Longest 4 day week of the school year....

What a beautiful weekend!!

The weather was gorgeous here. Spent time with family, spent time outside, on a quilt at the park....made a 3 minute movie for a local film competition. Took some Holga pictures in the sweet sunshine.

And now....I'm looking forward to Friday....I have a massage scheduled...and a hair appointment...I will need a bit of pampering after this week.

Conference week.

Thankfully I don't have to sit with parents for hours and hours, I just have to stay late....I get a lot of work done in my room so its always nice to get ahead. But it is such a long week...Since I usually get to school by 7:00a.m., it is so exhausting to stay until 7:00p.m. two times this week...and I'll probably stay till five Monday night loading/unloading the kiln.

I am also getting a student teacher tomorrow. I think she will be amazing so I am looking forward to having her around.


Well I hope to post a bit more frequently this week than last....but it is a busy week so I will leave you with some pictures...my first time to this local pumpkin patch, so cute!

 Vintage dress, jacket, shoes and purse!! YAY!

 Oh and this weekend was the local Maple Leaf festival....so amazing!!

10 Things

1. At the mall a few weeks ago, an annoying kiosk worker slipped me a sample of hair serum. I read the instructions and decided to try it out. I am pleased to announce that the product worked like a miracle! My hair was so silky and smooth and it did not get greasy, as some products can do.

I went back to buy the serum and she convinced me that I was getting a great deal...two for fifty...wow, what a rip off. I just found the same stuff on Amazon for $9.95....Get your own, this stuff seriously rocks!

 

2. I love peanuts, candy corn and m&ms all mixed together this time of year....it is my favorite snack.

3. A reader asked me to explain what a circle journal is (from this post.)....A circle journal is a journal that is passed between friends, each person creates new pages until it is finished. We each started a journal so that we can all constantly be working on one and then, we each have one to keep at the end of the cycle. The cycle could go on for a year, a couple of months, whatever...we each live in different states so we are planning to mail the journals every two weeks...hopefully that will work out for everyone!

4. I am done with clay for the semester. (Well, we still have to glaze.) My students LOVE working in clay and I am always so impressed with their skills...especially the 4th graders that know terms like score, slip, etc. Such a fun time of year...I will be doing another clay project in the winter/spring...My skin always gets ridiculously dry from the harsh texture of the clay and the fact that I have to wash my hands like 80 times a day.

5. My house got robbed yesterday! I came home to find broken glass under the backdoor, but nothing appeared to be missing....later, before bed, I noticed a blood smear on the wall and realized that some cash WAS missing...called the police...very scary...my bedroom was totally a crime scene!! It is so scary to not feel safe in my own home! Lesson learned: get a new back door, always set alarm.

6. I am headed off to the Knobnoster Art teacher's convention this weekend and I can't wait!! It is always a good time with the other teachers from around the state and I am always excited to get new lesson ideas. What does an art teacher do at an art teacher convention?

7. Hoodies, football, chilli, socks, leaves, ...fall is good!

8. Found the most amazing, free printable OWL CALENDAR! Via the crafty crow. 

9. Shows I am watching: Glee, House, Dexter, Grey's Anatomy, Modern Family, Teach: the Tony Danza Story, 30 Rock, The Office, Parenthood, Boardwalk Empire...and maybe a few more...but that is a lot of t.v. Are you watching any of these shows?

10. Really Cute toilet paper tube halloween characters, in case you are looking for a cheap, awesome craft for kids!!

I'm out, not sure when my next post will be....busy weekend!!

Circle Journal: Fall 2010

Yesterday, I mentioned my circle journal. A circle journal is a journal that gets passed between friends.

Here are my first few pages.

 

Finally pulling myself out of my creative slump. And it feels good. 

The girl who can't stop painting owls....

I keep painting owls. I just can't stop!!! 

Here is my entry for this year's Spiva Small Works Auction.

Remember last year's entry:

And I've started a circle journal with some friends. Angela. Jari. Jen. I've done the first two pages...but I also decorated the cover:

Close up!

This one might not quite be finished, but he is part of the collection. Retro owl....Inspired by Mati Rose.

Night owl.

Baby blue owl.

And Winston. One of my first owl paintings. This guy is really huge!! One of my favorite owls ever.

I am only motivated to paint occasionally...and I know I will never be Monet, Picasso, Cassat, Frida or any of those great, dead artists who would NEVER appreciate my work...but I think...Eric Carle would like it...and that is okay with me.

So I just keep painting owls.

Because I think it is important for an art teacher to make art. And show it.

So I had a show this weekend at a local art walk. And one of my (4th grade!!!) students also had art on display there also.

Teaching is hard, Mr. Danza

In my quest to provide more REAL content for my blog, I've been reading a number of new sources and really trying to write about topics that inspire me, good or bad so that my blog isn't just another 'inspiration rerun' gallery.

One of the blogs I have been following, after finding it on blogs of note, is Daydream Believer....where Jamie writes about being a newlywed, funny stuff she experiences, and gives commentary on a few choice #totallycrappybutiwatchthemtoo reality shows.

I was totally inspired by her reviews of awesome shows like the bachelorette and bachelor pad to write my own review of the recent season premier of Tony Danza on Teach on A&E. I was planning to get into this show, but the premiere was re-aired this Sunday morning before football started and there wasn't much else on T.V. so I decided to give it a shot.

Let me just say that I think his initial idea to go into the classroom in order to inspire kids and adults to become teachers is pretty great. The show is pretty great, I just want to provide my reaction in case you have watched it and you want to discuss...be warned, there are some spoilers in this blog post.

First of all, let me just say that it was 37 degrees this morning, after an extremely long and hot summer, happily woke up and made biscuits from scratch (don't be too impressed, they were tasteless, yellow hockey pucks...it was my first time to make them since jr. high home ec...so I must've missed something) and dragged out my crochet project from last winter and I was working on my single crotchet skills while watching Tony, Teach.

Tony arrives at the inner city school in Philadelphia with such enthusiasum, as most first year teachers do, he was excited and nervous. Watching him set up his classroom and begin preparations for his first class, he gets called to the office where a member of the office staff berates him for not arriving at 7:38, as was expected...but 7:51 to sign his registration paperwork. She goes on to make him even more flustered when she suggests that he put on his glasses so he can see to sign his name.

This totally cracked me up.

I went on to the messages boards for the show to see what people were saying about this and people were totally appalled that he was getting treated so badly for not knowing what to do after he had gone through orientation, he clearly should have known about this expectation. I didn't really feel sorry for Mr. Danza at this point...he SHOULD have known and taken full responsibility for what was expected of him. Being a first year teacher is not easy and there isn't someone to hold your hand and tell you where and when to be, you have to be organized and KNOW what to do or else you just won't make it.

Then he sits outside the principal's office for a few minutes before getting called in to discuss why he decided to do this whole production in the first place.

The principal listens to his reasoning and explains that she is concerned with the learning of the students, first and foremost. Tony gets a little teared up by the end of their meeting, the realization starts to sink in that he is RESPONSIBLE for their learning, not just inspiring them. Sitting in front of the principal is very intimidating, I still get nervous and I have been a teacher for 5 years! I think I would definitely cry if I didn't think my boss believed in me.

The show gives us glimpses into what the kids are saying in the halls and at lunch about having Mr. Danza as their teacher, most of the have either never heard of him or they looked him up and aren't really too impressed. A few are excited, but I get the feeling that they just want him to be an easy class and they don't have much respect for his knowledge, credibility or skills.

Mr. Danza's name on the board looks like a gorgeous autograph and I am totally jealous of kids that get to have their homework graded and signed by him! That is so cool.

When the kids start walking in, he first has them sanitize their hands. The students immediately classify him as a Hollywood germ-o-phobe...and so did I....I mean, he wants to shake their hands, but only if they sanitize...kids are gross? REALLY? REALLY? (You don't have to tell me that, I got puked on the second day of school this year and I deal with lots of pee and snot, yes kids are gross).

Tony starts his class out by giving a speech and then lets the students ask questions. At one point in the questioning, a girl asks if he is nervous and he says something like yes, I am more scared than I have ever been in my entire life. She points out his sweat stains and suggests that he needs to wear an undershirt. Hahaha. Poor Mr. Danza. Welcome to the school of hard knocks. You are not the popular favorite teacher just because, yes you are a millionaire...you have to be able to take a few punches and keep getting up...you have to build a relationship with your students and you have to know your content if you are going to be successful.

I taught high school art appreciation and there were two kinds of students that freaked me out the most. One was the teenage girl that pointed out every flaw (and sometimes sat in the back of the room saying things just under her breath so that her friends could hear but it would be too disruptive to call her out so it was something I just had to ignore) and totally made me feel so flustered when I was giving a speech about boring awesome Ancient Mesopotamian art that I would stumble over words that I wasn't sure how to pronounce them correctly anyway. Second, is the kid that is smarter than me. He knows it, I know it and everyone else knows it. This type of student can be the most damaging for a teacher's credibility early in the semester, it is hard to gain respect with a kid like this because they will always show you up, even if they aren't trying to.

A little while into the show, Mr. Danza is proven wrong by the smart kid. And he totally feels like a failure. I have been there too, Mr. Danza....we all have. The mouthy teenage girl and the super smart boy won't respect you until you have the football players' respect...and the football players won't respect you until you can prove yourself....which you have to do by being smarter than the smart kid and cooler than the mouthy girl...

After his class leaves, he immediately sits down with a curriculum coach. If you are wondering how Mr. Danza can just 'be a teacher' keep in mind that if a person has a bachelor's degree, they can usually teach for a limited amount of time with a provisional license as long as they meet some additional criteria for teaching. I am sure that this coach is part of the conditions he has to meet for being 'qualified' to conduct class.

I was a little baffled by the fact that he ONLY HAS ONE CLASS for 47 minutes a day...WHAT THE (&%(#&(W&#?

MR. DANZA, if you are really going to cry after only ONE class....seriously...You have no idea what it feels like to have 7 or 8 classes just like that, every single day, along with a 40 minute lunch duty, 12 minutes to scarf down your own lunch then have to sit through a faculty meeting about differentiated instruction after which you are expected to write a reflection and turn it into your principal...by the end of the week with strategies on how you will implement new strategies of D.I. in all of your classes, while also conducting unpaid-after-school-tutoring 2-3 times a week and then head off to some sporting or extra curricular event (oh yeah and did I mention, you need to have all your copies made, grades done and written lesson plans on your desk every day before you leave???)  Just sayin'. Ha.

Mr. Danza....you are going to have a hard time encouraging people to go into teacher. This episode is only a tip of the iceberg of the amount of pressure and stress that is put on to teachers. He hasn't experienced teaching through laryngitis, waking up sick and having to go to school at 6:00 a.m. to prepare for a sub, or sending a kid to the office for being downright disrespectful and insubordinate in front of the entire class.

As for the rest of the episode, he assists with football, even though he knows nothing about it (and doesn't really impress the kids with another of his lengthy, pointless speeches) and he goes to a football game where most of the parents are actually in the nearly empty stands and he gets a chance to meet them and talk to them...WOW...he is lucky to get to meet them so early in the year (the first week?!) and they are involved in their kids' education...he already has a leg up with this ONE class because the parents DO care...He would be shocked to find that many parents aren't so involved!

I am excited to watch more of this show and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments if you have seen it too. The next episode is on next Friday so I am looking forward to seeing Mr. Danza cry some more about how hard it is to be a teacher. YEAH IT IS HARD!

Seriously? Seriously.

Last week I had a whole fun lesson planned...until my principal came to me and said, oh by the way....at 12:15 the fire alarms will be going off continuously for about 15 minutes...you might want to take your class out side...So that is exactly what we did. I rushed out during lunch to set up some props and threw a bunch of fun stuff in a box...

We spent time doing rubbings of the bricks using crayons and paper. We spent time doing a fun photo shoot inspired by Color Me Katie. (I cut out all the hearts and balloons and hung them up with foam tape really super quickly!)

It was a lovely day to spend outside...but everyone in the entire school was either having recess or doing p.e. behind us so it was hard to really 'teach'....I had to be creative and improvise.

And it was 'orange' day at one of my schools...so I was wearing a vintage wool dress/shirt....I was sweating profusely as I was quickly hanging up my props.

The photos below are just too adorable to keep for myself...I suggest a similar photo shoot...These kids are all in kindergarten and they just have the funniest little personalities. It would be really fun to do with older kids and let them make all the props!

After the photo shoot, I let them experiment with sidewalk chalk. Look at this gorgeous rainbow!

We went inside to clean up and I played a couple of games and then read a book....

Finally, we were about to line up (after a VERY BUSY 50 minutes)...and a girl looked up and asked, "When are we going to have art?"

Seriously??!!?! Seriously.

Fingerpainting and Lessons Learned

One of the most fundamental things for my kindergarten students experience in art is finger painting.

I always teach my students the basics of finger painting the first few weeks of school so that I can remind them not to 'paint their hands' or use their fingers later in the year when we are using brushes.

It is a feeble attempt at making sure that I have some order in the chaotic world of the kindergarten art room. Get the messiest stuff over with. This year, I finger painted with 11 classes of kindergarten. That is nearly 250 kids.

Every year, I learn a lot about myself and classroom dynamics when I do this lesson. The lesson itself is very repetitive. This is my fifth year doing the same routine with the same number of classes, so I've literally taught this same thing probably 55-60 times. I've got it down to a near-perfection.

The paint covered hands of the boy above belong to a student that is new to America. Last year he lived in an orphanage. He is new to our school, having recently been adopted by a local family. He always waves at me in the hall and his eyes shine bright with excitement. He had a lot of fun exploring with the paint that day and he is so sweet....

I have learned to always 'suggest' that students pick one hand to spread out the paint and keep the other hand clean....in case they have an itch or they need to brush their hair out of their eyes. Most of the time, kids get excited at the idea of covering their hands in paint so I don't stress too much about it on fingerpainting week. They sort of 'get away' with it and I let it slide, but as the year goes on, I expect them to keep their hands mostly clean.

This year, I experienced the ultimate-finger-painting-day-realization that keeping one hand clean is the BEST idea. A boy was spreading out black finger paint, trying to draw in the paint with a popcicle stick.....and then he sneezed.

Both hands were covered with black paint.

This wasn't an ordinary sneeze.

This was the sort of sneeze that produced a full-on snot string that stretched down to the table.

I am no stranger to snot strings. Often, I will be reading a book or giving instructions when I witness an enormous sneeze that produces the elastic, snotty, dripping goo. Usually, the student is able to wipe it on their shirt, suck it back in, or ingest the greenish puddle before I can hand them a tissue or even say their name in reference to using a tissue.

This time, since the boy was covered in paint, wearing a blue paint smock three times bigger than him, and I was right beside him, I was able to quickly hand him one of those crunchy, brown school paper towels.

He grabbed it and got most of the snot, but before he could completely clean it up, another sneeze showed up, and another snot string stretched out.

He continued to use the paper towel, now speckled with black paint to wipe his nose. Black finger paint was covering both his hands and it was getting all over his nose and into his nostrils.

I tried to help the boy, in between putting wet finger paintings in the drying rack, wiping up dropped paint, monitoring the water buckets to be sure that kids were not 'hogging' the sponges or splashing water, and generally making sure that the room wasn't erupting in utter chaos around me.

The boy quickly finished his painting, with black paint on his nose and cheeks....and I put it in the drying rack...and used a baby wipe to clean him up. It could have been a whole lot worse.

I've learned to tell kids not to 'pretend' like they are going to wipe their hands on someone, not to actually touch anyone else, not to clap their hands together because the paint can splat in someone's eye, not to drip water over the floor when walking with a wet paper towel to clean up their spot because when other kids are walking around the room it can become slippery and dangerous and yesterday a girl fell...she didn't get hurt really bad, but she did cry.....all of those personal experiences become part of the lesson and kids seem to really remember things that 'actually' happened to 'some other kid' even if I made the whole thing up...It keeps them safe...and it keeps me sane...

The photos in this post were my attempt at doing something different. I decided to give this class a chance to mix colors and everyone got to make two paintings. I handed out forks and popsicle sticks for them to use to make texture. I plan on letting them cut up the painted papers to make some 'Eric Carle' inspired artwork. I only did a variation on the lesson for 2 of my classes, to break up the monotony of doing the exact same thing over and over...

In the NOTES FOR NEXT TIME section of my lesson plan, I will probably remind myself of the snot story so that next year, I can more strongly suggest that kids ONLY use one hand to spread out the paint.

But for now....I am just glad that I don't have to finger paint FOR 12 WHOLE MONTHS! YAY for that milestone in the school year!

It feels good to have gotten it over with....now on to clay (which isn't messy or troublesome normally...I just have to haul every bit of it to another school to be fired since I don't have a kiln so it takes a lot of time to load it up in my car, unload it, load the kiln, unload it, load my car, unload it, glaze, load my car, unload it, load the kiln, unload it, load my car, unload it!)