September Mailbag: Organization Hacks, High Fives, and Art Challenges (Ep. 385)

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.

All right. This is the first episode of September. Welcome to September. Welcome back to school and, back by popular demand, the first episode of every month, it is Amanda Heyn, and we are ready to welcome her back. Open up the mailbag. Amanda, how are you?

I’m really good. I’m just realizing you said open up the mailbag and I didn’t decide on a crinkly noise yet for opening the mailbag.

That’s okay. I don’t think we need a crinkly noise especially because so many of our submissions are electronic. Nobody’s mailed me any letters with questions, so I think we’ll be okay.

Okay.

But I don’t know if people are listening and they decide that they really would love a sound effect, a crinkly mailbag sound effect, please let us know. And if we have enough requests, then I’ll put some time into sound effects.

I’m going to make an Instagram poll. Please look on Instagram for the crinkly poll.

Okay, fair. So, Amanda, I guess, before we open up the mailbag sans sound effects, we should talk about our discussion that we had this morning because-

Yes.

… I don’t know, it’s kind of exciting. We’ve worked together for so long, we’re going on a decade now, I think, or close to it but yet we still find out new things about each other. So anyway, can you set the stage for this?

Yes. Okay. So to set the stage, you and I have a lot in common for people who don’t know, like we both married our high school sweethearts. We both started dating those people at 15, 16. We both hate condiments. We both are bad at singing, on and on and on. We both have never done karaoke in our whole lives. We both have never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Exactly. I know. So many things that we’ve never done.

So many random things. Okay. So every week I put out a weird icebreaker question because that’s just how my brain works. Like if you had to eat a crayon, what color would you choose? Which I would actually love to know from our listeners. You picked a midnight blue. I picked pure sparkles like a glitter white crayon. And this week was, what are two things you are exceptionally bad at essentially? And you said-

Well, it was tough to narrow it down to two because I am bad with a lot of things, but I said singing and I said skiing.

Yes. And then I messaged you immediately because I was like, Wait a minute, how have we never talked about this?” Because I am also terrible at skiing and, not to be braggy but I’m athletic. I played varsity basketball, I played volleyball, I did track, yoga, weightlifting, softball. But skiing has alluded me. I just can’t do it. Can you tell me-

I don’t even know. So I guess I’ve had one skiing experience and it was so bad that I’m never, never going back. But basically, I think I was 13 or so and I was going into it with kind of the same mindset that you’re like, “Oh, I’m good at sports,” because I played basketball, I played hockey. You’d think playing hockey, I’m used to falling down on things that are cold and icy and I’m fine. But skiing, not only could I not balance, I just kept falling over and kept crashing, kept running into little kids, and all the little kids were way better than me. At 13 years old, it was very frustrating. And when you’re 13, you don’t handle things like that very well. And so I ran over a little kid for the fourth time and I was just like, “I’m done. I can’t stop. I can’t ski. I can’t do anything other than falling.” And falling isn’t even that much fun.

So I just took off my skis and went to the ski lounge. I’m in very flat Nebraska so this is not challenging skiing at all. And yeah, I quit, I refused. And in the three decades since, I’ve not been back to skiing, and it legitimately remains one of the most frustrating experiences of my life.

Okay, let me set the stage for my story. I’m also 13 I think because the year prior I had completed my snowmobile safety class. I live in Wisconsin.

Ways to know that you’re from Wisconsin.

I have the coolest arctic cat snowsuit. It has flare snow pants like flared snow pants that zip all the way up the side. I feel cool. I do sports. I think I’m going to be good at skiing. I’m way overconfident. I refuse a lesson which maybe is my problem.

Maybe. See, it was never even offered to me. So I just go. I don’t know. That’s a whole new level like refusing a lesson.

Right, that’s lame. All these little kids can ski. I can ski. I go on the blue … I don’t know, I’ve blocked it out, but whatever is one less than the black diamond, this is going to be fine. Immediately I get a third of the way down, I wipe out. Both my skis come off. They go flying. I go flying. I’m flat on my back. My skis have slid into the trees and that was the only time I ever tried. I was done also after that which I mean, to be fair, I am more of a ski lodge person anyway. Put me in a cute outfit. Give me a mug of hot cocoa. I don’t need to go skiing actually to enjoy that experience.

But yeah, I also tried water skiing. Also just miserable. And they even had me on the boom which comes off the side of the boat so you don’t even really have to do anything. And I still just could not do it.

I can’t water ski either. I’m glad we’re finding these things out. Excellent.

Well, the moral of the story, it’s okay to be bad at things and not everything is for everyone.

There you go. No, I appreciate the positive spin. Yeah, so I don’t know. I’ve gone 30 years without going skiing again.

Same.

Probably don’t need to go in the next 30 years any time.

No.

I think that one time in my life was enough.

Mm-hmm. I’ll just stick to … Tubing is fun because I live in a wintery place. I get some weird looks but-

Well, I mean you obviously-

I’m just happy doing my own thing.

If you can ride a snowmobile safely, so maybe that’s the direction you need to go.

That’s right. Guess how many times I’ve been snowmobiling since I got my snowmobile safety license?

I’m going to go zero.

That is correct.

All right. Fun. But the option is there if you ever decide to.

The option is there. That’s right. Okay.

We should get into the mailbag, though. We’ve wasted like eight minutes already.

All right. Our first question came to us on Instagram. It’s from Ingram Lifestyle. And the question is I think perfect for back to school. What are your best quick organizing hacks or your fun transition tools or ideas? Amanda, you want to go first on this one?

Yes. This is an excellent question especially, like you said, for the beginning of the year.

One of my favorite tips comes from Sarah Krajewski, and it’s a tip for organizing artwork and this is I feel the definition of a true hack. She uses color coding to help keep a class’s artwork together. So if you have four sections of third grade artwork, you want to display it, you mount each class to a different color background. Then if something gets out of place, you don’t have to read the name, you don’t have to read the class code, you just know where it belongs. And I think that is brilliant.

That is really smart.

I know. It’s so good. I actually saw it. So she has an elementary art hacks pro pack, so if you are interested in those ideas, definitely check that out.

Another one that she shared that I also did in my classroom was to put your name on your paper the first direction every single day, every single project. So I think a lot of times you get into your artwork and then you say, “Put your name on your paper,” or whatever, but it is written on the board. You greet them at the door and you say, “Go to your seat, put your name on your paper,” and then come to the carpet if you’re in elementary. Or put your name on your paper as the first part of the bell ringer in a secondary art room. It doesn’t catch 100%. Let’s be real. We’re never going to catch a hundred percent of kids, but it drastically improves that.

Then I also wanted to call out we have an entire YouTube series called Art Room Hacks that you can find. So maybe we can link that in the show notes because that has tons and tons of ideas.

Yeah. Lots of good ones. Okay, let me just jump in with a couple organization things before we talk about transition tools and ideas.

My biggest piece of advice is just please label everything. Label all of your cabinets, all of your drawers, all of your supplies. Anything where kids need to get something out or put something away, please tell them where it is. It’s so incredibly helpful. And I think if you can use pictures as well … I know a colleague who did this with all of her ceramic tools, and I think it was especially helpful because, especially kids who are just starting, do they really know the difference between what a rib is or what a ribbon tool does or whatever, or a loop tool. They don’t really know just by the name. So if you can get a name and a picture of where supplies go, I think that’s a great hack. It helps keep things way more organized, especially when kids are getting things out and putting them away.

Also great for English language learners.

Yes, for sure. I love too things that you need to check out like Sharpies and Exacto knives. I can give them a good home. I like a piece of pink styrofoam and you just put all of them in there and then you can tell at a glance, “Oh, I’m missing three of my 24 sharpies or two of my 30 Exacto knives.” And then you figure out where those are. You get them all back so they can just stick up straight out of the styrofoam.

Or I’ve seen, I think Abby [inaudible 00:11:12] and some other people, have put them in plaster before. You cast plaster with the lids, and then you can just pull them out and hand them out. And nobody’s going to steal sharpies if they don’t have a lid. So that’s always a good idea. And Abby has also spray painted her Sharpies before. She’ll paint them like bright gold, which is, A, cool to look at. And B, everybody else in the school knows if there’s a gold Sharpie, “That belongs in the art room. Why is it in my math class?” And then she gets them returned to her. So I think that’s a good hack.

And then one other thing that Janet and I talked about on our new teachers starting the year podcast a couple of weeks ago is just thinking about the flow of your classroom and how you organize where supplies are or where kids are putting things away. Just make sure they’re not crowding. Make sure you have a specific spot that’s labeled where you want them to put their artworks, their supplies, their tools, and just kind of think through that whole process which is not necessarily a hack, but I think it’s something to think about.

Okay, so Part Two of the question was transition tools or ideas. What do you have for that?

Well, it said fun transition tools and ideas. And I will just be clear, these are not that fun.

Fair.

But they work really well.

You know what? I will go for effective over fun any day.

Yes, yes. Okay, so one is to use narration. So this is an idea that’s written about in an article called Try Narration To Help Your Students Through Transitions With Ease by Alecia Kaczmarek. And it’s something I did in my classroom as well. It’s sometimes also called sportscasting. So you literally just say what’s happening. So you say, “When I say go, you’re going to walk quietly to your seats, put your name on your paper and flip it over to show me you’re ready.” And then you don’t say, “I like how” or “Thank you, Jessica, for.” You’re simply just showing students that you see them. You’re noticing what they’re doing, and so you just say what’s happening.

So Brian is walking quietly to his seat. Casey is writing her name on her paper. Jonas and Ellie have their paper flipped over. And it’s just really, really an effective, very simple way to remind kids what you want them to do and then show them that you’re noticing when they’re doing it.

Yeah, that’s really good. I learned that as a think aloud and I could call that a think aloud and you’re just enunciating all of your thoughts as you’re putting the brush in. Like, “Oh, I’m cleaning this brush out right now. I see that it’s still getting some paint in my hand, so I’m going to watch it again. After it dries” … Just steps and step-by-step for everything that you’re going to do. I think that works best when you’re demonstrating how materials work or how you want kids to use things. But it works for everything, for procedures, routines. Anything you want kids to learn, just talk through those steps. I think that’s a really good idea. So what else?

Another thing is to do some proactive work. So, A, of course, build consistent and predictable routines. But then another thing I really love to do is have the schedule of the day written down on the board somewhere or projected or whatever. You can make a slide deck at the beginning of the day really quickly. People think it sounds overwhelming, but it really takes a minute per class to just write down the main parts of what you’re going to be doing, and then the transitions aren’t a surprise. I feel like often when kids have a problem with a transition, it’s because they weren’t expecting it. They weren’t expecting to stop. They didn’t know that you had broken your lesson into three different chunks and they would have to be getting in and out of the seat or looking up at the board or whatever.

So if you can preview, “First we’re going to do this, then we’re going to come to the carpet, then I’m going to show you this. You’re going to have 10 minutes to work and after 10 minutes of work, I’m going to show the next step,” it’s just not a surprise and they’re expecting it and it doesn’t cause as many issues for you. And then, of course, allow time for the transition. Give a warning. I really like counting down from five or 10 to give kids just that cue that they have 10 seconds to finish up the line they’re drawing or finish saying those few words to their table partner or whatever, and then they’re ready to listen.

And at the secondary level, I always tell them, “Hey, I have three minutes and then we’re going to start cleaning up. So whatever finishing touches you need to put on, do that.” Just whatever the warning is. That’s a good parenting skill. That’s a good teaching skill. Don’t let your kids be surprised by what’s coming, and I think that can make transitions so much easier.

I would also say you can write the steps on the board for what kids need to do during that transition as well. I’ve just run into so many kids who are helped by having them on the board, whether just seeing them laid out or whether they can only follow one direction at a time and get overwhelmed with more than that. Rather than just saying, “Okay, when I get done talking, you’re going to put away colored pencils, put away your sketchbook, turn in your work and get back to your seat.” That’s overwhelming for a lot of kids. So if you can stand at the board and say, “First, you’re going to put away your colored pencils, then you’re going to put away your sketchbook, then you’re going to turn in your big drawing, then you’re going to return to your seat.” And that’s all written out for them, it’s incredibly helpful for kids.

Again, none of this stuff is super exciting to do, none of it’s super fun to do, but it’s all effective and all very helpful for your kids.

Yeah. I used to even make a slide. I had a slide for each material. So if we were doing drawing or doing painting and it was just four directions for cleanup and they each had a picture to go along with it. And it really, really helped in my classroom. I don’t know. If you want something fun, like in a chime, I don’t know, or something.

That works. Again, I don’t know, maybe you and I are not fun enough but I think what we do works so that’s good.

Okay, our next question then, also about fun. I’ll let you take this one. This is from Judah’s Lion on Instagram, fun ways to teach rules and procedures.

I think I do actually have a fun thing for this one.

Okay, cool.

Which is I’m a huge fan of recording these. So pick your main three to five rules and procedures that you want to teach, whether that’s entering the classroom or lining up or painting, cleanup, whatever you’re going to do many times throughout the year, and make a video. I really love this because it keeps kids engaged because you’re playing them some form of media. You don’t have to worry that you missed something in a particular class. You can be 100% sure that every single class got the exact same amount of instruction in the exact same directions. You can revisit it easily when needed. You can just replay it. And I used to teach elementary, so I always modeled what not to do in the video in addition to what to do. They just thought that was the funniest thing in the whole world when the teacher was doing wrong things.

And I just talked about this actually on last week’s podcast, but when you are teaching that, and yes, elementary school kids think that is the funniest thing in the world. They love it but even high schoolers entertained, like I’m not going to act like an idiot in front of high school, but if you can just add a little sarcasm or some dry humor about what not to do, I feel that goes over well. It’s a good strategy for older kids too.

I also am a fan of having the kids collaboratively help you create the rules and procedures. It’s a little tricky when you have 20 classes or whatever, you probably aren’t going to have 20 different sets of rules posted on your door. But to have the kids verbalize and think about how they should act in the art room, you’re going to find a lot of overlap between the classes and then you can sort of present a conglomerate rule set for that year that your kids feel they had some input with.

Yeah, that’s a good one. That’s not something I ever did. I don’t feel that fits my personality necessarily, but I know a lot of people do that and it’s very effective for them. So that’s a cool one.

All right, next question. This is actually a voicemail from Sarah.

Hey, this is Sarah and I teach in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Grades one through five. This is my second year as an art teacher. And as the year starts, I would love to hear some of your easy, quick and fun activities for team building in the art classroom. What do you do for your table? What is something cool and just super to the point to get those kids encouraged and working together as a team in their table groups? Thank you. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say. Bye.

Okay, Amanda, would you like to take this one first?

Sure. First, thanks for calling us stars. That was really nice, Sarah. So I always like to do at least one collaborative project per year, and I like to do that fairly early in the year. You have to get the rules and procedures down first and get them used to the art room. But a really easy one that I used to do in my elementary art room were table murals. So I would just go to the big roll of paper and I would rip off giant sheets of paper that covered the whole table and then we would do a mural based on what they were already studying.

So in my art room that was third graders, they were studying habitats. So it was kind of fun, because we had this big game we played, to randomly assign what habitat they were going to be drawing and then they worked collaboratively to paint and draw this habitat and then we would display those in the hallway near their classroom. So it was a source of pride. They all were motivated to work on it. They all had ideas because they had background knowledge and then it was really fun for them to decorate the school.

I also like to assign jobs by table to get kids working together toward a common goal. I know teachers do this different ways. Some assign numbers to seats at the tables and then each kid at the table has a different job. I liked to assign them by table to get the kids working more cooperatively with their table group. For example, the red table would be the ones to collect all of one certain supply and the yellow table would be the table to wash all of the tables. So that kind of helped build that little table community as well.

And then I wanted to highlight an idea from Janet Taylor called Paper Pair Up. So she did this at the beginning of this school year where she assigned pairs of students to create a wearable paper product. They could cut, tear, use brass fasteners, paper clips, and I think glue and tape. They couldn’t use any other embellishments, but they had to create this product together. So that’s a really easy, low entry, easy supply way to get kids working together from the get go.

Yeah, for sure. Janet’s been doing an awesome job of just highlighting a lot of those first day or first week activities that she’s doing. A lot of people are doing that on social media right now.

Yes.

If you’re looking for ideas, go online and just see what our teachers are doing. They’re sharing some great ideas. So I would encourage you to do that.

One new one that I’ve seen this year that I’m kind of excited about is you have a single marker for the table and then you have four or five or six strings tied to it, however many-

Yes, I’ve seen that.

Each kid pulls on a string and then they have to work together. It’s like Pictionary but six of them working for one drawing. I think that is super interesting. That’s a fun one that is good that I think is worth trying for sure. But I love any kind of art making challenges on just getting kids working together collaboratively.

Just two quick ones that I really like. One of them is describe and draw where inside of an envelope you have a printout of a famous artwork or just any artwork that you want. And you have people paired up and one of them is drawing and one of them has the famous artwork, and the person who’s looking at the artwork can describe it to the other person while they draw it and the person who’s drawing can’t see. And the person who has the original can’t look at the drawing. And just kind of talking through everything that they see in there and trying to get their partner to draw that as accurately as possible. So it’s a challenge. Sometimes it goes well, sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s usually pretty enjoyable to kind of see what they can come up with there.

Another one I like is the paint mixing challenge where I’ll have them work as a group and just give them primary colors plus black and white. Then I have a card with five different colors that I’ve mixed already and painted already, and they have to get as close to those colors as they can by just mixing the three primaries with black and white and try and come up with a turquoise or a maroon and see how they put that together. It’s kind of fun to see, especially if there’s four or five people working together, how they collaborate on doing that.

So just a couple simple ideas that I think can be good. So anything that’s fun, anything that can be kind of a challenge for them I think should be good. Amanda, do you want to read the next question?

I do. This comes from at … Oh boy-

What? Rogi under ease.

Rogi under ease. Thank you. Yes. I was wondering how to break that up. You’re right.

I think? I don’t know.

There are actual words in there. Rogi under ease, on Instagram, engaging first week or two of lessons especially for K-5.

Oh, that’s good. I would say just like we talked about, those collaborative things are always good. So see previous answer, but I think anything that’s fun is good. I love letting kids build and work with their hands and it doesn’t even have to be anything permanent. Get out Play-Doh, get out modeling clay and do some building challenges or have them build something and draw it or play Pictionary or Sculptionary or whatever you want to call that. Just give them some ideas and have them build and just work with their hands. I think that’s really, really good for them to do.

I love any kind of design challenges. People will play Chopped, where here are your art supplies, here’s what you can put together and what they can do. Or like you talked about with Janet’s Paper Pair Up or anything, like marshmallow towers even. They’re kind of cliche but they work at this point, so no reason to quit doing them.

I love art games. Pictionary, like exquisite corpse drawings are really fun. Those are always enjoyable to do. And then I won’t describe all of this, but we’ll link to it. I love the quiz about the teacher idea just to let them get to know you and ask them questions about you. I don’t know if it falls under the lesson category, but it is fun, it’s engaging and it sets the stage for the school year. So we’ll link to that if you want to check out the quiz about the teacher. So, Amanda, anything to add to that?

Yeah. I mean I always did portfolios. So in my early days I just had kids draw things that described them and I had a list of prompts that we kind of went through. You could include your favorite food or your pet or your family or whatever. Tell me about yourself on the cover of your portfolio because then we had those to work from and put artwork in for the rest of the year which was great.

But in my later years I designed a … Please don’t ask me for it, it’s probably on my old computer that is in my basement … but designed a portfolio cover where it had some little prompts like draw a self-portrait and circle all of the art supplies that you like working with because I taught elementary. And just asked them some little prompts. So that was always fun, a way to get them making art, but letting me learn about them and creating something functional for the rest of the year. So that’s probably my best step on that.

Those are good. I like those. All right, next up we have another voicemail. This one is from Sarah in Kansas City.

Hello, this is Sarah Kreicbergs. I teach K and nine through 12 art at Lincoln College Preparatory Academy in Kansas City. After COVID, I’ve trained myself to not give hugs and not give handshakes and not do all of those things. I was curious about how you guys felt about the introduction or handshakes, high fives, and all of those things. Are your teachers or have your high school teachers talked about using those things to have a physical connection with their students either during class or on the way in the door, those kinds of things? So I just wanted to know what you guys felt about adding physical touch back into the classroom as part of the environment. Thanks.

That is a super interesting question. I am hearing that and, oh, that is something to think about. So I’m going to think about it for just a second. I’m going to put you on the spot to answer first.

Great, thanks. Well, I would say this has to be a super nuanced answer, so it’s great for the mailbag. So thank you for sending it. Like Tim said, there are a lot of different factors that might play into your decision here. So you have your district policies and your school culture. Some districts or schools will have very clear guidelines for you about this topic. It also probably has to do a lot with the grade level that you teach. As a former elementary student. I know sometimes hugs are unavoidable because the kid is just bee lining for you and you are being hugged before you have a say in the matter. Also, your personal comfort level based on your own personality, how you generally interact with other humans on the face of the earth. What is your risk tolerance for germs, I feel like the pandemic probably has potentially changed this, right, like Sarah was kind of thinking about.

So I taught elementary, as you all know. I was not a fan of high fives or handshakes because the germ aspect really freaks me out. I do not want to touch 125 people every day. I just don’t. But if a kid gave me a spontaneous hug, that was totally fine with me. But I do think personal connection is really important even if you’re not physically giving a handshake or a high five. So I would greet my students at the door every single class. That was a non-negotiable for me. Even if I wasn’t finished setting up or whatever, I would be there at the door to make sure I made that connection and smiled at each kid coming through the door. Then during work time too, I would sit with each table group whenever possible and just ask them about their weekend or what they were having for dinner.

One of the funniest things that 10, 15 years later that I told my kids about and they still say every time we eat this meal is I was asking kids like, “Hey, what are you having for dinner? What’s your favorite food?” Whatever.

And this one little girl looked at me just maniacally. She was like, “Chicken on the bone!” [makes slurping sound] And then she just … So now in my family, every time we have chicken, my kids are, “Chicken on the bone.” Just the funniest thing. So you’ll learn things that maybe you want to know and maybe you don’t, but there are more ways to connect with kids just through hanging out with them too. What do you think?

Wow, that slurping sound . . .

Sorry for anyone who has misophonia. I promise not to do it again.

So my thoughts on this, opposite from you. I actually love high fives and handshakes.

Interesting.

So yeah, I always would greet my kids at the door too, but I would give them high fives or handshakes or whatever they wanted and just ask them, “Oh, who’s excited about art?” Or like, “Oh, we are printmaking today,” clapping my hands. And generally I would notice that everyone’s rolling their eyes at me and that’s fine, but girls would generally give me the high five and guys would just ignore me because they’re too cool to high five somebody which is fine. But then I just need to call them out for it. “I’m so excited about printmaking and you can’t even give me a high five?” So they’re walking in the door and they’re rolling their eyes at me. I’m just corny but they’re also walking through the door with a smile on their face and I think that’s important. So I think that excitement is contagious. And so if I’m acting super excited about something, even if they think they’re too cool for it, I think it rubs off a little bit. And so I think that’s worthwhile. And I’m all about the high fives.

Hugging is kind of a different matter. I love hugs with the people I love but not super comfortable with that with high school students. I mean everybody knows the reasons, and so I just had my own little … like I would only do side hugs only if they’re initiated by the student only with other people around. They’re fine. But just try and follow those rules because it’s something that I think a lot of teachers worry about. Or if they don’t, they probably should. So I think just kind of being conscious about that. And I would tell kids about that too, just like, “Hey, I’m fine with it,” but how we’re going to do it. So I think just being conscientious about what you do is fine. It’s all about your personal comfort level and what you’re okay with, but just be smart about what you’re doing with that and I think you’re good.

Okay. One final question, Amanda. I’ll let you read this one.

This is from Instagram also, from @holcombmaria. What is the best way to engage parents?

Oh, that’s a broad one. Also a challenge. It’s always challenging to try and engage parents. I think a big thing is meeting them where they are. If you have a bunch of parents who check their email at work every day, send some emails to them. If they’re all over Facebook, post some work on Facebook. If you don’t know, talk to the counselors at your school. Talk to the office people at your school. Where is the community and where can you find them? Where can you talk to them? And just meet them there and post what’s going on in your classroom, show some of the exciting things that are happening, show the final pieces that are being made, and that can really get parents engaged.

I love positive phone calls home. Obviously, it’s a huge time suck and it’s very difficult for me being an introvert to pick up the phone and call parents, but it’s really good for them to hear about good things their kids are doing. So I would just block off, hey, I’m going to take 15 minutes during this plan period and just leave some messages. Or I’m going to take 20 minutes after school to see how many phone calls I can get done. I think that’s huge. I really appreciate that.

And if you don’t want to make phone calls, at least send some emails. There’s contact info for everybody. We talked earlier this year about ChatGPT and how they can write emails home for you. You don’t want to rely on that but you can prompt it and you can get it started. And that can make things a little bit more-

Or give you a template.

Yeah. It can simplify your life a little bit there hopefully. So that’s something that might be worth checking out. And I love sending work home too, either if parents just want to see it or you can even send work home and ask parents to write a couple of sentences about what are your favorite parts of the artwork and bring that back just to make sure they’re seeing what their kids are creating, engaging with it and talking to their kids about what’s being created in the art room. Amanda, ideas from you?

I mean that was pretty thorough, but I do like putting something in the regularly occurring school publications about the art room. So if there’s a school-wide newsletter or a website or whatever, find out what one communication most parents are reading from school. So at my kid’s school, there’s a weekly newsletter that comes home every Thursday. So if your school has something like that, I think putting something in the art room regularly or even once a month about what is happening can be really good.

At back-to-school night, I like to put up something like a QR code about the different places they can follow you if you’re on social, if you have a blog. Just make it very easy. Make it as easy as possible to connect. I was not a parent when I was teaching and I think I would do a lot of things differently now that I am a parent just with all of the demands of my time.

I am a former teacher and sometimes I don’t read the whole school newsletter all the time. You know what I mean? Or I skim parts or whatever. So really making it easy for them to connect with you in multiple different ways, making them feel welcome to come in and volunteer. I know a lot of teachers don’t like other adults in their classroom. I get it. But if you have a parent who’s excited, try that out. Be open to that idea. And then, like you said, sending work home. I always like to send it home with an explanation. Again, as a parent, when I get the work home of my young children, I’m always appreciative but I’m sometimes also like, “What were you doing?”

What is it?

“What were you thinking about here?” And I have an art background, so I think that that can be helpful as well.

Yeah. I’ve seen guides on how to talk to your kids about their art, sending those like here are questions you can ask. Anything like that can be helpful and get them engaged, talking about the work. So that’s good.

All right. Amanda, we have not emptied the mailbag for sure, but I think it is time for us to wrap things up. So any last words of advice or words of wisdom before we step away?

Well, I would just say keep the voicemails coming. We’ve been so excited to get the voicemails, so please keep calling us and keep emailing us and keep reaching out on Instagram. We love to hear from you.

Love it. All right. Thank you, Amanda, and we’ll talk to you later.

All right. Bye.

Thank you to Amanda for coming on and doing the mailbag with me. Obviously, it’s always a fun time for us and hopefully a bunch of our answers can be helpful for you. And also a thank you to everyone who wrote in and called in with questions. If you want to do that yourself, if you want to ask a question, you can call. The number is 515-209-2595 and leave us a voice message which, as Amanda said, she is so excited about. Or if you’d rather do it via email, you can send us a message at Podcasts at the artofeducation.edu.

Now we’ll link in these show notes to all of the different stuff that we talked about, some related resources and some other ways to dive in deeper and extend your learning, give you some more ways to explore some of those ideas. So that’ll include the quiz about the teacher, some organization ideas, some collaborative ideas and a lot more. But that will do it for us today. So thank you for writing in and thank you for giving us a listen.

Art Ed Radio is produced by the Art of Education University with audio engineering from Michael Crocker. I will be back next week, and Amanda and I will be back with our next mailbag at the beginning of October. We’ll talk to you then.