The author relates how his realization that students react to lessons positively if they are made to feel like part of a team. The teacher decided to a start a company within his classroom, "hiring" managers, camera operators, and designers to help him start the venture. Students were challenged to apply for a job by submitting an application, a…

Public spaces that promote play and discovery are popping up everywhere from metropolitan cities to rural and suburban settings. Playgrounds such as David Rockwell's Imagination Playground in New York City and the Memorial Park Playground in Wilsonville, Oregon, present a stark contrast to the steel and plastic structures found at fast-food…

This article features the Design and Architecture Senior High (DASH). At DASH, educators instill in students that design is a unique answer to a problem. While fine art is a personal statement made for one's personal pleasure and vision, design addresses a problem and meets or exceeds clients' needs. "Education by Design" is the philosophy behind…

In this article, the author shares a lesson on architecture she introduced to her kindergarten students. Using wooden blocks as materials, she showed her students how to take on the role of an architect and create their own buildings. This project was beneficial to all students in that they learned to think flexibly and realized that the designs…

Before she became an art teacher, the author relates that she worked at a graphic design agency and there she learned to fully appreciate typefaces and how they influence messages. In the years that she taught middle school art, the author has incorporated some basics of type design into her graphics unit, along with calligraphy, printmaking, and…

Good design brings the excitement of the Olympic Games into the visual realm of public media. Inspired by the design involved in the making of the Olympic Games, the author developed a lesson called Fashion Forward. Fashion Forward, which is taught to ninth and tenth graders, is based on the enduring idea that visual images are power communication…

Since the introduction of the reality show "Project Runway" on Bravo, four seasons ago, high school corridors have been buzzing with aspiring fashion designers. Many of these student designers have "ferocious" fashion ideas as well as artistic talent and a gifted eye for design. Yet, in reality, fashion design is a non-entity in the art…

In this article, the author describes how she introduced a lesson called Albert's Alphabet to her kindergarten students. This lesson introduces the design thinking process to kindergartners in a developmentally appropriate way. She began the lesson by reading Leslie Tyron's book "Albert's Alphabet," which tells the story of Albert Goose, the…

The construction and infrastructure of a city provide the foundation of an ideal urban lab for high school students to discover how to dissect the multifaceted layers of a place and make it their own. For six weeks in the winter of 2008, ninth-grade students in Providence, Rhode Island's Hope High School/Hope Arts Community learned to look closely…

To be effective and relevant in twenty-first-century learning, art needs to be more inclusive. In this article, the author discusses how teachers can find a good example in Leonardo da Vinci for building an art program. His art, design, and curiosity are the perfect foundation for any art program, at any level. (Contains 3 resources and 3 online…

Identity is the focus of the middle-school visual arts program at Cambridge Friends School (CFS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Sixth graders enter the middle school and design a personal logo as their first major project in the art studio. The logo becomes a way for students to introduce themselves to their teachers and to represent who they are…

As the author was discussing the future of CD design with her high-school students concerning its possibility of becoming obsolete as the ability to purchase music via the Internet becomes more mainstream, she was reminded of the things that she loves about an album by looking at the pictures, reading the lyrics, touching it and holding it. The…

With her "head, hand, and heart," artist Betty LaDuke impacts the world as an artist, educator, and humanitarian. As a retired professor of art emeritus of Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon, LaDuke has pursued her art as a mission with passion and generosity of spirit. This article describes how LaDuke uses art as a conduit for…

The world of fine arts can seem a bit intimidating to a student, and it is part of the teacher's role to help ease students into that world. One of this author's goals as an art and design educator is to bring the world of his students into classroom projects, providing a sense of comfort and familiarity in the context of learning something new.…

Digital storytelling is the art of using digital content--still images, video clips, voiceovers, sound effects and music--to create short and compelling narrative movies. As an expressive medium in the art classroom, digital storytelling can be used to integrate subject matter knowledge and skills from many years of the school curriculum. If one…