20 Resources Visual Arts Teachers Use to Help Students Learn

Arts Education is essential for developing well-rounded students. The arts foster creativity, critical thinking, and self-confidence in students, while also developing their aesthetic appreciation. In addition to this positive impact on their personal development, arts education also improves academic performance. That's why most schools in the U.S. require students to complete some sort of arts study as part of their middle or high school curriculum. In order to unlock the benefits of studying the arts, teachers must plan learning experiences that move students from passive participants to engaged creatives who actively leverage art forms for expression. That's why New Jersey Arts teachers enrolled with Rutgers Alternate Route are sharing the go-to resources they use to plan great lessons and enhance their teaching for students in their classes. 

Adobe Photoshop Cs6 Tutorials
Tutorials for any of the tools that you might need to learn on Photoshop. (Duong N., 9-12)

Art21 
Highlights contemporary artists for educators, keeping art fresh and relevant for students. (Francesco G., 9-12)

Art of Education University 
Wonderful resource for art teachers to get new ideas, learn how to incorporate concepts, and download printables for the classroom. (Abigail G., 9-12)

This site has a lot of great lesson ideas, tips on classroom management, and overall great resources for art teachers.  (Paula B., 9-12) 

Art with Mrs. Nguyen 
Project ideas with step-by-step images. (Julia D., K-5;6-8)

ArtsEdSel The Center for Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning
This site is very beneficial because it overlaps the 5 SEL standards and the 11 anchor standards in visual arts.  It can help to enhance arts education by considering how SEL can be represented in lessons.  (Elizabeth D., 9-12)
 
Canva
Allows users to create graphics using templates and a variety of fonts and clip art. Art students can use this to design projects, edit photos, and plan yearbook pages. (Mariam S., 9-12)

Edpuzzle.com
Allows users to find videos and resources that other teachers have used in their classes. Using the site, users can put questions to different parts of a video and also post them to Google Classroom as assignments. (Sami B., 9-12)

F-Stoppers
Gives new and updated topics in photography by photographers in order to keep content new and up to date. (Duong N., 9-12)

Google Arts & Culture
Nicely organized resource where users can easily search by artist, medium, art movement, theme, location, etc. (Abigail G., 9-12)

International archive of historical and artistic content. Used for art research projects. (Mariam S., 9-12).

Louisiana Channel 
Frequent new Videos on art, literature, music, architecture, and design. If Ted Talks were dedicated to art. (Francesco G., 9-12)
 
Method of Action 
Browser-based "games" to practice design strategies. I use these as do-nows. (Alea Q., 9-12)

National Arts Education Association 
Art education resources. (Vaughn F., 9-12)

Newark Arts Festival 
Art opportunities for teachers and students to attend. (Vaughn F., 9-12)
  
New Jersey Student Learning Standards Visual and Performing Arts 
I find this site to be much more user-friendly and so much easier to read than the standards on DOE. Visual and performing arts share the same standards. (Elizabeth D., 9-12)
 
Spinner Wheel 
I use this wheel as positive reinforcement to pick 2 secret students every day. You can copy and paste your class rosters and save them to use in every class! (Julia D., K-5;6-8)
 
Student Art Guide
Lesson ideas, student art contest information. (Alea Q., 9-12)
 
Teachers pay teachers  
Use this site to find worksheets. Sometimes it helps my students to practice new on a structured worksheet and I always struggle to find printer-quality resources on the free internet. This site has been handy. (Sami B., 9-12)

YouTube 
YouTube is great for showing steps and methods to create our projects. For example, after I show students how to use watercolor, students can look up even more videos to see the methods again or slow it down, go back, etc. (Paula B., 9-12)
 

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