to make choices about how you meet those standards. That would be a solutions-oriented approach.
Tim: My advice for the last question was basically “be careful,” and my advice for this one is going to be “break some rules.”
I think, as Amanda said, you can test the waters on straying from the curriculum. Dip your toes in and see what happens. Are there huge consequences for not teaching one specific project? What happens if you add something to make it more interesting? What happens if you complete the vocabulary as required but extend the project so that it feels more like an artist’s studio process?
Can you get done what you need to get done and then add what you think needs to be added? That’s a good way to solve the problem. You can give students what they need while also flexing your creative muscle as a teacher.
If you can complete the required work and bring in the things you think your students need, you’ll feel much better. Put some thought into how you can extend the curriculum further.

Listener Question: Energy and Burnout at the End of the Day

Tim: Our final question comes from Daniel in Washington:
“Hey, Tim. I love the podcast. Quick and fun question for you: Are you a better teacher at the beginning of the day? I feel prepared and energized at the start of the day, but I’m tired and burned out by the end of the day. I think my afternoon classes are not getting my best, and I feel bad for them. Do you have any suggestions?”
Amanda: I like this question because I do not relate.
Tim: Same. I’m not a morning person, and I’m definitely not at my best in the morning.
Amanda: When I was in the classroom, I felt best in the middle of the day through the end. I felt like I was in the groove. Maybe I had already taught a lesson and learned something new to incorporate into my teaching strategy or delivery.
The last class of the day is tough no matter what because everybody wants to go home. However, I often thought that my morning classes—or the first time I taught a lesson—were my worst.
I don’t know if this is what Daniel wrote in about, but I don’t think you need to remedy it. It seems normal that you would be more tired and less able to be at the top of your game after eight straight hours. It’s reflective to recognize it, but you’re also a human being.
If you want an idea, prepare for those afternoon classes ahead of time so you have more mental energy available. Think about what specifically feels draining at the end of the day. Is it student behavior? Preparing materials? Losing the energy to go over your lesson plan before students arrive?
Get specific about what feels difficult so you can direct some energy there. Otherwise, I would say: chocolate. Maybe a treat. External motivation.
Tim: I agree. Letting it go is probably the advice here. We cannot be at our best for all eight classes in a day. You’re not going to be at the top of your game for every class.
I was terrible at the start of the day because I’m not a morning person. After teaching a lesson a couple of times, I found my flow and was probably good for the rest of the day. For Daniel, it’s the same situation in reverse. He’s better at the beginning of the day, and I’m better at the end.
Nobody is perfect for all eight classes—or however many classes you teach. Give yourself some grace. Don’t feel pressure to be perfect for every class. If you’re showing up for students and giving them the opportunity to create, you’re doing great things.
Work ahead when you can. If you’re energetic in the morning, arrive a little earlier and do extra preparation. Do the things that will make the rest of your day flow more smoothly, and let that work carry you when your energy drops.
You don’t need to spend too much time worrying about this. We shouldn’t expect ourselves to be great at everything all the time.
Amanda: The beauty of the art room is that students often see you year after year. A student who has you in the afternoon one year might have you in the morning the next year. It evens out.
Tim: It’ll all work out. We’ll be fine.
Amanda, it’s wonderful to have you back. Thanks for joining me and answering all of these questions.
Amanda: It’s so good to be here. We’ll see you this month in the community.
Tim: We’ll wrap it up there. Thank you to Amanda for coming on. It’s great to have her back, and it’s great to hear so many incredible questions from everyone over the last couple of weeks.
If you have a question you want to send into the mailbag, email podcasts@theartofeducation.edu or timothybogatz@theartofeducation.edu. We always love hearing from you and having new things to discuss.
We hope to see you in the community. Lunch Bunch is happening, Art Club is happening on Thursday, and Pop-Up Studio and the costume contest are coming later this month. Head over to the community; there’s a link in the show notes if you haven’t joined already. We’d love to see you there.
Also, if you have great stories from figure-drawing classes in years past, we would love to hear those. Send those in, along with any other questions you have.
That will do it for the mailbag this month. Thank you for writing in, thank you for listening, and we’ll see you again next week.
Tim: We’re so glad you joined us for today’s episode, and we hope it was helpful. If you know someone else who might benefit from the information in this show, we would love for you to share it with them.
We also appreciate all the ratings and reviews listeners leave for us. If you have a few seconds to give us a five-star rating or leave a review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen, we would love to see it.
Thank you again for listening, and we’ll see you next week.

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.