The Littlest Owl

This week, the book fair is set up at our school. The kids have been super excited to go shopping for books. They each got to fill out a wish list and bring money and buy (somewhat over-priced) Scholastic books, posters and school supplies.

We have a family in our school with lots of kids. Several of them walk to school each morning and stretch from Kindergarten to 4th grade, the youngest brother is still in preschool. They eat free lunch and breakfast, they get free food from our district backpack program. This is not a family with a lot of money. Especially not for things like book fairs.

Today, I went to visit my mailbox and inside there was a little owl eraser with a note. My principal had written, "Charity wanted you to have this." When I realized who the little eraser was from, my heart completely melted.

The youngest girl of the family is in 1st grade. She had only a handful of pennies to spend at the book fair. She spent her only fifty cents to buy me an owl eraser.  I cannot even think about this sweet gesture without crying. Today, I am going to buy her any book she wants from the book fair.

A Time Machine

My theme for this year is Art History: Prehistoric through Renaissance. I'm using a lot of visuals from my mentor teacher but I really wanted to put my own spin on things so I am starting the year off by doing a lesson about time travel. To prepare for this lesson, I read H. G. Wells The Time Machine, and I watched the movie The Time Machine...and I just thought about how to incorporate everything all summer long.

Around the 2nd week of summer I decided that in order to incorporate time travel with prehistoric art, it would be necessary to build a time machine sculpture...and challenge my students to design their own machine. Here it is in all its glory...with a LOT of help, and planning over the summer it finally came to life this week. It is really hard to photograph...because of the lighting, most of the special effects and the plasma ball 'flux capacitor' look better in dim lighting...but you can see the basic components....and appreciate something made out of all the junk that can be randomly found in my  basement...with a few lucky things from a friend's farm.

 Actually, this is the sort of thing that can probably only be fully appreciated in person....from a child's perspective....with a little bit of magic. But I thought it was worth sharing here because I've had a few people request to see it.

Next week I will be installing a cave in my classroom....and between now and Christmas, we will study Egyptian, Roman and Greek art.

Flux Capacitor in all its glory.

Shot taken in the dark so you can see the ground effects.

My lesson today went pretty well. I explained that we would be traveling back through time to study art....but I let students design any sort of time machine they could imagine and then place it in an environment either in the future or the past. There was no wrong way to create the fantasy world or the machine, it was up to them to be creative and use their imaginations.

I am really excited for this year!!

Best Year Yet!! HAPPY SUMMER!!

This was one of my favorite school years ever. It was the first year in a long time that I did not have a student teacher....and I really feel a strong connection to my sweet kindergarteners that will be moving on to the primary school next year.

I think it helped that I had them for the entire year and did not relinquish any teaching responsibilities to a student teacher. I love having a student teacher, but I'm really glad that I had a break this year. I had two student teachers last year, and both years before I had one. The continuity and consistency helps make the year so smooth.

A kindergartener told me on Monday, " Mrs. Mitchell, you are the best art teacher in the whole world and I do not want ever want another art teacher." She must've figured out that I won't be her art teacher next year. I reassured her that she will love her new art teacher in 1st grade...(but I didn't tell her that she will probably forget all about me by Christmas, it usually happens that way every year).

My last week of school is always one of my favorites. It is fun because I can relax with my students and really have fun. The regular schedule is modified for play days and celebrations and rewards. Everyone is casual, relaxed, unbound by the regular routines.

At 11:00 on Friday we will dismiss for the summer. I will have 12 weeks off!! This is the first year that I haven't taught summer classes. Last year, I conducted the Art Lounge program once a week, had a photography exhibit and dealt with the aftermath of the tornado.

This year, my summer scheduled is speckled with a few loose commitments, but for the most part it is free and clear. I intend to do some traveling (I'm seriously craving a road trip...but I think that will have to wait until next year) but mostly, I want to drink hot tea on my screen porch, have pool play dates with friends, attend morning Zumba classes and renew my artistic spirit.

I intend to do plenty of blogging and writing and creating. Oh, and reading. My goal is to read at least 10 books this summer. I've got a lengthy and varied list, suggested by my facebook friends.

Coach Mitchell for a Day

Even though I am not at all athletically inclined and would never endeavor to be a physical education teacher,  I happily got to assist the P.E. teacher by watching his classes while he set up for the end-of-the-year play day.

I say happily because some of the students called me Coach Mitchell for the day. Coach Mitchell? HAHAHAHA!!

That is hilarious because I have never coached anything in my entire life. I am much too prissy and my nails far too manicured to rough around in the sporting arena. So, for some to call me Coach Mitchell, it was my own little private joke, like I was parading around in a policeman's uniform, all the power to arrest, without any of the training.

The kids were playing dodge frisby dodge ball.

When I was in grade school, I remember playing real dodgeball (boys vs. girls) in the school gymnasium with fat red rubber balls. I HATED dodgeball.

Mostly because I was slow and completely inept at throwing, I couldn't a giant fixed target, let alone a moving one....but also because I hated the way that the boys looked when they viciously slammed the ball into my back or legs with a triumphant SLAP. I really hated how excited that they boys got when shouted, "You're OUT!!" It was so embarrassing.

I hated that feeling of helplessness.
I was too uncoordinated to ever grab hold of a ball and return the brutal blow, so mostly I just tried to hide behind the bigger girls or hunch against the wall.

No matter what I did, I was an easy target....I was pathetic prey and I always resented the other students and everything about physical education because of how it made me feel like such a loser. AND who am I kidding, those red rubber balls really hurt when they hit.

 Equipment for p.e. has come a long way. Now days, those red rubber balls do not exist, at least not for dodge ball. Students use NERF-Like baby blue foam balls that gently bounce off of you like an air-filled throw pillow.

It is nearly impossible to cause injury, even when connecting with a kid's face.

Additionally, foam frisbys were added to the basic game (a great idea for giving kids practice at correctly throwing a frisby).  The frisbys create even less of an impact when they connect.

 The best part about supervising 4th graders playing frisby dodge ball, was actually joining them for a little game of GIRLS+TEACHER VS. BOYS. They boys were delighted that I was helping the girls gang up on them because it made them more competitive than ever.

You see, the boys have played against the girls all year with a horrible chant, "Moo like a cow, go moo, MOO!" Over and over the boys screamed their little chant at the girls as they attacked them with dodge balls screaming "You're OUT" and scooping up new bullets and launching over and over.

I was delighted to help the girls because I got a little bit of payback.
I cannot tell you how extremely rewarding it was to pelt the strongest, most athletic boys in the class. I didn't want to hurt them. I just wanted to get them OUT!

And that is just what I did.

Screaming, 'You're OUT!'....it felt just as good as I thought it would, even though I'm not 10 anymore, I got that real satisfied feeling that one only gets by conquering an old foe.

 I even made up our own little chant, the girls and I screaming "Ruff like a dog go ruff, RUFF!"

I had all the girls saying it with me, I rallied an attack, hoarding all of the balls and frisbys on our side, we savagely assaulted the boys with baby blue bombs. (Okay, maybe not savagely, I was surrounded by a bunch of tiny-10-year old wimpy little mini-mes who were just as pathetically slow, and inept at throwing, we missed more targets than we hit. But I was their leader and it was exhilarating).

I didn't enter the game with sadistic intent, in fact, I had forgotten how much I hated dodge ball until I actually got out on the court and started tossing frisbys and feeling that winning feeling. Students love it when teachers join in and have a little fun.  The boys, I assure you, won't be traumatized by little victory, they probably won't even remember it once the summer is in full swing, but it is one of my favorite memories and I will treasure it.....the day that I got to be Coach Mitchell.

Classroom Murals: Collaborative Art Project

After seeing this post, from Organized Chaos, I could not get the idea of a group mural out of my head. Even though I have had my end-of-the-year projects planned for weeks, and we wrapped up painting projects last month...I decided to tackle a couple of group murals with my 1st graders.

 I decided that these would be fantastic bulletin boards for the summer/beginning of the year and open house next year. The original idea for this project comes from Experiments in Art Education. I would like to share my experience with this project with you, along with a few tips so that if you decide to do it with young classes, it will be easy, breezy and beautiful.

First of all, I would just like to say that I am not a control freak.  If you have control issues, beware of doing this with kindergarten and first grade....I set some ground rules, but some kids either did not 'get' the rules, or they ignored them. Its okay, the murals still look great!!

 I covered each of my 6 tables with a big sheet of bulletin board paper, and I painted a couple of them with words: ART, MUSIC, HEALTH, LIBRARY (I could've made Counselor, Office, P.E. too, but I only have 6 tables and I wanted a few plain murals without words.) Mrs. Novak suggest this in her post.

When the students walked in, I told them, do not sit down, put on a paint shirt and STAND behind your normal seat. I explained that we would be doing some group painting, but they needed to follow a couple of rules.

 Rule #1, do not paint over anyone's work
 Rule #2, paint shapes that do not touch all over the paper

I did a quick demonstration of the type of shapes that work well (with everyone gathered around one table) and said to make lots of sizes and spread them around the big paper. 

 Then I had students line up to get a jar of black paint. Since I store my paint in baby food jars, I reminded them to be careful not to drop them.

My first grade classes are freakishly small this year....I have one class of 14! Students worked pretty quietly, and even though I demonstrated what kind of shapes to paint, some still insisted on practicing stars....making big solid black blobs on the murals. GAH!

 Once there were lots of shapes, I told them to connect each shape with lines. I wish I would have told them to draw lines to the edges of the paper. But its okay, they murals still turned out great!

Some of the murals with large words like ART or MUSIC had lines drawn straight through the letters. But that's okay.

 My students have an hour of art, and this project only took up about 20-25 minutes...even after I gave some basic instructions and a brief demonstration, AND we put on paint shirts.

We created 6 murals.

 I would suggest that you have something for those that are 'done' painting to do....since my tables were covered with paper, I didn't want them sitting at their spots if they had already washed their hands and taken off their paint shirts.

Also, I instructed my students to put their jars of paint down near the hand washing bucket and then scrub if they needed to. Well, this enticed two girls in my class of 14 to paint their entire hand black and then rub them together and show off their messiness to the entire class. I was busy moving all of the murals off the tables so they could dry since we still had 40 minutes to fill!!

 Obviously, it is the end of the year, and kids to silly things, but as you might imagine, this was incredibly frustrating. I'm not one to shy away from messy projects just because they are messy, and I love fingerpainting, but for two of my best artists to be so reckless, in such a small class, who should totally know better...GRRRR. It's okay though, I made them wash their hands very last, and stand off to the side while I explained the next project to the rest of the class.

I told them they wouldn't get to participate in the 'artist trading cards' that we would be creating.

 I did let them make cards.

I'm weak. Its the end of the year, it was just a little paint.

Anyway, back to the murals!!

I let those dry until the next 1st grade class two days later. Let me clarify, I have two small 1st grade classes, but I still see 20 classes a week, 11 of those are kindergarten....so I chose to do this with my two smallest classes since I hadn't taught this type of lesson previously. It would work with any grade.
 
 Before the next class, I prepared 20+ colors of paint, using white to create tints.

I also painted over the lettering with white so it would really stand out.

I had the students do the exact same procedure as I had done with the previous class, go in, put on a paint shirt, stand behind your chair. I had them gather around one mural once everyone was dressed in their shirts, and I demonstrated how they would use their color to pain in one of the shapes, scoot over and paint in another shape.

 I explained that once they had used the color on one mural, they would move on to other tables and put their color on every mural.

 I also told them not to paint on top of the white words and gave them the same rules as I had given the previous class about not painting on top of someone's work.

 During this class period, the school maintenance team came into my room to talk to me about my new cabinets for next year.  Of course they did. I took them around and explained what I wanted and where I wanted it. I was distracted for a few minutes, but the students continued to work quietly on the murals. Whew! I was fully prepared for madness to break out at any second with paint flying, but thankfully, everyone was cool and no one dropped their paint jar or got out of control.

Pretty soon, students started to get 'done' painting. I had joined them, painting with white. I was filling in a few spots on the murals without lettering as well as touching up the white lettering, covering drips etc. Frustratingly, I wanted to keep painting...but after a few minutes....one boy was done and then, suddenly, everyone was done.

Most of the murals were finished, but a few needed more colors. I realized that I needed to move the huge-really-wet-painted papers to other spots around the room and give the 'finished' students an activity otherwise it would get out of control really fast.

It was a little wild, because the kids couldn't sit at the tables, and some of the tables and chairs needed to be wiped off after we painted, and I was the only one who could maneuver the big papers. As soon as that little moment of craziness had passed (no one painted their hands this time), I directed the students to their seats and demonstrated how to create artist trading cards.

You've probably heard of this activity before, students create a series of drawings to trade. I let mine choose their own subject, and they could use markers, colored pencils or crayons to color them.

It is a fun end of the year activity. WOW! As soon as the class had their little blank cards, pencils and fine point sharpie markers, they got right to work, creating little masterpieces. It was as if the group activity had warmed them up.

A little bit 'Keith Haring'

The room was dead silent, the opposite of what it had been minutes before when I was dragging massive paintings around the room, trying to get them off of the tables and kids were running around with wet paper towels, and messy fingers.

Without even telling them to, they were completely enthralled in the activity.

They knew they had limited time because we were going to trade cards at the very end.

 If they finished early, they could make an extra card to look at a book while they waited to trade...The students whispered....they whispered to each other....and to me if they had a question. (I was in touch-up mode on the murals, covering drips and finished the two that weren't quite done).

I had to stop and look around.....the class was completely engaged in the process.

It was magic.

Towards the end, the last 7-8 minutes, students were allowed to trade cards. Some were finished, some weren't. But the ones that weren't could take their cards and finish them later.

This was a very successful end of the year project, and I can't wait to put the large paintings up on my bulletin boards.

 If you are low on patience this late in the year, beware.....I've tried to be as honest as possible about what worked for me so that you don't make the same mistakes I made.

I would definitely do this again.

It was a really great collaborative project.

The Smallest Act of Caring

I need to share this story so that I will never forget it.

Although I would not normally share a personal story about a student, (and details have been changed to keep his identity secret), this is one of those stories that is a HUGE reminder that what I do is important and special.

Usually, students mature over the summer and naughty kids grow up a little bit. One year, a boy named Tommy, had been  acting completely different than he acted the previous year. This boy was so sweet and smart the year before, but on this particular year, I started to dread his class before I even saw them coming down the hall. I didn't want to be mean to the kid, but he was just so disruptive that I could hardly get through the lesson without getting frustrated with his behavior. I even mentioned it to his classroom teacher from the year before, and she said that other teachers have commented on how wild Tommy had become.

One day, the class was coming down the hall and I realized that they had a substitute. "Oh, great," I thought...generally, whenever a class has a substitute, bad behaviors are intensified and the normally well-behaved students are a little wiry from the lack of structured daily routines normally enforced by classroom teachers.

As soon as he walked up, Tommy said, "What happened to your hair?" as the class passed through the doorway. Immediately, I snapped (without thinking), "What happened to your face?" and then I looked at the substitute and cringed...hoping she had heard him be so rude, but somehow she didn't hear my completely unprofessional retort. I don't actually think Tommy heard me say it, because he didn't respond, but kept bee-bopping through the doorway as if it is completely normal to insult a teacher and get away with it.

I walked into class, closed the door, and got on with the lesson. I don't remember if Tommy was his usual interrupting self after that...I just tried to teach about mixing paint to create tints and shades.

About halfway through class, the principal came in and wanted to take Tommy out. Tommy left his painting sitting on the table.

Near the very end of art, with only about 6 or 7 minutes left, (everyone else was cleaning up and we were about to conclude) the principal brought Tommy back to art. He took me aside and said that Tommy had been in his office, meeting with family services. 'Could Tommy finish his painting? He really wanted to get back down here to art, so that he could finish it."

I don't know why Tommy was talking to a social worker, or whomever it was in the principal's office...I never asked....but students don't just meet with family services for fun....it was an immediate sign that something was going on in Tommy's home life. I had seen the signs all year. His behavior was drastically different than the year before.

Instead of showing Tommy a little more love, or given him opportunities for more attention, I had started to dread even being in the same room with him.

There he was, in the office, meeting with some stranger, about some situation at home, and all he wanted to do was be with me, in art, working on his painting.

I was mortified and embarrassed and ashamed that I had lashed out at the poor kid with "What happened to your face?!" when he is dealing with some pretty terrible stuff at home.

Being an art teacher, I can usually sense when something is going on with a child. It isn't necessarily that stuff comes out in their artwork, usually I notice a huge shift in behavior.

If a student suddenly starts acting oddly or misbehaving, I can tell that something is going on...perhaps the child is going to dad's for the weekend...or stayed up too late because parents were fighting....maybe the kid is living at Children's Haven or in foster care.

Rarely do I ever know the details about what is going on at home.  If I notice major changes, I will mention it to the classroom teacher and the counselor.

As I said before, I honestly never knew what was going on with poor Tommy...but his behavior started to improve after that. Or maybe, I started treating him a little differently because I had a little insight into the fact that something had changed at home and it was affecting his behavior. In any case, it is a huge reminder that no matter what, so you should always treat others with compassion because you never know what burdens they might be carrying.

Here are a few great quotes:

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong.  Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.  ~George Washington Carver

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.  ~Leo Buscaglia

How taking a Dance Class Made me a Better Art Teacher

Today I made three students cry.

Well, I didn’t make them cry. They just cried. Little kids do that. They cry. A lot. Working with students who are barely five through age twelve, I have made my fair share of students cry for various reasons over the years.

Common reasons for crying include: anger at me or a classmate, frustration at the assignment, or just plain ‘ol, ‘I miss my mommy’ syndrome.

Actually, all three happened today.

If a student is angry with me or another student, it is usually a combination of needing to learn to share, a bad attitude or bossiness to blame. Sharing the crayons is a skill everyone should learn in kindergarten, or at least have an understanding of by second grade…if a little boy doesn’t understand, or want to share, then a fight breaks out and I have to step in and make someone take a cool down or a time out.

This is what happened today.

If a student ‘misses his mommy’ and it is May…well, I don’t know what to tell you. I’ll give you a hug…I’ll pat you on the back…but kiddo, its time to grow up a bit.

This is what happened today.

If a student expresses frustration at a project or a set of instructions, I usually do my best to encourage him to keep trying, get assistance from a friend, or I provide a bit of help to give them some success and some confidence so they can tackle the other steps.

But sometimes, my encouragement, redirection, and assistance can do little to curb a meltdown. Sometimes kids just have bad days.

This is what happened today.

Generally, when I explain a project to kindergarteners, I do one of three things:

1.     Demo everything and then give them the supplies…some tend to get lost if there are too many steps but it gives me a chance to let the artists get to work and help the challenged overcome the challenges.

2.     Demo half, let them work for a few minutes…struggle to get their attention….demo the other half (whilst doing my best-song-and-dance to keep their attention so that they aren’t cutting their neighbor’s hair as I demonstrate how to attach, affix, or adhere something to their lame little masterpieces)

3.     Demo step-by-step….each step of the project, broken down so that everyone is doing everything at the same time…completely leaving the slow-pokes in the dust and slowing down the speed-racers to complete boredom.

In my experience, it is completely exhausting to demonstrate everything step-by-step because it is difficult to keep their attention, especially the creative ones that just GET it….they get bored.

However, EVERYONE’S project is successful…they ALL look JUST like MINE.  

With this method, some get frustrated, and it is difficult to work one-on-one with someone who falls behind, because it is my job to keep going, the entire class is waiting for everyone else to cut the corners off a square for the spider’s head.  This is where I see the most room for tears of frustration.

This is how many of the lessons at the beginning of the year are organized; it helps ensure that everyone is successful.

Alternatively, some projects allow for the half and half method…for instance, if we are drawing and then painting, it just makes sense to explain the drawing information first, let them work and then once everyone has completed step one, stop and explain the directions for finishing the painting.

This is how many of the projects in the middle of the year are organized, in order to give everyone a chance to work at their own pace, but still keeping everyone moving from one step to another.

Whenever I demo everything all at once, I usually try to repeat the first step, right before handing out supplies…but someone always gets lost. It is difficult to recall everything in the correct order.  

This is how many lessons at the end of the year are organized in order to give the creative ones a bit of a chance explore the finished product a bit further and interpret the instructions in a way that allows for some creative freedom.

Generally, whenever someone gets lost or frustrated by my instructions with the step-by-step method, I think, ‘If you aren’t sure what to do, look at the finished product….you obviously haven’t created the eyes on your bear….how hard could it be to figure out what comes next.’

I offer assistance, but I just don’t GET why they don’t GET it!

Today in dance class…I had a bit of a revelation about my students and what they may or may not understand.

 I totally GOT how some kids just don’t GET art….they just don’t see what I see.

They can’t look at the finished product and make assumptions about what needs to happen next.

Some kids just don’t connect with visual art the same way that I don’t really connect with dance.

Dancing does not come naturally to me. I don’t have a background in dance.

Apart from the random dance parties in my living room, which require no real skills or rhythm; up until January of this year, I had never really been to a dance class.

My only experience with dancing was a bit of two-stepping at a barn warming in high school for FFA. Anytime I try to two-step now, I have to be completely reintroduced to it as if I’ve never done it.  I don’t naturally have the ability to pick up a little line dance here or a salsa move there. I just don’t.

Whenever I see an instructor do a simple combination of moves…I usually just stand there with my mouth hanging open for a bit. . Confused. Befuddled. Stupified. Bewildered.

 I have to ease my way into a dance with an awkward thrusting or jutting of my arms and legs in a manner that is not rhythmic or beautiful in any way. I try. I really do. But my body just doesn’t move like that. And it is frustrating. I want to move in a way that is beautiful…but I just can’t. Physically. Mentally. I cannot connect with music the way that other people can.

I still try. In fact, the very act of trying makes me a better teacher. Feeling that same frustration with myself, and my instructor (who definitely is not to blame) helps me understand what my students experience whenever they are trying something new for the first time.

I would definitely recommend this to any beginning teacher. Take a class or learn a skill in which you are not naturally talented or have ever experienced before….in order to understand how frustrating it can be to someone who doesn’t quite ‘GET IT’.

Many of my students have never used scissors, glue, paint or markers before using them in my art class—just as I have never been exposed to dance—I shouldn’t expect a masterpiece…just some experimentation…I should expect my students to ease into an artwork with a bit of thrusting or jutting of their arms and legs in a manner that is not rhythmic or beautiful in any way.

Confused. Befuddled. Stupified. Bewildered. I GET that now.

I really do love my job. You can read more funny and serious stories here, here, here, here and here.