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)