Peter H. Reynolds is a children’s book author, illustrator, bookshop owner, and advocate for creativity in children of all ages. He inspires children, and children at heart, with his messages about authentic learning, bravery, and courageous self-expression in books like The Dot, Ish, and Say Something!. His newest book Make Your Mark Gallery: A Coloring Book-ish, will be released in September.

Join author Peter H. Reynolds for a celebration of creativity, learning, and self-expression. During this live conversation, Peter will share what inspires him, his creative process, and behind-the-scenes stories about his books and illustrations. You will discover more about Dot Day, his love and appreciation of art and art teachers, and so much more!

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is a Brooklyn-based, Black Iranian visual artist well-known for her worldwide street art campaign, Stop Telling Women to Smile, that confronts sexual harassment in public spaces. She is an adept painter whose bold work challenges the daily oppressive experiences of marginalized people through beautifully drawn and painted portraits. Fazlalizadeh has been featured in high-profile publications such as the New York Times, NPR, MSNBC, the New Yorker, and Time Magazine. She was the New York City Commission on Human Rights’ very first Public Artist in Residence in 2019. Her works can be found on Spike Lee’s Netflix series She’s Gotta Have It (for which she also served as the show’s art consultant) as well as in her debut book, Stop Telling Women to Smile: Stories of Street Harassment and How We’re Taking Back Our Power, published in 2020.

Join celebrated contemporary artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh as she discusses her most compelling works, including her Stop Telling Women to Smile campaign and book as well as her new Black Paper project. Discover the powerful stories behind her works, what inspires her art, and the creative process that helps her develop her incredible drawings and paintings.

Abby is a middle school art teacher in Omaha, NE as well as a writer for the Art of Education University. She focuses on creating meaningful experiences for her students through technology integration, innovation, and creativity.

You know the essential art tools that your classroom needs in order to function, but what about unique materials that could make your life easier? Join the always resourceful and creative Abby Schukei as she shares ideas on how to repurpose a few unexpected materials that you never knew you needed.

Jocelyn Stephens joined the art education field in the Fall of 2017 and currently serves a community of early childhood through 5th-grade students in downtown Houston, Texas. Over the past fifteen years, her realm of creativity has spanned from drawing, photography, graphic design and painting. She teaches art with a desire to foster creative confidence in youth and provide exposure to the arts to benefit them well beyond their adolescent years.

It can be a struggle to teach the elements of art and principles of design in a way that is engaging and worthwhile, but it doesn’t have to be! In this presentation, Jocelyn Stephens will share some of her best ideas for teaching the elements and principles so your students enjoy the process and actually remember what they learned.

Janani is an art educator for a high school in Chicago as well as for a free community arts center for young people. She teaches to provide students with the resources, agency, and trust to think and create critically responding to their surroundings through drawing and painting, sculpture, and graphic design.

Learn how Janani uses brainstorming, writing, and conversations in order to design enriching lessons that create profound connections to the lives of her students. By ensuring that students have control in what they learn and create, Janani helps her students foster creativity in their own experience. This presentation will show how she scaffolds learning with techniques, concepts, and materials to help students produce their best work.

Caitlyn is the art specialist at two elementary schools in Natick, MA. As an avid powerlifter and tiny business owner, she goes by Coach T, and passionately integrates the importance of growth mindset into her teaching practice. To encourage and inspire creative challenges, Caitlyn uses mindfulness techniques to redirect frustration into confidence-fuel. “When we ‘feel the burn’, it’s proof that we’re growing!” It is her mission to coach students’ natural abilities and facilitate the development of confident young innovators in a space that recognizes differences as assets and empowers young minds to see mistakes as evidence of growth. For adventures in the art room and personal creative exploration, follow @artwithcoacht or visit www.ArtwithCoachT.com.

Creating with alcohol inks is a simple, yet fascinating artmaking process. In this presentation, Caitlyn will discuss and demonstrate the magic of alcohol inks so that you, too, can enjoy the tactile experience and process of creating unique artworks that you can use for your personal studio or share in your classroom!

Sarah Krajewski is a PreK-5th grade art educator in Cambridge, WI. Sarah is passionate about encouraging positive self-affirmations and strong mental health in her classroom by being there for her students mentally, emotionally, and artistically. Sarah is a magazine writer for The Art of Education University and loves sharing her classroom ideas with other educators. She also enjoys being an artist, creating her own bright, happy abstract paintings and wearable art.

With the increasing emphasis being placed on online learning currently, many teachers are turning to YouTube to deliver content and connect with their students. But how do you know where to start? What types of content should you share? Join Sarah as she offers tips and tricks for recording videos, curating content, and starting out on YouTube.

Joel is an elementary art teacher in Elkhorn, Nebraska. He holds an MA in Reading and Literacy and believes that literacy and the arts are deeply interwoven. Joel believes that a successful art room balances exploration, expression, and skill development.

Discover unconventional ways that art rooms at every grade level can use acrylic gels for projects and displays. Join Joel as he presents a plethora of new ideas for using this medium, including ways that you and your students can create sculptures, mosaics, and light displays.

Theresa is a high school visual art teacher in Maple Grove, MN, and an adjunct professor for the Art of Education University. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Lowe Syndrome Association as the Marketing Director overseeing branding and freelances in photography and graphic design. Her teaching passion is to guide students to find their visual voice through conceptual thinking, collaboration, and visual narratives.

Branding is everywhere, affecting even our youngest learners. Theresa, an educator and graphic designer, will break down the design process of branding in the classroom from a professional angle and present project ideas for every level with topics ranging from new product creation to self-identity exploration. She will discuss how utilizing visual communication creates a connection to each other and the world around us.

Nic Hahn has been a visual arts teacher for 18 years, teaching students as young as preschool all the way up to adult learners and every level in between. She currently teaches at a K-5 school in Rogers, Minnesota, and is the 2018 Minnesota Art Educator of the Year. She shares her classroom happenings on her Mini Matisse blog and social media accounts. By sharing, she hopes to empower her students, advocate for her program, and connect to teachers around the world.

Focusing on careers in art in a visual arts class is a great way to show students at all levels that the skills they are learning now could become a potential job in the future. Discussing careers in art can move people beyond the perception that art is just drawing or painting. These ideas, lessons, and resources can be used for choice-based or teacher-led instruction and are effective in-person or for distance learning.

Debi West has been teaching students through the vehicle of the visual arts for 25 years. She has extensive experience at both the elementary and high school levels, is a Nationally Board Certified Teacher, and has been recognized numerous times for her contributions to the field.

Kathleen Sneed Petka has been teaching visual art at Walton High School in Marietta, Georgia since the fall of 2004 and was the Georgia Art Education Association’s 2018 Secondary Art Educator of the Year. She is passionate about teaching her students to not only create meaningful art but to be empathetic and compassionate individuals by serving their community through art.

Join Debi and Kathleen, two national award-winning secondary art educators, as they share successful service-learning activities that students can do from school or home.

These lessons not only teach students to be creative, but they also teach students to care! When students and teachers collaborate, learning goes to the next level and makes a positive impact on the community.

As a classroom teacher, Yvonne used art to make connections with academics. Now, as a studio art teacher, she works to seamlessly merge the two. She is constantly amazed by the work her students create and how they see the world. Art, cheeseburgers, and talking and collaborating with others have always been a few of her favorite things. She is a Texas native who studied in Wisconsin only to return to the Lone Star state to share her passion.

Join Yvonne for a live artmaking experience on the day of the conference! No matter your level of expertise, Yvonne will present techniques that will help you with your artmaking. She will also share ideas for your classroom that your students are sure to love!

Dr. Ferial Pearson is a nationally award-winning educator, author, and assistant professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her Secret Kindness Agents program, designed to spread kindness throughout schools, is the subject of her book, TEDx Talk, and dissertation. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska with her husband Daniel, son Ilahi, and daughter Iman.

The way we manage our classrooms will be vitally important this fall as we welcome back students attempting to navigate the events of the past several months. Join Dr. Ferial Pearson for a Q&A on strategies for trauma-informed teaching and how to make your classroom a safe space for students to process, discuss, and continue to learn.

Janet Taylor is a high school art teacher in the western suburbs of Chicago. She geeks out in developing a choice-based curriculum and believes that by guiding students through their own creative process, they are empowered to create unique and meaningful artworks.

Matt Milkowski is a high school drawing and painting teacher in majestic Chicago, IL. His curricular approach produces innovative and balanced content that fosters curiosity, confidence, and community. He strives to give his students a more nuanced, vivid view of the world around them.

Does the AP portfolio leave you scratching your head or pulling out your hair? Join Matt and Janet as they share their top 10 practical, ready-to-use AP teaching tips. This urban and suburban duo, with over a decade of AP experience and an endless supply of pep, have whittled down their failures and successes to highlight strategies and hacks that will help AP teachers to streamline their classes for the new portfolio and new year.

Libby is an art teacher who, along with her husband and three children, has called Kentucky, Kenya, Qatar, India, Norway and South Korea “home” over the past 20 years. She is passionate about art, creating, and sharing space with people who love the same things!

After Libby’s middle school in South Korea closed earlier in the school year, she started to develop lessons that would still be engaging and impactful for distance learning. In this presentation, you will learn about the four most successful projects that she used to help her students process these unprecedented, challenging times. No matter what your school year looks like this fall, these projects are sure to support and engage your students!

Jennifer Leban is a National Board Certified Teacher who teaches technology and is a library media specialist at Jefferson Elementary School in Elmhurst, Illinois. (She previously taught art and technology for grades 6-8.) She is a 2020 Illinois State Teacher of the Year Finalist and 2019-20 Teach Plus Illinois Teaching Policy Fellow as well as a member of the LAX18 Google Certified Innovator Cohort. Her Innovator Project, called Reset EDU, is a YouTube channel that strives to motivate, empower, and inspire teachers to embrace new ideas for learning and teaching.

Whether you are teaching in the classroom or facilitating distance learning, video can be a vital instructional tool for student learning and engagement. Join Jen as she shares platforms and strategies that will help you create dynamic, entertaining videos that can take your instruction to the next level.

Tara Barnes works in the Blue Valley School District in Overland Park, Kansas, where she currently teaches at Prairie Star Middle School (she loves being the bridge between the learning in elementary to high school) and also leads professional development for an amazing group of art teachers. Sharing ideas with teachers is incredibly important to her because she had profoundly influential mentors early on in her career. Through her experiences teaching every grade level, she is a firm believer that a teacher who finds ways to connect with other art teachers will be able to conquer the world… and the art room.

Scandal, thievery, controversy, and the Mona Lisa have it all! This particular famous work of art is great for sparking a love of art history at any grade level. Tara will share ways to incorporate storytelling, games, and a fun twist on a Mona Lisa parody project that will motivate students to want to know more about the artists they study.

Echo Zoyiopoulos has been a teacher at Middle Park High School in Granby, Colorado for nine years, where a typical day involves teaching painting, ceramics, photography, and advanced studio art, while of course, assisting with the yearbook. Outside of school, Echo is an avid skier, biker, and climber. She seeks to use these passions as a model for her students to show how they can combine the activities that they love with art in order to build a rich, fulfilling existence.

Just because a lesson is digital, doesn’t mean it can’t be hands-on. In this presentation, Echo will share some of her favorite digital photography projects, including stitched portraits, woven photos, accordion books, and more, that will motivate kids to get off their screens and start working with their hands!

After working for 10 years as a designer and illustrator, Stan discovered his true passion as a teacher. In 2012, after working as an elementary art teacher for four years, he accepted a position as a high school teacher in Burke County, Georgia. Stan is an award-winning teacher and currently serves as his school’s fine arts department chair and as president-elect of the Georgia Art Education Association.

Join Stan as he shares inspiring, unique resources that will enhance your teacher toolbox. He will showcase the FLEX Curriculum as he presents an exciting lesson from his FLEX Collection contribution. Learn how to create wow-worthy art with soap resist using traditional and nontraditional tools!

For over a decade, Dr. Ilona Szekely has taught Art Education at Eastern Kentucky University, and for over two decades, she has shared her love of art with others. A career in art education has enabled her to effectively share this enthusiasm in a variety of different settings. Having taught students in both urban and rural colleges and public schools, Dr. Szekely has published numerous articles, held art exhibitions, and been invited to lecture throughout the United States and abroad. She is the former President of the Kentucky Art Education Association and the co-founder of the International Association of Play and Art. Her favorite experiences have been traveling with students throughout the United States, Spain, Italy, and New Zealand. She is currently working on a book for Bloomsbury Publishing titled The Secondary Art Teacher’s Guide to Examining Art and Design in The Community. She holds a BA from the University of Kentucky, an MA from the Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation at the University of Kentucky.

It is imperative that our students be able to develop their voice through art, especially during these times. For art teachers, the question becomes how do we use this time as a lesson for the classroom? Can we evoke the emotions and motivations of students for artmaking and help them to use their voices while giving them a space where they know that their art is more than just an exercise? This presentation will reveal why our students need to create through personal reflections on the moment, discussing both significant individual events and important issues faced as a society.

Jonathan Juravich is the 2018 Ohio Teacher of the Year and was one of four finalists for the 2018 National Teacher of the Year. His belief is that by taking advantage of seemingly small moments we can make a big impact for others. Juravich is the art educator at Liberty Tree Elementary in Powell, Ohio. Beginning his sixteenth year in education, Jonathan (known as “Mr. J”), challenges students to make the world a better place through art. In his work as an artist, coach, and educational leader, he hopes to do the same.

Juravich is the Building Environment Team Leader at Liberty Tree Elementary School, overseeing school culture, partnerships, and social and emotional learning. He partnered with WOSU (PBS) to develop the digital series Drawing with Mr. J where students explore their emotions through simple and hilarious drawing challenges. The videos and lesson companions can be found at www.wosu.org/mrj.

As we negotiate an uncertain time in the world of education, how do we address social and emotional learning concepts in the art room? Art educators are uniquely poised to support students as they navigate complex emotions, explore new activities, and consider challenging concepts that could bring about meaningful conversations. Jonathan Juravich will share insights both from his personal experiences in the art room and from developing the PBS digital series Drawing with Mr. J.

Rachel Albert is a middle school art teacher in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In addition to her role developing curriculum and engaging students through a wide range of instructional approaches in the art classroom, she is also the school’s Director of Student Activities. She strives to engage all students in art education through integrated learning, and school-wide initiatives. She has developed a curriculum that uses technology in novel and innovative ways such as blended learning, using art-related apps, and google classroom to support learning and bringing student voice into art experiences. This is Rachel’s sixth time presenting at the AOEU Now Conference and she can’t wait to share more ideas with you.

Have you been looking for an authentic and engaging way to incorporate art history into your classroom? Look no further than the UnBirthday Project! Join Rachel Albert as she shares this “no-groan” art history unit that can be done in person or online with any age group.

Lena Rodriguez is the high school Director of Painting and Drawing at the Grand Prairie Fine Arts Academy in Grand Prairie, Texas. She recently finished her thirteenth year of teaching and focuses on creating a positive culture within her studio that’s conducive to exploration and conceptualism.

Representation matters in our classrooms, but how can we ensure that we are creating a culturally inclusive curriculum? In this presentation, Lena will discuss how to introduce students to a wide range of artists and create a safe space for meaningful discussion while facilitating student understanding and avoiding cultural appropriation.

Khadesia is a Winthrop University graduate beginning her fourth year of teaching elementary art. She teaches kindergarten through fifth grade at both Wright Elementary School and Belton Elementary School in South Carolina. She enjoys that her career as an art teacher allows for a creative outlet to experiment with creating new lessons, classroom management strategies, and techniques for skill-building. More importantly, she loves teaching art because it also allows her to share her love of artmaking with the little ones—and the messes can be exciting, too!

As art teachers, we put a lot of time and thought into the appearance of our art rooms. We want the posters, examples, resources, and materials that we put in front of our students to look good (we are art teachers, after all). In this presentation, Khadesia will share some of the apps she uses to create her space and show you how to begin designing your own personalized art room aesthetic.