Southern Conference Sessions


1	Event Schedule
2	8:45 Join the Welcome Zoom Room to get ready 9:00 - 9:05 - Welcome message and introduction to the day 9:10 - 10:00 Session 1 - participants choose from 1 of 3* sessions 10:10 - 11:00 Session 2 - participants choose from 1 of 3* sessions 11:10 - 12:00 Session 3 - participants choose from 1 of 3* sessions 12:10 - 1:00 Session 4 - all participants join Featured Session with Craig Skaggs
3	Welcome!	Session One	Session Two	Session Three	Session Four
4	9:00-9:05	9:10 - 10:00	10:10 - 11:00	11:10 - 12:00	12:10 - 1:00
5	Welcome!	Finding Joy in Remote Instruction Jennifer J Fitzpatrick Technology can be your best friend when rewriting your curriculum for a virtual learning experience. Explore a variety of online applications to deliver remote instruction to students in a creative way.	STEAM Education for Middle School Art Lea Heller This presentation will discuss STEAM education in middle school art (lesson are adaptable to high school). Two complete lessons in STEAM Education will be discussed and shared. Lessons will incorporate the use of Tinkercad 3D printing as well as traditional art media.	How Creativity Will Save Schools: The 6 Steps that Illuminate the Creative Process. Chris Sykora We will explore how to purposefully and specifically teach the creative process by providing the framework, steps, and phases of the creative process in a way that can be used in the classroom setting with meaning and clarity. It builds on my TEDx Talk, and connects to my podcast, “Hey Teachers! Let’s Innovate Education.” Among other things, the creative process utilizes curiosity as the vehicle for learning, fostering an eagerness in students to build experiences of meaning via connections with themselves, others, and their interests; accessing and developing their emotional, interpersonal, logical intelligences, and more. It’s this process that opens students up to the universe of knowledge with the goal of action: to use their imaginations to empathize with others, and to break outdated patterns that aren’t working anymore to solve important problems. A great deal of evidence as well as my own experience suggests that creativity is how humans learn and grow, and will save education.	Don't Wait to Create Craig Skaggs It's never too early to start reaching out to try to become a professional artist.
6		Collaborative Learning Using Contemporary Art Practices Nick Hostert Learn how to incorporate contemporary art practices in your classroom through collaborative art experiences and interactive critique activities. Participants will learn about low-cost making activities and innovative critique methods designed to help build a student-directed learning environment. This session highlights curriculum that empowers students as co-creators of art experiences and will include examples from Nick’s practice and from K-12 educators in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Teacher Institute, who developed projects in which students respond to community issues using contemporary art practices. Resources and lesson plans will be shared.	VIPS (Visually Interested Parents) Parent Art Boosters Michael Skura Learn how to engage one of your strongest allies in the community, your parents. You will learn how to create an art parent booster group, the structuring, how they can be utilized for art shows, art advocacy, creating scholarships, supporting supervision for art events and more.	Creative Thinking Strategies and Problem Solving in the Art Room Chris Grodoski This session provides attendees an scaffolded way to foster creative thinking for every student at every grade level. Participants will learn a series of strategies that empower student creativity as well as methods for designing challenges that foster deeper problem solving skills.
7		Illinois Arts Council Agency Education Grants Jerome Grand I am doing outreach for the following IACA grant programs that offer funding for education, schools and artists: Arts and Foreign Language Education Grant Program, StARTS Program: Short-term Artists Residencies, Artstour & Live Music, Individual Artist Support and more.	The Importance of Discussion and Choice in Art Seiger Shurtz & Jordan Murphy A presentation on critiquing and discussing artwork and why it is important to explain and justify your decision-making when it comes to your work.	My Love/Hate Relationship with Art Assessment Jody Paulson I think it is safe to say that we all hate assessment, but can our relationship with assessment be mended? This session will explore ways in which assessment might exceed expectations. We will look at the real purpose of assessment and then explore practical applications of assessment by examining classroom projects at the elementary, middle school, and high school levels.
8		Control+Alt+Create: Making Digital Art Easy Brad Olson There is a lot of exciting stuff happening in the intersection between digital technologies and the art world. Emerging topics like augmented reality, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are making a big impact on the work produced by artists today. Although they may sound complicated, there are a lot of easy ways you can begin exploring these topics in your art class with highly accessible tools and resources. This session will present a few of these resources and explore some curricular applications for them across K-12 levels.	From Art to Design Robert A. Lopez This session will talk about making the transition from an art student to a design student.	Professional Development and Grant Writing Assistance with School Specialty Michael J Berry This presentation will explore ways to receive Professional Development points without having to leave your classroom, all while presenting hands-on content to your students utilizing “Workshops In A Box.” These time and cost-effective workshops come with all the materials needed for multiple students with plenty left over for other projects. The workshops also contain instructions outlined with objectives and procedures which can be modified for multiple grade levels and are aligned with National Core Art Standards. Each participant will receive a sample of the “Fanciful Fish “ workshop for the hands-on portion of this presentation. Participants will also learn how to improve their classroom through grant writing assistance provided by School Specialties Grant Assist team. *There is a five-dollar fee associated with this workshop to cover the shipping and handling of the workshop materials.*