Any help for art teachers & special ed?

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Any high school art teachers left?! (12.5.05)

Believe it or not, I am hoping to find a job teaching art in secondary school. I have my multiple sub credential (finished student teaching 2003), my CLAD masters in ed (just finished) but still have not actually entered the profession! I keep waiting for the pendulum to swing back to the visual arts, and arts in general, being integral to education here in the US. My BA is in art (emphasis: painting and drawing.) My full time career up to now has been as a scenic artist for theater and film. I have a huge amount to offer students and I get tremendous satisfaction when I am part of students' learning.

SPECIAL EDUCATION for TEACHING ART QUESTION:
What adaptations/differentiated instructional strategies do you find you use the most often in your ART classes for special education/mainstreamed students in your classroom? Are these strategies different from ones you use for the general ed students in your classroom--in the methods you use? frequency? planning? assessment?

GOOD, CURRENT ART TEACHING SOURCES YOU SUGGEST?
What sources do you suggest I look for information? Much of what I find is "ancient" -- from the mid-1990's, back just before NCLB and when art in the schools really started to get cut, etc.
Thanks for any suggestions and dialogue. :)

[Unregistered]

I keep waiting for the pendulum to swing back to the visual arts...

You are going to be waiting a very long time.

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How disappointing to see a comment about the arts "pendulum" not swinging back toward more arts emphasis and valuation in education. I see the arts as a new disabled minority, one that does not have its language, its culture, its creations, nor its intellect valued or recognized. Its "voice" is not heard. Have you read Elliot Eisner? Howard Gardner? Both write of the extrarodinary importance of the arts in reference to human cognition, expression and human communication. There is a huge similarity in types of brain function seen in the arts and in the sciences. This includes scientific thought processes, both in spontaneous inspirational "visions," and in thoughtful, problem-solving investigations. Art-making is much like scientific problem-solving. But, I like to turn the tables around: what can non-art, content-based education give to enrich art-making? Transferable skills goes both ways. The arts are content rich in themselves. Creativity is positively empowering to most students when they are given the chance to create in the arts. The transferable skills going from the arts to other non-art content areas are well known. But, let's put all the arts on a Most Valued Area to Be Taught for a moment. Let's ask, What skills can be transferred from non-art content areas to help arts education?--VS

[Unregistered]

I think you are shooting the messenger.

I love the arts. And I agree with your sentiments. The problem, as I see it, is that most art teachers do not have theoretical background to teach the skills that would allow students to transfer their knowledge across disciplines. So while you may have studied the impact of art on culture and technology to a certain depth, most art teachers I know have just a BS degree and never drive the lesson content to that level. So we get lessons on how to make photographs prettier.

How art allows someone to solve the von Neumann equation is still a little unclear in your post.

[Unregistered]

A really great book helping with teaching art is Creative Painting For The Young Artists. It deals with artistic mode of seeing, fear of mistakes, artistic statement, mentoring, art creativity and more. Check it out. With Amazon.com

[Unregistered]

In my school district art is in full swing. We have Fine arts night, drama, ect. I feel that art is important just as in every special area. Mainly because this is something some children are good at and it gives them an outlet. In highschool, I probaly wouldn't have made it withou art. A lot of kids need this stuff. My children do. I didn't take the professional art route and decided to be a teacher. Ease up on the art people