Smart Art builds STRONG Class Communities 

Our country and world have numerous divisions, therefore it is refreshing to find a way to bring people together.

Smart Art ignites dual powers: 

● First, students' minds to create at the highest thiking level unique response to academic ideas. 

● Second, it builds class communities while they share their work on a regular basis. Why because they are accepting each others diverse and unique qualities. 

I am not alone in observing the power of class communities. 

MIT’s (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Teaching and Learning Lab invited Dr. Gopalan to speak 

about her discoveries during the pandemic. She is Assistant Professor of Education Penn State University her topic: “Student’s Sense of Belonging Matters.” Her collection of data showed that ‘belonging’ seriously matters to students' academic success. She sums her thoughts by saying: 

“ Stop telling students they belong, show them instead that they belong 

Smart Art has brings diverse students together in a common goal to understand academics. They belong. They actually learn from each others perspective when they share their ideas in class. 

Here is a quote from one of my university students at the end of the semester about our class community that used Smart Art weekly. 

“ I go in and out of classes seeing the same faces but not really knowing anyone. But the students in your class are not just faces in a crowd, I know them, they know

me and we support one another. This is the strongest class community I have experienced at the university. That is why I will remember the students in this class! It is a gift! You have made us into a community by seeing the beauty in our different 

Artistic strengths (in Smart Art) and building our similarities in small groups. Thank you. 

A Junior Education major student comment on videoed at Kennesaw State 

University, Atlanta G 

Smart Art needs some guidelines and boundaries especially for pre-teens, new teens and older teenagers when sharing Smart Art. Here are those guide lines. 

● A time limit for sharing, 

● Definition of an acceptable and unacceptable response, 

● Steps to work out differences and consequences when those guidelines are not honored. 

● The benefits for individual students and the class as a whole. ● More detail in the Smart Art in Smart Art for Grade Levels & University button on home page