A Daily Herald reporter and photographer spent some time in my art room last week putting this story together celebrating our art program at Dryden. Thank you for recognizing the value of art education in our schools! 

Read the story and see the photos here.
View the video below. 

How do you describe 20 years of teaching, a couple thousand students, and hundreds of lessons in 2 minutes or less? Not sure. Below is my attempt. I'm blinded by what it omits, but hopefully it includes enough to give you a quick view of what we do here at Dryden.

Mark your calendars for Tuesday, Sept. 25th 7pm Central Time and join me and other special areas teacher in Music, PE and Art in this month's Intel Teach Live Webinar 
Electives Go High Tech To Meet 21st Century Learning 

REGISTER for the event 
Join us in THIS ROOM
Follow on THIS THREAD 

I will be sharing how we use technology for art instruction and art production in Dryden's Art Room. Please join us for this free online event.

You can listen to the FULL presentation online here.

**UPDATE: I did get through my presentation, but my slides kept crashing so it took three attempts. So sorry for the mess that made:) I posted my resources on the thread: http://engage.intel.com/message/93156.

I was invited to Keynote at the USSEA conference in Indianapolis, IN.
I was surrounded with some of the greatest minds in Art Education: (Enid Zimmerman, Marjorie Manifold, Elizabeth Delacruz, Juan Carlos Castro) Professors of preservice Art Educators, Doctoral students, Researchers, innovators, thinkers, and ...then me?!?

I was distracted by the flow of polysyllabic words during the presentations but loved the challenge to dust off the cobwebs a bit and join in the conversations. I'm on the front lines as a K-5 art educator putting theory into practice amongst the constraints of curriculum, schedules, resources, management, and time.
What I had to share was my technology rich and connected classroom at Dryden.
I shared my stories of how my students have had authentic audiences because of our connectedness. 
My students have made literature inspired art projects and then connected with their authors online.
My students have made art that was shown on websites, textbooks, 30ft LED screens in NYC, on TV, and shown in children's museums around the country.
My students have made Fugleflicks (student-created, art-related videos) that have screened at local, national, and international venues.
My students have connected with app developers as they use their apps on ipads.
My students have won recognition for their artwork in state and national exhibits.
My students continue to wow me with their high levels of motivation, effort, and achievement. 
My students have taught me to TRY MY BEST as an art teacher.