Ms Artastic's Art Teacher Curriculum: About the Art Resource Membership

Well my lovely friends, I just wanted to take the time today to share with you a little bit about a resource that can honestly… be a game changer for art teachers. Now, it is not everyday that art teachers get things that are shiny, new, and spectacular… but this IS!

Now, before we get started, I just want to tell you that… Well, I get it. Art Teaching isn’t all rainbows and glitter. It isn’t always a magical moment where you’re creating art with kids or are looking at and hanging student artwork. There is the OTHER side of being an art teacher, and that involves both planning and grading. Now, while I can’t grade for you as you have to do the assessment as your student’s teacher, I CAN alleviate some of the other stress that is a HUGE time suck in your life. And when I mean time suck, I mean endless hours both searching for ideas, finding inspiration, creating tidy lesson plans, matching it to curricular content, and then making all the student handouts and worksheets to match. Just building a unit from the ground up is all kinds of hours, which, of course, we can’t do during class time. This is all done… on YOUR time.

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With the Artastic Collective, Art Resource Library membership for art teachers, my mission is to provide you with prepared art lessons, resources, and activities that will allow you to free up your time and live your life, whether that means traveling, pursuing your hobbies, or spending time with your family. It will provide you with Fully planned Art Lessons and Resources (that cover standards and include assessments and rubrics) will be given to you. You should be able to be an instructor or teacher and be able to have the time to LIVE life. With this membership, you will receive teaching ideas, inspiration, and guidance to help you navigate and problem-solve in your classroom or studio.

FREE Art Teacher Masterclass

Hey guys, before we get into this article, I just want to tell you about the Masterclass I am hosting. In the first week of January 2021, join me for my Art Teacher Masterclass! I will be hosting a live webinar where I’ll give you new ideas and tips about engaging students, inspiring your reluctant art makers, exploring art on a small budget, and increasing productivity as an art teacher and yes, I’ll give you tips for faster prepping and grading. So make sure you click here to register. Now, let’s dive into this article!

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Chinese Proverb

The Problem Art Teachers face.

I don’t know about you, but having from free time to do the things that I want to do… is pretty nice. I love cooking, I love gardening both in flower beds and my vegetable garden. I love to play with Russell and Audrey who are my cats. I love my partner in life Dustin and going on adventures with him. I especially like to get creative and make art for ME. And for me, I like to create with clay and build large, creepy but cute ceramic sculptures professionally, which I show in galleries in British Columbia, and I also enjoy watercolour painting and acrylic painting. Of course, all my art is very pop surrealist or low brow and isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I am after all, making my art for me as it is MY vision and MY creative expression.

However, lesson planning takes up a lot of free time. It can kill that time to be you. That time to go on a hike or photography adventure or that time with family.

Know what I mean?

It’s like… one moment it is Friday… then Sunday evening hits you in the face and you still have barely recovered from the previous week. The energy it takes to be a teacher and to be ON all the time is a lot. It wears you down. Then, if you have been gifted a bubbly, energetic, or challenging class, you can add some stress on top of it. Or a lot of stress. I’ve been there too. Recently, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it through the entire school year from the amount of stress. I am sure you’ve felt that too.

On top of it all, we have to lesson plan.

But what if I told you, it doesn’t have to be that way?

The Solution.

You see, I have come up for a solution for this very problem. One that I’m sure your administrator will be happy to hear about. I know many have already supported this! If you have started multi-tasking, come back to me now because I’m going to tell you how you can get your freedom back by eliminating your lesson planning. Yes, you heard me right.

At the start of this year, I embarked on a journey to create the first step of my future. Well, the first step in my big PLANS for the future. You see, for me, Ms Artastic is no longer just another TpT store. For me, it is Artastic Nation, and for Nationers I create. I create YouTube videos weekly for my subscribers with drawing tutorials that can be done at home or played in the classroom or used for remote learning. Simply search Ms Artastic on YouTube to find me or find the link at my blog. I have a blog where I share important content and concepts for the art teacher community such as Art Tutorials and Art Teacher Articles. I also have this podcast which of course, you know about. Finally, the newest addition to Artastic Nation is the Artastic Collective, which has been specially designed for all you art teachers.

The Artastic Collective!

You see, the Artastic Collective is the Ms Artastic Curriculum, all laid out for you, ready to use, in an easy-to-follow plan. I have curated the contents for things you might want to teach each month, but also provide you with a lot of lessons and variety so it will give you both guidance for what to teach and when, but also a lot of flexibility and choice. You see, I’ve taken my resources and created a membership site that will provide you with fully planned art lessons for your entire year. In fact, I’ve planned resources to be released over 2 years for you, allowing you to have freedom from planning… forever. I have made your lesson plans, your tutorials, and your student handouts. My 9 years of hard work is going to be available to you through this membership.

Download Free Art Worksheets for Kids

Click here to download free art worksheets that you can print to allow kids to explore art at home!

What the Art Teacher Curriculum Offers:

Now, before I go into the details, I just want you to know that… It doesn’t stop at resources. With this membership, you will also get access to The Classroom, which is my Year-Long Art Teacher Growth Course. Through the weeks, new lessons and resources will be released to you such as lesson plans, lessons to help you get organized, walk-throughs during times like back to school, or lessons on Grow Mindset, Total Participation Techniques, or inspiring your reluctant artists to create! These lessons will help you through your year as an art teacher or educator. As well, there will be lessons and handouts for you to fill out so you can document your thinking, growth, and successes.

In addition to this, some content that comes out will have resources for you to use in your classroom such as Creativity Challenges, Fast Finisher Activities, and Art Critique Resources & Reflections! Make sure you check out this part of the membership right away to get a head start on being the confident, organized, and amazing art teacher that you are. There is a lot of content for you to both absorb and use in “The Classroom” and of course, all of it will be focused on helping you or to be used in your classroom!

Next, there is the Journey of Success, my Monthly Art Teacher Challenges! This is a Journey where each month you get a new CHALLENGE to complete! Each challenge will have you do a task that will help you be creative, planned, and organized so that you can be your best art teaching self! After each month, you get your “sticker” before the next challenge is released! Yes, it is a virtual sticker. Better for the planet and OH SO CUTE!

Complete each challenge and take a quick pic for evidence that you completed it (you will need this!) then add your sticker to your PASSPORT when you receive it. At the end of the year, you will have collected ALL the stickers. After the first year, comes Year 2, then 3 to allow you years of growth. At the end of each of the three years (yes three), you will receive a prize!

Another bonus in addition to the resource library, which of course, I haven’t even gotten to yet because there is SO MUCH to dive into, is the Community forum. This is a forum for all members of Artastic Collective to talk, collaborate, ask questions, get answers, bounce around ideas, or whatever! Of course, members are all art teachers, so this is a unique area on the internet where you can talk with other art teachers. How often do we collaborate with staff but get to collaborate on art projects with them? Pretty much never because often, there is 1 art teacher in a school. Be isolated no more my friends! In the community forum you can chat with me and the other members at ANY TIME. And it’s not like a Facebook group where there are like 30,000 or 50,000 members… no. This is smaller and is full of diverse individuals who care about one another. As well, your post won’t be lost in a sea of posts. I will see you. We will see you. Collaborate in grade groups such as primary, elementary, or middle school. You can talk in the Back to School or End of Year forums to help you with those crazy times of the year… There are places for free chat and places to ask questions and places to find out when I’ll be hosting live events such as the Monthly Live Q+A!

Next, there is the Professional Development section of the membership. Here you can find Webinar Replays and Art Teacher interviews. It is a great resource in addition to the professional development you’d receive in The Classroom as it gives you the tools and insight to help you grow professionally as an art teacher.

As well, I offer MONTHLY Live Q+As on Zoom for Members-Only where you can hop on and pick my brain with questions or problems that are happening in your real-life art teaching world. I’m here to brainstorm with you and offer suggestions or ideas for solutions. Consider me as your personal coach! I am here for you if you need it.

Art Lesson Bundles in the Library!

Finally, there are the resource libraries. Easily integrate Art History and the Elements and Principles of Art into your classroom with fully planned Art Lessons and Resources (that cover standards and include assessments and rubrics). Your library will grow each. Each month I’ll release NEW Art lessons to the collective for you to use in your classroom and they’ll be available to you as long as you have your membership. The NEW resources added each month will be a combination of resources that are EXCLUSIVE to the Artastic Collective, and ones that can also be found in my TpT store. I create resources for primary, elementary, and middle school levels.

I will provide you with a new bundle of art lessons (which are four, thoroughly planned art lessons at a variety of levels ) in my Art History, Themes, and Elements & Principles sections of my library each month for 2 years! That is a lot of art units to pick and choose from. Consider your search for ideas and inspiration, and endless lesson planning over! I have done it all for you and this curriculum will be available to you as long as you hold your membership. Of course, these lessons will include all the rubrics, assessment, handouts, lesson plans, and worksheets that you’d need to teach successfully. All lessons are either in slide format or are video art lessons. Pick and choose what you want to do, the choice is yours! Some bundles in Artists and Art History you might find are: Henri Matisse, Frida Kahlo, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Vincent van Gogh, and Ted Harrison just to start you off! In Artists and Art History you get a new Artist or Historical Movement each month. In Themes, bundles you will get will be Growth Mindset art lessons, The Arctic, Social Emotional Learning, and the Basics or Essentials which will give you the resources you need right away. Of course, these three will grow for 2 years so that is 24 bundles over a two year period for each of those categories as long as you retain your membership for that long.

Other resource libraries include Holidays & Seasonal, Sketchbooks, and Ceramics and Sculpture. These will be released in giant chunks over around a 6 month period. I’ve organized it so multiple seasons or holidays are released at a time to allow for the variety of seasons were all in. As we know, what is happening on one side of the world isn’t happening on the other, so I’ve taken that into consideration. To protect my work and resources, I’m releasing the resources you need during that season or holiday when they’re needed. Once they’re released to your library, you have them as long as you have your membership. Of course, this is a pay-as-you-go membership, so as you pay and as time goes, you get more resources added to your library. Each person’s library grows from the time that they joined. In general, resources are added to the libraries every 30 days.

assorted color sequins — Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Pexels.com

Finally…

In final, I just wanted to let you know about the Artastic Collective in this post and to use this opportunity to let you know about my Art Teacher Membership site because… It’s kind of a big deal and is saving TONS of art teachers a lot of money on art resources for their classroom. Of course, the membership will be opening for enrollment starting on January 1^st. I have added an FAQ and an Admin Letter to the site so you can print it off and give it to your administrator to help show them why you need this resource so that they can register on your behalf should they offer to financially support this.

To better support Art Teachers, I created the Artastic Collective. With the Artastic Collective, Art Resource Library membership for art teachers, my mission is to provide you with prepared art lessons, resources, and activities that will allow you to free up your time and live your life, whether that means traveling, pursuing your hobbies, or spending time with your family. It will provide you with Fully planned Art Lessons and Resources (that cover standards and include assessments and rubrics) will be given to you. You should be able to be an instructor or teacher and be able to have the time to LIVE life. With this membership, you will receive teaching ideas, inspiration, and guidance to help you navigate and problem-solve in your classroom or studio. This membership will give you the freedom to create art with kids, live your life, and will help you engage your students with art lessons. This membership is intended for Elementary & Middle School Teachers. Find my membership at artasticcollective.com. Remember, January 1^st the membership will open for enrollment for only a few weeks and then will close until August. Make sure you visit the site right now and Join the Waitlist so you know when to register so you don’t miss it.

Join the Artastic Collective!

Thank you for reading my blog post! I am grateful that you did and I appreciate you having took the time to read to the end. Thank you so much. Please write any questions you have in the comments section of this post.

Please help me out by subscribing to my YouTube Channel to help me reach my goal of 100,000 subscribers. I teach full art lessons and drawing tutorials for kids on my channel and I am confident you will enjoy your subscription. Click here to subscribe!

Yours Truly,
Kathleen McGiveron (Ms Artastic)