Bouncing Back

wow. I'm embarrassed. My last post was in October, a mere eight months ago. If anyone out there has looked here during these past 8 months, I apologize for my disappearing act.

Now that it's summer, I'm trying to bounce back from what proved to be a challenging year, both emotionally and physically. Despite the changes to my teaching position and the devastating cuts to our HS program, I've worked tirelessly to maintain a positive outlook and to bring the same energy and enthusiasm to my job that I always have. This wasn't always easy, and if you spoke with my husband, who has witnessed my tears and frustration, you'd know I wasn't always successful. But in reflection, I'm actually quite pleased with my resilience.

This year, I have learned that nothing zaps my professional energy quite like the shifting attitudes towards teachers and other public employees. To think, I've spent 21 years doing a job I love, working hard, thinking that teachers were part of the SOLUTION... just to find out this year, that we are actually perceived as the PROBLEM. Ain't that a kicker!

To help me bounce back, I am going to post at least once per week this summer. A minimum of 8 posts in 8 weeks, instead of nothing in 8 months! So, if anyone's actually looking, coming soon, will be posts highlighting the 2010-2011 school year. Projects, insights, installations, art shows & more!

Art Sparks Genius!

The Art Educators of New Jersey's Annual Conference was a great success! An organization of volunteers create the AENJ and offer art teachers in the Garden State some of the best professional development experiences available. This year, I accepted a position on the executive board and will be responsible for communications. I'm proud to be an AENJ member and an art teacher in New Jersey! If you aren't a member and would like to become one, click here.

NEW from Kiickstart!

HANDMADE TILE MOSAIC DVD & CD

The second kiickstart video will be released in one week at the Art Educators of New Jersey Annual Conference. This kiickstart video will teach you how to transform an ordinary blob of clay into a one-of-a-kind mosaic! Learn techniques for designing, creating, glazing and grouting your own handmade tiles!

Visit kiickstart.com for more information and for purchasing.

National Arts in Education Week!

To celebrate National Arts in Education Week, we hosted a special ceramic bowl-making workshop to prepare for our third Empty Bowls charity dinner that will be held in March 2011. Over 35 people came out to make bowls during the four-hour workshop held after school on Thursday September 16.

Empty Bowls is a nationally recognized service project that raises awareness of hunger and poverty within our society. Haddon Township High School's previous two dinners have united our community for a meal of soup and bread and have raised over $9,000 for The Foodbank of South Jersey.

Thanks to all of the people who came out and donated their time and energy to this important cause. Click here to learn more about Empty Bowls service project.

Tomorrow I officially begin my third decade in public education. I've been teaching half of my life. If I didn't love it, I'd be very depressed. But I DO love it, so I'm not depressed, just a little nostalgic.

I've wanted to be an art teacher since tenth grade in high school. It's funny to think that someone could actually want to do the same thing since the tender age of 16. That doesn't happen to many people, especially not today's youth, but it happened to me.

I've had many great teachers along the way. While I credit my happiness to many (including myself), I credit my vocational choice to three. I'd like to thank my Dad, Kirby Kiick, a science teacher of 35 years, for doing a job that he loved. I never heard him bad-mouth kids or public education during any of my years living at home. He genuinely enjoyed his career and his students. I'd also like to thank my high school art teacher, Gina Tray, for allowing me to see the joys of art and the many pleasures it can bring to one's life. If it wasn't for her, or my high school art classes, I'm not sure where I'd be, or who I'd be.

My last thank you is not for one person, but for the many people (young and not as young) who I've taught and learned from, and those who I will teach and learn from in the future. We are all part of the creative collective that makes life so much more pleasurable and satisfying. I'm a better person for it and am so happy to be part of that group!

With all of the changes happening in public education and within my current job description, I hope my third decade will be as great as the first two have been. I'll do whatever I can to make sure that it is.

The End of an Era

Haddon Township High School Art Department suffered a major blow due to budget cuts. The high school school previously offered nine art electives. Between me and my colleague, Ellen Hargrove, we taught a variety of sequential based courses in various media, and also taught the sixth through eighth grade students at the middle school. This year, I'm doing it all.

For the 2010 - 2011 school year, there are only THREE art classes offered at the high school, now called: "Creative Arts". I will be teaching them as a 2-D / 3-D experience and will also be teaching all of the students at the middle school. Ellen has been reassigned to our elementary schools.

We're sad. We built a program up over the past seven years and within five months, watched it get reduced to a third of its size.

We'll see what the coming school year brings. Whatever it does bring, it's certain that it won't be better than what we already had.

Advocacy

During the twenty years I've been teaching the role of advocacy has changed. In the past I felt it was about informing the parents, community, administration and school board members about all of the important things happening in the art room. Advocating our art programs was work, but it was fun. Kinda like show-n-tell.

The role of arts advocacy in the 21st Century has become all that we used to do and then some. It has become political and in all honesty, not as much fun. With attacks on public education reaching epidemic proportions, our role as spokespeople for our programs and our profession is of crucial importance. We must be informed, professional, articulate and make our voices heard not only to the people we focused on in the past, but to our legislators and policy makers.

Click here to see a few of the ways I've advocated for the arts, education, and for kids and families. We can't make a difference if we don't try!