me arts ed

Friday night at Point Lookout

AP Studio Art Workshop participants

I  had the pleasure of attending the Advance Placement (AP) Studio Art Workshop last Friday evening. The 11 art educators who attended were from different areas of the state and were there for Friday night and until just after lunch on Saturday. Along with art teachers were teachers of the other content areas as well.

Participants had a variety of experiences in their work with AP Studio artwork and it was a great opportunity to share and learn from each other. I was impressed with their willingness to share and their dedication to the program.

The conversation included what successes and challenges teachers had last year in their individual schools. Here are some of the successes that teachers mentioned:

• Critiquing impacts student work positively
• Going over the rubrics with the students – apply rubric knowledge to their work and to others work moves the thinking to a higher level
• Commitment of students really made an impact on their learning and accomplishments
• Each student had a wall in the “art fest”and the work transformed the exhibit as well as raising the bar for all art students
• Students realizing cost savings when taking a class at college

On Saturday resources were shared, participants viewed and discussed portfolio work, practiced scoring art work using the scoring guide and discussed what the elements are of high quality work.

Thank you to Kal Elmore, Bangor High School and Sheila Bohlin, Mt. Ararat High School for their expertise and leadership in facilitating the AP work and the meaningful discussions at Point Lookout. And thank you to Nancy Lamontagne and Wanda Monthey from the Maine Department of Education for their work on the AP Studio Art program.

In a follow-up email from Kal she made the following statement:

“for me teaching AP Art has made me a better teacher. I am more conscious of what I say and do in my classes and am more likely to set higher expectations for students. In all of my classes I can find evidence that teaching AP has raised the bar for all in a totally good way and has challenged me to be a better teacher for students of all abilities.”