For context, I became an art teacher sort of by accident. My dad was a Spanish teacher in the district I currently teach in, which is a high needs and urban. I got my art degree on a totally free ride (the only way I ever would've gotten a BFA!) and afterwards really had no idea what I'd do for steady income and insurance. I decided to bite the bullet and get my M. Ed even though my father always cautioned me against pursuing teaching. I never had any strong desire to be a teacher, but I remember my middle school art teacher so fondly that I thought I might be able to Be That for someone.

Anyways, it's the end of the 1st quarter, and I can't say I enjoy it at all. I teach PreK - 8, 2+ classes of each level, including a ceramics elective (I didn't select the elective. I'm qualified to teach it, but honestly I hate doing ceramics personally...more of a 2d artist...and our facilities have a kiln but are ultimately under equipped for full time ceramics).

I try to stay ahead, but I always feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants. I feel like my evaluation is going to be horrible and I'm terrified for PT conferences. I have some great kids, but sometimes they feel few and far between. PK-3 are mostly OK, but I can barely get a word in and kids are constantly wreaking havoc. 5th-8th is absolutely miserable. I know I'm not hallucinating; on the occasion that other adults have witnessed these classes in my room, they've been like "woah are they always that bad?" And I'm like...that was actually a good day. Yesterday, one of the "behavior ladies" (idk her title LOL) came with one of her students and she told me that the kids hated their last art teacher, and that the art teacher quit because she felt she had no admin support. She said that maybe the kids are partially projecting some of that negative residue onto me. Other teachers have implied the same. But, I honestly don't blame the kids if they don't like me. I don't sound very fun when I hear myself.

With 7th and 8th, I can't talk to the kids at all. I practically can't teach because they won't stop talking long enough for me to just explain the basics through a demo, after which I'd happily let them talk to each other while they work. That's the magic of an art studio...the conversations. Unfortunately, their conversations always happen while I'm trying to teach and they almost always involve profanities. Don't even get me started on the physical fights and the disrespect. When a 4th grader called me a "fat ho" i honestly thought it was funny and just repeated back, "i am a fat ho. Get back to work." Which definitely amused some of the students. I don't really get my feelings hurt by what they say tbh. The only thing that drives me to insanity is how FRUSTRATED i feel when i can't teach the content due to disruption.

After Tuesday's unteachable 7/8th class + a failed lockdown drill, I started crying quietly. One of my best students was lagging behind and I didn't notice. He was picking up pencils that the other kids were throwing and he patted me on the back and said he hoped my day would get better. I really didn't even hear him behind me. It meant a lot to me and I know he's one of those kids who's destined to turn out awesome, but it felt terribly embarrassing and unprofessional to let any student see me like that.

I feel that my relationship with so many of these students is just adversarial. Sometimes I get into power struggles and yell, mostly I try not to. I find myself lecturing classes about their behavior so often and I can hear how aggravating I sound. But I can't have kids constantly out of their seats slapping each other with rulers and breaking supplies for fun. There have been some occasions with upper elementary/middle where we've had genuine conversations and shared laughs, but they're few and far between. Many of the first graders proclaim, "you're the best art teacher ever!" And tell me how much they missed me when they come into class because first graders are just so loving still. But then sometimes the other kids in that class just go buck wild and the class ends with a bad report to the teacher. I always try to point out & reward the kids who do a great job.

I really hoped I'd be able to be a decent, chill teacher, but I probably seem like a total crashout. Probably because, between my crazy workload and obligations to my partner and family, I barely have any time to just Do Me. Idk if I'll be able to stay in this profession. I think it would be unfair to students. But idek what I'd be qualified to do outside of this that pays nearly as much.

I’m in my 11th year of teaching. Second year teaching elementary art. It seems like an impossible task for me, coming from secondary art. I am a stricter art teacher than anyone is used to, apparently.

I expect the kids to come in and work in their sketchbooks, silently, for the first 5 minutes, just like I expect them to be silent the last 5 minutes to hear clean-up and transition instructions. In class, they can absolutely talk, at a non-shouting voice level, while they work (with people at their table, not people across the room). Obviously, if I’m instructing, I expect them to listen. This apparently drives people insane. I’m not sure why it’s so shocking when it seems to be the expectation of most teachers here and part of the school-wide expectations.

Last year, I had teachers expecting me to justify myself, the pacing of my lessons, and my classroom management style. This year, I have had a couple of parents reaching out. I can now understand why they have had multiple art teachers over the past 5 years.

Do I just cave, say “eff it,” let the kids have open studio and be done with it? Just survive for the last 3 terms then get out of dodge? Or do I keep pushing through? I feel like the majority of the kids understand what I’m doing and can see why when they see their finished artwork, but I may be wrong. I still have the kids I’ve had for a year and 9 weeks who act like they’ve never been in my classroom before.

I’m exhausted. I’m worn down. My son says I care too much about art and not everyone does, but I am finding I cannot suppress my love of art and how important it is to me. I don’t know, I feel lost. And while I get loads of hugs and “I love art/you,” I feel like I just may be a misfit here. Thoughts? Advice?

Thanks in advance.

I have a bachelor of fine arts degree (I studied animation, not sure how important the major is) and I'm unlikely to get a job in that field anytime soon as it's already been a couple years, but I need to be growing career-wise at this point. I know that no job will pay well but I need something fulfilling long-term and I have some interest in education.

Is there a pathway to becoming an art teacher in NYS without having to get a whole other degree? Especially for middle-high school ages? I've been reading through the various NYSED site pages and I'm a little confused so I figured I'd see if anyone on here did anything similar. I want to get an idea of how much time and money and additional work it will cost, and what the timeline might look like.

Hi everyone! I'm an art teacher from Brazil, and over the years, I've developed an approach to managing student behavior in the classroom that has given me some really interesting results. I've seen improvements in student behavior, as well as increased focus and engagement in class.

I eventually turned this approach into a web app to make it easier to use in the classroom. Now, I'm curious to find out whether it could be helpful for teachers in other countries and teaching contexts, too.

I'm not trying to sell anything. I'd simply love to connect with a few elementary school teachers who might be interested in trying it out and sharing their honest feedback. I'd really like to understand what works, what doesn't, and whether this approach makes sense outside my own classroom.

If you're dealing with some of the same challenges I've faced myself, such as disruptive behavior, lack of focus, aggression, or a chaotic classroom, I know how stressful that can be. If you're looking for new ways to make classroom management a little easier and would be open to testing my app and sharing your thoughts with me, I'd really appreciate your help!

Thanks!

Hi, this is my 1st year as an Art teacher and honestly I'm not sure if I'm doing a good job or not.

Is it normal that some kids have smudged artworks? Like when they color with pencil colors for example.

Specially that some parents doesn't care about the quality of art supplies since lots of people consider art as not important class. So their work is bad.

It's rare for kids to draw good or make a clean artwork.

How do I know if I'm doing a good job?

I’m in year 10 of Teaching painting, drawing, and ceramics at the high school level. At times I’ve given everyone jobs and put a lot of effort into staying consistent, and overseeing the cleaning. This works, however, the micromanaging can be exhausting… and the kicker for me is, if I take a a step back from micromanaging, it’s almost like I may as well have said, “hey everybody, just throw all your crap wherever you’d like and leave the sinks and countertops an absolute mess! It makes no difference to me!” It’s difficult for me to accept that in order to keep the room clean on a regularly basis, it takes concentrated effort where I have to literally stand by the sinks and overwatch. Want to make sure they’re doing their job properly. I find it upsetting, and disheartening, and quite frankly sometimes I just don’t have the energy to put toward that kind of babysitting, especially for high school students. Any one else agree? Disagree? Thoughts?

How many classes do you teach, how many students in total, what are your extra add on responsibilities?

I am an Elementary school art teacher. I left for a while and started again a few years ago.

In my district there are 2 art teachers for 3 schools. I have 23 classes, around 460 students total that are solely mine. I have arrival and dismissal duties, I've been given students I am supposed to mentor during the day (not in class), if I have extra room in my day I'm assigned classes to go into to help with Reading and Math. I also have 6 art shows I'm required to do for the 2 schools. On top of that I'm an Interal sub one day of the week to make my position full time. I feel like I am spread so thin. I don't want to spend my time outside of school working as they use so much of my time for things not related to Art.

Years ago my own elementary art teacher was just at our school, she had 12 classes and they left her alone. Do all schools squeeze like this? There is no passing time between classes so they are back to back all day and duties shoved between. I have shorter lunch then classroom teachers at one school and shorter planning time then classroom teachers at the other school. Is it like this everywhere now for elementary art?

I am in a blue state and we have a union, Unfortunately I don't think they care much for speacils teachers as it was the unions idea to give us these extra tasks to help out classroom teachers.

Art teacher here! Trying to recreate a project I did high school for my 8th graders where we took a zoomed in picture of an object (to the point of almost abstraction) and drew the new cropped composition in four quadrants on our paper. In each quadrant we painted the drawing in a different color system (monochromatic, complementary etc.) I cannot find this project anywhere online to give my students a reference and I cannot find my old high school project (and would rather not rush to make them a new reference lol). Has anyone taught this before or can suggest better word choices to find a better google result? I've tried color system paintings, macro paintings, etc. Thank you!

I was constantly cutting tagboard and thick paper to make shape tracers for my students. Figured I could go with a more permanent solution, so I designed and printed these!

So this is my second year teaching high school art, and I'm really struggling with getting students to take my class "seriously." Honestly, I'm having trouble figuring out whether I'm being too lenient or too strict for an elective teacher. Most of the other teachers at my school are either new or have been there so long that they're jaded, and there's no other art teacher, so it's hard to get good advice.

When I say take it seriously, I don't mean being a super serious, devoted artist. My students understand that they have to do the work in my class, and that's not an issue. It's more about behavior. My school says we have to assign detention to students who are late, so I do. They say to call home for students who frequently sleep in class, don't work, or are constantly tardy, so I do. My state also banned cell phones/electronics this year, and it's been really difficult because students think they can take them out whenever they want because it's just art.

To be fair, last year, I let students listen to music on their phones during independent work time, but it's literally illegal now. So I have to watch these kids like a hawk to make sure they don't have airpods in (newsflash: they always have airpods in). I'm exhausted from constantly telling them to take their airpods out or put their phones away. Some students will innocently try to show me art they made at home on their phones (which I want to see but its not allowed!) , and I'm like, "hello????" because they're well aware of the law, they just think they don't have to follow it in art.

So here's my thing: yes, I could just become stricter, push through, and stop letting things slide. But something I really value as an art teacher is creating a "chill" but productive environment, and I think I did a good job balancing that last year. By chill, I don't mean a zoo. I mean a laid-back class where students genuinely want to do their work. I want them to view art as an outlet, since I know most of them aren't going into art as a career. I don't want to come in with an iron fist because I worry it'll turn them off from my class completely.

I just wanted to hear how some other seasoned art teachers handle the balance of getting students to take their class seriously while still making it feel relaxing and enjoyable.

Hello, I teach a semester-long Art 1 and Art 2 class, and I have been puzzled for the entire three years I’ve been teaching high school about what to do with Art 2. I want them to learn practical skills so if they want to go on to AP Studio Art, they have those skills. However, I also get a bunch of kids who just end up taking the elective because they got dumped into the class, for good and for worst. So, it’s hard to make it advanced, even though it’s the second most advanced class prior to AP Art.

Most years, I’ve just been putting together things that I enjoy and thing they want to learn, but I feel like I need to structure it more so they’re building off of each other. I go onto Teachers Pay Teachers and look at the general format of what they’re doing, but some of their projects seem really for more advanced student or seems like theirs are just Art 1 restructured, Most of my students' first art class is my Art 1 class, where I cover all of the elements of art. Part of me wants to do the principles of art, but I feel like that also feels a little odd. Idk - any suggestions? I'm open to anything!

I'm looking for recommendations here. I'm trying to teach portrait drawing to my high school students. I was taught the Loomis method in college, however I feel like this may be too complicated for my kids, its a beginning draw class. Any suggestions for videos, artists, or other processes I could look at/watch?

I know that The Loomis Method is pretty accurate but it's not meant for beginners so I would like to find something a little less complex. I appreciate any help or suggestions.

Hi! As the title says - How did you know you wanted to go into the field?

I'm a business administration grad and I'm considering a career change to Arts Education.

How did you know you wanted to teach art?

What is your typical day like?

What is something you'd recommend or suggest to someone who's looking into the field?

Any advice or tips would be amazing! Thank you!!!

Has anyone done an MAT in Art Education online through Valdosta State University? I live in Georgia so this would be the easiest option for me personally. I am trying to see how the program is and what the prerequisites are.

I'm 25, have a bachelors in environmental policy and a few years of work experience post grad, though I've begun to consider switching to a career teaching elementary art. I'm smart, emotionally intuitive, I've always excelled in art classes, and really enjoy being around children. I don't want to each anything incredibly technical (i.e. highschool/middle school art), but am more interested in acting as a shepherd for young kids to be able to express themselves creatively.

My question is - is this a feasible approach to art teaching? And if so, what are my next steps?

My local university has a great masters in art education program. It's a lot of work - creating a portfolio, taking the gre, etc. I can definitely do this but it would be a commitment and hence I want to be confident it will pay off. Do you think this a smart career move for me? Do you have ANY advice at all? I will take it!! Feeling a little lost. Let me know :)

I'm a high school teacher (9-12) in a pretty rural area, and I run a once a week after-school art club. I'm a bit burnt out this year for various reasons and am trying to think of new, engaging activities for my students that aren't too prep heavy.

Attendance is spotty at my school so the students don't attend every week, which makes ongoing projects a bit tricky. I've tried doing clay, watercolour, weaving- but the kids start a project and then don't come back for several weeks, preventing them from finishing anything.

We meet for about 1.5 hours at a time. I'd love any suggestions for projects that you found successful and engaging for students of various levels, that they could ideally finish in that time frame?

My play doh supply order hasn't come in yet, but want to let prek explore clay. I have a ton of model magic. Can it be used over and over again?

My recycled art class did these cute little monsters this week, my center just introduced this class and asked me to teach it!! So if you have any fun recycled art-esque ideas id love to hear them

I’m a freshman in college for our education and I’m looking at how much I have to do and I’m freaking out. I have to complete a degree in studio art and an education degree but it’ll only count as one degree. I have to go to school for at least five years which I think is so unfair considering the fact I’ll be paid less than a regular teacher for so much more of the work. I was promised I could get it done in four years just to be told this after my first semester is coming to an end.

Hello everyone!

I'm hoping to get some advice here! I am 20/F and unfortunately due to a chronic illness have to leave my job as a firefighter. I have been looking into other careers and I really think art teaching could be it for me. Im an alright artist (mostly watercolor and sketching) but really looking to improve my skill and build a portfolio before I go back to school. I start subbing in 2 weeks to see what age group I enjoy and if its really for me. Any advice at all would be great. Especially about building the foundational skills to be consistent and successful in school!

Thanks!!

I’m currently in practicum and doing once a week all day in a high school art room. What level of interaction would you want to see between the student teacher and the students? Would love to know what other teachers would expect to be the right amount of involvement.