May 6th - My Pledge

This weekend, while I could have been playing with my kids, I was scrolling facebook and saw this video "Look Up" by Gary Turk.  It made me really think about how much time I spent "on a screen" and not engaged in what was happening around me.

Monday morning I was listening to the radio and they were talking about this week being "screen-free" week. It was like someone was yelling at me to disconnect a bit.  So I took the pledge (you can also by clicking here) and will spend the week logging off at the end of the school day.

Besides it's not like I don't have enough grading to keep my busy...

coke bottle added for size comparison...

May 5th- Art Literature

So I have to share a great book I just checked out from the library.  It was for my kids but I ended up loving it more than them.

The Mad Potter:  George E. Ohr is written by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan.  (If they sound familiar it is because they also wrote Action Jackson and Ballet for Martha.)  I grabbed it because I loved his mustache (and I choose most of my children's library books by the jacket art) and the title sounded interesting.  I never expected to be blown away by the content.  

photo credit

George Ohr was an artist who was totally devoted to his ART.  He made some "standard" pottery pieces just to make a living but his true passion was his "mud babies."  He was a perfect example of someone totally devoted to their craft.  He never gained huge fame during his lifetime but the prices on his pieces are currently a little out of my price range... like $20,000-$60,000. 

In all, this book and this artist were an awesome little surprise from the library. 

Another fun read I have been blasting through is:

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

Last summer I checked out The Aviators Wife by Melanie Benjamin.  It was my first time reading a fictional biography and I was hooked.  (Imagine that someone researches a person in extreme depth and then writes a pretend diary... that is pretty much a fictional biography.)  I have gone on to read several her books and have not been disappointed.  On my last trip to the library I searched for fictional biography and saw this one.  It is the story of Mamah Cheney who had a huge, scandalous love affair with Frank Lloyd Wright.  It is  a fun, easy read that keeps you up at night wanting to know what is going to happen next.... and makes you want to go study Frank Lloyd Wright. 

May 2nd - Shine it up!

So we know that I Love, Love, Love my kiddo's making clay flowers but I have a little secret to share with you...

I also Love, Love, Love my varnish. 

This jug is my "not so top secret" secret. I apply it after the students have painted with tempera or watercolor and it makes the projects shine like glaze.  I ordered this jug 3 years ago and it is still going (but it is almost gone).  I only varnish those projects that are at or above expectations.  It really helps students work extra hard to meet their requirements.  

This stuff is super easy to use and clean up is a breeze (unless you let it dry... it is varnish and will dry hard when all is said and done).

Here is a clay flower after painting with watercolors.
Beautiful and delicate but kinda dull.

Here is my varnish station...
upside down water dishes a big watercolor brush (to really quickly get the varnish on)
 and a throw away cup sitting on newspaper
**I get my brush wet before painting as it makes clean up easier**

Here is the flower covered in varnish.
You don't even have to be neat about it, just make sure to cover everything.

Here is the flower dry and shiny.
It takes about 5 minutes to dry and 1 hour to "cure."

BEAUTIFUL, DELICATE and GLOWING!

May 1st - Artsonia

This isn't a sponsored post or anything... just something I really want to share.

A few years ago a friend and fellow art teacher was telling me about Artsonia.com and how she was using it. It sounded kinda neat but like a lot of time. I spent some time using Artsonia just as a way to find lesson plan ideas.  A little more conversation and some playing around proved to me that it is a VERY neat thing and really NOT a LOT of time.  Especially since in the last few years they have made some really neat improvements that make it so easy.

At the start of each year I simply email Artsonia a list of my incoming 5th graders in an excel spreadsheet.  They put all the information into my account for me.  They also roll my old 5th graders up to 6th grade.   I then go through and group my students by homeroom teacher (that is how I see them) in 5th grade and day of the week in 6th.  This makes assigning names to the projects a lot quicker as I only have 25-75 student names to search through vs. 300. The whole prep time takes less than an hour for 600 students.

Artsonia offers a really easy to use and simple to navigate "start page" for me as the teacher to use. This helps me manage my students, exhibits, artwork, send home newsletters, track fundraising $, search for lesson plans and so much more.

I do a lot of photographing, editing and uploading of my students work but one of my favorite new features in Artsonia Classroom. Each exhibit I create is linked to an access code.  Students can enter the code, upload their artwork, create a title and write an artist statement on their own.  I use it for all my students digital work and it helps me track who has their stuff done and who doesn't.

**pssst:  They also create QR codes for every exhibit so you can print that off and your students could use an iPad (iPhone) to photograph and upload their own work. 

When navigating the museum, Norfolk Middle School has a home site, 

each exhibit has a home page,

 and each student has their own page.  

Artsonia stores all the students work from year to year and they provide awards for the students based on how many images they have, how many fan club members they have, comments they have left, etc...  They also offer some really neat things for people to purchase with their child's artwork on it.  Everything I have ever ordered has come to me in great shape and has been a quality made product.

I know there are a lot of fundraisers and websites out there but I will continue to be a huge fan of Artsonia.  They are an easy to use website that allows me to fundraise while allowing students to write about their art, curate their own web presence*, share their artwork with family members (fan club) and save their images.

* Artsonia does a great job of protecting students.  First name/number combos are used to identify students.  They check artwork to make sure they don't show portraits (I know because I had an exhibit removed for using direct portrait photographs of the students).  They also require parents to moderate any comments left for their child about his/her artwork.  

Crazy to think...

We are starting the "end of school process."

I have one class I will only see 2 more time!  

YIKES... Gotta a lot to do!

I feel like I haven't posted much lately so it is my promise that starting May 1st, I will post once a school day until the end of the year.  I hope this will keep me motivated about all that we are accomplishing!

In the mean time, I am grateful that I took my FULL bucket of used clay down to this...

by doing one of my favorite year end lessons and 

creating all of these...

So... here is too May!  

Plunge for Landon

Yesterday was a beautiful today.  78 degrees and sunny.  I spend the day with my kiddos hanging out at home.  Today is 32 degrees and we have 6" of snow.  There is a reason they say, "if you don't like the weather in Nebraska, wait 24 hrs.  It will change).



So this afternoon I was scrolling through my facebook and one of my friends has a 5 year old daughter who challenged people to get wet for "Plunge for Landon."  She is donating $1 of her own money for anyone who would do it.

Well, what else is there to do when challenged by such an awesome girl with such a great heart.  

p.s. Thanks to Jarrett for doing it with me and to Tim who probably enjoyed it a little too much!

Monster Art Show

Earlier this year I posted about the shape monster projects that my 5th graders made using construction paper collage.  Well these projects were just the beginning of something bigger.  After I posted the monsters on Artsonia each member of the high school painting class selected an inspiration image.  The high schoolers then painted amazing images of each monster.

We waited until March for Youth Art Month and then we displayed them together at our local coffee shop, The Downtown Coffee Company.  They we awesome about letting us hang them there for two weeks.  The local paper covered it and we had an awesome opening reception.  The lighting in the coffee shop wasn't great for photos so I had to wait until they were on display here at my school.  

It has been awesome to watch students, teachers, paras and parents slow down and look at the artwork.  I just love to see the artwork of previous students hanging back in this building.  Here is a close of of each pair. 

The idea for this awesome project came from The Monster Engine Website.