Last Article...

Well... my last article ran this month. If you have ever thought of applying to write for the Art of Education I really suggest that you do so. It is such an amazing place to work. Jessica, Derek, Amanda and the rest of the staff are just top notch. It is a time commitment but I promise you will grow professionally and personally! 

If you haven't seen my articles, here is a list. Click on any article to read the whole thing...

• My Students are Scientists
• A Letter to My Students' Parents
• Should You Use a Theme for Your School Year?
• How to Work with Students with Autism in the Art Room
• 5 Ways to Incorporate Humor into Your Classroom
• A Better Way to Teach Radial Balance
• What Art Teachers Really Want for the Holidays
• The Best Way to Keep Your Resume Current
• How to Tell if a Project is Taking Too Long
• 5 Simple Sub Plans to Make Your Life Easier
• Make Assigning Seats More Fun with The Simple Trick
• 3 Ways Digital Portfolios Benefit your Students
• The Great Art Show Debate
• 10 TED Talks Every Art Teacher Should Watch
• 4 Ways to Sell Your Program at Parent Teacher Conferences
• 4 Ways to Re-Spark Your Creativity
• Essential Tools and Inspiration for Your Next Green Screen Project
• 7 Easy Ways to Create a Green Screen for Your Classroom
• 5 Student Friendly Photo Apps You Should Try This Year
• Is your Desk Ready for the School Year?
• 5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before this School Year Starts
• Banish the Phrase "I don't know what to draw" with this Simple Trick
• 3 Addictive Projects to use when Introducing Students To Encaustic Art
• 5 Art Apps to Use this School year
• 5 Stellar Websites for Finding Artist Information
• Why You Should Ask Your Students to Rate Their Projects
• A New Kind of Book to Add to Your Reading List
• 6 Simple Ways to Breathe New Life into Tired Lessons
• Help Your Students Make a Difference By Making Art
• A Genius Way to End Your School Year
• Unplug to Become the "Summer You" All Year Round
• 2 Key Things to Know Before Diving into a Mixed Media Project
• 3 Easy Ways to Get Work Home After the Art Show
• Decoding the ABC's of Education
• Confession of a Not-So-Perfect Art Teacher
• How to Prep for Art Shows Without Losing Sleep
• How to Utilize Art History to Add More Variety to Your Lessons
• Yes! You can Make Cool Artwork with Microsoft Paint
• Keep Up with Hundreds of Blogs the Easy Way
• 7 Ways to Beat the Winter Blahs
• 4 Ways to Collect Your Students' Digital Artwork
• Push Your Student with an Art Room Challenge
• 5 Tips to Stretch Your Art Room Budget
• 8 Tips to Hosting a Student Teacher in the Art Room
• The Secret to Successful One-Day Clay Projects

Summer Lovin...

I have been blissfully absent from blogging for most of the summer as I decided to unplug and recharge myself.  We moved into a new house last September and I have been itching to attack some projects.  Here is photographic proof of what I was doing (since we know I wasn't blogging)

The Original Landscaping (rocks and dead grass)

New Landscaping (flowers, mulch and lighting)

The girls' room when we bought the house

And the girls room today (remember the chandelier from last summer)

Our room when we bought the house (yeah there was wall paper in weird places)

Our room today

Then entry way when we bought the house (yes those are real rocks glued to the wall)

the entryway today (still have to finish the floor but it might be an improvement)

the downstairs "office" when we bought the house

my "office" today

Those are the house projects.  Of course we still have more to do but I think we are off to a pretty good start.  I also enjoyed watching baseball games, gymnastics practice, dance camp and swimming pool tricks.  We didn't take any big vacations (no money or time) but made a few day trips to friends in Iowa and my grandparents farms.  We enjoyed some camping close to home and spent a lot of time laughing and hanging out with friends.  

And now I am ready for a nap... 

but wait, school just started!

Summer Class #1

This summer I am taking 3 classes.  This will help put me all the way across the pay scale and take some pressure off of myself to get there...

My first class has been Google Apps in the Classroom taught through Doane College by the one and only Lisa Pospishil (check her out on twitter, youtube and a "few" other places).  It has been great. The crazy thing is that EVERYTHING has been online.  Not one piece of paper has been used.  If that isn't the way of learning in the future...

Some of the super fun things I have been learning about are

Quizlet 

This site is awesome.  It allows you to upload/enter your vocabulary and it will create flashcards, games and tests for your students to study from.  In 20 minutes I created a set of flashcards for every vocabulary section my PLC made this year.  It is so awesome!  

Check one of mine out here...

Canva

This website allows you to build your own customized "canvas." It has different size, styles and is so simple to use.  Here is the one I created for my Google Site.  It honestly took less than 15 minutes and went right into the site.

We have been also learning about being more effective in using YouTube and all things Google.  

We have also been working on creating a Google Site.  

Here is a link to mine.  

It isn't going to take over my blog but where my blog is for me, this site is more for my students. 

Humbled

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Tim Bogatz the art teacher at Bellevue East High School in Omaha, NE when we both presented at our state conference this fall.  He is a super gifted teacher and his blog (Eastartroom) is a great read (who doesn't love the Top 10 Hotties of Art History).

I was humbled when he asked to interview me for his feature of 14 art teacher/bloggers of 2014.  I am excited to say that today is my day.  You will have to stop over and check it out!

Thank you Tim!

Break

Wow... these last two weeks have been amazing.

Before break I was feeling extremely overwhelmed.  There was never enough time in the day.  I wasn't doing a good job of being a mom, being a teacher or being a spouse.  I was getting by... just finishing one task in time to tackle the next one.

Break didn't start off the best (4 of the 5 people in my house got the flu) but I managed to get through Christmas and we were able to enjoy a friends wedding.  That was the beginning of the good stuff.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time helping PJ and Laura celebrate.  Their wedding was great in that it really focused on the important stuff... getting married and keeping God at the center of their union.

From there on, life got better.  There was lots of family time, lots of staying put, lots of taking a long time to do nothing.  I spent one day at school and the rest of the time was spent feeding my soul.  I even started working on my very own craft room.  I had a small space in our other house but nothing like this.  

Our superintendent challenged us to come up with one word for 2014 instead of a resolution.  

I chose ENGAGED.  

It will be my goal to be engaged what I am doing.  That means when I am with my school kids, I am with them.  When I am with my home kids, I am with them.  When I at home, I will be home.  When I am at school, I will be engaged with what is happening there.  I am excited for what this next year brings and can't wait to live engaged.

What would you do?

So today is the last time I see my kiddos for the quarter.
We are having a work day followed by "THE GREAT FLAKE CHALLENGE" for those who are done.
I have told all my classes...Your work HAS to be turned in by Friday!  No Exceptions!  No credit for 1st semester work will be given during 2nd semester!  
I told them they could take their work home and finish... just make sure I have it by Friday!

3 different times today I had students leave unfinished projects in their folders.
1 student took his to finish... he claimed he didn't understand that he had to have his done Friday also?
1 student turned it in unfinished... he said he would just take whatever grade he got on it.
1 student refused to do anything.  I reminded him that turning in something was better than nothing.  Nope. He wasn't turning any of it in.

I don't get it.

What would you have done?

Enjoy it...

I saw this posted on facebook last night.  

It was the greatest!

I hope you enjoy it.

(due to language it is not good for schools.... just for art teacher's souls!)

EPIC RAP BATTLE 

Bob Ross vs. Pablo Picasso

Update...

A while back I posted about Alex and all the great things he has been up to.

I just had to show you his finished windmill:

My "Real" Room

The blog "Teaching with Grace" challenged us to show off our REAL classroom.  "This Old Art Room" shared the challenge so I am passing on my real room:

Have a great weekend!  

I am taking an art class and can't wait!

Makes my day!

I love studying living artists as it helps students realize that they really can make a living doing what they love.  It makes me think of students like Baden who told me, "I am either going to be a professional football player or a professional artist." Students see professional football/basketball/soccer players all the time but rarely see a professional artist.  I also love that you can interact with them.  A while back we looked at Ben Heine's work and chatted with him via email.  Today I sent an email to Bruce Gray and heard back from him!  (insert giddy face here)  I can't wait to tell the kiddo's on Wednesday.

I also love days when you see a special kid who has made HUGE progress blossom.  When Alex started in my class he spent most of the time bent over under the desk.  The iPad was the only way I could get him to interact with me.  Fast forward 2 years to today when he was able to handle a class demonstration, music during work time and come up to share with me his clay project sketch.  Gotta love this smile!

One Awesome Kiddo!

and a close up of his sketch...complete with wind!

What I learned from my students... today!

I am always learning things from my students and usually it has a lot to do with "what is cool."  Today in the middle of class a student made my world SO MUCH BETTER!  I am not sure why I never thought of it, but I hadn't...

In the middle of a lecture on forms, as I was saying, "this is a lot harder to do with markers..." One of my kiddo's said, "why don't you use the crayon?"

Use the crayon?
Why that would make a ton of sense!
I was so used to drawing with the smart boards pens that I never thought to change the pen style to crayon.... but it Rocks!

I can actually get some gradual shading into my example drawings.  

I am so grateful that my student shared such a great idea (even if it was a blurt during lecture)!

Some notes from class:

Can't forget...

I almost forgot to post about my artwork.  The NATA conference also hosts the Juried Art Educator Art Show.  I had a piece accepted and it was pretty awesome!

Comparing my piece to the others I felt honored to be in their presence.  There are some really talented art teachers out there (DUH!) and was I moved to be in a show with them.  This also made me get excited about creating more of my own artwork!

It is always neat to see your stuff hanging in an art gallery!

Nebraska Art Teacher Association

Well I did it...

I presented at my state convention...

and I survived!

It was a bit nerve wracking (it is a lot easier to feel confident in front of 30 5th/6th graders than 15 of your peers) but it was also a lot of fun.  I had to switch things up a bit with the computer.  My feedly account wouldn't open in internet explores but would in foxfire and even then I couldn't get my account to open but could start a new one... and ended up starting one for the person who presented before me.  I ended up running through my PowerPoint and then demonstrating which means I covered the information faster than planned to and jumped around more than I wanted to but the people I knew in the presentation said they could follow what I was doing.  (they were my friends though....hmmmm).

I have to send a huge thank you out to Timothy Bogatz (check him out at  http://eastartroom.wordpress.com/) who presented right before me.  He helped me get through the computer glitches, taught me about how to use twitter without it being a time suck (thank you tweetdeck) and he allowed me to start him a Feedly account in which he is following some girly home improvement blogs I love.

It was definitely different spending a few days wandering around my college stomping grounds with one of my best college buddies.  I felt like I could be right back in the swing of things ... until I over heard some "real" college kids say, "look there goes some adults. Bet they are here for that art conference."

Wayne State College did a great job of hosting us and two things really stand out to me...

#1 How much work the college art ed students did.  They were everywhere; presenting, guiding, running the show.  They even recreated their "Black Box Theater" for us.  They painted clear plastic with florescent paint and hung them in a black room with black lights.  It was really awesome!  You walked in and were blown away.  

#2 The Sistine Chapel at the planetarium.  The WSC science staff used their planetarium technology to allow us to sit and enjoy the Sistine Chapels's ceiling.  It was awesome!

Planbook?

I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with paperwork lately.  I feel like I am a doing  a lot of "doubling up."

1. Lesson plans sketched out in my paper calendar (I can't get rid of it)
2. Typed lesson plans in Google Drive.
3. Weekly overview typed in Google Drive.
4. Lesson plans linked to my Google Calendar. 

Last week I was introduced to Planbook.com and it looks like something I might like.  I was just wondering if anyone out there uses it and what they think of it?

p.s. Art pictures/projects coming tomorrow!

Feeling a little lighter...

So I just finished going through all my paperwork... and man did it feel AWESOME!

You know how we all get paperwork and then we put it into the "I'll deal with it later, its not top priority pile"  Well tonight it became priority.  To the left is the keepers, to the right are the recyclers!  It is awesome to think that I am carrying about 1/2 as many papers!     

So now my thoughts turn to what else I might want to tackle... I was just noticing that my district is open on the Nebraska Art Teachers Association Board.  It is has left me contemplating if that would be something good for me. 

With the house moving I think it is best left off my plate for this year, but is something I am really thinking about for next year... 

Wow...that really is my name on the presenting schedule.  YIKES!

A little Auction Action

This weekend I went to an auction.  I was hoping to get a few vintage table clothes for a "at home" project I have in mind. $31.72 later I left with a TRUCK LOAD of stuff.  Things were going ridiculously cheap and I couldn't say no.  I even ended up with a few things for my classroom.  

a box of yarn that "came free" with the $1 crystal bowl I bought for my mom

a tote full of k'nex for the free time corner that I paid $1 for

several lace table clothes that I am going to use when the 5th graders make clay "lace trivets." 

Don't tell my husband...

But I am in LOVE!

I decided this year I would create a packet of information for my 5th graders.  It turned out to be 12 pages.  I headed up to school Sunday night to make copies as I didn't want to tie up the machine during the week...

300 students X 12 sheets each = a long time!

I am in love with our new copier.  It printed the pages front and back, collated them AND stapled them together!  

AMAZING!

I had to stop in every so often to remove the copies from the machine but I now have all 315 packets ready to go!

I tried...

...so this year I told myself I was going to do a better job of  "getting ready for school" in the morning.  I would put real deal makeup on everyday (not just mascara and chapstick).  I would do my hair.  I would wear cute clothes (that I bought on clearance so I don't get too upset when they get paint on them).  This morning when I left this is what I thought I looked like...

Tousled beach hair, cute cami, capris and a sweater

This was my reality

Tousled hair gone flat and frizzy

only mascara... didn't even cover up my black eye (thank you vacuum handle)

cute cami 

sweater (that ended up tucked into my pants waistband for all of 3rd period)

and decent capris

At least I was on time and smelled good. 

It is days like this that I applaud those teachers who are put together all the time!

and am in awe of teachers like Cassie Stephens who ROCK outfits like this 

(image from cassiestephens.blogspot.com)