MYOB

The title of this post MYOB, Mind Your Own Business referrs to teachers who need to do just that. Two days a week at my second school I have 3 classes I teach in an open pod area. Originally, one of the first grade teacher's classes I have asked the Assistant Principal if she could have art in this area, and he said yes. The alternative would be me in the classroom during this teacher's planning time, hence art on a cart. I was fine with this decision and actually like having a space of my own, however noisy it gets every so often. I mean, the space has four sinks and a water fountain for crying out loud!

So, this new place for art caught the attention of the Kindergarten teacher, who is notorious for stirring it up. She has been nothing but nice and accomodating to me, but I have heard of her not so nice encounters with others. I simply walk on eggshells with this teacher. I don't need the greif for being there 2 days a week. I, again, had no issue with them having art in this pod, nor did the Assistant Principal. Why not have art in the pod. I'm no fan of this particular Kindergarten teacher, however, both she and the first grade teacher deserve planning time away from students. Everyone else has it, and it's fair.

One teacher, however, is constantly making this decision her business. I have heard, out of her mouth numerous times, her judgements of Kindergaten asking to have art in the pod. Her oppinion comes up at lunch and through another teacher's mouth. I presume this teacher thinks of me as cowardly, that's the impression I've gotten from her, because I won't demand art be held in the classroom. She has neither asked for my opinion on the matter and I have no desire to correct her assumption that Kindergarten is trying to rule all, so to speak :P Simply, it is none of her business. Her room is not that close to the pod area and she has a door in her room she can shut.

I think this teacher would be a little shocked to hear that the first grade teacher initiated this request. I wonder if her opinion would change at all about the situation. For me, I'm indifferent. I hate getting caught up in these kinds of things at work. It's just not worth my time and I think it's sad that others take the time out of their day to get involved in something that has absolutely no affect on them. I think it's a little funny and am secretly keeping count of how many times she brings up the topic. I think it's up to 5 since the start of the year, at least! Oh well, one of these days i'll tell her to MYOB!

Stop the gossip

I know it is difficult at times to steer clear of gossip, especially in a school/teaching setting. I do my best but admit that I can get caught up in it just like anyone else. I eat lunch with a group of teachers, all specialists like myself, at my second school I teach at 2 days a week. I think this group has gotten into a habit of taking extended lunches to simply sit and gossip, or at least that's what I think. So, yesterday I had simply had enough. When I was finished eating and the gossip was still a flowin, I got up from the table and started to prepare my lessons for the next day. I cut paper, sorted materials and found reproductions that I needed. It cut way down on the amount of gossip I heard, not only because they were whispering but because I had my mind occupied with more productive things.

I felt good about myself that I had gone against the grain and decided that I wouldn't be apart of this gossip-fest, at least for the day. Baby steps

crazy moms

So, once in a while, as an art teacher, I must vent. Here it goes. I had a couple of things that put me in a funk today but I will put them in separate posts.

This is at my second school, not my base school. I am only at this school 2 days a week and am there to simply pick up classes. I have about 5 Kindergarten volunteer moms that come in and help and I absolutely love 4 of them. However, one mom has hit a nerve with me. She tends to be overly concerned/controlling of how she thinks my art class should be run. She is helpful at times but underneath I can tell she just wants to take over and run the show, telling me we need certain crayons and giving a students a peice of paper when I specifically told him he couldn't have one because he was acting up. The other moms just do what I ask and that is that.

I told the students today that we would be having guest moms from the Japanese Immersion program here at the school come in to teach them how to do Japanese painting greeting cards. The moms get together and do this with students every year. Last year I had a mom show all of my classes how to make paper cranes, it was great! So, this OCD mom Kindergarten helper is one of the volunteers coming in to help, she said. So, I said the moms are going to lead the painting, because I assumed the moms would be training each other and know what they are doing since they didn't consult me at all. Well, apparently this threw OCD mom off and she became snappy because she didn't realize she, along with another mom were going to present this. I was out of the loop just as much as she was. This is why this school and its planning irritate me at times. I became a little flustered because I had just taught a difficult behaving Kindergarten with her help. I felt bad for the other awesome mom helper who felt a little uncomfortable with the whole conversation and snappy OCD mom. We'll see what happens next week but I'm not really looking forward to these greeting cards at all.

"You make it look easy"

I like to run races. I am not very fast- but I like the feeling of being apart of an event/ and the community... and I find that when I run in a group- I tend to run faster. Plus it is nice getting a t-shirt just for showing up for a 5k.
During my longer races I have really come to depend on out side support to encourage me along the way. I really appreciate most of the shouts of encouragement made by spectators- friends and families of other runners. I emphasize MOST, because sometimes people shout out the wrong thing. For example: "faster, faster", or " come on girl".. these are not on my preferred list of encouraging shout outs.
But today- one of the volunteers said what I think may be the best line I have ever hear- " Ya'll make running look easy".
It made me feel really good- like I was such a good runner that I made it look easy.. I have never thought of myself as the kind of runner who makes running look easy. I am the type of girl who finishes and her face is so red it is purple and as streams of sweat run down my body people ask if I am ok....
So for him to say" you make it look easy" ... those words meant you are great! You are a great runner! You run so well you make this look easy!! That phrase meant all those things to me. .. it was from the heart. He didn't really believe we made it look easy- he was looking for the most encouraging words to help us finish the race.

How this relates to the classroom...
I really think this is a line I could use in class. I admit sometimes I am at a loss for encouraging words. I try my best- but I wonder how my students would feel if I told them: " Wow- you make drawing a horse look so easy!"...
I bet I would see the same smile on their face that I had today ;)

This has really made rethink the importance of saying the right thing to my kids. After all- a big part of my job really is encouragement- to encourage risk taking and creativity...
So I hope to put more energy into this aspect of my job this year and I work to encourage my students to finish their drawings- just as I was encouraged to finish my run today.

Scream!

So I taught a printmaking lesson on Edvard Munch's The Scream.

Students created exaggerated facial expressions and carved them into Styrofoam meat trays and printed them. After creating frames for their prints- they then began to go back into the design and add color. I really liked the way this one turned out. 

32 oz. of Relaxation

After a long Thanksgiving preparation- the music teacher and I headed out to our own little happy hour!
It never hurts to reward yourself after a lot of hard work;)

FALL ART PART TWO

3rd grade Pumpkin Relief Prints










Grade k
Fall Tree Landscapes. Simple lesson but
these turned out so bright and colorful.

Fall Art/ Special Friends Day

About a month ago my VP asked that I decorate the school for our Special Friends Day. ( Special Friends Day meaning the big Thanksgiving dinner)

The previous art teacher before me held this job every year- and did so with much grace. Apparently she held an interior decorating job on the side. She made these elaborate table center pieces for every lunch table in the cafeteria.
So with little notice- I stepped up the challenge with the help of my friend- the girl that shares this blog with me.


We decided that I should hang as much Student Art as Possible- so here are a few example lesson plans below:
Grade K Fall Relief Prints
Students use a brayer and block printing ink and we make a leaf print on small 8x10 paper.
Then students filled up the negative space around the leaves with color and patterns.


Grade 4 Pumpkin Still Lifes
Students study light source /shadow/overlapping/ blending and use unusual colors to create 3-d effects.




I asked one of my second grade to create fall trees using the same ideas as the pumpkins.

Artist's mind or just not too bright?

What a weird day. It's 3 a.m. and I am making a post. Allow me to explain. I cannot sleep. I was observed today for my 1st of 3 total evaluations throughout the year, which I felt was about to happen by the way. I can always pick the days, I just feel it for some reason. Hahaha. I absolutely forgot that I had a third grade class after the class I was evaluated in. I thought they came after lunch for some reason :P My brother had hernia surgery today, outpatient, but still on my mind mostly because I was the one who had to pick him up after school. Then at 12:30 a.m. there were drunk college kids outside the apartment complex yelling at each other. 3:00 a.m. the same college kids were back from their outing getting sick on the lawn and yelling once again at the very top of their lungs. Thank God the cops were called by the awesome girls upstatirs with the patio bar my brother so envys! Now, all is calm but I am anxious for my flight in the morning back home for the week of Thanksgiving. So, I can't get back to sleep.

Back to my post relating to the title. Once in a while I really get the feeling that I think very differently from others and today was one of those times. In the past I have mistaken a raspberry candle I got as a gift as jam and put it in the frigde. I was shocked and a little dissapointed when I opened it and had nothing more than candle wax to spread on my already made toast one morning. Ok, that I would classify as not too bright. Once, I also recieved a card in the mail from the local pizza company once for what I thought said a free pizza for Amy Stromboli. I was all set with an elaborate plan to redeem my coupon pretending I was this italian woman, Amy Stromboli. My brother/roomie was able to read the scribbled cursive writing that reavealed it was a free chioce of ANY stromboli. So, now I know a stromboli is a pizza item and I avert my eyes when it pops up on any menu in order to avoid reliving my stupidity. Once again, I would classify that as not so bright. And last but not least, during a practice lockdown drill at school I opened the door when the assistant principal knocked, not even considering it could be an intruder. If it's up to me, I guess we're all gonners! I guess i'm a little too trusting as well.

But, today I may have convinced myself that I have an artist's mind instead, being that I just think a little differently and slightly weird. The third grade teacher brought her kids in today for art and usually get picked up at 11:45. Today she said "I'll get them at 22." I said, "that's fine, we'll be done early, i'll have them ready for you at 22." This is not an odd request. Once in a great while students have to finish tests and I let them pick students up early. So, we rush through our clay lesson. I tell the kids we are working full speed today. I get them lined up by 11:22 and we play the grocery store game until 11:30. I finally call the teacher's room to see if she's going to pick up her kids and she says it's only 11:30 and she'd get them at 22. I said, it's past 11:22, it's 11:30. She laughs and says twenty to 12! I said, oh no, I thought you meant 22 after not 20 till! See, she did not say twenty till, the proper way to say 11:40. We had a good laugh about it and I let the kids free draw for a few minutes. Seems more like a lack of communication and understanding but am I a wierd thinker or just not too bright?
In a discussion with my brother, he concluded that it's good to think differently like I do. It's not that i'm necessarily a moron, but I have so many alternative answers for a lot of things and I don't just pick the obvious. That's what makes a good art teacher, he said. I guess if I were mostly logic, which clearly I'm not, I wouldn't be in this field. I'll just go with what he said!

I Heart First Graders

I heart my first graders! They are so funny. I wouldn't trade working with children for working with adults ever! First of all, when the first graders wrote, in their classrooms, what they like best about school, half of them picked art as their favorite! That's pretty much becaused I loved them all when they were in kindergarten. We were making masks the other day and looking at examples on the t.v. through powerpoint. I had up a mask from Africa with horns and stripes. Everyone had their idea what kind of animal this mask represented. "A Zebra!" one shouted out. "A ram," "A deer with antlers!" other students shouted. Then one blonde haired blue eyed little girl called out "it's a cantaloupe!" Clearly she meant antelope!

Out of the mouths of Babes

My 2nd graders are studying the figure and discovering how we move and where we bend. I took them through an exercise where they stand around the room and we bend our joints together. We look at Degas dancers and other dances like breakdancing, irish, tap, jazz, mexican and so on. I then have the kids go cut out pieces for body parts using skin colored papers. As I moved around the room to help with ideas, one student, notorious for making off the wall comments says, "I want to make my dancer holding a bud light!"

500 million for Art and Music?

Governor Bill Richardson says if elected for president in 2008 that he will put arts and music back into education. He calls music and art "critical elements of education"- and says that he would be willing to invest up to $500 million dollars in art and music programs....
Is he the only candidate talking about the arts?
Check out Richardsonforpresident.com

Oh Holiday Art, It's Just Something Ya Gotta Do

So, Thanksgiving is upon us and that means a whole lotta Thanksgiving art! My school turns this holiday into a huge production with months of planning, tons of volunteers and art. The kids have a Thanksgiving feast in the gym where parents, siblings, and grandparents are invited to join if they buy tickets. I supply the art. I plan ahead and start a month and a half before the big day. I was told when I started that it is a pretty big deal and the art is really showcased (and admired ; ) on the walls.

Now, in my idealistic days I would have been very anti-holiday art but since, I have learned to be flexible, adjust my lessons, and just do my job. In my attempt to stick to my ideals and my curriculum, I incorporate what students need to know into the lessons. For instance; I have students include facial expressions and textures on their turkeys. Kindergarten is still learning how to cut so we just use the turkey to practice cutting ovals, lots of ovals! The older grades study contour line and abstraction. So, I have them turn pumkins, leaves, and other gourds into contour line drawings/paintings and oil pastel abstractions. I had second grade make fall lanscapes with falling autumn colored leaves instead of seasonal landscapes. So, as you can see, I adjust and everyone is happy.

Also, a big plus to doing the Thanksgiving art is that the parents, students, and staff absolutely love it! It gives them a greater appreciation for art that is well made... even if it is holiday art. I don't have students make art for any other holiday, however. I think people typically view Thanksgiving as an "American" or U.S. holiday so it may be more acceptable to celebrate it in the schools and doesn't break the whole church and state separation deal.

Hitting the pavement to relieve stress....

Hitting the pavement to relieve stress...

So today after school, a 2nd grade teacher and I went for a 6 mile run. We are both running the Thanksgiving 1/2 and live too far apart to really coordinate a run at each other's houses. So- around 3:30 today we mapped out a trail being our school on mapmyrun.com and off we went.

running and talking and venting and running.... I felt a billion times better when it was over.. and all of my worries I had had about the day vanished as I focused on the run.

I vote this the #1 stress reliever.... number #2 would be shopping.. and # 3 would be happy hour.

Only 4 more teaching days until Thanksgiving Break! ;)

Sometimes all you need is a compliment...even if it makes you nervous

So - every now and then I run into my principal. This encounter always makes me nervous. I guess every since childhood I have had a fear of being called to the Principal's office.. and now the principal is my boss.. which is even more scary at times.
What makes me really nervous- is that I really respect her. I like how she runs the school- she is a great leader.
All that aside...
She gives me the best compliments... and sometimes that is all the motivation I need.
It lets me know she approves/ appreciates the work I do with the kids.

This being my first year at my new school- I sometimes feel that I am going to disappoint the staff- sometimes I wince at the idea of compliments because I don't know if the next art lessons will live up to their predecessors. ...

I think I need to chill out.
It is good to be appreciated- and everyone needs verbal praise now and then. ;)

Mrs. Art is Here .......... Finally

If I were to be given the opportunity to miss one day in my schedule- it would be Mondays.
My schedule is as follows:
8:05 -8:35 4th grade
8:35-9:05 4th grade
9:05-9:35 2nd grade
9:35-10:05 2nd grade
10:05-10:35 3rd grade
10:35-11:05 3rd grade
11:05-11:35 3rd grade
Lunch
12:05- 12:35 1st grade
12:35-1:05 1st grade
01:05-1:35 1st grade
1:35-2:05 Fith Grade...
Notice there are no breaks... no transition time???
This is why I hear 10 times a day- Mrs. Art is here.. finally.
;)
Every day isn't like this- Monday is by far my worst day. But it is evident in my schedule that the classes were arranged for the homeroom teacher's breaks- with no regard to what would be best for me. ..or the kids.
For example- 2nd grade is across the school from 4th grade. So .. I am almost always 5 minutes late.. at least. So lately on Mondays I have focused on new breathing techniques to make it through the day! HA.
Just venting:)
I love my job.

Clay Club

For the past five weeks I have taken an extra hour out of my day to hold clay club at my base school, the one with the 4 walls : ) Sometimes I have ideas for after school art clubs, which my Principal is very supportive of. Anywho, I was going to make a post each week but with the site down until now, I will just lump it all together. Yay long story short!

Ok, so I started off by making the clay club available to the 5th and 6th graders at my school. I put out a box they could drop their name into and a few weeks later I would randomly select 10 students to participate. I had over 30 names in the box after I sifted through (some put their name in 2 or 3 or 5 times so I had to get those out of there before I drew names). The Librarian at my school was going to help me with the club so I chose 5 and she chose 5. Clay club was set, and the girl who put her name in 5 times was drawn too!

The first week we made frogs with open mouths on lilypads. I taught them how to connect peices and smooth lines to hide seams. This turned out to be the fave of the 4 projects. The next week we made coil pots with different, more difficult coil desings than they would have learned in our regular art class. Then we made pinch pot cups/mugs the next week. I felt they didn't really like this project the best but learned how to make handles nonetheless. Our last project was a clay whistle. This was the most fun for me and the most difficult for them. I think we got everyone's to actually whistle too!

The time all went very fast. I would make this clay club last 80 minutes instead of an hour. I was rushing them to finish and they wanted to take more time and make these elaborate quality peices. I felt at the time I scheduled the club they would most likely finish what they needed to in the hour, but live and learn I guess. I wouldn't have had the club meet more than 5 times because I don't want to wrap the clay up. I'm not there every day and that's a lot of storage room. So, it worked pretty well to just finish a project in one class.

I was a little sad this last week because it seemed that some of the kids made some new friends they normally wouldn't talk to in school. The girl who put her name in 5 times and who loves the club, forgot to come last week and instead went home on the bus. She missed ice cream sundaes with sprinkles and the works. I saw her the next day and we laughed about how she completely forgot. I promised I'd get her a cookie to make up for the missed ice cream : )

Mr. Seahorse Grades k-2

From time to time I may post art lessons. I promise these will be quick and painless! :)

This lesson was taken from Eric Carle's Mr. Seahorse. A book that teaches about male species of fish that take care of their babies. Great book- allows for student predictions and some of the text is repeated so that students can read along.

I taught this lesson to students ages k-2.

First I introduce the book- then I instruct students on how to draw a seahorse using the shape of the letter S. The next class- we read the book and then students add their own sea animals/ fish to their oceans. We draw/color our animals with crayons and use watercolor over the negative space. When using watercolors/tempera - I ask them not to use any gray, white, brown or black.

(grade k example)

kids are funny

One of the best things about my job is that I get to talk to a bunch of really funny kids all day. I have one student, we'll call him Al, who is super sweet and has cracked me up pretty much every week since I started at my base school. He's not the best artist in the world but he tries hard and genuinely enjoys my class. Anyway, we've had some pretty funny discussions and this is the most recent one. The other day Al and I had a discussion about the word Au pair, which by the way I had to look up to learn how to spell, twice, darn google! Here's how it went...

Through the rows of windows in my room I noticed Al being walked into school by who looked like his older brother. I had Al in class that afternoon. The class was working on their symbol collages and I had some down time to make my rounds and talk to the kids a bit. I asked Al if that actually was his older brother who walked him in and that he they looked alike. He laughed and said, "no, that's my new Au pair!" I asked Al what happened to your old Au pair? Al replied giggling "i got him kicked out!" When I asked why he would do such a thing, he said it was because the old Au pair left the stove on for a half an hour with nothing on it and went to talk on the phone in the other room. So, Al called his mom and ratted the guy out.

That's how Al got a new Au pair.

I went on to ask Al if his new Au pair had another job besides being his babysitter. Al said no, this was his only job and that his opare is from another country. "He's not allowed to be called a babysitter if he's from another country. He is called an Au pair. If he was from the U.S. then he would be called a babysitter, " said Al still giggling. "Ah ha!" I said. "I'm learning so much from you today Al."

and we're back

So, it's been well, forever since I made a post. Lo Siento, (that's Spanish for i'm sorry) for the non-Spanish speakers : ) I was working on getting this blog linked to the domain name I bought artonacart.com but it didn't work out so well. I pretty much flubbed the whole thing up until this week when Ames's husband saved the day and fixed all. One day we will be artonacart.com but for now .blogspot at the end will just have to do : ) Anywho, it's been a surprisingly easy and great start to the school year. It's also flying by. More posts and pics to come!

Thinking Back Looking Down.

I attended undergrad in a small state school in the south. When I entered the Art program against my parents best wishes I then entered into a very bumpy 4 year ride/walk/run/crawl. The Art Education program really didn't exist. The retired professor was replaced. He and I butted heads.. a lot. I was happy to leave and didn't ask him for a reference when I left.
Yippee- off to grad school.Graduate school was amazing. I loved every minute of it. I maybe had too much fun. I recommend it to any one. The professors were so accomplished and passionate and cutting edge. I was involved in a progressive Art community and making a lot of art. I taught art classes to homeless kids with my counterpart to this blog.But all good things must come to an end.After getting my MA I moved back to the South to get a job.My fiance at the time had a year left in law school.Luckily for me- a near by county created mandatory planning time for all their faculty! This meant full time art and music teachers in every elementary school. So I was hired.Everyone tells you that your first year teaching is really hard.. and it really is. It is so hard. My kids were so poor and their parents didn't care anything about art. But it was a crucial experience for me as a teacher. I liked feeling like their fine arts savior.... A bridge to cultural enlightenment... even if I wasn't.

Over extended.. but can I complain?

This morning as I arrived to school I noticed huge boxes labeled Blick Art Supplies in the Media Center. Large boxes mostly filled with paper and tempera paints and even real water color paper... all for me.. I mean .. my students. My first school was not as fortunate. I worked on a budget of about 32 cents a student and often times found myself in the dumpster behind Michael's. (Which I think is illegal)

Looking back on it- we were able to survive just fine. My kids still made good art- just not on real watercolor paper.

Found out today that I didn't receive the Junior League Grant. Is it better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all? I think no - not in this case.

PS. Six thirty minute kindergarten classes in a row on a "dress as your favorite book character, which really means wear your old Halloween Costume Day" Friday ..... should be illegal!

Book Fair Bucks

My school as a Winter and a Spring Book Fair. I found this out a few weeks ago when one of the mom's emailed me asking if I could decorate for this event. ..

It was a winter theme... and they needed penguins and polar bears.

;)

So- since she is a member of the PTA ( where I get most of my budget) - I said I would be happy to help....

One day after school after hanging another installation of Polar Bears with some theme like " Fall into a new book"- I asked the media specialist if there was a discount for teachers on books at the fair. This is when I found out about book bucks- Parents donate money for teachers to purchase books.

This morning I looked in my mail box to find 268$ book dollars!

Amazing.

Like most elementary art teachers I use a lot of children's literature to teach art lessons.

I purchased a lot of cool stuff- even bought a few items just for me.

One of my fav purchases was Zen Shorts. - One of those books I kept seeing at Barnes and NOble but never bought!

Very exciting! Definitely one of those days that makes it OK to work on a cart. ;)

Eric Carle at the High

I got a chance to meet Eric Carle at the High Museum of Art last week. We waited in line for over an hour to be the first in line for his book signing!

Lesson Plan 1: Eiffel Towers

Grade: K
My students created these after a discussion on architecture. We used off brand sharpies to draw our buildings and covered the negative space with watercolors.
When discussing the shape of the tower- I mentioned the letter A. This helps a great deal in drawing the structure.
The paper is cut in long strips to help guide students in creating the tall tower shape.