In the Artroom: Hangin' with the College Kids

Excusez-moi, but we moustache you a question...should art teachers really have this much fun? Also, do I look constipated or is it just me?

Let me introduce to you who has been hanging out with me for the past month or so: some totally awesome art ed students from Middle Tennessee State University (that's MTSU to you, monsieur). I have been so lucky to work with these ladies. They've hung up art work, created beautiful bulletin boards (that I get to keep!), taught and worked with students and kept me in stitches. I really dunno what I'm going to do without them now that their time with me is over. I mean, who's gonna teach these kids?!

The witch is Rebecca (I promise, we only gave her the witch apron because of her hair, not her witchy personality), the skeleton is Katie and the pumpkin is Erin. They jumped right into my kind of art-teacher-crazy by donning my Halloween aprons.

MTSU has an amazing art education program. I've had the great opportunity to meet and/or work with several of their students and they've always been excellent. I find that I learn just as much from them as I hope they do from me. The art ed department is headed up by Dr. Deborah Sickler-Voight and Dr. Bonnie Rushlow. Both of these women are incredible educators and the students that come out of their art education program are always well prepared. I mean, just check out these awesome bulletin boards the girls created...they tie in perfectly with my current lessons, they are interactive and just plain beautiful.

Ah, a bulletin board dedicated to my latest artist crush Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Thanks, Rebecca! She created the boarder for the bulletin boards with the kids' "messy mats": the paper mats I use under their paintings in a feeble attempt to keep the tables clean. I love the way it turned out.

I especially love the heading of the bulletin board: Artist of the Month. I attempt to highlight an artist each month and now I have a bulletin board that will hold me accountable. Gee...thanks, Rebecca.

Does this bulletin board remind you of anything? Madeline, perhaps? That's right, Katie is a huge fan, read all the books as a kid. I love that she took to this idea and ran with it. And while it's Madeline-inspired, it's all about the Eiffel Tower. How perfect. Wanna know what's double awesome? The fact that our world traveling friend Jes hidden in the bulletin board. Can you find him?

But wait, there's more...this bulletin board is also interactive. Lift up the flag and the leaves and you'll find all sorts of facts about la tour Eiffel. Funny, "Iron Lady" is also my nickname as I'm the only one who stomach my mom's cooking.

After reading this to the kids the other day, one of them asked, "So, why did they call it the Eiffel Tower?" Another student just looked at him with her best boys-are-so-dumb face and said, "Really?"

How beautiful is this bulletin board? The kids are learning about all of the most famous places and faces in Paris and this bulletin board of Notre Dame is just perfect. We've already been reading over the facts that she attached to her board. 

Erin poured over the details of the cathedral in her rendering and it shows. She used oil pastels to achieve the look of the cathedral. Several of the kids have asked who created the drawing. After I tell them, they always say, "wow, she must be an artist!" So true.

The girls told me that they were doing a fundraiser for the art ed department at MTSU and would I like to purchase a painted pumpkin. Well, of course. When asked what I wanted on my pumpkin, I said Fifi, the art room's talking poodle with attitude. Thank you for creating this for me, Katie!

Such a wonderful group of young art-teachers-to-be! I am excited to see what awesomeness lies ahead for each of them. Thank you, girls, for all of the wild and crazy times in the art room!