How Many Steps....

I have a student teacher for the last quarter of the semester and was talking with him about how I finish up projects.  I found there are a lot of steps.

Step 1 - Gather and Grade all 300 assignments.  I hold back the best 5-10 from each class for display on artsonia, display in the hallway and art shows.

Step 2 - Photograph the projects, upload them to artsonia, "publish" them. Click here to see our school

Step 3 - Sort out the best 3-7 total... save for art shows in the spring.   (Mentally try to remember whose stuff you save so you don't get to the spring and find that you have only 1-2 students stuff).

Step 4 - Prepare the remaining images for display in the hall.  Organize them neatly... I am kinda crazy like that.

these are the 6th grade review squares... line drawings, shape collages, form drawings, color blends and value watercolors.  

Step 5 - Take down the display when a new one is ready, sort and file the artwork that had been on display.  

whew... no wonder I am so tired :) 

Snap My Art...

I finally did it...

I tackled my first art room fundraiser.  

(The main reason had to do with every classroom getting an iPad... that is every room but the "specials.")

About the same time as the iPad news was being shared, Artsonia started to promote their "Snap my Art" fundraiser.  I already love Artsonia and their materials so I thought, why not?  Kids make circular designs, I send them to artsonia and then the families order these awesome jewelry pieces.  

Step #1 was to register... I just used my whole 5th grade roster.  Total time investment 30 seconds.

Step #2 have students create their artwork on the pre-printed papers.  I had to label each sheet with the artsonia provided label, which I did while they worked.  I had the students review geometric and organic shapes, discuss symmetrical design and focus on using color schemes.  Time invested = one class period (with some students taking them home to finish)

(I graded these projects and that took about 2 hours to do 300 students)

Step #3 return the papers to Artsonia in the pre-paid mailer box.  Time invested = 20 minutes to drive to UPS store and back. 

Step #4 Wait.... this was the hardest part for my students.  While we were waiting Artsonia was uploading all the images to our account and creating customized fliers for each students.  (We mailed the artworks on the 8th and had the fliers back on the 23rd so it wasn't that much of a wait.)

Step #5 Hand back the customized fliers, which were awesome.  They arrived in a box, printed in full color and sorted by class (like I have on my account).  They have each student's artwork on them, including "on the art snaps."  Total time = 5 minutes to gawk at how cool they were and 5 minutes to put them into each teacher's mailbox.  Each teacher had about 3-7 minutes to hand them out, depending on their handout policy. 

Step #6 Wait... for the orders to start coming in.  Artsonia has an awesome order tracker that tells me how much I am earning, how many orders we have and the students who are eligible for the prizes artsonia is providing.

 That is right... artsonia is also giving me free stuff to give to students who order.  

One other neat thing was Artsonia sent me a necklace and a bracelet example along with several "snaps."  These have been a huge hit for the kiddo's.  

So far I am way impressed with the ease of this fundraiser... I will keep you up to date on how well we do raising money.  The jewelry is in the $20 range, which isn't a lot for me for a Christmas gift but I know that isn't the case for all my kiddo's.  The nice thing is that they can buy just the snaps for less than $5... and they are awesomely strong magnets.  

How do you conference?

It is THAT week.

Conference week.

I love and hate conference week.

I love getting to talk with my kiddo's parents.  I hate missing a majority of my kiddo's because I can't be located next to each team.  I love sharing what we are doing and answering questions.  I hate being grilled about why every student (namely theirs) isn't getting an "outstanding."  I love talking one on one with the kids and their families about what we are doing.  I hate missing out on my family 2 whole nights of the week... and managing the drop off/pick up schedule of an altered schedule.

One new thing I did this year was creating an art board.

I took this down to conferences with me (Specials are located in the lunchroom so parents can easily find us).  It had an example for each of the projects I graded this quarter and a teaser for what is coming up.  It was great to point to an example of each project I was talking about.  It helped the kiddo's remember what they were missing or what project exactly I was talking about.

One night down, one night and one afternoon to go...

Totally Random

So we are in the midst of end of quarter grading, project reflections, starting big things and more.  So this post will be filled with random stuff...

Gotta love this robot a 5th grade student made from an old tape recorder.
She did it on her own time at home... she just had to share and so did I.

Texture cubes... these are some of my students finished texture cubes.
Hopefully these skills will serve them well on their next project. 

Contour Line Drawings of pumpkins for the 5th graders next project...
stay tuned for more about these!

another perk...

One of the many perks of teaching in Nebraska is the joy of recess duty.  Monday was a lovely 72 degree day and I was plenty warm in my long sleeve t-shirt.  Yesterday was a blustery 45 degree day and I was wearing 2 coats, wishing for gloves and using my scarf as a head wrap.  This morning is 27 degrees...

Don't get me wrong, I love living in Nebraska and don't know how people can live without a changing forecast... we gotta have snow for Christmas, right?  But I could do without having recess duty every day, all year long.

The funny thing is when I am out there bundled up, there are still kids running around in t-shirts and shorts.  They have coats, they just don't want to wear them.  Guess it is better to be cold than uncool.

So here's to the many perks of changing weather... and to remembering my gloves!

Texture Cubes

As a final step in our elements of art review, my 6th graders are making textures cubes.  We started by defining texture and discussing the difference between real and implied textures.  They were then given a cube template (I found this one online).  The assignment was to find three "real" textures and glue them down.  They then had do draw the "implied" textures.

tissue paper... real and implied

fabric... real and implied

masking tape... real and implied

Many students choose to take it home as homework (so they could get some different textures).  Of those who turned theirs in I was amazed at how many were unable to create the box.  They kept forgetting to fold on every dotted line.  I am thinking next week we may be hosting our first class critique and  reviewing how small things can really impact craftsmanship!