Whiteboard Art & Educational Art Gallery
As a teacher for 10+ years, I have spent a LOT of time around whiteboards, and as an artist ... I cant help but make art on them.Â
The bulk of this collection comes from a single year, a daily personal project from January to June of 2023. Here's how it came about.
When I returned to California in June of 2022, I decided to spend a year substitute teaching, which made sense for lots of reasons:Â
a sabbatical from the responsibilities of running my own classroom, as I was feeling the burnout after teaching through Covid online, then hybrid, then in-person for the first couple years after schools reopened
a way to explore and get an in-depth sense of the different schools and communities in the new area I had just moved back to, before committing to a full-year contract, desiring not to walk in blindly
time to focus on my personal life, grief, and healing after losing a second sibling to suicide
a relatively safe space in which to begin my gender transition, with no obligation to return to unfriendly sites
flexibility to schedule around my various other appointments and side hustles while reorganizing my life
an opportunity to begin developing my artistic portfolio and begin to finally pursue a lifelong dream
So I challenged myself to start making art daily, with a few little rules that developed along the way.Â
WORK FIRST, ALWAYS: First and foremost, this is BONUS on top of the actual job description, so no art until all my professional responsibilities have been addressed thoroughly, and the students are not in need of any support. If they have a video or worksheet or book to read, I've usually got 10+ minutes when I can keep one eye on the whiteboard while still doing my supervisory role.
MAKE IT QUICK: Once appropriate downtime or lunch break is located, don't start something you can't finish in the short gap available -- which means these are almost all 10-30 minute pieces.Â
TIE IT IN TO THE CLASS: Many of these are directly related to the lesson, some are loosely inspired by the teacher's subject matter or classroom decorations, some are requests, but I always try to connect the art to something that will be meaningful and memorable, and appropriate to the age group.
USE A LOW PRIORITY ZONE OF WHITEBOARD: A lot of the teachers like to keep the art up, so in most cases, I try to pick a side of the whiteboard that isn't the most high traffic section -- something off to the side, a frame or border piece maybe. Somehere it can stay a while.
Moose and Wolves of Isle Royale National Park
Isle Royale is a remote wilderness island, isolated by the frigid waters of Lake Superior, and home to populations of wolves and moose. As predator and prey, their lives and deaths are linked in a drama that is timeless and historic. Their lives are historic because we have been documenting their lives for more than five decades. This research project is the longest continuous study of any predator-prey system in the world.Â
High School, Biology Honors
George Orwell's "Shooting An Elephant"
"It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant – it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery – and obviously one ought not to do it."
― George Orwell
The essay describes the experience of the English narrator, possibly Orwell himself, called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as a police officer in Burma. Because the locals expect him to do the job, he does so against his better judgment, his anguish increased by the elephant's slow and painful death. The story is regarded as a metaphor for colonialism as a whole, and for Orwell's view that "when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys."Â
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_an_Elephant
High School English
Mandalorian | SpongeBob & Patrick Do MathÂ
“You have something I want. You may think you have some idea of what you have in your possession, but you do not. Soon, he will be back with me. He means more to me than you will ever know.”Â
―  Din Djarin
The Mandalorian's parental role in the series makes him a softer and more relatable character; he changes in a positive way because of raising the Child, becoming less selfish and self-absorbed. He risked his life and drastically changed his career as a bounty hunter to accept his responsibility as the Child's caretaker and guardian, marking a significant parental sacrifice.Â
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mandalorian
Middle School, Grade 7 math - The chalkboard has the equation from the example on that day's assignment, the human figure is the math teacher, and the Mandalorian was in response to the Baby Yoda plush.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
“There are things you can't back down on, things you gotta take a stand on. But it's up to you to decide what them things are. You have to demand respect in this world, ain't nobody just gonna hand it to you. How you carry yourself, what you stand for--that's how you gain respect. But, little one, ain't nobody's respect worth more than your own.”
― Mildred D. Taylor
In the book, Taylor explores struggles of African Americans in 1930s Mississippi through the perspective of nine-year-old Cassie Logan. The novel contains several themes, including Jim Crow segregation, Black landownership, sharecropping, the Great Depression, and lynching.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roll_of_Thunder,_Hear_My_Cry
Middle School English
Biology Textbook Illustrations
A frog’s tympanic membrane, or tympanum, is the circular patch of skin directly behind its eye that we commonly call its eardrum. It functions much like our eardrum does –the tympanum transmits sound waves to the middle and inner ear, allowing a frog to hear both in the air and below water. In addition, this membrane serves to keep water and debris from entering a frog’s ears.
https://naturallycuriouswithmaryholland.wordpress.com/2013/08/15/a-frogs-tympanum/
Lobsters do not show typical signs of senescence. For them, life just goes on until an inevitable end. Unlike people, as they age, lobsters do not weaken, and they continue to grow, feed as normal and reproduce. They can also regenerate limbs if they lose them.
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/are-lobsters-immortal.html
High School Biology
Earth Science & Life Science Diagrams
Through a series of cracks within and beneath the volcano, the vent connects to one or more linked storage areas of molten or partially molten rock (magma). This connection to fresh magma allows the volcano to erupt over and over again in the same location. In this way, the volcano grows ever larger, until it is no longer stable.Â
https://www.usgs.gov/programs/VHP/about-volcanoes
Sea turtles don’t retract into their shells. Unlike other turtles, sea turtles cannot retract their flippers and head into their shells. Their streamlined shells and large paddle-shaped flippers make them very agile and graceful swimmers. In the water, their rear flippers are used as rudders, for steering.
https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/10-tremendous-turtle-facts
Middle School Earth Science & Life Science classes
STAR WAR-HOL (Star Wars Pop Art)
“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”Â
―  Andy Warhol
High School Media Editing class, the teacher was a fan of Star Wars.
We're No Strangers To World Mythology
“Never forget, the words are not the reality, only reality is reality; picture symbols are the idea, words are confusion.” Â
―  The Egyptian Book of the Dead
“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” Â
―  Michelangelo
“You know the rules and so do I.”Â
―  Rick Astley
Middle School World History, on a day where each group had a project on a different set of religions and mythology from different chapters of the textbook.Â
Bill Nye: Muscles & Bones
"Bones and muscles work together, or you aren’t going anywhere. Muscles always pull, even when you push on something like a door somewhere in your body your arm and leg muscles are in tension. They are all attached to bones, and those bones are pushing; they’re in compression. By pulling on bones you can breathe, talk, and move all over the world. "
Bill Nye: Everything Is Chemicals
"Every single thing around you is made of chemicals. Plants, rocks, computers, food, and you are bunches of chemicals. All chemicals are built with elements, the 109 different symbols on the Periodic Table. Different combinations of elements make different chemicals."
Stranger Things
“You shouldn’t like things because people tell you you’re supposed to.”
―  Jonathan Byers
“Nothing is gonna go back to the way that it was. Not really. But it’ll get better. In time.”Â
―  Jim Hopper
Out Of My Mind
" Every word my parents spoke to me or about me I absorbed and kept and remembered. All of them. [...] By the time I was two, all my memories had words, and all my words had meanings. But only in my head. I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.”
― Sharon M. Draper, Out of My MindÂ
Being stuck inside her head is making Melody go out of her mind-that is, until she discovers something that will allow her to speak for the first time ever. At last Melody has a voice . . . but not everyone around her is ready to hear it.Â