In addition to the AP syllabus (which needed to be submitted to and approved by The College Board Course Audit ) I had agreed to write a curriculum map for the AP course, as well as one for Art, Design and New Media. ADNM is an awesome, required Freshman course that I've taught for several years - so I was actually excited to have the time to write up the formal curriculum.
Along the way to accomplishing this writing, I experienced a few fortunate convergences. One was that the brand-spanking-new National Visual Arts Standards had just come out! And they are wonderful! As part of the roll-out the NAEA hosted several webinars (free for members) and launched a very intuitive, user-friendly website specifically for the standards. The site even allows you to customize your own version of the standards. Here's mine (you can make your own at the link above):
Once I got started and finished diddling with the template, the actual curriculum maps came together really nicely and I am so happy to finally have working documents! As I was wrapping up the maps for AP and ADNM I received a call from our curriculum director wondering if I'd be interested in writing new maps for Art II/III and Digital Photography/Advanced Computer Art. I was on a roll so I agreed. All of these new documents are on this site under their respective classes. It feels so good to be starting the year this way. My gratitude to Standards folks at the NAEA, Kevin Cole and the other art teachers at the AP Summer Institute and to everyone in the Art Teacher FB Professional Learning Community!