The Students for Asian Cultural Awareness hosted a virtual author book talk with guest Maggie Chang. 

Maggie is the author of the children's book Geraldine Pu. Geraldine is a spunky Asian American girl who encounters a bully. The story unfolds and shows how Geraldine handles bias. 

The students loved Maggie's book and learned about her writing and art making process. Maggie shared about her personal life and journey and how she published her book.

The students asked Maggie questions about her inspiration for her book and if the character was based on her life. She shared about her life and upbringing and was a great role model for the students.

Special thanks to BHS Librarian Callie Graham for funding this great author talk. 

This year as my professional practice goal with my art department we have set this as our mission statement. I have created a new section of my website devoted to building resources and revising my lessons you can find under the DEI section.

Art Program Mission Regarding Diversity, Equity, and Race
In alignment with Burlington High School’s core values and learning expectations for students, the BHS (BPS) Art Program will 

• Examine and revise the BHS curriculum to include equitable and authentic representation and highlight the indispensable contributions that people of color have made to the world; 
• Identify our practices and programming that maintain systemic inequity and take the steps necessary to enact change;
• Engage administration, faculty, and staff in ongoing professional development that ensures educators understand and implement equitable classroom practices that promote justice for all;
• Create actively antiracist educational spaces that prioritize student voice;
• Develop and communicate a clear protocol for addressing race-related issues that impact BHS community members;
• Empower ourselves and our students to communicate and collaborate in ways that work toward solutions to the continued problems of inequity in the world; 
• Model respect, empathy, and responsibility in our classrooms and develop meaningful opportunities for students to learn the power of these values

First Steps:

• Commit to explore/read many of the resources in this document; take notes; gather ideas.
• Develop a limited (well-curated, not overwhelming) list of references and resources to share with art students at each grade level.
• Full-hour department meetings in new school year, with first portion devoted to equity issues

The school year is off to a great start! This year I am teaching Drawing and Painting I, Drawing and Painting II, Architecture I and II, and Web Design.

We started with light fun ice breakers, getting used to the new rotation block schedule and helping students who were fully remote transition back to school. The first day I have students work on the Sumi Ink Club. Check out my Art of Education article about it here.

Creating a welcoming and relaxed environment that is comfortable for all students is the foundation of my classroom. When students are relaxed they will learn more, create more and feel more comfortable expressing themselves through their art. 

Here are a few of the works of art that my students created for  intro assignments. Enjoy!

'Name design for the cover of their folders. This helps me get to know the student names and helps us get used to the organization system and clean up process. 

After studying contour line we created a collage of the drawings and students added an art element. This great lesson is from Mrs. Moen in IG @artofteaching. She is an uber talented educator with fantastic lessons. 

Phil Hansen's Ted Talk " Embrace the Shake" is helping me reframe the challenges of this school year. I am seeking to "seize the limitations". Here's to a new school year filled with new discoveries and brand new Art!

Five original works of art created by Burlington Art Students were printed on blank notecards and are for sale through the online school store.

​The art for the cards were created by:

Matthew Collina, Class of 2019
Ryan Tortorici, Class of 2019
Manel Henniche, Class of 2022
Owen Kim, Class of 2021
Joe Trabucco, Class of 2021

The district website is updated and a great resource for school info. Be sure to bookmark this link 

​BPS District Website Link: https://www.burlingtonpublicschools.org

The Burlington Education Foundation generously donated funding for this artist residency. 

BPS has a fantastic tool to help us educators plan our lessons and respect students cultural and religious holidays.

Here is the link to the calendar:

BPS Cultural Calendar