North Kingstown Art Teacher Paints RI Distant Learning Picture

NORTH KINGSTOWN, RI — Victoria Carlton's first concern when she was informed the state was instituting distance learning amid the new coronavirus health crisis was how she was going teach something as interactive as art to elementary school students remotely. The Stony Lane Elementary School and Hamilton Elementary School instructor soon found out that not only has she still been able to connect with her kindergarten students through third-graders, she has connected with large members of their extended families as well.

"It's pretty interesting to be honest when you consider I have quite a few students," said Carlton, who teaches about 400 students between the two schools. "It's actually going great. The kids are doing great artwork — doing pictures and sending them to me. And then they are doing the artwork with their mothers, their fathers, their siblings, and even with their grandparents through Facetime. Then I am getting those sent to me too. So I am not just seeing my students' artwork. I am seeing their grandparents' artwork as well."

Carlton is the recipient of Artsonia's 2020 Art Education Leadership Award honoring pioneers in the art education community who continuously inspire their peers and engage students. During the state school closures, which Gov. Gina Raimondo announced last week will extend through the end of the academic year, Carlton said she is trying to inspire children to do more than draw and paint — she is trying to inspire them to create.

"I tell them anything they are doing creative to send me the picture," Carlton told Patch. "That could mean baking cookies or building things with LEGOs. We're being flexible and parents are being really appreciative of that."

Carlton said distance learning has evolved in the month since it was instituted. At first, she said, the goal was to mimic the school day as much as possible to keep students engaged. But, in the weeks since, she said the goal has been to get children off their computer screens more often and allow that parents, who are also often working from home, can't sit with a 7-year-old in front of a laptop doing a single project for hours on end.

"We've been trying to get them outside in the yard at different times of the day to do things like spell out their names using sticks and leaves," she said. "It's been a big change. But there have been some really good things about it. Every kid who sends me a picture of something they've done, I email them back. So it's like I am getting a one-on-one with them that I don't always get in a classroom with 20 kids."

She said she has most enjoyed siblings working on projects together. She had one of her kindergarten students complete a project assigned to her third-grade sister. Then she's had families who are trying to find ways to make something fun out what could be a difficult and isolating situation.

"One girl at the very beginning really wanted to go back to school," Carlton said. "Her mother had this big cardboard boxes for some reason, so they painted one like a school bus, and cut open windows, so it was like she was still taking the school bus every morning."

One other advantage of remote learning is that the students get to show off their projects to the families and guardians right away instead of keeping them in a portfolio in the classroom through the end of the year. During traditional school, Carlton uses the Artsonia platform to post the photos so parents and grandparents can go online and see them.

Artsonia allows family and friends of student artists to create and purchase organic keepsakes from the student art, and then gives back 20 percent of all revenue to the local art classroom.

"We could not thrive without the commitment and ingenuity of teachers like Victoria who use their online gallery and lesson plans to motivate others," said Jim Meyers, CEO and co-founder of the company. "This Art Education Leadership Award is a way for us to recognize the hard-working, passionate people who help our children create and cherish art and their creative side."

Carlton said when the schools were first closed on March 13, she thought it would not be a big deal because it was only for two weeks. When the health crisis became more widespread, she said she was worried about her own return to the building as an older teacher who came to the school later in life after 30 years as a floral designer.

Now she said she has found that by getting out of the classroom she has been able to get even more out of her relationship with many of her students.

"It's opened up a whole new window for me that when I do get back in the classroom I will be doing different types of projects," she said. "We were forced to think of some new ways of doing things that I think have been very successful."

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This article originally appeared on the North Kingstown Patch