2024 Winter NOW Conference Preview (Ep. 406)

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the podcast for art teachers. This show is produced by the Art of Education University, and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz.

It is finally here. I am excited. It is conference week. I’ve been talking about it on the podcast here for a while. But the NOW Conference is happening this weekend. So many cool things happening. So many fun things that we’re going to be doing between the kickoff on Friday, the main event on Saturday, and then the After Pass on Sunday. As always, we want to do a conference preview episode. Those of you who are joining us for now know what to expect. You know what’s coming. Those of you who haven’t registered yet are maybe enticed to do so. If you’re listening to this on Tuesday, there are three days left. If you still need to register, you have until noon on Friday. That’s noon central time. You can find everything you need at theartofeducation.edu/now.

For today’s episode, I invited Janet Taylor on because, once again, she has played a vital role in putting everything together for the NOW Conference. She has done a masterful job of finding and working with presenters. She’s been creating resources. She’s helping me with scheduling, big picture ideas, so many things behind the scenes that you will not see, but so many great things that you will between presentations, resources, and all the learning that is happening. She’s been a huge part of what we’ve put together for you this weekend. I’m looking forward to talking to her and seeing what she’s most excited about at the end of this week/what she’s excited about for the NOW Conference. Let me bring her on, and we will discuss all things NOW.

Janet Taylor, welcome back to the podcast. It’s been just a little bit. How are you?

I’m doing just fine. How are you, Tim?

I’m doing well. It is the week of the NOW Conference. Stress levels are high ’cause there’s a lot to put together for this. But excitement is really high, too. I think we have a very good conference coming up. We have a really cool lineup put together. I’m excited about all of it. But I guess I want to ask you… You are back in the classroom full-time. I’d love to know just how the first semester went for you, how the second semester’s started for you, and I guess how it’s been trying to balance everything with everything that you’re doing behind the scenes for the NOW Conference.

Yeah. It’s a lot. There’s a lot going on. Okay. I guess I should go backwards and just say the beginning of second semester has been a little bit rough. If you are in the Midwest-

Yes.

…we have had snow day and then ice day and e-learning and all the things that I will say that e-learning has… I’m not going to lie. It is a little triggering for me right now.

Yeah. That’s fair. That’s fair.

And then to do e-learning again. It’s been going well, though, I have to say overall. Okay. All right. Can I just do a little pep talk? Can I do that?

No, I think our teachers need this. That’s part of the reason we do the conference right now, every year. This is the time when art teachers need a pep talk. They need support. They need just a little refresh at the moment ’cause it’s a drag. Teaching is really hard right now. Yes, please, please. Please, go for it.

Really hard. Okay. All right. I will say this. For those of you who know a little bit about my journey, I had been teaching in a district for a very long time. Then, COVID hit, and I had to stay out of the classroom to keep my kids’ health concerns safe. At that point, I didn’t really have an option to go back, and I had to spend some time grieving this loss of my teacher identity and all the things that I was doing that was teacher-related and art-ed-related. Then, thankfully, I was still working for Art of Ed at the time. I had that piece. Then, I started picking up other jobs: working for higher ed, working with student teachers, as probably many people realized from our new teacher podcast series, all that.

I was working on my artwork. I did some content for another ed-tech startup, talking about creativity. I started offering workshops and classes. I taught online to AP students, which is… It seems like a lot. It was a lot of piecemeal. But it also afforded me some flexibility and some space to figure out what it was that I was doing.

Last year, this position popped up. It was part-time at a district nearby. I know these people. They’re just wonderful people to work for and work with. I was like, “Yeah. I will do part-time in the classroom.” I was not ready to go back. I wasn’t sure what it was going to be. Even then, it was good. But I’ll say something was just off for me. It wasn’t anybody else. It was me. It was like, “What am I doing? What is this about? Is this the right path?” To be honest, last year if you had said, “Janet, are you going to go back to the classroom full time?” I would’ve been like, “I don’t think so. There’s just some things I’m trying to figure out.”

Then, this position that I’m in right now opened up really last minute. I think it was August. There was no doubt in my mind. It’s in the same district. I get to work with those same people, which is great. I love my colleagues. It’s all jewelry metals with some ceramics, which is right up my alley. There was no question. It was like, “I’m applying for this. I’m doing this. This is happening.”

I’ll be honest, at the beginning of the semester, I was a little nervous, at the beginning of the year. I was excited. I was nervous. “Is this the right decision?” Because there’s been so many things going on in the last several years. 100%. Everybody tells me when I talk about it that I’m just glowing. It’s true.

I was going to say. It’s true.

Right. You can see me. I love teaching. I love the demographic that I’m working with. I love my colleagues. I just am so happy to have found the right fit for me at this point in my career. I know that so many teachers are struggling with… “I’m unhappy in my workplace, or I’m unhappy with what I’m teaching, or I’m unhappy with whatever it is.” I was lucky that I had opportunities to figure out. I didn’t really have a choice in figuring that out. I was left to… “Janet, you are no longer working at this position. You don’t have a choice but to figure it out.” But I mean, there’s this part/this energy that I’m like, “Okay. If you’re not at the right fit or not the right school, there is a place for you. It doesn’t mean you have to give up teaching.” I don’t know.

I feel like most teachers that are out of the teaching profession now, or taking a break at least, are still doing some teaching in some capacity. They’re still being creative and teaching. But sometimes, I feel like I think we’re so in our bubble of “this particular place is not a good fit.” Then, there are no good fits. It’s like, “No, there are other options out there. There are other places that will rejuvenate your love for teaching.” I just wanted to encourage people to just give themselves some grace and have hope that you’re going to find the right fit.

Yeah. I think that’s really good advice. I think just the idea of rejuvenating yourself, I think, can be really valuable. When I was feeling super burnt out, I started thinking about all the other possibilities that were out there for me. “Do I need a different position? Do I need a different school?” But really, I just turned around by doing things differently at the position I was in. I stayed there. I got back to being happy with my teaching. There are a lot of different perspectives/a lot of different paths. I think it’s worthwhile to just do what you can do to make the most of your situation and, at the same time, see what’s out there, either to find something new or to find something different or better about what you’re doing there that can really, like you said, just rejuvenate your practice.

Yeah. Yeah. I’ll have to say, again, I am super thrilled that throughout this time, I get to work with AUU and the community engagement team because, right now, when things feel really stressful… Of course, this is an added stress probably, the NOW Conference, working at it. But it’s like, I love working on the NOW Conference. I’m super excited. I feel like that’s one thing, twice a year, to really look forward to rejuvenating when you’re feeling like meh, is to reconnect with your art teacher people.

Yeah. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about new ideas and reconnecting and all the other great benefits coming to the NOW Conference. I would just ask you, from your perspective… You’ve seen everything that’s coming. You know all of our plans. What is there to be excited about? Or what are you most excited about with the NOW Conference?

Yeah. I don’t know. Do people need a quick reminder of what the NOW Conference is and [inaudible 00:10:53]-

Well, I’ve been talking about it all month, but yes.

Okay. All right.

Go for it. No, it’s probably good to hear about it from-

Okay. I don’t know.

…someone other than me.

Well, I mean, I love the NOW Conference so much because there’s the kickoff, which is the night before. That is just a great way to blow off some steam and enjoy and reconnect with our teacher community. I mean, truly, joy is the word I would use for that night. It’s like celebrating and having fun.

Oh, it’s so much fun.

Then, the next day, what I love and I will always… I feel like I preach this all the time. I love the NOW Conference because it’s curated content. You don’t have to go and pick where you’re going to go. You don’t have to worry about jamming into a room or clicking on a link to get you someplace and missing some of that. It’s like you just sit and listen and take notes and make art and enjoy. I just love that. Then, the fact that everything is on the After Pass afterwards is just wonderful, too, because you can actually take a break during the main event. You’re not going to have FOMO. You’re not going to miss out on anything ’cause you can go back and watch stuff. Just in general, I just really love the setup of our conference and how that brings us all together and connects us in that way. I guess that is what I’m most excited for right now, personally, is just that energy that happens when we all are together.

I mean, when you put thousands of art teachers together, and you can see just everything flying in the chat and all of the connections being made on social media and examples of the artwork people are making, it’s such a great feeling. Like you said, such a positive burst of energy. I love all of that.

For sure.

Which I guess is a good segue to my next idea, coming up with positive energy. Just thinking about our keynote, Devon Rodriguez. People who are not familiar, Devon is the guy who is on the subway drawing portraits of people, or now just finding people on the street, drawing and painting portraits of them, talking to them, sharing his work with them, and just seeing their reactions. It just brings so much positive energy to the world, which is one of his goals. I was super excited to get to talk to him. I’m really excited for everybody to be able to see him/see what he has to say. I don’t know. You’ve seen the interview. You’ve seen his presentation. What do you think people are going to latch onto? What are they going to be able to take away from his presentation?

Okay. There’s three big takeaways for me. The first one is just loving hearing him talk about his story. Just so much humanity in how he connects with people. Now, you met him. But he seems like so humble and so down to earth.

He is. He is just the nicest guy. He was great.

That alone… You’re just like, “Oh, I just want to eat you up.” But then, he also goes on and talks about how important his teachers were to him. Seriously, tears were coming in my eyes when I was watching this. I was like, “It’s just a nice reminder at this time, especially of how important we are. We don’t even realize the impact that we have.” Just even in just little things of supporting and encouraging and how that has changed his life. Then, I guess my third takeaway that was fascinating to me was just… It was really interesting. He’s pretty young. He’s in his late 20s, I think, right?

Like mid-20s. He is-

Mid-20s.

…I don’t know. When I get to my age, I’m like, “Oh, he’s such a baby.” No, he’s a normal adult.

You could have taught him, Tim.

Oh, I absolutely could have. Yes. Yes.

We both could have taught him. But just hearing him talk about his connections with being on the streets and meeting these people but also connecting with social media, which is, for old fogies like us, Tim… I sometimes feel like social media is just out of my range. I do the best I can. But to hear someone talk about those connections is pretty exciting for me because I’m like, “Oh, that’s how they’re doing it, and this is how he responds to that,” as opposed to our students sitting on their phones all the time. You know what I mean? It’s like a different experience. It’s really neat.

Yeah, for sure. It’s great to hear his perspective. Like you said, I think there’s a lot of value in just hearing how important we are as teachers/what an effect we can have on our students. Just… I don’t know. Hearing that from someone who was affected by teachers and now has found a lot of success, credits his teachers for a big part of that success. It’s a really refreshing and inspiring message to hear. I think that’s a good path to take. I think that’s a good message for teachers to hear. I’m excited for everyone to check that out this weekend.

All right. Besides Devon, we have a lot of other good presentations, a lot of other really good presenters. What are you looking forward to? What are maybe just a couple of presentations that you think people are going to find worthwhile?

I think I’ve done this preview with you a couple of times now. It’s really hard for me to boil things down.

The answer is always just all of them.

I just want to talk about every single thing. I’ll start with… Paula Liz will be with us. I’m pretty excited about that because she has a new book out called How to Be a Creative Changemaker.

Not to ruin the surprise, but we may or may not be giving away some copies of her book.

I’m glad you said it, not me. I didn’t want to reveal that.

I can neither confirm nor deny what is in the plans.

That’s awesome. But she’s going to be talking about those incredible artists that she includes in the books and ways to really reflect on her own curriculum to celebrate diverse and really complex and layered backgrounds and identities of these artists into our curriculum, which is… We all need that to share with our students. Then, I guess, going back to teacher identity… I mean, talking about my whole grieving my loss of teacher identity and trying to figure out who I am now. Lindsey Moss, who we love… I just adore her. She is talking about how to be your best art teacher self, piecing out like that teacher identity and-

Yeah. That just goes back to everything that we talked about when you first came on. Just finding what works for you, finding what helps you be successful, knowing who you are as a teacher, how to help yourself enjoy what you do as a teacher. I think it’s tough to fit all of that into 15 minutes. But she did a pretty good job of getting people to reflect and think about what’s working for them, what’s not, and then, like you said, how to be your best art teacher self. I think that’s a really valuable one.

Yeah. She’s pretty amazing at how she can pull out that information/organize it so that we can digest it. Okay. Then, let’s see. Of course, I love me some good assessment. I know it sounds so silly. But we have Andrea McDonough on, and also Francisco Matas is back. Both of them talk a lot about practical strategies and the idea of assessment as feedback, which you know I love. Both of them are going to be able to give us some strategies that it’s not one more thing added to your plate. But how do you integrate it and make it seamless?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Can I share a couple that I’m excited about?

Please do. Please do.

Okay. Looking forward to the art teacher round table. We’re doing real talk about classroom management. It’s going to be live. I’m not exactly sure how it’s going to go. I’m looking forward to it. Jen Russell will be there. She’s a high school teacher from Dallas-Fort Worth area. Harris will be there who we are just introduced to at the art room makeover. They are from Baltimore, design teacher, and then Jonathan Juravich, who’s been at the conference a lot. He’s always great. But anyway, we’re all going to get together live. We’re going to talk about classroom management/share some stories: what’s working/what’s not. Just a discussion about all… ’cause it’s stuff out there right now. I’m excited to dive into that conversation and see what’s working for people, what’s not, and just airing all that out ’cause I think it’s a discussion that we need to have.

There’s a lot of great art-making opportunities from the kickoff through the actual conference itself. Marina Alfera is doing a great FLEX lesson about lines and shapes of unity, just a simple abstract drawing that we’re super excited to give people some time to do some work. Then, if you want to do more, Joel Scholten has an art-making opportunity in the After Pass. A lot of great stuff there.

Then, just creativity conversations… Kristina Brown is going to be co-hosting with me for a little bit, part of the day. She and I are going to talk about creativity. Then, Jen Leban, LaTonya Hicks, Andrea Slusarski are all doing stuff about creativity. We’re diving in deep there, which I think is going to be really valuable. I don’t know. I’m sorry if I stole your thunder with any of those.

No.

But anything else that you want to highlight or want people to check out?

I mean, those were definitely on my list. I guess the last one I would add would be probably Chris Sykora. He did an After Pass for us over the summer, talking about creativity and expressive mark-making. He’s come back to share that specific mark-making project that he does in the hallways with his students. They’re high-fiving their artwork. That’s really fun. It’s really packed. Great way to bring energy back to your classroom, too.

Yeah. I was going to say he’s moving quick through that. But there’s so much good information. I like that one. Okay. I also wanted to circle back. I touched a little bit on the art-making. But I want to just talk about the kickoff that’s happening on Friday night. We have art making there. But we also have games. I mean, we’re doing trivia. We’re giving away prizes. Amanda has probably got some weird costumes for us. I don’t know what all is happening with that.

I know how you love the costumes.

You know what? I just show up and do what she needs me to do. It’s fine. I love that, just hosting it. Like you said, just so much positive energy. We’re able to create. We’re able to have a lot of fun. From my perspective, that’s one of my favorite parts of the conference. What about for you? From the audience perspective, what do you enjoy about the kickoff?

I really love that with the kickoff, during your games, you always bring people onto the screen. We get to actually see these people that we’re talking to in the chat. That’s always fun. People always wear crazy costumes, too, or have their art gear on, which always is great. I don’t know. There’s just a lot of laughter, which just feels really great. I love that part.

Yeah. I think it’s so much fun. Like we said, just those connections are incredible. If you want to do smart making, bring your art supplies. I’m going to be hanging with Jen Russell. A lot of Jen Russell this weekend. She’s lovely, so it’s going to be great. But she and I are going to get together and do some colored pencil portraits, just talk about colored pencil drawing, create some work. Then, Kristina Brown is going to be hosting a separate art-making activity with Kayla Kaslow and Katie Gray, who did the mini masterpieces on Instagram over the summer. They’re going to be talking about drawing prompts, how you can use them for your own personal creativity, do some art making there, and how you can bring those ideas back to your classroom, too. A lot of opportunities to come, hang out, have fun, win some prizes, do some art. It’s a good time. Hoping that you can join us on Friday night.

Then, obviously, we have the conference itself on Saturday. Then, Jen, I’ll give it back to you to explain everything that’s happening on Sunday for the After Pass and just how we can keep learning throughout the year after the conference. Can you talk about the After Pass and maybe highlight a couple of presentations there that people may want to check out?

Sure. In the After Pass, you get everything from the main event/from the kickoff. All those videos are recorded. That will be there, as well as the chat. Everybody always asks, “Is the chat-

Yes.

…recorded? Yes, that is all there that you can access later for people’s handles and whatnot.

And all of the great ideas that they put in there ’cause we feel like we’re presenting a lot of good ideas. I don’t know. Again, when you put thousands of art teachers together, they have some pretty good ideas where we’re like, “This is what I do in my classroom.” Everybody else like, “Oh, my gosh. That reminds me of this.” Just ideas just keep building on each other. It’s great to see. People love to refer back to that. But just starting-

Yeah. I was going to say, no, we’re definitely a sharing people. Everybody loves to share, and I just love that about us. Again, I encourage you to take a break when you need to during the main event. We do have some breaks planned in there. But it can be long or whatever. But because you can go back on that Sunday. But really, you have access to that for a full year after. At any point, you can go back. Re-watch something. I like to go back and redo some of the art making because sometimes I might be too busy following it and don’t get an opportunity to finish it or need to look back at something or reference a presentation. I love that.

On top of what is all recorded from the main event and the kickoff, we do include additional presentations as well. They’re extra bonuses for you to look for. A few that I’m excited about are… Alicia Farrell’s doing a collage portrait presentation. These are gorgeous. They’re just like color paper.

Briana McCarthy collage projects. They’re great.

She talks about proportion. Right. I was like, “Wow.” Definitely want to check that out. As you mentioned before, Joel Scholten is going to be doing a FLEX lesson, Stoomy Installations. Am I saying that right?

Yeah. It’s fun. It’s like this crazy beautiful drawing/painting but also turned into this 3D sculpture slash architecture piece, just this beautiful hybrid of so many things.

I’ll tell you, when he turned them into sculptures, I was like, “What?” It’s like, “Yes, I love this so much.” That was really great. We also have Kandice Stewart coming to talk about co-curricular planning, which is great because she talks through her entire curriculum for a semester. Or was it a year? I can’t remember. But she breaks it down so you can really see how her and her students create this curriculum together, which is really great.

Yeah. I love that presentation so much. Kandice is great, first of all. We have the short version on Saturday with just dipping your toe in, like, “Hey, do you maybe want to do this with your students? Have them help plan the curriculum that they’re going to go through.” Then, if you like that idea, there is the long extended version in the After Pass, where, like you said, she really dives in and shows you everything that she does to plan her curriculum alongside her students, which I think is a great concept. She does a wonderful job of explaining and showing everything that she does. I love that. Can I throw one more presentation out there?

Sure. Yep.

This is more for administrators rather than teachers. But Michael Bell, former teacher/current administrator, put together a really cool presentation about how administrators can help advocate for programs, help build art programs, how they can help value their art teachers. If that’s something that you think your administrator needs to hear, that’s a good presentation to forward to them and have them check that out. You can look at Michael Bell as well. There’s plenty more. Like you said, everything’s recorded. You can just keep learning for the next year whenever you have time. We’re super excited about all of that. Janet, anything else before we wrap up? Any other closing thoughts before we all see each other on Friday night?

Oh, my gosh, no. I’m just so excited to see everybody. It’s going to be a blast.

All right. Yes. We cannot wait. We’re hoping to see all of you there. Just a couple of days from now, after we wrap this up, I’ll give everybody the last-minute information they need to register if they still need to do that. But we’ll be good to go. Janet, thank you so much. We’ll see you on Friday.

Thanks so much, Tim.

All right. Thank you to Janet. I appreciate her coming on. Like I said at the beginning of the episode, we really could not have put together such a good conference without her. Before we leave, let me give you just one last rundown of what’s happening.

Friday: we are doing the conference kickoff with games, trivia, art making. That is Friday evening. It starts at 7:00 PM Central. We’re going to do some art making about 8:00 PM Central. We have all sorts of amazing giveaways. We’re doing trivia. We’re doing art making. We’re doing other games. Just a great time to relax. Enjoy yourself with the art teacher community and just have some fun. Come join us if you can.

Saturday is the main event. This is the conference itself, all of the presentations, all the learning, everything that you’re looking for. Just a full day of presentations for everyone who is there. That starts on Saturday at 10:00 AM Central. That’s going to go until about 3:00 in the afternoon.

Then, on Sunday, we have the After Pass with additional learning that you can access for the rest of the year. You have an entire calendar year to dive into all of the learning there. Not only all of the presentations and the art making from the first two days of the conference but additional presentations that really dive into more specific topics. You can really find what you’re trying to learn, what you’re looking for, what you’re wanting to check out. A lot of additional topics, a lot of additional presenters, some really, really good stuff in there. Make sure that if you are attending the conference, you check out the After Pass as well. Maybe something that piques your interest and can really help you.

If all of that sounds good to you, all three of those days, and I hope it does, again, you can register at theartofeducation.edu/now. You can find all the information you need there/find everything you want to know about the event. I’m hoping that we will see you there.

Art Ed Radio is produced by the Art of Education University, with audio engineering from Michael Crocker. All right. Conference, obviously. Make sure you sign up if you’re not. I also want to put out one call for mailbag questions. Amanda and I will be recording when we are together for the NOW Conference. If you want anything for next week’s mailbag questions, if you want anything answered in the mailbag, just hit me up. Timothybogatz@theartofeducation.edu or podcasts@theartofeducation.edu. All right. Thank you for listening. We will talk to you next week. But before then, hopefully, we’ll see you this weekend at NOW.