First Art PLC Meeting at my School!!

Yesterday was a SUPER busy day.  I had third grade ROW- (resource on Wed.) which meant I had ALL the third grade classes for 30 minutes each in art.  They finished their overlapping supplies projects, published them and worked on their PINWHEELS for peace!

After school, I was running around preparing everything for our first elementary art PLC- Professional Learning Community meeting.  Which basically meant that I threw everything in my storage room - LOL!!

Do you have a PLC?  Are you wondering what that even is?  Wikipedia's definition is: A professional learning community (PLC) is an extended learning opportunity to foster collaborative learning among colleagues within a particular work environment or field. It is often used in schools as a way to organize teachers into working groups.

Our PLC began over 6 six years ago when I switched from teaching third grade to art at my former school.  We had NO curriculum for art and I felt so overwhelmed.  Our school district's art specialist helped me reach out to other art teachers in our county and we began meeting on the first Wed. of each month at different schools around the county.  It is the single most crucial component to any success I have had as an art educator.  The awesome teachers in my PLC are like my family and we go out of our way to support, share and help each other be more effective and the best we can be.

Another great part of our meetings- SNACKS!! LOL Everyone shares a snack or treat- which we all know at the end of a long day is like a gift from above!

We had several items on our agenda-
1. OneNote notebook for all teachers to share lessons and resources
2. Our End of course exam
3. The next upcoming meeting and location
4. The FAEA conference in October
5.  Lesson Plan sharing

Our school district has adopted the Microsoft Office/One Drive platform for collaboration and I asked our tech specialist to help me start a OneNOTe notebook for art teachers to upload lessons for sharing.
We covered that and I added my Pinwheels for Peace lesson to share.  One Note is such a powerful tool for collaboration and I even want to try it with my students.

Our End of course is exam this year will be administered during the last 10 days of school and will only be 10 questions based on the Elements and Principles of art.

LESSON PLAN sharing-

I shared our Pinwheel for Peace lesson-  and I talked about how AWESOME Artsonia is for Art Criticism.

 Another teacher shared a color wheel lesson that she does with her students:

And a teacher shared a Deep Space Sparkle lesson that she does with fourth grade based on the Great Wave - that looks AWESOME!!

 

All in all- it was a GREAT MEETING!!!  Another teacher also reminded me about the amazing power of using a laser pointer with students!! LOL YYUP they aren't just for your cat-little kids go crazy for them and they are only like $4 at Publix.  You better believe I am running out to  get a new one today!   And another teacher uses a Crayola Light up Easel to write important notes for her students.  They love the luminescence and pay attention to the notes!!