Professional DevelopmentProducts

Adaptive Art

This practical session will enable educators to engage all students in a meaningful creative process of self-expression. Discover a variety of instructional methods to adapt art activities, media, tools, and techniques to meet the needs of students with a wide range of challenges.

Assessment Strategies

Explore ways assessment must address if students have constructed new understandings. Examine the alignment of assessment strategies to enduring ideas and key concepts. Learn to gauge if students have appropriately used process skills associated with creating, presenting, responding, and connecting with art.

Choice-Based Art Education

Dive into the theoretical backbone and philosophies of The Open Art Room approach. This session provides an instructional framework for varied levels of Choice, and assists in crafting authentic assessments, while providing clear connections and a multitude of exemplars from seasoned Choice art teachers.

Collaboration/Tape Art

These hands-on or virtual sessions build on personal experiences while providing mentorship by the world-renowned Tape Art® Crew. This training will provide opportunities for teachers and students to practice research-backed strategies for engaging groups in collaborative making.

Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

Culturally responsive pedagogy embraces curriculum and instruction to nurture a sense of well-being while celebrating student’s cultural place in the world. This session provides an overview of philosophical underpinnings and ways art teachers can create inclusive classrooms that foster empathy and connectedness.

Davis Digital Activation Training

Discover the engaging content, features, and functionality of the Davis Digital platform. Designed for customers using Davis Digital, this session provides instruction on navigating the platform and accessing lesson plans, instructional materials, and resources.  Learn best practices for getting the most out of online tools such as Portfolios and Davis Art Images.

Davis Digital Deep Dive: Curriculum Implementation

Developed to support educators using the Davis Digital platform, these sessions emphasize how to embed the online resources into teaching practice. Achieve maximum academic growth that is measurable and realistic with a session crafted to meet the specific needs of your school or district.

Davis Digital: New Ideas and Directions

Engage with Davis Digital through a series of prompted explorations (with fun prizes!) aimed at honing your skills to quickly and efficiently find helpful tools and resources within the platform. Learn ways to utilize and expand upon lessons using images from the curriculum and the Davis Art Images collection. Explore the implementation of engagement and inquiry strategies aimed to help students connect with big ideas.

Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated instruction provides multiple options for students to take in information and make sense of ideas. Learn concepts needed for getting started with differentiated instruction, including differentiated instruction for curriculum design, and getting to know the learning styles of your students.

English Learners/Sheltered English Immersion

Art teachers are in a unique position to meet the needs of ever-increasing populations of English Learners (ELs). Expert instructors, experienced in both visual art and language acquisition, will walk through the creation of instructional aids and implementing strategies for sheltering instruction in the art room.

Evolving Ideas/Postmodern Principles

Explore approaches to artmaking that focus on the evolving ways that contemporary artists work. With an introduction to postmodern principles and a focus on contemporary art, teachers will practice ways in which they can support students in engaging with, creating, and analyzing art in contemporary contexts.

Fair Use/Appropriation/Copyright/Free Speech

Because the world is so connected today, it’s become increasingly difficult not to be influenced by what we encounter. In this session, we define the terms fair use, appropriation, copyright, and free speech, and delve into strategies for navigating issues we face working with and creating contemporary art.

Implementing/Instructing with Resource Card Sets

Engage with the Investigating Contemporary Art Card Set and/or the Explorations in Art Resource Card Set. Discover new ways of helping students make more meaningful connections to art and the art-making process. Practice using this engaging resource in a variety of teaching contexts.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness as a practice has been proven to enhance focus, resilience, and emotional regulation among many other things. This session provides methods for embedding contemplative practice into art rooms through visual art experiences aimed to cultivate positivity and empathy.

Process-Based Studio Engagement

Discover how focusing on the process of art making and emphasizing the importance of thinking, planning, and reflection in creating original artwork helps students take ownership of their learning. Gain tools to teach for the process vs. the product and ways of assessing process-based work.

Teaching through Inquiry/Inquiry-Based Learning

Engage students deeply and help them connect learning directly to their lives with curricular content organized around Essential Questions. Explore applicable strategies to employ inquiry and exploration with students. Discover ways to build opportunities for them to link what they learn to the real world and transfer applicable knowledge.

Teaching with Contemporary Art and/or Media Arts

We routinely refer to the power of art to promote critical thinking. Learn about contemporary artists whose work investigates topics important today. Gain valuable experience in ways of engaging with artwork through inquiry methods and immediately put learning to use with students.

Learn even more about working with Contemporary Art or Media Arts:

• Enjoy complimentary webinars about teaching with contemporary art or an artist talk with contemporary artist Momo Pixel.
• Get over 14 hours of PD with a self-paced course—Media Arts Intensive.
• Get ideas for using Media Arts and Contemporary Art.

Teaching with the Sketchbook and/or Visual Journal

This session explores the various ways teachers can use a sketchbook/journal to encourage students to become decision-makers, gatherers, explorers, and cultivators all while documenting their thinking and learning. Learner- and teacher-directed strategies will be covered.

Therapeutic Approaches

Discover key elements, approaches, and practical guidelines for therapeutic art education with students who have experienced adverse childhood experiences and trauma. Gain resources and educational art-making strategies to help students communicate their ideas, express / contain emotions, and self-regulate.

Learn even more about Therapeutic Approaches in Art Education:

• Enjoy a complimentary PD session—Foundations and Intersections of Art Therapy and Art Education.
• Get 4 hours of PD with a self-paced course—Therapeutic Approaches in Art Education.
• Learn more about the book—Therapeutic Approaches in Art Education.

Using Thematic Units to Promote Understanding

Explore how Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings can be used with students to create and engage with personally meaningful works of art. Learn new ways to underscore the relevance of art in their lives and reveal the important role it plays in cultures around the world using themes.