I slept in a bunkhouse with 30 other art teachers. I ate off paper plates and met some of the most creative art teachers from all over Missouri. The conference was like a 3 day art camp for 365 art teachers. We shared art lessons, projects, and showed off our student’s work. The workshops I attended included Lampwork Basics (Glass Bead-making), Realistic Clay Masks, Pouring Watercolors, Recycled Trash to Treasure, Mexican Metal Framework, and Bleaching Techniques. My favorite was the Lampworking class.

I have seen other artists make glass beads and always thought it was easy looking. An art teacher from Rolla conducted the Lampworking Basics workshop. She shared how she wrote a grant to get supplies and training to teach her students about glass bead making. Believe it or not, it was harder than it looked. You had to concentrate on heating up the glass rods slowly so it didn’t explode from the instant heat plus make sure the glass flowed around the rod evenly without dripping off and catching the table on fire! Here is a picture of me in a cowboy hat trying to roll molten glass around the rod to form a bead.

After a long day of classes, art teachers put up student work in the dining hall and gave out lesson plans. It was like an adult “Show and Tell,” or what art teachers called, “Drag and Brag.” I took the artwork of Graphic Design 1 students who just finished their “Doodle for Kirkwood” project and 150 copies of the lesson plan. Within 20 minutes, all the lesson plans were gone and art teachers were taking pictures of the student work to take back to their art class and try. Way to go Graphic Design class and a special thanks to students Michael Killeen, Melanie Madden, Andrew Kennedy, Tanya Foster, Jay Frick, and Deandre Stewart. Your work was a hit!

The next day art teachers worked in groups to paint large canvas banners to fit the conference theme of “Green to the Core”, or in other words, “Going Green.” All the workshops at the conference dealt with recycling materials or using natural materials to make art. Our challenge was to promote “Going Green” in the art classroom by using famous works from art history. My group had chosen Egyptian Art and painted a banner by changing the staff and rods in the figures’ hands to art supplies. Later, we painted the tip of the paintbrush with the color green to signify how important it is to recycle in art and use natural materials. Art teachers in my group included two art teachers from Springfield, MO and two art teachers from Florissant, MO. These banners will be auctioned off at the Missouri Art Education Association’s Spring Conference and the money will go to art scholarships for art teachers.

So when Mrs. Foster wasn’t in school on Thursday and Friday of last week, you can rest assured she was learning new things to bring back to class and share with you! Thanks for cooperating with the substitute teacher and Mrs. Naus while I was away. I heard you didn’t even miss me.