Art Teacher Fusion

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Mandeville, LA
Art Teacher Fusion

We are two best-friend art teachers who have come together to create a FUSION of engaging lessons, units, curriculums, and creative resources.
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Our goal is to support and inspire fellow educators while sparking imagination and creativity in every art room.

09/01/2026

This Value Spheres worksheet is one of our favorite go-to resources because we use it again and again throughout the year!

Here, Michele is demonstrating monochromatic spheres, which we use in our Hero Project Unit and Introduction to Color Theory Unit.

But we also use the same worksheet when teaching pencil shading during our portrait unit!

It’s one of those resources that works across multiple lessons and techniques.

I put the full YouTube video and worksheet link below in the comments

08/30/2026

ART TEACHERS—Check out this SUPER Successful Critique Challenge!

This might be one of my favorite critiques I’ve done with my AP Art & Design students! 🙌 And it was SO much more engaging than a traditional critique.

I had a bunch of you ask about this when I mentioned it last week, so here’s the full idea! 👇

🖼️ THE CURATOR CHALLENGE
For their summer assignment, my AP students created an 8"x8" artwork representing who they are as an artist.

When they came back to school, I turned all of their pieces into a gallery wall in my classroom.

Then I told them:

You’re the curators. Create your own exhibition.

Students worked in groups of 2–4 and selected 6–8 artworks from the gallery to create a completely NEW themed exhibition.

Their challenge was to:

✨ Choose artworks that connected in an interesting way
✨ Develop a theme for their exhibition
✨ Create an exhibition title
✨ Write a paragraph explaining the concept behind their show
✨ Photograph the selected artwork
✨ Design their exhibition in a shared slideshow
✨ Present their curated show to the class

Each group claimed a slide in our shared Google Slides presentation and transformed it into their own mini exhibition!

And honestly… THE RESULTS WERE SO GOOD. 🤯

Students were debating which pieces belonged together, noticing details they hadn’t noticed before, making unexpected connections, and thinking about how the meaning of artwork can change depending on what you place next to it.

The BEST part?

They were actually excited to critique.

Everyone participated, everyone had a role, and students were practicing so many important AP skills without it feeling like a traditional critique.

It also opened up some AMAZING conversations about curating, context, themes, artistic intent, and how artwork communicates as a collection.

I loved seeing how differently each group interpreted the SAME body of work. ❤️

And now I’m thinking… this could work at SO many grade levels!

Art teachers: Would you try this with your students?
👇 Tell me what grade/level you teach! I’d love to see how you could adapt the Curator Challenge!

08/29/2026

Value is RELATIVE! Let’s tie this back to our previous post on self-portraits.

Value is relative to the values around it. A middle value can appear lighter when placed next to something very dark, but that exact same value can appear darker when placed next to something very light.

This is an important concept for students to understand when creating realistic artwork. Instead of asking, “Is this light or dark?” encourage students to ask, “Is this lighter or darker than what is next to it?”

The value itself hasn’t changed, the relationship has.
Students typically begin working on a white background, which can make those first values they put down appear much darker than they actually are. This is one reason students often struggle with contrast and creating a full range of values from the value scale they just practiced.

As they build their drawings, encourage students to layer their values and constantly compare them to the values around them.

08/28/2026

🎨 Meet Art Teacher Fusion! 🎨

We’re Michele & Amanda, two best friends who met in college studying Art Education. After college, Michele taught elementary through middle school art, while Amanda taught high school art. Years later, we had the opportunity to teach at the same high school, where we began collaborating and creating the curriculum that eventually became Art Teacher Fusion!

Our curriculum was developed through years of trial and error in the actual art classroom, following the National Visual Arts Standards and going beyond simply teaching students how to make art.

Our units include:
✨ Pre-instruction & introductions
✨ Step-by-step demonstrations
✨ Art history & cultural inspiration
✨ Art production
✨ Self-evaluation & art criticism
✨ Philosophical aesthetics
✨ Day-to-day pacing & a complete teacher manual

Our goal is simple: Create curriculum you can open, teach, and feel confident using, making your life as an art teacher just a little easier.

For the past three years, we’ve poured our hearts into growing and perfecting our store. Michele is still in the classroom, while Amanda is home with her 10-month-old and another baby on the way.

Although we were devastated when Amanda left teaching, we’re still working together every single day, just in a different way. And we’re so grateful for the opportunity to continue creating, collaborating, and growing Art Teacher Fusion together.

Thanks for being part of our journey!

— Michele & Amanda
Art Teacher Fusion

08/27/2026

I LOVE teaching self-portraits!

One thing I’m constantly reminding my students: your face is NOT paper white! 😂 So keep adding value!

In this lesson, we layer value, talk about the planes of the face, and most importantly, discuss how value is relative.

A value can appear lighter because it’s next to something dark, or darker because it’s next to something light. That’s why I encourage students to work all over and build their values gradually, rather than comparing one area directly to the white of the paper.

Want to try this self-portrait lesson with your students? Comment “PORTRAIT” and I’ll send you the link! ⬇️

08/26/2026

September is just around the corner! 🍎✏️

It’s the perfect time to start the month strong with daily Warm-Up Drawings!

Our Monthly Design Matrix Calendars are on SALE today only! Grab September, the 1st semester, or the whole year and make the first 10 minutes of class a breeze. This resource comes with multiple worksheet options to to fit your needs, as well as a slideshow intro and daily timer slide. The best part... sudents will practice drawing skills and problem-solving as they combine an element with a principle of design each day!

For today's 25% off Sale, use code: BTSBONUS26

September: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/September-Calendar-Drawing-Matrix-Elements-of-Art-Principles-of-Design-13550510

1st semester bundle: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Design-Matrix-Drawing-1st-Semester-Bundle-Art-Daily-Warm-up-Elements-Principles-14188262

12 month bundle: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/12-Month-Calendar-Drawing-Matrix-Elements-of-Art-Principles-of-Design-BUNDLE-13590394

08/25/2026

SURPRISE! TPT is having another Back to School Bonus Sale!

We’re so excited to share that you can save up to 25% off ALL of our ART education resources on August 25th and 26th only, including full UNITS and complete CURRICULUMS!

If you’ve had something sitting in your cart waiting for the right time, this is it! Grab those resources you’ve been saving, stock up for the year, and make your planning a whole lot smoother and easier.

Head over to our Store to take advantage of this final Back to School SALE and use code BTSBONUS26 at checkout to save BIG! --> https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/store/art-teacher-fusion

** Remember… NONE of our resources are AI-generated. Every single resource, from the smallest activity to our most comprehensive projects, is thoughtfully and intentionally hand-developed by us, Amanda and Michele, for our own Art classrooms. We’ve used them with our students, revised them based on real classroom experience, and perfected them over time. What you’re getting is the result of years of teaching, creating, testing, and refining.

Wishing you all a wonderful year of teaching, creating, and finding joy in the journey!

08/23/2026

Lesson idea for other AP Art and Design teachers--> I do a summer assignment every year before the start of my new AP Art class. I understand that not every school is able to do this, but I really believe summer assignments are a great way to set the tone and expectations for the year—and to have students start the year with one complete project already under their belt!

I’m especially excited about this year’s assignment because it gave me the perfect opportunity to create a gallery wall in my classroom, filling a previously blank and boring space. Seeing all of the summer assignments displayed together makes me so happy! It has completely brightened up the room, and students from my other classes have already been stopping to ask questions and admire the work.

The assignment: I purchased 8" x 8" canvases (on sale!) for each prospective AP Art student. Their task was to create a finished piece that represented who they are as an artist, while also working within their chosen AP portfolio.

My 3D artists had an extra challenge: How could they incorporate a 3D element onto a flat canvas and somehow beat the problem of gravity? 😄

I always give students one week after school starts to finish the assignment. This allows any students who joined the class later—or who weren’t aware of the summer assignment—a chance to complete it.

I'm waiting on more to come in, and then we’ll have our curator critique on Tuesday, and then students will have their first set of points in the gradebook to kick off the year.

I absolutely love how this assignment sets the tone for the class, gets students creating right away, and gives us something beautiful to start the year with!

08/20/2026

Check out this new ice-breaker idea I’m calling "Blind Contour Relay!"

If you’ve used our Elements & Principles of Design flashcards before, here’s another way to put them to work...

I tried this with my AP Art students as a way to get them interacting, laughing, taking risks, and experimenting with a technique they may not be totally comfortable with yet: blind contour.

Here’s how it works:

Students form groups of 3–4. Each student gets a white piece of paper and a black Sharpie, then has 5 minutes to create a blind contour self-portrait.

Then comes the relay.... Students pass their portrait to the left.

Next, each student gets an Element or Principle of Design flashcard. They have 5 minutes to intentionally incorporate that element or principle into the new portrait using a different medium (marker, colored pencil, pen, etc).

Students pass the portrait again to the left and this time pass their flashcard to the right. They get another 5 minutes to add their new element or principle to the new portrait.

They do it one more time, with the final student also responsible for making sure the portrait feels finished and intentional.

Then we put all the portraits together and see what happened.

There was a LOT of laughing, but it also opened up some really good conversations about taking risks, trying something new, loosening up, problem solving, and letting go of the need for every drawing to be perfect.

And for my AP students, it was a great way to reinforce that the Elements and Principles of Design aren’t just vocabulary words to memorize. They’re tools artists can intentionally use to make decisions.

I love an icebreaker that gets students moving, talking, making, and thinking like artists all at the same time.

Would you try Blind Contour Relay with your students?

** We do have th Elements and Principles of Design Flashcards available (and in multiple languages), but the Blind Contour Relay is just an idea for them!

Address

Mandeville, LA
70448, 70471

Website

https://linktr.ee/artteacherfusion

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