The Collaboration Issue, January/February 2025

This issue highlights several ways in which art teachers have integrated collaboration into their teaching practice, such as providing students with opportunities to problem-solve and work together throughout the year, learning about the Sustainable Development Goals and creating a tile installation symbolizing them, inviting a local florist to teach an art lesson, collaborating with an artist to create an outdoor installation, and more.

The Nature Issue, November 2024

Art teachers use nature to inspire students become more in tune with themselves and their world around them. Young students take a mindful approach as they collage an place in which they feel calm, elementary students create drawings that evoke empathy for those experiencing environmental disasters, middle-school students collaborate to create a felted planter for a community garden, high-school students build birdhouses for residents at a retirement village, and more.

The Beginnings Issue, September 2024

Art teachers start the school year with lessons that engage students while teaching them foundational skills and techniques. High-school students create paintless paintings with tissue paper; middle-school students complete the second half of their self-portraits in the style of a chosen artist; elementary students use the elements and principles to draw realistic and abstract landscapes; young students learn about personal preferences while designing paper shoes; and more.

The Creativity Issue, Summer 2024

Art teachers encourage students to investigate their own ideas and make connections to the world around them. High-school students discover that the zine is a powerful medium for self-expression; middle-school students create symbolic artworks to honor teachers and staff members who inspired them; elementary students express solutions to community issues through printmaking; young students design a hat based on their friend’s preferences; and more.

The Choice Issue, April 2024

Art teachers present a variety of lessons that emphasize student choice and the Teaching for Artistic Behavior (TAB) approach. Students work in groups to create a project using unfinished artwork; participate in an afterschool TAB program based on the Studio Habits of Mind; use the concept of the lighthouse to create personal pieces that honor who or what inspires them; embrace brainstorming and media exploration through sketchbook art journals; and more.

The Design Issue, January/February 2024

Art teachers support their students in recognizing and understanding the part that design plays in their everyday lives. Students express emotions through physical drawings of robots with digital symbolism, create visually impactful infographics inspired by real or imagined travels, develop real-world skills by collaborating with clients on design-related projects, and more.