Rut

I've been teaching at the same school for four years now and found myself desperately needing to change it up.

Some things I did to start getting out of my rut:

*purchased materials I've wanted to use, but never did.
*got some new lesson books
*redecorated the art room (the kids are real excited about that one)
*started blogging again

Cross Curricular Approach

So ofcourse, if we are doing our jobs our students are learning social studies, math, science, and literacy along with art. If you really want to incorporate what the students are learning in the classroom with art check your state standards for math, science, language arts, reading, and social studies. Also you can ask classroom teachers what units they work on throughout the year so you can incoroporate that into your art curriculum.

A Sense of Humor

Especially in sticky situations where emotions are running high, a sense of humor can help. Even a sense of acceptance. I have had to diffuse situations by making a joke or just "understanding." It can stop a fight from happening or someone's feelings from being hurt.

Questioning

I'm currently taking a course in differentiated instruction at UNLV. Right now we are focusing on questioning skills as teachers. My next lesson plan project must include questions that relate to Bloom's Taxonomy, are divergent, and literal. Check out this link to provoke better questioning http://questioning.org/Q7/toolkit.html I will be sure to post the project on the blog as soon as it is finished.