MANAGING THE ARTROOM
Start the Year with Artsonia

Ten years ago, I read a small ad for an online student art gallery. I thought it sounded too good to be true, but definitely worth a try. Now, I can truly say Artsonia is the best thing out there for art teachers.

Called the world’s largest online student art gallery, Artsonia showcases close to 12 million pieces of art from over 57,000 teachers. Thousands of artworks are added each day from around the globe. More than 130 different countries are represented.

Art teachers typically set up school galleries on the site. Individual students can have portfolios within the school gallery. Once you digitally photograph the artwork you want to showcase, you can upload it. There are no limits on how many pieces can be published. Many of us have tried setting up online portfolios for our students. With Artsonia, the framework is done for you with clear and simple directions. There is never a fee for membership.

Start your school year off by heading over to artsonia.com to see all the great new things happening! The site has been upgraded in many areas since it was launched eleven years ago.

Donna Staten

featuring your student art. You can post the videos to your Artsonia gallery, or use them separately. Older students love creating animotos of their work!

Artroom Newsletter A convenient and practical new feature is the art room newsletter. This allows you to send one electronic newsletter per week to keep families up to date on what’s going on in your artroom. Think of all the time, paper and effort you’ll save!

Jenna, Dancing Giraffe, Gattis Elementary, featured on Artsonia.

Artist
Statements

One of the new favorites is the artist statement. This is a natural fit for Artsonia and adds a writing component. Students can write statements about their pieces to describe the thoughts and feelings that went into creating them.

They can add these from home, or the teacher can upload them from the classroom.

I have my older students write
statements on the back of their work.
The younger kids tell me about their
pictures as I type. It’s amazing to see
how much all
of the students
have improved
since we started
doing this.

iPhone App
Possibly the most exciting
new feature is the iPhone
app. This new way for
teachers and parents to dig-
itize and upload artwork
includes a basic image
editor to crop, rotate, and
brighten images. It also
allows teachers to view
and edit their rosters and
input parent contact infor-
mation. The first release of the app
is for the iPhone/ iPad2/ iPod Touch
4th Gen + version. As of this writing,
there is not yet an android version.

Called the world’s largest
online student art gallery,
Artsonia currently showcases
close to 12 million pieces of art
from over 57,000 teachers.

Lesson Plans If all that is not enough to send you immediately to artsonia.com, there are 4,000 free lesson plans sent in by art teachers like you! The National Art Education Association is a supporting partner of the site. You can also follow Artsonia on Facebook.

Animoto
Another fabu-
lous feature is animoto, which allows
you to choose a set of artworks and
combine it with music and effects in
a very simple process. The result is a
beautifully orchestrated custom video

Donna Staten is an art teacher at Gattis Elementary School in Round Rock, Texas and serves as an artsonia mentor to train other teachers. donna_staten@roundrock- isd.org