CAEA WATCH PARTY PD
 
New This Year: The CAEA Watch Party PD series, is a monthly event centered around NAEA webinars. These webinars are relevant, useful and useable. The watch party is an opportunity for our members to come together, watch the webinar together, and then engage in a facilitated discussion following the webinar. How this information applies to Connecticut teachers as well as resources and information will be shared. Join us and connect with your peers.

No Registration is required for access, Just click on the link below to join the current Watch Party.

​Teaching Creativity: Dynamic Strategies for Art Educators
Wednesday, July 6, 2022 | 7–8pm ET
The art classroom is a lab for creativity. How can you, as an art educator, leverage your creative expertise to generate a whole-school impact? Join us as we explore strategies and approaches to nurture a creative mindset and build creative confidence with learners and colleagues. Registered participants will receive access to online resources and are encouraged to have colorful materials on hand to make thinking visible.

Finding Student Voices: Teaching Photography in a Choice Environment
Wednesday, August 10, 2022 | 7–8pm ET
How do you give learners ownership in developing a personal visual voice that is inspired by what interests them in their world? Intrigue them through carefully formulated questions and choice challenges that guide them to the discovery of their own “big ideas.” They will come away thinking like a professional photographer and creating meaningful works of art. 

Careful Navigation: Social Justice in the Art Classroom 
Wednesday, September 7, 2022 | 7–8pm ET
Current political situations can be difficult for art educators to navigate. Join us as we explore practical strategies for teaching social justice through a K–12 lens. Discover ways to include all learners in the process of developing, creating, and presenting social justice artworks while incorporating inclusive communication strategies. Use this process to develop a proactive approach to teaching potentially uncomfortable topics while facilitating difficult conversations in the art room. 
A Library of Congress representative will also share how primary sources in their collections can be valuable teaching tools—photographs, newspaper articles, posters, correspondence, and more can capture student attention and provide historical points of entry into social justice topics that resonate today. 

College and Career Pathways in Visual Arts, Design, and Media Arts
Wednesday, October 12, 2022 | 7–8pm ET
The line between traditional and nontraditional art and design careers is blurred, and the possibilities continue to grow. Although this is promising, many of us need guidance on assisting our college-bound learners seeking creative careers. Gain firsthand information, inspiration, and resources on industry trends and the emergence of creative entrepreneurship via student and alumni profiles and data from the Maryland Institute College of Art’s (MICA) First Destination Survey—a tool used to track graduates’ professional paths, enabling the school to “best serve current and future MICA students and alumni.” This webinar is especially helpful for secondary art educators as well as current and aspiring students of visual arts and design.

What’s Your Story? Using Literacy and Art for Authentic Discovery
Wednesday, November 2, 2022 | 7–8pm ET
Looking for ways to help students to create, participate with, and respond to contemporary art and visual culture in more critical ways? Do you wonder how to support literacy in the art room though more than just writing prompts? Join us as we explore new media literacy—a discipline that features many elements analogous with art education. Come away with lessons, data, and techniques that will have your learners connecting their lived experiences with those of literary characters (from classics like Cinderella and new favorites like New Kid) and figures in popular culture through the avenue of digital comics, illustration, and more. Dive into exciting case study research (exploring Hamilton, Kehinde Wiley, and the Carters) and find ways you can successfully incorporate new media principles to support a different form of literacy in your teaching space.

Pushing Boundaries: Nurturing Gifted and Talented Art Students
Wednesday, December 7, 2022 | 7–8pm ET
Join us as we explore nurturing gifted and talented students in Title I schools. Come away with curriculum examples, lessons addressing community-specific needs, and fresh theories and philosophies of teaching that can help lead your students to take creative risks to help them grow and develop in the arts. Presenters will share dual approaches to expanding student progress, equipping you with enhanced support to help students find their voices as artists.

Considering Mental Health Challenges in the Art Classroom
Wednesday, January 11, 2023 | 7–8pm ET  
There are many therapeutic possibilities of artmaking with youth, and your art room can be a healthy space for this to happen. Explore pedagogical practices and classroom structures through the lens of the mental health needs of all students, including developing a sketchbook practice for nonverbal communication and building a safe and trusting environment in the art studio. Discover new ways to address and support student behaviors that prevent engagement and joy in artmaking, such as perfectionism or lack of confidence. Sample project and activity ideas offering a range of therapeutic benefits to student artists in Grades K–8 will be shared.

Disabilities Studies and Art Education: Reframing Student and Teacher Engagement
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 | 7–8pm ET
Research in disability studies can help art educators reframe ways of engaging with disability issues. Join us as we explore the use of disability arts to engage learners in critical visual literacy and imagery production. We’ll also unpack critical approaches to language and decentering normalcy to create inclusive learning spaces.

Building Inclusive Classroom Communities
Wednesday, March 1, 2023 | 7–8pm ET
Join us as we unpack the meaning and characteristics of an inclusive learning environment through art while uncovering a variety of pedagogical approaches and instructional strategies to build inclusive communities in your learning spaces. Learn firsthand how inclusive community building has helped students develop a stronger sense of belonging and how studying a community’s local history and its demographic landscape helps to expand understanding of inclusive learning. Come away with strategies to align art teaching resources with cultural competence in order to address issues related to diversity, social justice, and inclusion. 

Unpacking Inquiry to Support Learners
Wednesday, April 5, 2023 | 7–8pm ET
What is inquiry? How do we encourage inquiry in our art rooms? Are inquiry and creativity connected? What does inquiry-based learning look like in the studio? Why is authentic inquiry important? Join us for answers to these and other questions as we discuss the research on, importance of, and relationship between inquiry and art education. The art education landscape is shifting to better support the emergent needs of contemporary learners. Pedagogies that embrace culturally responsive teaching, social–emotional learning (SEL), and trauma-informed teaching find commonality in student-centered, choice-based learning models. In these models, learners develop strategies for creating and using lines of inquiry to hypothesize, investigate, and solve problems. We will look at scaffolding inquiry to foster intrinsic motivation, feeding our students exploratory experiences which empower them to pursue their own independent line of inquiry, and supporting inquiry in various classroom situations. The presenters will share both research-based applications and real-world experience in preK–12 educational settings.
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Reimagining Art Education Curriculum Through Learner-Centered Inquiry
Wednesday, May 3, 2023 | 7–8pm ET
Learner-centered art education recognizes the potential of art education as an entry point for culture and connection through the lived experiences of a learning community. Join a panel of educators who explore curriculum and pedagogy at the center of learner inquiry using multimodal approaches centered on stories, context, and meaning-making.

Antiracist and Anticolonial Approach to Equity in Art Museums
Wednesday, June 7, 2023 | 7–8pm ET
Join us as we explore ways of advancing and reshaping the museum space and praxis toward racial literacy and radical equity and inclusion as it relates to cultural heritage informatics. We will critically examine (art) museum space and practices to unsettle racist and colonial design, looking to how museums can take the lead on antiracism and new ways of being.