Voiceover: Welcome to the Modern Classrooms Project Podcast. Each week we bring you discussions with educators on how they use blended, self-paced, and mastery-based learning to better serve their students. We believe teachers learn best from each other, so this is our way of lifting up the voices of leaders and innovators in our community. This is the Modern Classrooms Project Podcast. 


Zach: Hello, and welcome to episode number 84 of the Modern Classrooms Project podcast. My name is Zach Diamond and I am a middle school music teacher and a Modern Classrooms implementer in Washington, DC. And I'm also a Modern Classrooms mentor. And I'm really excited because for tonight's Teacher Spotlight episode, I actually have the pleasure of being joined by one of my former mentees, Aimee Plueger. So Aimee is a high school art teacher at Academic Arts High School in Minnesota, and I'm super excited. She agreed to join me on the podcast tonight to talk about using Modern Classrooms in visual arts classes. A lot of times people will sort of lump together all the arts classes, capital A-arts, music and art design, all that kind of stuff. And I think that hopefully tonight I will get to be educated by Aimee. Although I've seen a lot of your work already and listeners will sort of be let in on the ways that music and arts classes are often very different. So, Aimee, welcome to the podcast. 


Aimee: Thanks for having me. 


Zach: Absolutely. So I actually already know quite a lot about your class having mentored you and seen a lot of your materials. But for our listeners, could you tell us just a little bit more about who you are, what you teach, and how you started your Modern Classrooms journey? 


Aimee: Yeah, for sure. So, like you mentioned, I'm a high school art teacher in Minnesota. I've actually been teaching seven years now. I'm licensed K-12, and I've actually taught all the grade levels throughout my teaching career at some point in time. I started out teaching k-8 and then I moved to 6-8 and then finally up to high school. And I've enjoyed all of the ages, but especially high schoolers because it's really cool to see them grow from awkward 9th graders to young adults and seeing them go across the stage and graduate, which is awesome. And I started out my Modern Classrooms journey just through the mentorship program. One of my coworkers had suggested to our entire teaching team that we take the - there’s, like the free Modern Classrooms introductory training on the Modern Classrooms website. And we all did it. And we were like, yeah, this is awesome. We had a huge meeting about it. We're like, yeah, we're going to sign up for the mentorship program. So all of us signed up and we all picked our different times. And I hadn't really heard about Modern Classroom before, but I had been using Edpuzzle, and I know that's, like, really ingrained into Modern Classroom because it's a really great way to leverage learning, but I was using that with distance learning because I didn't know what else to do to get students engaged, and I just wanted to learn more about it. And Modern Classroom is the way to do it. 


Zach: Yeah, definitely. That's an interesting connection. The Edpuzzle connection. I feel like that's an interesting sort of inlet into modern classrooms. 


Aimee: Yeah.


Zach: Cool. I guess. So you finished the virtual mentorship program, I think in the end of 2021, right? It was just a few months ago. 


Aimee: Yes. I think it was like mid January, I think. 


Zach: Okay, yeah. So just a couple of months ago, you finished it and you started rolling it out mid year. How did that go for you? I'm always curious to hear from my mentees how the program goes for them, how the model goes for them after finishing the program. But I rarely get to do it on the podcast, like on the mic. So I'm curious to hear how it's going for you. It's been a couple of months. What do you do? 


Aimee: So the mentorship program is awesome. I definitely learned a lot, and it had its ups and downs for me just because I think we had talked about it, like at one of my first meetings with you or else virtually through the Google Doc. But I was struggling with how to actually implement it in my own way. And by talking with you, I figured out I just really need to break things down a lot more to break it down in very specific steps in order for me to make this work in my classroom. And I'm just someone who I change up my curriculum or adjust it all the time because I'm always trying to fix the things that I didn't think worked right. Or honestly, sometimes I just get bored and I'm like, I don't know, I'm going to try something new. In the course, I used a unit that I've actually taught. I'd probably say I've taught it at least five or six years in a row and I've changed it every single time and had different iterations of it. But it wasn't always successful and I didn't feel like it always ws, uh, that students were always doing the best they could on it and I wasn't doing my best. So it was really helpful with the course to go in and make adjustments in addition to that lesson in unit, so that I can actually roll out something really strong. And honestly, at this moment right now, I feel like I'm not fully like a Modern Classroom yet just because there's a lot of time needed to create all the different units to make them student-ready. So, like, making all of the videos and stuff, but I'm gradually building those things in my entire Google Classroom, I run and organize like, I would like, I don't know. Everyone's Modern Classroom is different. 


Zach: Yeah. 


Aimee: But the way that I want my modern classroom to look is organized that way on Google Classroom, and I've broken down all the assignments, et cetera, that way and done all the skill building and mastery checks. But the nitty gritty of the videos and stuff I'm still working on and adding as I go.


Zach: Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I think that Karim and I have talked about this on the podcast before, where having a summer to sort of plan and get yourself really get your Modern Classroom together and then start off the year with everything already in place. I think that will help you to sort of feel like this is legit. This is the real deal now. But also, like you said, every Modern Classroom looks different, and it doesn't sound like you're doing anything wrong by Modern Classrooms. 


Aimee: Right. 


Zach: That's awesome. I feel like that's another piece of advice that comes up a lot here is that people said to take it slowly, roll it out one piece at a time, do what you're comfortable with. And I think the LMS is a huge part of a modern classroom, too, in a lot of cases, especially because we rely on blended instruction and instructional videos. It's like the primary interface to a lot of our content. Right. And so I think that's definitely an important place for Modern Classrooms to happen. First, I'm curious to ask you as a follow up question, what you were talking about about sort of like wanting to keep changing and sometimes getting bored of units and doing things like that. Have you thought about when you have instructional videos recorded if you'll reuse them? I love reusing my instructional videos because it sort of lightens the load. But I also feel a lot of the times like if something didn't go great in a project, I want to tweak it, and then I can just tweak that video or I can even come up with new projects and make new units. But how do you feel about reusing videos if you're changing your units that often? 


Aimee: I don't think it's a huge deal. When I make my videos, I try to keep them very generic, like I don't mention dates or times or even necessarily the project. I try to keep it more like skill based because a lot of my stuff is I'm teaching students specific skills that they're going to go on in practice if it's a specific lesson. And I don't know, let's say, like I'm doing something with art history. I'm pretty handy with Imovie. So I sometimes I've gone in and I've grabbed things from old videos that I recorded and tossed it in with a new video that I updated.


Zach: Kind of like persistent assets kind of a thing. 


Aimee: Yeah. I don't know. I don't feel like it's too much work. And then obviously if I just super didn't think something went well, I'm just going to record it or redo it. 


Zach: Yeah. No, but I do love the idea of a generic video. And I remember your videos you used I think it was the term was draw along, is that right? 


Aimee: Oh, yeah. 


Zach: Those are really cool because it's not exactly an instructional video. It's more like a practice activity in the video. 


Aimee: Yeah, I like to do that in my classroom, like the drawing type thing. I do a lot of in person demos where it's honestly super challenging. That's why I look like having videos, because in the classroom I have a Dot Cam that I don't know. The lighting in my classroom is not, like ideal. And then the Dot Cam is also super old. So it's hard for kids to see. So I like the video portion, but I do a lot of things with students where it's like, okay, we're going to go and do this together. Kind of like the I do we do you do kind of model. And so I try to make the video kind of like the we do together and then try to give them activities after that to do the I do on their own. Yeah. 


Zach: I remember thinking that was a really cool adaptation of the “I do, We do you do” kind of a model into a blended modern classrooms sort of format. But are those videos would you call those generic or are they more specific to a unit? I mean, I remember them being very sort of like off the cuff. Like, here's how you draw this. 


Aimee: Yeah, I would say some of them are very specific. Like, I have a grid where I teach kids how to use the grid method when they're creating a drawing. That one's pretty specific, but you could tailor it to kind of work with anything. I'm trying to think drawing like a face that's very specific, but anything that has to do with value or color, like acrylic painting technique. 


Zach: Right. 


Aimee: Stuff like that, a lot of that stuff I can reuse. I've even made, like, how to clean your brushes so that you don't add to my brush graveyard. 


Zach: That's really fantastic. And I feel like I know being in a world of arts education, value and color, and I don't know, there's like seven of them or something. 


Aimee: Yeah, seven. 


Zach: Yeah, those are generic. Right. Because kids will be making art using those seven or whatever number of, I guess, concepts throughout the whole year. Right. And you can reference back to these videos. You can use the video again because color is not going to change from year to year. Right, right. Yeah. You can make a generic video that teaches that or teaches skills based on that that are used throughout the whole year or the whole course or whatever. Okay. Very cool. We really kind of just got into the weeds there. I was curious, but let's Zoom back out a little bit. I want to ask you just to describe sort of a typical day in your class so listeners can get a sense of, like, what does a Modern art Classroom look like? What if students spend their time doing? And what do you spend your time doing? Like, how does MCP look in your class? 


Aimee: Yeah. So my classes are 100 minutes long each day, so there's just a lot of time that students get to do work time. 


Zach: 100 minutes every day. Yeah. Wow. 


Aimee: It is a lot. But the reason we do it is so that because we do quarters and it's block scheduling and, yeah, it's just worked really well for our students. So it was very hard to get used to because I was accustomed to a 47 minutes class period and then running around like crazy and trying to get things done. And now I'm like, I don't know what to do with half of all of this time, but I figured it out. So, yeah, there's a lot of time. I start every class. We have something at our school called Take Ten. So our school social worker leads SEL activities at the beginning of every single class. We have, like, a school Zoom that we all join, and it really helps set the tone for the class or that day. And sometimes, we're a very small school. We have about 120 students, and so sometimes we'll go out in the Commons and all do, like, an activity together. So we start the day that way. And then I always have an agenda on my board with a rundown of what students are doing that day. The learning targets. And we have sketchbooks, so they have a starter every single day. And so when they come in, they have a really good idea of exactly what they need to do to get started. So they all grab their portfolios from the cabinet and then get their sketchbooks and start drawing based on the prompt. And I try to keep it interesting with those. I've been pulling a lot of inspiration from silly Tik Tok videos, and the kids think that I'm just hilarious. Well, I don't know if they think I'm hilarious. I think I'm hilarious. A few of them think I'm really funny, though. And while they're doing that, I'm taking attendance and checking in and stuff. And the reason I have sketchbooks is just because they're a really good way for kids to brainstorm and explore their new ideas, as well as there's a place for them to store all of the skill building and mastery check work that they do. So that full disclosure, like, grading, is one of my least favorite things. It stresses me out, and it's just always subjective. And it's hard with art. Like, I try to have everything laid out, but it's also just a very subjective subject. But I find it super easy for me to check on their progress by just, like, pulling out their sketchbook versus trying to sift through stacks of turned in paper that they have. And my turn ins and it's just like a place where they can make mistakes. So when they're doing those skill building and mastery checks, it's not like, “well, this is like my final whatever. I have to be perfect.” It's like, “oh, I can kind of feel free to actually try to do things and make mistakes because it's okay.” So that's kind of like the beginning of class. That's a long explanation of why I have sketchbooks. And then once I have class started, I typically have a short lesson or a demo, and I try to do like twelve minutes or less. And sometimes I'll do a demo and then work time and then pull everyone back into the class and then do, like another little mini lesson just because I have that huge amount of time. Then I set them off to do their work and they're either working on skill building or mastery checks or they've moved on to the final for a unit. And since doing Modern Classroom, the mentorship program, I break every unit down into steps. So like, 1.0,1.1 just so that I know where they are and what they need to work on and what skills they need support with. And I also know where they are if they’re starting a final project because I found before Modern Classroom, I was all over the place sometimes. And so were kids, so it's good to have that formal structure. It really is. I was kind of chuckling because that's the piece of advice that I give to every single one of my mentees. When they show me, like, a unit plan, it's like some of these lessons are actually two or three lessons in one. And I think that listeners who haven't been through the mentorship program should look at their units and take that into consideration. It's such an important thing to do. And you're right that it clarifies the sort of the progression. Right. The path through the unit. Yeah, for sure. Because each step just builds on the last one and you work your way through them. And it's not like there's no ambiguity as to what you're supposed to be doing right now because each step is broken down so much. Yeah. And I think I was one of the people you were like, “you got to break it down because you're like, there's a lot in that one lesson.” And I looked at it and I was like, “oh, my gosh. Yeah. How would a student be able to navigate that if I packed that much into the lesson?” So it really did help for me to just kind of break it down even further. And honestly, it doesn't make it more time for you as the teacher, like making that lesson or breaking it down. It makes your job way, way easier in the long run if you break it down. 


Zach: Yeah, I think you're right. It's easier for them to navigate, and it's also easier for you. Like, when you grade the product of each individual lesson if there's fewer things to sort of balance. Right? If you're accidentally teaching three different skills in one lesson and you don't realize it, you'll get the work from the students and then look at it and be like, well, you did this part right? But this part is wrong. And then this part isn't perfect, but it's not terrible. And so, like, how do I grade this? Right? But if you break it up into the three parts, then you can say, first you did this correctly, move on. And then the second one, you did not do this correctly. So let's revise. And then for the third one,” each one is very clear that way. 


Aimee: Yeah. That's what I really liked about it. Is it's very clear. Like, “hey, you were not able to create, I don't know, like a three dimensional form in this skill building mastery check. Like, hey, let's go back. I'm going to walk you through it. Let's try it again.” It just makes it so much easier because then when they get to their final and then they come up with something, and I have this expectation of, like, this is the parameters that I have for the assignment. Like, you have to show these skills in your final, and then they haven't shown the mastery of it beforehand. It doesn't ever translate super well into a final. So it's really nice to have it broken down ahead of time because then I can catch that kind of stuff. But, yeah, I use a class tracker, so I have that displayed on the board. I was really nervous about displaying where they are in the class, in front of the whole class, and they honestly didn't seem to care. I don't know why I was so nervous about it. They've actually been more motivated because they say, oh, my name. I'm in the yellow right now because I got real fancy with Google sheets, and I learned how to do formulations to adjust the colors automatically for me. And they're like, oh, I'm in yellow. So I was very proud of that. I spent probably too much time, but I'm very proud that I learned how to do it. 


Zach: I've done that too. 


Aimee: Way too much time. Automating random stuff in my tracker. So satisfying. It's satisfying, exactly. But yeah, they're like, oh, I'm in yellow. Okay, I've got to get this done. Like, hey, Aimee, I got this done. Can I move on to some stuff? They don't need to ask to move on. They just can. But I just like that they can see, like, oh, hey, you're working on this assignment, too, or this lesson. Let's work together. And then I spend a lot of my time just, like, walking around the room. I check in with kids individually. I talk to them in small groups. And I found it a lot easier for me to pull groups of students to work out in a smaller work area in the hall briefly and then give them small group instruction versus trying to also pay attention to what everyone else in the class is doing and worrying about that. I just know that everyone in the class has a very clear expectation of what they know they need to do, and they're doing that. And then I can actually do the small group stuff. 


Zach: Yeah. That's a topic that's been coming up on several episodes for the past couple of weeks where the modern classroom just kind of runs itself. And you can pull kids into small groups. You can meet with one individual kids if you need to. And we've also Toni Rose and I have also talked about just meeting with other adults who are visiting your classroom and leaving the kids basically alone. Like not alone alone, but you don't interact with them for a little bit. And the class just runs because everyone can see on the tracker what to do. And I agree. A lot of people are apprehensive about displaying the tracker publicly before they try it. And my experience has been exactly the same as yours, which is the student just didn't care. Like the person who is making the biggest deal out of it was definitely me before I tried. And the kids look at their own name, and it also sort of destigmatizes the things that are often stigmatized in class, like kids calling each other dumb and that kind of stuff that doesn't happen in my class because there's no judgment as to their intelligence. It's very specifically their progress and not their grades. 


Aimee: Yeah, I would totally agree. 


Zach: Yeah. I feel like the way that it's framed is very much like this is your progress. And so if you're behind, I'm going to support you. And there's people here who can support you. But it's not like saying you're dumb. I think that's the kind of stigma that people associate with displaying this publicly, but that's not what we're saying. And I think that your experience really bears that out. And so his mind that the students just kind of don't care. 


Aimee: Yeah. I definitely made a way bigger deal about it than it needed to be. And once I did it, oh, I don't know why I didn't do this before.


Zach: Yeah. And that's not to say that teachers shouldn't be apprehensive. It is kind of strange at first. It's definitely one of the most uncomfortable things that I thought was, like, going into the model. I was like, really? But I have completely changed my tone on this. Listeners will know from me saying it. I'm very much in favor of the public tracker now. 


Aimee: Yeah, for sure. I feel like if you're someone who is apprehensive about it, you can always do it where just your single student can have access to it, or instead of displaying it, like, I don't know, you can email it out. I don't know. I haven't figured out the more individualized setting, but you can do it in a less public way and kids can still know where they're at. 


Zach: Yeah. And some teachers have come up with really creative ways to use individual trackers, and I totally respect that. If you want to do it that way and you have the sort of bandwidth and you've got a way you want to do it, that's great. I feel like my public tracker gives me a lot of really important information. Also, it's very functional for my class. And so, yeah, I'm going to bang that drum forever. Well, so let's move on to my next question for you, which is one that is actually sort of similar between music and art and I guess theater and all sorts of arts classes, which is that we allow for and we sort of even require and we teach this to our students, choice and freedom creatively. And you were sort of mentioning this with the idea of grading subjective work like art. And my experience is very similar grading students songs that they make for me. We can't always plan out everything that our students will do because they will make decisions for their own artwork. Right. And so I guess I'm curious how you leverage the model to support that sort of exploration, that creative exploration and artistic expression when students have a lot of choices to make and like, we talked about very much chunking up the units and having very specific steps. How do you balance that student choice and student freedom in an arts class with modern classrooms? 


Aimee: Yeah. So I really try to make my classes as open ended as I can because ultimately my goal is I want them to create things that they're interested in because if they're not interested in it, they're not going to do it. And it's not fun. And I like to learn about what my students are interested in and who they are as people. And you don't get that unless you're giving them that open ended choice. So what I'm really focused on is, like, the actual skills I want students to learn, and then I give them like, I don't know, I kind of describe it like not really a box. It's more like there's a fence that you can jump over if you want to. These are the skills that I want you to use in your final project. You choose your subject matter, how you want to do it, how you want to incorporate those skills, and you kind of run with it based on what you've practiced. And I've even told students like, hey, if you don't want to use this method of art making, I had a student last quarter, actually, who was like, I really don't want to use the grid method. And I was like, you know what? That's okay. But you just need to show me that you know how to do it so that in the future, because this person is very artistic. If you were like, oh, I really want to use this method because I can't get this drawing to look as realistic as I want, then you know how to use that method. But on your final, if you're like, no, I have a different method I want to use, but I've shown my teacher that I can do this if I needed to. I'm totally fine with that. And then I guess all my projects are themed and based on student choice. And I don't know if you've ever heard of choice-based learning in the art room, but I don't know. I dug into that probably four or five years ago where you are basing all of your student work on choice, and they actually kind of decide even the materials that they're using. I haven't gone totally that direction just because I haven't quite figured out how to manage the material part of that. But I have my own little hybrid of it where I provide the parameters of the little fence that they can choose to jump over, weave in and out of. And then I've also just learned with the choice based stuff. If I don't give students, like, a little tiny bit of direction, they get really overwhelmed. And when I do give the direction, I just try to keep it as generic as possible so that then they can really take it where they want to. 


Zach: Yeah. And we were talking about that before having those generic videos. Right. The more generic you can make your instruction in a class like ours. I think the more freedom the kids have, but also the more clarity as to what they're supposed to be doing. Yes, and I love the idea of fences that they can jump over. I've never thought about it that way because you're not drawing a box around them, you're not confining them truly creatively. You're saying, like, these are rules you can actually break if it's in service of better artwork. I have a rule that I teach my students, and I really like harp on it all year. I call it the 2-4-8 rule, which is that in music, almost every duration of things is in some multiple of two and then four and then eight or 16. But anyway, I have students who will come to me and be like, “Mr. Diamond, this doesn't follow the two four eight rule, but when it does, it doesn't sound as good.” And I'll be like, “okay, well, then have it be seven. Fine. That's fine with me. If it sounds better that way, it's your song.” And if it does sound better, I'll be impressed that they realize that they're breaking the rule and are doing it intentionally. I love that, and I love the idea of keeping it generic and viewing the rules as sort of like guidelines, fence posts to try and sort of follow. But there's still wiggle room even within that. I think that's very cool. 


Aimee: Yeah. And honestly, I have a rubric that I set up that's based on the fence that I've put up, and I have kids grade themselves first and write down like, “hey, why did you choose to do this?” Almost like a mini artist statement for every single final for a unit. And then what did you struggle with? What are you the most proud of with this work? And I found that one. It makes my job a lot easier for grading them because they've actually been forced to do that reflection, like the self reflection before turning it in. And we also do some mini critiques and stuff as well where they show all their students in the class to work and get feedback. But it also helps me because I can see like, oh, they're actually being honest with me about, “hey, I struggled with this and look what I did. I'm most proud of this.” And because art is so subjective when you're grading and I tell kids this straight up, I'm not worried about how your art looks compared to the person sitting next to you. I'm just worried about you trying what your best is and like putting forth your best effort with a piece of art and showing that. 


Zach: Yeah. And also I think that in a class like art or even a class like music, an artistic class like this, a creative class, each student's strengths may be completely different but also still very strong. 


Aimee: Yes, I would agree. 


Zach: Right. So the kids sitting next to you might be really good at drawing, but you are really good at painting or something, and you don't need to compare yourself to their drawing. I think that that's a really, really interesting way of looking at it. And I love this as sort of thinking about, like, project based classes in general, just how we can use that very granular, broken up, chunked up type of a unit while still providing a lot of student choice and freedom in how things are done in terms of, like, developing a final product or a project. So, yeah, that's very cool. As I was thinking about that question, I also thought of the way in modern classrooms that we classify our lessons as must, should and aspire to do. And that the reason I thought of that is because I guess the fence post or the guidelines might be sort of like your must dos. Is that how you structure the class? You make sure that students are doing the things that they absolutely have to do so that you know that they learned it, and then they have other ways that they can sort of extend out beyond that and they should and aspire to do or how do you use that sort of scheme of lesson classification? 


Aimee: Yeah. So I classify any activity where students are practicing a skill as skill building and there are just must dos, like they need to show mastery of certain skills based on whatever material or kind of theme I've picked for the project. And that's the must dos. And then their should dos and aspire to do are just extensions for those students who have worked ahead. They want to do more. I've done should do as like an art history lesson that I didn't necessarily have time to provide a ton of detail to in a must do lesson because I still provide some of that. But it's a lot more watered down. So it could be an extension off of that or it could be, “hey, you've learned this skill. Let's take it to the next level. You're going to try to do this,” if that's a should do. I'm still, in all honesty, kind of working out the aspire to do. I'm not totally there yet, but my goal is I want to have project extensions that challenge students in their final for a unit. So I could almost have a class within a class for students who maybe are slightly more advanced in art and are like, I really want to challenge myself to do this versus the students that it's more of like an introductory thing for them. They're not quite as confident in their skills, so they want to stick with the fence posts. 


Aimee:  Yeah, totally. My class is very similar. I use sort of like song analysis assignments that I would love students to do, but they're not at all part of the project. It's just sort of like taking the stuff that they've learned as they've been working on their project and trying to hear it in songs that they know. And so if they don't get to it, that's fine. Their project will have it will have no effect on their project. Right. You sort of mentioned, like, the art history kind of a thing, and that's what resonated with me. But I think also, like, the idea of pushing the project even further. That's not something that I've done, because honestly, I think that a lot of that freedom that you were talking about, that creative freedom and creative choice. That's where I've found the students in my class to do that. If they have the ability, I try and plan those lessons so that students who want to do that can within the confines of the fence posts, if that makes sense. Yeah. I remember you and I, we structure our lesson classifications differently. Right. Like, you have must, should, and I guess, aspire within each lesson. Is that right? 


Aimee: Okay. So, yeah, sometimes I'll do that, sometimes I won't. Some lessons are just specifically like a must do, for example, when they're learning how to draw facial features. I have like the must do is they have to follow along with my draw along video and then use the gridded picture that I have, and then they have to draw with that picture and create their own after drawing along with me, and then should do within that lesson to be, hey, if you don't want to draw based on that grid piece of paper with a picture, you could go take a picture of your friends sitting next to you in class or just draw them sitting there and just draw their eye. I break it down to, like, eyes, noses, and mouths. So I try to provide some wiggle room within each assignment, but not always. 


Zach: Yeah, I think that's the kind of freedom that I was thinking of and choice. Right. Cool. Well, we have time for one more question, and I don't feel like I can let you go without asking you this, which is a question that comes from art teachers to us that I have no idea how to answer, which is, how do you manage the materials in a self paced art class? How would you respond to that question? 


Aimee: To be quite honest, I actually don't really think I've changed anything material wise. I have always prepped, like, the materials beforehand, and I just have things labeled for students to grab with a label of, like, you need to grab this many. For example, I did sketchbooks. We made our sketchbooks yesterday for the first day of the quarter, and they have to grab a certain number of insert pieces for their sketchbook to draw. And they have to grab two pieces that they're going to label for the folder tabs in their sketchbook, and then a back cover and then two, like, binder rings. And I just label that stuff. So it's like, oh, I'm like, at this point, I can go grab this and then put it together for things like paint. My most embarrassing mortifying story with paint was I had a student, any art teacher will know this. We have the pumps on your paint where instead of having to tip the whole one gallon jug over you, just half gallon jug over you have a pump on it. And it was one of my first or second years teaching, and I had a cute little third grader who, like, slammed on the paint thing and got red paint all over her blonde hair. And her hair was like, dyed red for the rest of the day. I was like, no. So for paint, even with high schoolers, because, yes, you would hope that high schoolers would be able to manage paint. But I've still seen just paints spilled everywhere, like, all over themselves. So I prepackaged things, like paint into small storage cups, and then they grab them like someone from their table grabs enough for the whole table, and then they each get their own pallets rather than using the big bottles of paint. I feel like I have a lot more control over that. So when they're working on something, I'm not like, oh, God, please don't take out all my paint and spill it everywhere. I don't know, I see the paint is, like, in dollars. Oh, my God, that's like a $20 bottle of paint. So I feel like I have more control with that. And they also have the freedom to be like, hey, I'm going to grab some paint, and then it's not a huge deal. Like, I don't have to go grab the jugs or anything. It's just in the little package things, and then things like printmaking. I do linoleum printmaking where students will carve their linoleum blocks, those like high priced, high value materials. I have them show me very specific plans for a project, and they have to have shown mastery of certain lessons and assignments to even get that material from me. So that's kind of like a behind my desk type thing. Same with my Sharpie pens, because everyone takes Sharpies. And again, you have to show me like, hey, I have a plan for this. I'm going to use them and return it to you. I feel like there's more accountability with it. So that's kind of what I do with materials. I haven't found it to be as challenging as you would think. 


Zach: Cool. I mean, I guess I have no experience with this at all, as I was saying. But I think that it's interesting how, at least in my mind, as you were saying, all that, it kind of ties in with what we were talking about before of, like, choice and freedom, especially, I guess, when students get to that final stage of their project and they're just doing whatever they want, the materials are all there for them. And you've even set up little kits for them to just grab and go. If a student is working on something and they say, okay, I know I need paint or I know I need the Sharpie markers or the Sharpie pens, it's just all sort of like set up for them already. That's very cool. I think that the thrust of this question, the reason that people are concerned about it is because if you're not teaching painting on Monday and then colored pencils on Tuesday, and you can't then plan it out and have your materials ready for each day, because kids are self pacing, right? They're on different lessons and they may need different things. I think that might be where this question sort of comes from. But again, in an art class like yours, it sounds like there's enough freedom that you were kind of doing that anyway, right? Like, kids might not all need the same thing every day anyway.


Aimee: For sure. And like, I try to structure that's kind of the idea behind choice based art classrooms, which is where I did struggle was like, oh, man, with that your materials are any of the materials are free grain game every single day. And I wanted to have a little more control than that just because I felt like there are very specific standards and skills that I needed to be able to teach that were more themed around, like, we're going to use this material for this project, but everything in my room is labeled and kind of sectioned off so that it's easy if a student is like, hey, I really want to add this to my project because I've had kids be like, I'm doing watercolor, but I also want to Sharpie some stuff, and then they're like, okay, can I do this and grab the material that they need? So it's kind of worked out in that sense for me. 


Zach: Yeah, that's really cool. That's really cool. I guess I might be totally wrong and you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like if you're an artist working in a studio, like you have all the stuff that you need and you just pick what you need. Right. So it's sort of the most authentic way of having an art class reflect the real work of an artist. Is that right? 


Aimee: Yeah, I would say that kind of hit that on the nose for sure. That's exactly what it is to be an artist, as you have the choice to use the materials that you want to use at that point in time. So obviously there's a little more structure because they're all still learning. But I'm still trying to give that choice.


Zach: Yeah. But it's sort of like you have to balance it, obviously, right? A lot of them may have never used paint ever before. They don't know the damage that it can do, I guess. But yeah, I feel like building towards that or at least striving for that sort of authentic level of choice. That's very cool. That's a great way to answer this question, I think.


Aimee: Thanks. 


Zach: Awesome. Well, Aimee, thank you so much for jumping on the podcast. It's so nice to get to talk to you again and hear sort of like how your classroom is going and how honestly for me to learn more about art classes. It's always fun to hear the differences and similarities between my class and an art class. So thank you for hopping on.


Aimee: Yeah, of course. 


Zach: How can our listeners find you online? How can they connect with you if they want to hear more? 


Aimee: You can feel free to follow me. I have my public Instagram. It's called Serendipitousjoyarts, or you can shoot me an email@serendipitousjoyarts.com. And this is kind of an Instagram account where I have my own artwork and just other projects that I'm working on. But you're more than welcome to reach out to me there.  


Zach: Awesome. Thank you again. This has been a real joy for me. Listeners. Remember, you can always email us at podcast at Modern Classrooms.org, and you can find the show notes and an outline for this episode at Podcast Modernclassrooms.org/84. This episode's recap and transcript will be uploaded to the Modern Classrooms blog on Friday. So if you're interested in that, be sure to check there or check back here in the show notes for this episode, and that'll do it. Thank you all for listening. Have a great week and we'll be back next Sunday.


Voiceover: Thank you so much for listening. You can find links to topics and tools we discussed in our show notes for this episode. And remember, you can learn more about our work at www.modernclassrooms.org, and you can learn the essentials of our model through our free course at Learn.Modernclassrooms.org. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at modernclassproj, that's P-R-O-J. We are so appreciative of all you do for students and schools. Have a great week and we'll be back next Sunday with another episode of the Modern Classrooms Project Podcast.