The April Mailbag: Accepting No, Taking New Jobs, and Inappropriate Artwork (Ep. 462)

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

Well, welcome to the April Mailbag. Thank you for your patience as we are a week late, because I was so very sick. Is it a terrible April Fool’s joke that we’re just delaying the mailbag by a week? I don’t know. But anyway, Amanda, hello. How are you?

I’m pretty good. How are you?

I’m doing, I’m doing much better than I was last week at this time.

Yeah, you were like dead. You’re like, “Maybe I’ll record tomorrow.” And I was like, “I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

No, it definitely did not happen. But thank you to the three or four people who heard my message that I was sick and sent me messages saying that, “I hope you feel better.” I hope the mailbag is back soon. That was very sweet.

That is very nice.

Thank you. So I guess Amanda, we should probably talk about NAEA because, well, I think that’s where my sickness came from.

Right. Right.

But more importantly, before I got sick, that was a great time. We had a wonderful, wonderful time in Louisville, Kentucky talking to our teachers from all over the country. Can you share some highlights from what you really enjoyed from there?

Yeah. I mean, I really liked meeting everyone at the booth. We played some games, and I like to pride myself on my online shopping abilities. And I found the absolute best thing I’ve ever found on the internet, which, it was a fully sequined jacket that flashed the entire spectrum of the rainbow each.

It was beautiful.

Each sequin was the full rainbow spectrum, and I believe I did have magical powers when I wore it. I was like, “I can do something for sure that I can’t do when I’m not wearing this jacket.” In fact, the first morning I was wearing it over to the convention center and somebody stopped their car, just a citizen of Louisville and was like, “Hi, who are you? Where are you from and why are you here?” And I was like yelling back to her. I was like, “Oh, I was here for the art teacher convention.” And she was like, “Welcome to our city.” I was like, “Thank you so much.”

But it was really fun to meet community members in real life. AOE threw a great party at the Art 21c Museum in downtown Louisville, which was wonderful. We had our aura portraits taken, which was like, I know you don’t believe in, but…

But it was entertaining. Can you explain aura portraits for everyone?

Sure. So the way that the aura portrait artist talked about it is it captures, well, I don’t really know, your metaphysical energy or something. I’m not really sure. This will get into story time too. I have something else that I’m not sure what to believe.

But anyway, the process was very interesting. You sit down and there are these two metal plates in the shape of hands, and you put your hands on them, and it takes the photo and it spits it out like a Polaroid picture, and then it develops and you see your aura. So the different colors, then you get a little sheet that tells you what it means and-

What the different colors mean and what the orbs mean. I described it as a visual version of a horoscope, but I don’t know.

Elaborate mood ring is kind of-

Oh yes, a very elaborate mood ring. That’s probably good.

But it was fun and I was really sad that I didn’t have orbs, but then I saw that I had rays, but that’s probably because I was wearing the aforementioned sequin jacket, and not because I had spirits shooting out of me. But I mean TBD, no one really knows. Did you have orbs? I forget.

I did not have orbs. It was interesting because I had a full rainbow aura for my portrait, but then the next day, a couple of the colors had disappeared and so-

That’s because you’re a non-believer. It was like, “I’m not going to reward you.”

It sapped the energy out of, gave me back the energy I was giving to it, which was not much.

It was very cool though. It was great. And then the last thing I have to mention is NAEA held a party also, which was very fun. The theme was disco derby. The directions were to come dressed in your derby or disco best.

Because Louisville hosts the Kentucky Derby every year, and also I believe is the home of the disco ball.

Oh yeah, the birthplace of disco or something.

I think just the disco ball, not taking credit for the music, just disco ball.

Well anyway, we weren’t paying attention to that because, do you want to tell everybody what we dressed up as?

Well, I just thought because it was the Kentucky Derby, it would be a lot of fun if we all dressed as horses. So a couple of us got giant horse onesies, which were spectacular. And can you describe the makeup that you did?

Oh yeah. Yes. So I didn’t want a horse onesie because I like to dance, and I knew that if I danced in a horse onesie, I would very quickly get overheated. And so I went with, I made horse ears for four people. So it was the community engagement team. And then Amber Kane, our director of product management, I think that’s her title. And so I made horse ears for some of us and then I was like, “And who would like to paint a white diamond on their head of big horse size?” So it was just a very fun art project basically for me to do. I got really nervous. Shout out to Jen Lieben for being my eyelash doula. That’s not a skill I really have, and she really walked me through it ahead of time. So it was really fun. It was really fun to gallop around.

Are these pictures on your Instagram if people need to see the-

That’s a good question. They were on my Instagram story. Maybe I’ll put them on the AOU Instagram page if I can, if I remember when it publishes.

Can I talk about one other Louisville thing that’s related to the podcast?

Yes.

Okay. So at the party at the museum, I met Melissa from Manhattan. She lived-

I also met Melissa.

She was fantastic. And the most important thing that happened there was she told me how much she loves our gardening talk.

I know. Positive reinforcement.

Yes. I appreciate that. So those of you who have not been with us for that long, some time last spring, Amanda and I just got to talking about our gardens every single month when-

There was a lot going on.

There really was. And it became a gardening podcast at the beginning of every episode. And so we’re trying to decide whether we want to do that again, talk you through our gardens as they grow this spring and summer. And Melissa’s like, “Let me tell you what, I live on the Upper West Side. I am never going to grow a garden in my life, but I still love listening to you and Amanda talk about your gardens. So please keep doing that.”

Well, I have an update.

Okay. Well, we have Melissa’s blessing to continue talking about our gardens.

And since she’s the only person that told us about it, hers is the only position that we’re holding near and dear to our heart. And so I just have to say last fall… I don’t know about plants. So also don’t really listen to my garden talk. I’m exploring. I’m experimenting. Anyway, I paid my friend who started her own garden business after getting burnt out in the corporate world. Shout out to that. I paid her to design me a garden, and we decided to decided to install a river of tulips. So it’s this pretty big garden. And there’s a rock, little rock wall that delineates two different levels of this garden. And all along the rock wall we planted, I don’t know, 150 tulips and they’re starting to come up. And I am so excited.

This is very exciting.

It’s very exciting. I do need to call her and be like, “Do I need to tend to these little baby plants in any certain way?” I’ve just been letting nature do its thing. But maybe since it’s new, I need to be doing something. I don’t know. Are you in garden planning mode right now? Do you do seeds? Didn’t start garden talk till later in the season last year.

No, we really didn’t. So right now, I have all of my plants that are native to Nebraska. I love me some pollinators. So right now we’re just leaving everything as is for the moment because all of those leaves and stems and whatever, all the pollinators are using those at the moment. So if I can tell everybody to wait to clean up their gardens, just leave the leaves, leave the stems for a little bit longer.

Skip.

Yes.

What if we’re scared of butterflies and we don’t want butterflies in our yard? Do we clean up the leaves now?

You can just put tulips everywhere and do what you need.

Great.

But yeah, the longer you can leave stems and growth from the winter, the better that is just for nature. So I’m in waiting mode right now. We may get some cool temperature vegetables planted soon, but I haven’t had the time or the energy to do that just yet.

Okay.

Getting there.

Great.

Okay. Can I share one more story before we get into the mailbag?

Yes. I also have a story. But I don’t know, it’s getting long.

Okay, I’ll be very fast about this. It was my birthday a couple weeks ago.

On Pi Day.

Yes, on Pi Day, and I turned 45. And so right at midnight, all of my friends sent me texts like happy birthday to me. Very cool. As soon as it turned over to my birthday, that’s pretty funny. But then what they thought would be really funny is to schedule texts because I was 45, every 45 minutes, for 24 hours of my birthday. And so 12:45, another happy birthday text came in and then 1:30 AM. And then at 2:15 I realized what was going on and just shut my phone off. But then again at 3:00 AM, 3:45 AM, 4:30 AM, birthday texts coming through every 45 minutes for the entirety of-

I love that. That’s so fun.

It was so creative, and so funny, and also maddening.

I thought you were going to say 45 seconds and I was like, “That’s really”-

That’s a little too much. Yeah, so good. What were you going to share?

Okay, I was going to share related to aura portraits, my mom was cleaning stuff out just like, “I think this is cool.” Okay. My mom was cleaning things out of her house. You know sometimes parents do that and they’re like, “Here’s all your stuff.”

“I’m tired of having this. Here you go.”

Basically. But look at this. Okay. Now the viewers can’t see this. This is a handwritten star chart that my great aunt made for me after I was born, right after I was born. And apparently, this shows where the stars are, whatever, in relation to when I was born. And it says I’m a Scorpio, which I already knew. I don’t really believe in horoscopes except that I do really like being a Scorpio. But I always thought I kind of matched Virgo too. And guess what this says? This says my moon is in Virgo.

I have no idea what that means.

Oh my gosh.

I’m very happy for you.

Thank you. If anybody knows what this means, please tell us. Okay, so then she did a write up of what this means for my life. I’m not going to read the whole thing.

Well good. It looks like it would take you an hour to read the whole thing.

But okay, listen to this. Okay. “There is never any doubt about where you stand. Your mental activity, your awareness of the world around you, and your willingness to experience what you think and feel color your opinions with amazing honesty,” which I feel just relates to the mailbag and why I love to be here. Okay? And then listen to this. “Your intellectual talents are marked and so strongly personal is your outlook that some artistic career giving yourself personal expression is your best career medium.”

I love it. You are where you were meant to be Amanda.

This was when I was a baby and here.

I love it so much.

I love it so much. It also says I’m a highly critical person, which yes.

Also true.

It’s really quite on point, which is pretty funny.

Oh, that’s very good. All right, well I’m glad that you are imbibed with the astrological powers too to give great answers for the mailbag.

Thank you so much. It’s my literal destiny.

It is. It is apparently your destiny.

Yeah.

Cool. That being said, would you like to get to the answers that we need?

I sure would. Let’s go ahead and open up the mailbag.

All right. Our first question comes from the Art of Ed community from Todd Leban. And the topic is, “Can’t handle the answer no.” Todd says, “I just want to throw this out there for discussion because it has been a big factor in classroom management the last few years. I have a constant occurrence, mainly with seventh grade, where they have a difficult time being told no. I’m not referring to project feedback, I’m talking about everything else.”

For example, “Can I go my locker to get my Chromebook?” “You should already have it.” “Can I go see this teacher to ask a question?” “It’s their plan time.” “Can I borrow a pencil?” “You should have a pencil.” “Can I go get my Croc back from my friend?” What? So Todd says, “I’m looking to see if this is a shared experience and if you’ve come up with any counteracting ninja skills to lessen the annoyance and teach coping skills. Part of me has the feeling they’re being told yes to these requests in other spaces, but I’m trying to maintain order in mine. Thanks.” Okay, a lot there, including the Croc. Amanda, what are your thoughts?

First of all, this is such a good question and it sparked a really good discussion in the community. So you should head over there. Oh my gosh, we haven’t said it this episode, but you need to go to community.theartofeducation.edu if you’re not there already. By the time this episode airs, my guess is we will have surpassed 5,000 members there.

Yes. Which is amazing.

It’s just the vibes are incredible. So come join us. Okay. So I think for this, these examples that Todd has given, really make me think that these kids are just testing boundaries to see what they can get away with, right? Seventh graders are learning how to be adults. They’re like baby adults is how I like to think about it. So they’re going through this whole second coming of age, learning all these new skills.

Why do my own kids ask why they have to brush their teeth every night? This is not a new thing. It’s infuriating. We do it every day. It just happened again last night. My sixth grader was like, “I don’t want to take a shower.” And I was like, “I can’t have this discussion with you again.”

Okay. So reading through this, some of these things are expectations. “Can I get my Chromebook? Can I have a pencil?” These are questions they actually already know the answer to. So I would think about how to be proactive here. How can you reinforce that those expectations regularly, whether you review them, post them, whatever. So that is not a question you’re being asked anymore.

Also, you said, “Part of me has the feeling that they are being told yes to these requests in other spaces.” And I think that’s insightful and important because they need to understand that the rules in your room are whatever the rules are, no matter if they left their shoes with their friend or not. The rule is once you’re here, you’re here. And so again, just setting those expectations that these are the rules.

In terms of getting them to cope with saying no, some kids are just looking for a fight or a power struggle. They thrive on getting somebody riled up. And so I have one of those kids personally who lives in my own home. And so not engaging in being as literally as boring as possible has been a really good strategy and reminding myself that I don’t need to get annoyed about this. I know what’s going to happen, right? You know you’re going to get these questions, you know how the kids are going to act when you say no. And just kind of front loading that in your own mind and being like, “I’m not going to react to this today.” And some days that’s easier than others.

But one really good phrase that I love that I learned at a Love and Logic seminar, I don’t know if you were teaching when Love and Logic and was around, which I still think is really good is, “Asked and answered.” That’s all you say. “You already asked that question and I already answered it. So actually no more discussion is needed.” And for me, in my experience with kids, that does kind of shut it down. It’s like we’re not actually getting in a giant discussion about this.

The other idea I have is to sometimes, different kids respond to different strategies, and some kids really do like if you empathize with them a little bit and help them problem solve for next time. “Look, I know this is supremely annoying for you that you are now going to be in art class with one shoe, but you know you can’t go get that.” Or I mean more realistically, maybe that’s not happening all the time. But you forgot your Chromebook. You don’t have your Chromebook, you need it. That’s going to be annoying for class today. What can you do to remember it next time?

I’m also constantly reminding my own kids that frustration tolerance makes their brains stronger. And I usually get a huge eye roll and sometimes some light stomping up the stairs, but I’m hopeful it is sinking in, because now they’ll be like, “I know.” And it’s like we all have to build frustration tolerance around things. And actually, seventh grade art is a really low stakes place to be building frustration tolerance.

Very true.

It’s not life or death if you forget your pencil. And so maybe kind of helping them see, again, depending on the kids, maybe that’s helpful, maybe that’s not for you. But helping them see that actually taking a deep breath and figuring out a solution is a better way forward.

For sure.

Long term.

Circling back to that asked and answered thing, I like that is just a more succinct version of what I like to do, where kids keep asking over and over, which like you said, very insightful by Todd. Because I think a lot of places if they keep asking and keep being annoying, they will get the answer they want. So that’s the skill they learned.

Yes. Yeah. It probably is being reinforced other places.

So anyway, when kids ask me again, I will say, “Are you asking again because you don’t understand the answer or because you don’t like the answer?”

Yes.

And if they say, “Oh, I don’t understand,” then yeah, let’s sit down and explain it. And if they don’t like it, they usually don’t say it. [inaudible 00:20:39] stare at you. “Yeah, okay, you have your answer,” go do whatever. Go ahead and redirect them at that point.

Yeah, I often say something similar. “What don’t you understand about what I just said?” And then it’s usually like, “Well nothing, I just wish you’d said something different.” And it’s like, “Well, I’m not going to.”

Yeah. And sometimes I will take the time to justify that answer. Sometimes I will not. It depends on the kid. It depends on my mood to be honest. And so sometimes, we will talk them through it. Sometimes, “The answer is no, you know that. Let’s move on.” I think that’s good.

I also had an answer. It was very similar to something that Shelley Gilmore said in the community. She put it way better than I can. You can read it. But just talking about how you say no in ways that don’t necessarily sound like, “No.” Don’t go talk to this teacher. It’s actually her plan time right now, so you can’t do that. Or, “I don’t have my Chromebook.” “You know I can’t let you go to your locker during this time.” And so you’re not out and out saying no, but you are in a different way. And that really eases the pain of that for some kids. So I think that’s a really good idea.

And I was just going to say, a lot of places just accepting no is a skill that’s taught. When I first started, my district taught the Boys Town social skills where they’re literally directions for accepting no as an answer. Where it’s like number one, look at the person. Number two, say okay, number three, stay calm.

Interesting.

And then I think there was one if you would disagree, then bring it up again later, whatever. And so if that’s something that can be helpful, if you can explicitly teach kids how to accept no, I think that’s good. It takes a lot of patience and I think teachers are out of patience. So I don’t know that anybody wants to teach these skills. But if you can talk about how to accept no, I think that can be worthwhile.

Okay. Our next question is actually, I don’t know, 1,000 questions in one, because it is time for people to look for new jobs. And so we’ve gotten so many messages, so many emails about switching jobs. “I want to go elementary to middle school. I’m wanting to leave high school. I’m tired of the apathy. What’s it like in elementary school?” Or, “I’m in elementary and I’m thinking about taking the high school job in my district that’s open.” All of these things that people are asking.

And I don’t necessarily want to talk about the difference between elementary and second. I feel like those conversations are taking place everywhere in the community, on Facebook, wherever. There are a lot of places to find that. So I guess Amanda, I would like to phrase it for you as far as when it comes to taking a new job or deciding to positions, what are the types of things people should be thinking about and what kinds of things go into that decision from your perspective?

Yeah. Well I’ll say I think first, we should acknowledge that deciding whether or not you want to move positions is often a privilege, right? Sometimes-

That’s very true.

You just have to take a job to take a job, you need an income, it’s not ideal. Or sometimes, you are forced out due to unforeseen forces. Sometimes the other job goes to an inside hire that you have no control over. So there are things that you cannot control. And also, no job is worth your declining mental health.

True.

Okay. All those disclaimers aside. When I was thinking about this, I kind of two thoughts. So in some ways, I’m a really methodical thinker. And that side of me says you are making lists, right? You are making a pros and cons list of both positions. You are making a list of what you’re looking for in a position in general. And is it feeling appreciated? Is it a short commute? Is it you really want a physical art room versus a cart? Are you really looking to stay at a specific grade level? Are you looking to… Whatever it is, what are your priorities? What are important to you? And then figuring out which of those are non-negotiables and which ones of those are nice to haves, and thinking about what is it that I really want out of a workplace.

And then I’m a big fan of research. So you’re asking people at the grade level you want to teach at, what are the positives and negatives of that? You are reading articles. You are posting in the Art of Ed community to ask for advice about your specific situations.

I’m also a big fan of scoping out the school district, and a really good tip I heard when I was interviewing was scope out the school, drive around, talk to any parents you can, if you can. Get in. Yes, talk to people at the school if you can. Obviously you’re asking questions at the interview. But if you have an inside track to any families who attend that school, that can be really insightful and a different perspective that you might not otherwise get.

Yeah.

The other side of me says listen to your heart. There have definitely been times that I’ve been methodical. Choosing to leave the classroom was one of those. That was a lot of thinking for me. What about my retirement benefits? What about my salary? What about my love of teaching? Am I going to miss this?

But then I was reflecting, and there’s other times I’ve just taken a leap. For example, the person who was leading PRO Learning before I did for a couple years had left and we were trying to think about who could fill that role. And one of the AOE founders literally drew a box on the board and he was like, “We’ll come back to this and figure out who fits here.” And I swear my hand just raised itself.

I was in that meeting. I remember just seeing the look on your face and you just looked at me and you’re like, “That’s me.”

Yeah, “I think I’m going to do that.” Had I ever led a professional development platform before? No. And had I ever thought about doing that job, absolutely not. But I just knew in that moment that was the right next thing for me. And that led to overseeing PRO, and then the conference, and then back to the magazine, and then I dropped PRO and moved to the community. So you never know. But long story short, do not count out your gut feeling. Whatever you choose to do, even if you’re thinking more methodically, pay attention to what your body is telling you.

Yeah, I think that’s really fair. And I don’t know, I don’t have a ton to add to that. I would just say, think deeply about it. Why are you wanting to leave? Is it because you’re unhappy where you are? Is it because you think something better is out there? And just think through that. If I change positions, what other changes are going to come?

And there’s a lot that goes into that. There’s one really good article that we have on the Art of Ed website, and I’ll link to it, and it’s called 3 Big Considerations for Taking on a New Job. And it tells you to ask yourself about your relationship with colleagues, and admins, and students, and parents. Where are you right now with that? Asks you to think about whether you’re experiencing joy at your current school. Do you like your job? Do you like where you are right now? And also, are you appreciated? Do you think you’re valued? And I think if you can answer those big questions, then that can go a long way to making that decision for you.

And then like you said, even if you decide, “Hey, I want to leave.” Maybe what’s out there is not the right fit for you, maybe it’s not a time to leave right now. So I would just encourage people to think through it thoroughly. Don’t just jump at the first chance, and make sure that you’re going somewhere where you’re going to be appreciated, where you’re getting what you want out of the job, and that you’re someplace that makes you happy.

But yeah, you can fully explore all of those things before you make those decisions. Just talk to as many people as possible. Get as much information as possible. All right. Amanda, would you like to read the next question?

Yes, sure. This comes from Rachel via email. And Rachel said, “How far out do you plan units? I’m new, so I’m working from scratch on everything and trying to pull from different resources to create some decent curriculum for each of my classes.” We have all been here. She says, “How and where do you all get your ideas?”

Okay, so that is a big one, because there are so many places to get ideas. Before we get into that, I want to reiterate a message. So Janet Taylor and I have the What Do New Teachers Need to Know? podcast. We did an entire hour and 15 minutes I think just talking about curriculum. And if we were to boil that down to one statement is to realize you don’t need an entire curriculum your first year. Curriculum is something that you build over time. And if you are new and just feel like you’re flying by the seat of your pants, that’s okay. That’s normal. It takes a while to build that up and it takes time to know what works for you and what doesn’t.

So that being said, there’s a lot out there. Obviously I need to put a plug in for FLEX Curriculum from the Art of Ed. There’s so much there, so many resources that can get you through whatever.

Sorry, I have to tell you. If you’re a district member, we just released curricula, which means that there are year long plans for you in there. It’s great.

You have a drawing class, here is a drawing class curriculum. It’s fantastic. So that’s good. If you are not a flex member, there’s still a ton of great resources on the Art of Ed on the website. There are podcasts with me talking about my favorite lessons and bringing on other teachers to talk about their best lessons. So many things out there.

And honestly, it’s just a matter of looking. And whether you’re looking at the Art of Ed or somewhere else, just look online and see who’s doing cool things, and don’t be afraid to ask. You can message people and don’t say, “How did you do this?” Or, “Is this okay for second grade?” Those questions are a little bit obnoxious, but you can reach out and be like, “Hey, I’m really interested in this lesson. I had these specific questions.” People will be willing to help you and guide you through those things, and help you get started on that.

And I would say just be creative. What lessons have you seen in the past? What lessons have you taught in the past, whether that’s during student teaching or just random stuff that you’ve put together in your methods courses? Can those be adapted to your classroom? Are there things that you’ve done in your own personal artwork that you think your kids could learn from? And do something like that. And there’s so many different ideas.

And if all else fails, you can ask the kids what they’re interested in too and see what they want to do. And you may need to tell them no to some of the more outlandish ideas. But if they’re like, “I really want to try working with Model Magic,” and you have some Model Magic, let’s do it. Or they really want to do something that’s super colorful and you have a ton of oil pastels, put something together for them. There’s a lot out there that you can go with. So Amanda, your thoughts? Your ideas?

Yeah, I mean we have a lot of resources here for you. But part of your question also was, how far do you plan out? And Tim mentioned you don’t have to. And in fact, I would argue you, you should not try to plan a full year of curriculum before you have taught a full year of school, just because I think you’re going to go through so many changes and you’re going to learn so much throughout the year that it’s almost wasted time to try to do it all up front. And I say that as a person who often would try to do that if that was possible.

So I would say whatever makes you comfortable in terms of how far you plan out. Some first year teachers, they’re going week by week, and it is working okay for them. That would make me nervous personally. But you do you.

I tried to plan out a quarter at a time. So that seemed like four times a year, I would sit down for a couple hours and try to map things out. And that allowed me to get ahead, plan a little bit big picture, try to incorporate what I had learned from the quarter before and apply it. And that was a pretty good system for me.

As a new teacher, I got my ideas from a combination of places. Samples and projects left in the art room from previous teachers were a good one for me. I feel like every art room I’ve been in has a drawer of miscellaneous papers. And it seems counterintuitive to go through there, but there are some really interesting gems you can find. Often there’s photocopies of really cool old textbooks, or lessons, or worksheets that might spark ideas for you. So I would encourage a dumpster dive, so to speak, in the file cabinet, to see what you can uncover.

Also, my district colleagues were really great. I would learn from them during our PD days and from our teachers online. But I have to say this was before the Art of Ed existed. So it’s so much easier now. And the Art of Ed community, again, is a great place to ask for advice. I will say we also did a big deep dive into curriculum planning in the last mailbag episode.

I was just going to bring that up. Yes.

Yeah, I would encourage you to check that out too.

Yeah, extensive answer. If you want to do more listening, we’ll link to last month’s episode, and also to Janet and I’s curriculum episode. And a lot of, I hope, good advice inside of there. All right, now one last question, Amanda. Can you read this one as well?

Yes. I have a question about my seniors portfolio and some of the work she’s creating. She has some works with nudity from a few life drawing classes she has taken independently and she also has some works that depict drug use. My assistant principal came to me with concerns. He really didn’t know what kinds of things my students are doing, so I talked him through it. And we also talked about how the College Board doesn’t have any restrictions on content. I showed him a few examples that were online and it was pretty eye-opening for him. We came to a compromise about not putting restrictions on my students, but also not showing that work in the halls or really even having it out in the art room. My question is, what do other teachers do with this? How do you deal with restrictions put on you by your school, but also know that the AP student shouldn’t have any restrictions on them at all? And this is from Trinity via email. Another great mailbag question.

Yes, I appreciate this question a lot because it’s something I dealt with quite often when teaching AP. And my first knee-jerk response to this is if the school doesn’t like it, they probably shouldn’t be offering this AP Studio Art course. But there’s a lot more nuance to it than that the more I think about it.

And I think honestly in the interest of being professional, I think a compromise here is going to be your friend. Ideally, your assistant principal would have a little bit more of an idea of what’s going on in the art room so they’re not shocked to see these things. But at the same time, they got a lot on their plate.

So I think it’s good to let kids explore whatever topics are of interest to them, especially if they’re mature enough to handle all of those things. But at the same time, you have to consider the environment that you’re teaching in, what your community is okay with, what they are wanting to see. I would say a lot of places, I would say most public schools are not going to be fans of nudity hanging up in the hallway. So you need to consider that.

And honestly, when I was having students with things like that in their portfolio, and then Intro to Art would walk in and see those works out. These ninth graders can’t handle that. They don’t know how to handle that maturely. Which it’s a teaching moment, but it’s also a big distraction.

And so I think the compromise that is worked out well there and something I had very similarly as to what Trinity has is going to be pretty successful. So if you can let students explore these ideas, let that be part of your portfolio, that’s great because then they’re getting their learning opportunities, they’re putting together the best portfolio that they can. But at the same time, they’re doing that within the constraints of what’s needed at the school to make your program acceptable and successful.

And so I think finding that balance is going to be important. You want to be smart about all of that. What goes in the portfolio doesn’t necessarily need to go up in the public space.

And as much as you want to say like, “The College Board can come and shut down the AP program if you don’t let them do what they want,” or just getting all high and mighty about these things, the College Board is not going to save your job. You need to think about the environment that you’re in and the audience that you have, and make sure that you’re doing things the right way by everyone involved.

Yeah, I think that’s a great answer. I don’t have a lot to share except to say that I would probably, like you said Tim, loop your administrator in ahead of time before they get surprised by this content. As everybody knows, there is higher scrutiny on teachers right now from the entire school community. And even if you have a nuanced answer to this, we talked about it’s vetted with the principal, they know what’s going on. They’re putting it away when other kids are in the room or they’re only working on it at home, whatever. All it takes is one parent to get a whiff of something that they deem as inappropriate for it to potentially blow out of control and out of your control to contain it. And so I would just make sure that you’ve had those discussions with whoever you report to ahead of letting students do this in your room.

And if the decision is made that, okay, we don’t have an environment that’s conducive to doing this type of work as part of a class, then it’s your job to help your students work through that. Are they developing their skills in your class and then working on their artwork completely at home? Maybe that’s something they are motivated enough to do. Or can they explore their ideas in a different way? Does it become a creative constraint, and they’re using symbolism or higher order thinking skills to get at this idea in a different way that is deemed appropriate for a K-12 school setting? I think it’s a really tricky question. I think it’s a really good question, and I don’t think there’s a one size fits all answer, but I-

That’s what I was going to say. Everybody who’s dealing with this, they know their administration, they know their community best. And there’s not one good answer on how to deal with this.

And hopefully you have support from other colleagues in the district that you can go to and ask how they’re handling it. Or like I said, from your principal or assistant principal to help you navigate through that.

Yeah. All right. That feels like a very heavy place to leave things off, but I think we can go ahead and wrap stuff up there. So Amanda, thank you again for joining me for another fantastic mailbag episode. I will let you get back to your star chart now.

Okay, sounds great. Thanks for having me. See you next time.