It’s been a while…

It’s a new year and I am feeling like myself again. It’s been years since I have written on this blog. I’ve been gone healing. My husband of almost 30 years unexpectedly passed away.

We were happily married and he was my best friend and biggest supporter. It’s been four years since he passed away and a lot has happened. I sold our home and moved closer to our only son. I have started teaching again after a year off. I’m teaching at a charter arts-based 7-12 school and I am the 8-12 art instructor. I am navigating my current students through a Choice-Based Art program. I am learning a lot about how to rebuild my life and how to rebuild and implement my Choice Art practice in a program that was teacher-directed. I had a very strong and successful Choice Art program at my prior school. I had a small art studio, limited storage, but great resources. I currently have an amazing studio space, great storage, but limited resources. I am learning a lot about myself and how to deliver the quality program I am used to delivering to my art students.

Personally, I have undergone a great transformation. I value things differently. I was broken into a billion pieces after my husband passed away. Everything I knew was gone, all the plans we made disappeared. I am an artist but I couldn’t create anymore. My artwork was always heart-centered and spiritual. When he passed away my heart was broken and I was lost. For a time, I could not read, write, or taste food, I was numb. I walked around in a haze and it took a year before I started to see the light. I relocated and changed my whole lifestyle. I walked 10,000 steps a day because it was the only thing I could control. Soon my two precious doxies, 22 and 16, passed away. Everything that was in my prior life was no longer with me. I fought through depression and feeling defeated. It was dark days but I am a fighter, I knew my late husband would want me to shine again and keep living.

I had a wonderful life and everything I wanted. This was my new chapter to write, rebuild, and place the people, things, and routines in my life that helped me rediscover myself. I briefly, had a fun and sweet relationship that proved to me that I could love again. I discovered new emotions and who I was becoming. I learned who I need in my life. My best supports have been my son and his wife and the strong women who are in my life. I continue to focus on bringing more strong women into my life. I developed a healthy exercise routine and a good diet. I adopted a sweet little doxie through one of my artist alumni. Tallulah has been a bright light in my life. She helps me navigate meeting new people with her happy adorable spirit. I get to love her and she loves and protects me.

This journey as a widow isn’t for the faint-hearted. I do not wish it on anyone. Discovering oneself after being a partner to someone since 18 has been eye-opening. I am not the same woman I was, I am forever changed.

I have slowly transitioned into a more secure individual with goals for myself. I have gained a tribe of strong friends. I am still building my community in the town I live in, and I am beginning to make art again. I am hopeful I will buy a home this year settle my art studio and begin my artistic journey again.

My professional life has changed. I maintain balance more than I ever have. I do give to my students but maintain clear boundaries and focus on myself. It is good to remember to take care of yourself. You cannot be good for anyone if you are not solid yourself. I love working with my young artists. They fill my mind with new ideas and they challenge me daily. I love seeing them discover, try, fail, and rebound in beautiful ways. This is what life will demand of them when they gain more life experience in the world. I look at my art students differently than I had before. I want to protect them from the harsh realities of life but at the same time, I want them to become self-confident and happy. I want my artists to know they are enough and the world can be tough but they are tougher.

I know this is an art education blog and I have been absent in my writings, but I do hope someone sees some value in this entry. I will try to write more about the implementation of Choice Art in my new school soon.

See the good in the world and shine the light for others,

Joy

Fall Season Has Arrived

The first quarter has already flown by and I am measuring how all of my courses are functioning and developing.  This semester, I am teaching full choice tri-level drawing, painting, mixed media, convergent technology, and a AP Studio Art course.

I am a very reflective educator and I routinely look at my student’s art work and written reflections.  I feel I have delivered on the “how” and “what” for my students to be successful at managing the student lead learning.  The routine is established and the push to grow is evident in the research and progress documentation my students create.

 I am constantly sharing new artists with my students to help them open their minds and to challenge them to think deeper about their choices.  There are days I want to capture all of my students for a much longer time.  Time seems to evaporate too quickly when we are in the studio.

Seriously, I want to bleed one hour into another to keep the flow going.  The disruptions of fire drills, field trips, and testing has impacted these past two weeks and I feel the momentum slipping away.   Thankfully, I have established the Sway documentation and research links so we can quickly get reacquainted with our focus and dive back into our thoughts.

I am so proud of the growth and confidence my students have already gained and demonstrated in class.  In our Convergent Technology class we hosted our first viewing of our collaborative stop animation for a critique.  Since we had a captivated audience, we also pitched a few of our independent film ideas to get some advice.  We appreciate the critics comments and it will only make us better.

One very important aspect of a Choice Art is to make sure students are individually growing and developing.  This can be one of the most important pieces of a successful program for student artists.  First, students need to be able to develop a sense of what they want to target to improve and also have a concept of a direction/voice they want to establish and communicate.

I received a comment from a parent who is new to our school, she said that I manage my class so differently and I focus on the intent of the work so much more than any art teacher before.  Her child appreciates the thoughtful approach I instill in the purpose of creating art.   That is a win in my book.

I’m preparing for our State Conference and getting our Choice Art/TAB teachers all together.  I hope we will all be able to connect and start sharing strategies to help us be more successful in offering a quality choice art programs. I’m also presenting Design Thinking at the conference with a focus to solve a problem many of us deal with every school year.

 I’m so looking forward to Nationals in Seattle.  It will be a beautiful area and our Choice Art Interest Group is HUGE!  I cannot wait to attend as many of the sessions that I can get to; so I can glean new methods to adapt for my studio.

Heading into second quarter and striving to push the limits.

Collaborative chalk mural brings us together.

“We have to get messy to make it beautiful.” – Art Educator Joy Schultz

We have been participating in a local city chalk art celebration for several years.  It supports a local organization which support students with funding and scholarships to continue to go to college or to supply arts educators much needed supplies.  The Thea Foundation was created by two parents who lost a talented artist daughter named Thea.  Her legacy lives on every day in the hearts and minds of young artists and dedicated arts educators.

I love participating in this event because it’s our first public art collab.  It starts with the first art club meeting when we decide a theme and brainstorm visual imagery to support the theme.  I let my student art club directors take the lead and I support them by moving the idea along.  I am lucky to have a well-trained and dedicated student leader, Junior Celia, for year two.  She was trained by her older sister who ran the art club before her for two years.  I strive to have the current leader mentor another future leader as the second year begins.  This helps maintain consistency and a lot less training on the spot from year to year.  The student leaders, Celia and Sophomore Bella, feel much more in control of the group and step-up in wonderful unique ways, with their own ambitions, to help the art club be engaged in the school and greater community.

Our theme this year was “Unity” and we had all of our members draw up many variations on the theme but we had lots of images that overlapped.  I needed someone to pull all the concepts together to help tell our story and support the theme.  Junior Madison was excited to contribute to the project but would not be able to attend the actual chalk mural event so she volunteered to pour over all the students ideas to create a cohesive design.

We combined our ideas with the lower school and middle school students to create one large design.  It was a hot sunny day and we had some students arrive early but needed to leave midway to attend other responsibilities so our students needed to work together to finish the final design.

We had students stop and evaluate the mural while it was evolving and they checked in on one another to see if they needed help.  The communication was between the art students of all ages was supportive and helpful.  The other two art educators and I made sure students took water breaks and sat in the shade for a breather.  I love that we had photographers pop by and ask to take photos of our students at work.  You could see the pride each student had in the mural.  We overheard comments about all the different world flags we added and the wonderful hot air balloons created by our youngest artists.  I love all of it but I was mostly struck by the students at the end that suggested that they hold hands around the globe for a group photo.  Right then and there, I realized they truly understood the purpose of the mural and the meaning of our theme.  “Unity/United”.  I could have not been more proud.

“Unity” Chalk Mural created by Episcopal Collegiate School art club students 1-12 grades – Art Educator Joy Schultz

 

The Opening Matters

We all want to start on the right foot.  We want our students to feel confident in enrolling in the art course, the students want to know they can be successful and gain new skills.  In a Choice/TAB studio class it is important that students grasp what is student agency.  What is required of them to be successful in the studio?  I started this past week with a collaboration project and also an icebreaker piece.  I build in assessment tools for me to gauge what the confidence level, skill set, and interest is in the course.  I believe in launching into using all the terminology and techniques needed to establish the expectations for the work. For some of my students, I might as well be speaking a different language, but I assure my students they will pick up the information quickly.

Here are my goals for the first week of class:

#1 Create a safe environment and work on a collaboration to help set the tone and share procedures.

#2 Set the expectations about original works and how to achieve independence and skill building evidence.

#3 How to document and research effectively for success.

#4 What is success in a Choice Based Studio? How are you assessed?

#5 Know the WHY in creating.

I am in the middle of setting the standard for creating original works and how to document progress, plus demonstrate skill building.  We are still using Sway.com to document and I am requiring more written reflections within the portfolio documentation.  Artist Proposals with Artistic Targets will help the artists set goals for the concepts they choose to create and Themes will also guide the concept shape.  I created student based assessments to help each artist decide to what degree they would like to develop their levels of content on the Sway link.  I am striving to support my student artists to be as independent in their process as possible so I can spend my time scaffolding their learning to level up their skills.

I have curated content on my student learning management platform to support the development of each project. Because my courses have multi-level students, in the studio at the same time, I also utilize studio mentors.  I find this to be very empowering for everyone.  It is exciting to see students engage in helping others achieve an individual voice in their art work.  We are off to a solid foundation and I cannot wait to share what we are creating.

This week we are dedicating student works for our school permanent collection with a wonderful reception.  I’m excited we are beginning to collect works from our talented artists for the history of our school.  This year we are going to make a call out to alumni artists to participate in an art show in the winter.  The school will then select a few for purchase to add to our school art collection.  Hoping to capture a few current works from our talented alumni.

Good luck on your start of the school year.  Enjoy the eclipse!

Studio Time is the Best Time

Landed in Little Rock around 11:00 PM and I was wiped out.  The National Art Convention was great but a marathon with early morning sessions and loads of miles to almost run to attend all the selected sessions was a challenge.  You add in the time zone difference and it totals up to bring me coffee and tape to keep me awake!!

I wake up on time to get to the morning commute on to heavy traffic and of course someone caused an accident to make the backup worse.  This was not the homecoming I was looking forward to.

I pull into school, park in my usual spot, and pull out of the back of my car my computer, purse, and school bag.  I’m still tired and I had not had a cup of coffee yet.  Then all of the sudden to my right as I pass the carpool drop off, a huge squeal from a car was heard.  It was one of my students and she almost blew out her Dad’s eardrum from her enthusiasm to seeing me back at school.  Her Dad rolled down the window and said, “I guess you’ve been missed!” and he smiled.  I was only gone one day and of course Spring Break the week before.  My art student bounced out of the car and helped to carry my bags to the studio, the whole time telling me all about what a week she had and how she could not wait until I got back.  I go to the second floor to my studio and I see six of my artists waiting for me.  They ran to greet me and give me hugs.  In the center of my desk is a chocolate candy on a stick in a shape of a paintbrush from New Orleans, a place one of my other artists’ visited over Spring Break.  My studio was a buzz of excitement of everyone trying to get my attention and to share with me all that I missed in their lives since I saw them a week ago.  I was so incredibly happy to be back in my studio and looking and listening to the chatter of my artists.  I belong here, I belong with these students, they need me, and I need them.  I am so fortunate to have found a place where all that I put into my students; I get out of them as well. 

My schedule was a full one and in every class and in the hallways students remarked they missed me and asked how was my trip.  Our deadline for turning in our garments was the next day but a photo shoot was set for the end of the day, lots of last minute finishing was going on in the studio all day.  My art studio looked more like a closet or a recycle bin but the studio was humming along like nothing was in the way.  My students adapt to all the crazy activities I host and the commotion actually makes my studio the place to be so I am okay with that.  I have students popping in all day long to check in with me on all the latest stuff going on in sports, news, school, or just a new haircut.  There is a lot of trust, kindness, affection, and admiration in my studio.  It is a feel good place and expectations are high.  Is everyone achieving at the same level all the time?  Of course not, it’s a high school and I teach teenagers.  But I must say the relationships are healthy between my artists and me.  It’s about teaching art but it’s also about building up young adults.  There has to be expectations, benchmarks, celebrations, accountability, and lots of humor.

This weekend was the first weekend in a long time I was able to stay at home, in my house.  I did very little…well in perspective of my life…if you understand my life.   I did catch up on sleep and that was the most important part of my weekend.  I am able to reflect on my past two weeks and plan out the next three without feeling sleepy.  I accomplished a lot this week, one student Award for a Fashion Scholarship, a nice letter from Bill Clinton for our work to support Haiti, a gift from Indonesia with supplies for a batik project, all of our garments have been sent off for the Recycle Runway Show, and I completed an interview for Little Rock Family magazine on all the Service Learning work I do with my students.  I have Congressional works to submit this week and our big State Art Convention and Contest coming up next.  Finally our big Curbside Couture Fashion Runway Show…it’s going to be amazing.

My life is a wild ride but I the rewards far exceed any of the dips in the road.