Showing posts with label art room tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art room tour. Show all posts

Sunday, January 10, 2016

What the Art Teacher Wore #154

Totes Tuesday: Well, we actually returned on Monday but that was kinda a rude awakening and I just couldn't seem to pull it together enough to snap a pic. You didn't miss much, lemme tell you. Just sitting-in-meeting 1950's vintage wear. You know, the ushe. But on Tuesday I was feeling a lil more up to form. Getting back into a routine of not staying up til midnight and beyond and rising late in the morn takes some easing into, y'all. sweater: thrifted vintage; skirt and boots: Anthro; scarf: gift from a student; tights: Target; bracelets: street market in Cali
Well, it happened. We went back to school. This year our district provided three glorious days of PD which I totes enjoyed. Not only was our art professional development fabulous (check it out here and here!) but it also helped us all ease back into the routine of things. I was stoked to have a couple of days to prepare my room for my Art Teacherin' Resolutions (part 2 coming next week!). In fact, so many things have changed/updated/whatevered that I decided to create a brand new Art Room Tour for y'all! 
There are still a TON of things I want to do to my magical art teacherin' space (like, A.TON. Is our job ever done?!) but until then, this is as good -n- groovy as it gets. By the way, many of the items you see me pan over in my artsy joint will be spoken about in detail at AOE's winter online conference where I'll be talking about how I attempt to Maximize my Minutes in the Art Room. And until next time, have a great week, kids!
 Wonderful Wednesday: We had the chance to work in our rooms and get caught up on teacherin' life on Wednesday. What a wonderful gift! Not surprisingly, I didn't manage to get everything done but do we ever? I sometimes wonder if/when the day will ever come when I leave my art room and think, "Welp! I got everything checked off my list, all's done!" Instead, I just close my door on the mess, shake my head and walk away super fast. I'm sure that makes me look like a nut on the security cam! sweater: made by me, DIY here; skirt, boots and belt: Anthro
 Bring 'em in, Thursday: The kids came back on Thursday and I was ready to throw all kinds of new things at them. You can read about some of those routines in my Art Teacherin' Resolution post (update this next week!) sweatshirt: Forever21; dress: made by me, DIY here; shoes: Payless with shoe clips made by me
One of my resolutions was to film myself instructing and play that for the kids. This allows me not to forget any details I need to share and frees me up to prepare supplies and drink my coffee (because, priorities). I was worried that the videos wouldn't be as effective and the kids' artwork wouldn't be as awesome as it usually is, but...
 Check out these cityscape printing plates! The kids and I were both thrilled! I have since created a video to walk them through the printing process which they'll see this week. Here's a peek: 
Feel free to use this lesson and these videos in your art room. And any feedback would be much appreciated. Third grade was my test pilot this week. Because it went over so well, I will be making more videos just like this. If you are interested, y'all can subscribe to my youtube channel to keep up. 
 Friday Already?!: That was fast! Teaching only two days a week will do that to you, I guess! It was a fun week and I'm looking forward to the next. I hope y'all have a super duper upcoming week as well! blouse and sweater: thrifted; palette belt: etsy; palette skirt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; tights: Target; shoes: Clarks
Oh! I have to share this sweet image with you! When my kindergarteners were finished with their paintings on Friday, I threw down this piece of fabric I purchased at IKEA and asked them to color it with my fabric markers. When I told them it was going to be sewn into a dress, they were thrilled! I overheard my sweet little friend in the blue on the right tell the other kids when they came to the floor, "Mrs. Stephens is going to make this into a dress and wear it! We will be famous!" They are so funny! 
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Sunday, December 27, 2015

In the Art Room: Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year, Part 1

Kids. It's almost the New Year. And, if you're a list-loving-maker like me, that can only mean one thing: it's time to bust out that colorful variety pack of felt-tipped pens and start goal setting! I always make Sewing Goals, Health Goals, House-Cleaning/Decorating Goals and neglect Art Teacherin' Goals. Mostly because I seem to be stuck in the mindset that anything new to do with teaching must ONLY happen at the start of a school year.  Well, not this year, y'all. I'm banishing that notion and going full steam ahead with a litany of New -n- Improved Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year! Who's with me?! 
One of my biggest goals as an art teacher is to jam pack as much info into the limited amount of time I have with my students. And for that reason, I'll be presenting Maximize Your Minutes in the Art Room at this winter's AOE conference! There's still time for you to register to attend this online conference and hear me chat about maximizing AND see a tour of my (new and improved for the new year) art room! 
So, without further ado, let's chat about my...
Art Teacherin' Resolutions for 2016, Part 1
("Part 1" because, let's face it, there's a whole lot I need to work on!)

My class schedule is not like most of y'all, I imagine. I see my kindergarteners for 45 minutes, weekly; my first and second for 30 minutes, bi-weekly and my third and fourth for an hour, weekly. Even with that limited amount of time, I don't want my students to have a watered-down art class. Instead I want to provide a super-concentrated, high fructose, protein-packed experience. One that is both fun and easy for me to build into a routine. So here are some new plans I am looking forward to putting into action once the kids return (by the way, several of these ideas came from the Queen of Pinterest, Donna Staten!):
An Art Class Greeting: When I open my art room door to greet the kids waiting outside, I usually have a coupla hand-raisers (what are we doing today?), a coupla complimenters (I like your hair! [really? because it's not changed since high school, y'all]) and a coupla lost-in-space-rs (Billy. The line is moving. Joining us?). For a while I snubbed this out with my Vocab-at-the-Door routine which I love but it just didn't pack the "Art class is the JAM! Let's get in here and make stuff" punch that I had in mind. Then I saw this video and got an idea to create an Art Class Greeting...
Isn't that awesome?! Of course, I plan to change it up a pinch by saying, "Hello, my most amazing artists!" but the rest is perfection. Then I can drop into my usual vocabulary routine...or, what I'm leaning more toward for a lil change-up, teaching the kids a Walking-into-the-Art-Room song. Check out how these students gather on the floor with a song in this incredible teacher's room (watch the whole video, her methods are fantastic!)...
An Art Class Song: Did you hear the little ditty the students sang as they came to the floor? I loved it! So I wrote one of my own. I wanna keep it short, sweet and simple so that the kids can quickly memorize it and put it to use as they walk in the door. Here's what I got so far: 
Walking into the art room
1-2-3
All my friends 
Are here with me
Let's learn about Picasso and
Vincent van Gogh
With the best kid artists
That I know
(and repeat till all are seated)

3. Word of the Week: Keeping What Works! Of course, I'm not throwing out everything in my attempt to maximize my minutes. I do still love the Word of the Week...
and plan to continue introducing new terminology this way. However, just one word of the week doesn't begin to cover all of the art vocabulary that needs to be taught. 
To remedy that situation, I plan to put my buddy Laura Lohman's Art Word Wall Cards to good use. I printed all of these words off and had them laminated at the start of the year...and just now got around to cutting them out and arranging them on my word wall cabinets.

I've got the words temporarily stuck onto my cabinets with sticky tack so that I can easily pluck them off and put them into my vocabulary pocket chart thingie.
You can score one of these bad boys from Amazon for a lil under $20. Or just shoot out a school-wide email and see if anyone has one they wouldn't mind parting with. When introducing new vocabulary with this chart, I like to do a couple of fun vocab games to get the kids comfortable with saying the words. 
These games are fun and quick. I use them when introducing new words, not each art class. We are trying to keep it short and quick so the kids can get to makerin', right? Oh, here's another:
Accelerated Art History for the Littles: I once went to the doc complaining of stress and panic attacks. She asked, "What do you do?" When I responded that I'm an art teacher, she nearly fell over laughing. "It's only art! How hard can it be?!" Well, I don't have to tell YOU, my art teacherin' friends, do I? Just how do we squeeze in art history, contemporary art, techniques, proper use of materials, skillz, not to mention creativity and the cultivation of some imagination in one class period? With some Accelerated Art History, I've decided. 
At the start of each art class, after our new lil greeting, entrance song and Word of the Week intro, I've started zooming this kids through art history in 120 seconds or less. My first attempts, I brought the kids over to my big art history wall and did the lil routine you see here. Which was super fun but ate into more art time than I desired. So now I show them my lil art history PowerPoint (to be shared here soon!) with a sneak peak into a new period in art each week. I've been using these books as my resource as they keep things short and sweet:

I found both used on Amazon and they have been great at highlighting the key points to share with my students. So far, we've covered cave art up through the Egyptians and the kids have loved these lil short snippets of art history. However, I recently discovered Marcia Beckett of Art is Basic's awesome TPT Art History Sketchbook prompts! Like, what?! So, now, when I am introducing this short voyage through art history, I can tie in the (older) kid's sketchbook prompts. I'm so thrilled with this idea, thank you, Marcia! (Below is a lil blurb about how I've had the kids create and use sketchbooks in my art room this year). 
Sitting Still Like a Frog: One of my goals this school year was to introduce mindfulness and breath to my students. I'll be the first to admit, I've totes dropped the ball on this one! I've been reading Sitting Still Like a Frog and I think I might have made the whole thing a lot more difficult than it needed to be. When my music teacher buddy Kiera told me that she uses the concept when she plays music and has the children listen silently while focusing on their breath, I was all, EUREKA! That's what I'll do! 
My thought is for my younger students who do not have sketchbooks to simply breathe and look at the art work I will have projected onto my television at the start of art class. You know, once, we've finished singing our entrance song and settled in on the floor. The plan is for that image presented to be from our lil Accelerated Art History lesson so I can segue right into that portion of art class. Of course, for the olders, it will give them a moment to reflect on their sketchbook prompt. 

How do you introduce the concept of breath and mindfulness in a fun way? I plan to show this video!

For more on mindfulness, check out this clippity clip!

A Flipped Classroom Attempt: I was really inspired at the AOE conference last winter by the concept of a flipped classroom. If you aren't familiar, the concept is that early finishers can educate themselves by viewing instructional videos created by the teacher. Nic Hahn of Mini Matisse has made a whole lotta strides with this in her art room and I love seeing what she's done (for example, this video above is one she shares with her students to introduce new stations in her art room!). Now, I don't have a class set of iPads for the kids to use but I do have the ability to record lessons and project them on my big screen television. I never really thought of doing this until Nic mentioned that it allowed her to, in one viewing, say everything she needed to say (cuz you know you ALWAYS forget something!) and, for some crazy reason, the kids focus much more on the telly than they do on us! It also will provide me a hot minute or two to tend to supplies and important tasks (like drinking my now-cold coffee). I'm really loving this idea and hope to start popping more videos up on my YouTube channel which you can find here
Alrightie. So, there you have it, just a sprinkling of my Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year! I have many more new ideas in store for my young artists like a new twist on supply distribution, new messy mats that also double as educational tools and a squeaky clean clean-up routine! Stay tuned, y'all. Until then, you'll find me adding these fun and inspirational songs to my list o' tunes to play both for their lovely lyrics...
and their delish singers. HAAAAYYYYY, Bruno Marzzz. I see you! 

What are some of y'all's Art Teacherin' Resolutions for the New Year? I'd love to hear them! Let's inspire each other! photo signature_zpsd10b3273.png
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Sunday, August 10, 2014

What the Art Teacher Wore #109 and Welcome Back, Crazy!

Monday, Monday: Since I was painting my windows with a Mexican market theme, I thought I'd wear a colorful outfit for inspiration. Unfortunately that rogue tube of cerulean I mention in my last post managed to douse my legs, necklace and hair. Good think I was wearing my big ole plastic apron or the rest of me woulda been Smurf-a-fied as well. top: Banana Republic, garage sale; skirt: Anthropologie, found at Buffalo Exchange; sandals: Anthropologie, gift from a buddy
Welcome Back, y'all! 

If you're like me, a crazy art teacher, you just might be heading back to school this week or in the very near future. What better way to be welcomed then by my fave after-school rerun show to watch as a kid: Welcome Back, Kotter. Even though my students have been back since Wednesday, they've not come to art yet. Oh no, that starts tomorrow. Which explains why I'm still in my pj's working on lesson plans at 1pm on a Sunday. Ahem.

Oh, before I forget...Arsty Book Club friends! So as not to overload this here blog post, I thought I'd chat about this past week's readings of Teach like a Pirate to my In the Art Room post this week. It totes ties in because it's inspired just what will be going down in there this week. So read up and we'll chat soonish. 

Now, let's chat about the Apron Sew-Along (could we possibly have more going on here? Me thinks not)! I got my fabric orders in this week and I thought I'd share with you what I decided to stitch into an apron. I also couldn't help myself: I bought a buncha other prints to eventually be stitched into dresses or some MC Hammer pants or culottes. So stay tuned! 

Okay, so here's what I got...
Really? Could one person be more excited about cat fabric? I don't think so.

Now, while we're still on the topic of our Apron Sew Along, please remember to prepare your fabric for stitching by washing your fabric first. The reason being is that this will remove all the sizing from your fabric (have you noticed that it feels a lil stiff? That's the sizing. It needs to be washed out before you sew). I use a delicate and cold setting on my machine. I dry as normal. You should probably wash separately (um, I never do but I'm totes lazy) just so the colors won't bleed onto the other fabrics. 

Okay, so here's a close up of what Ima be stitching with...
I know, riiiiight?! Cray-zay. But they both make me so extremely happy that I just couldn't not get them. I also think that the busy pattern will do a bang up job hiding stains. We'll see about that. Now I've gotta pick out accent fabrics (for the pocket, neck thingie and ties). For that I think I'll dip into my own stash. I'll keep ya posted. 
Totes Tuesday: I finished off my windows on this day. My super sweet custodian popped in to tell me how much he liked them...but then asked, "Don't you usually paint both sets of windows?" I told him I was just too worn out. He took a step back, scratched his chin and said, "Hm...I think I like last year's windows better." Gee, thanks! top: vintage, thrifted; skirt: old, Anthropologie; sandals: old, Target
Oh my gawd, my inner preteen just died of excitement. I cannot wait to stitch something insane with these sweet prints. I love how the framed cat at the top in the middle looks just like our Asha. Fat and furry, just how we like 'em.
Welcome, Wednesday! It was the kids very first day. It was a half day which was weird because 1. I didn't have kids in my room and 2. I was just as tired as if it were a full day and I did have kids in my room. What's up with that?! top: Forever 21; skirt: etsy; shoes with artsy shoe clips: deets here;  necklace: Paper Source
I kinda wanna stitch this into something right freaking now. I have so many sewing projects in the works that it is absolutely nuts. I have no business buying any more fabric...and yet...sigh. 
No Running with Scissors, You'll Lose an Eye! Thursday: At least that's what I told the kids when they asked, "why are you wearing a shirt with eyes and a skirt with scissors?" What I really wanted to tell 'em was "I've got my eye on you and if you misbehave you might get cut" but I just didn't think that was appropriate. Not with other teachers around anyway. eyeball shirt: Urban Outfitters; scissor skirt: Modcloth, super duper sale
Speaking of scissors, I love this sweet print on the left. I don't know if I love it with the pin fabric...but the theme is there, right? I'm still dreaming up what I want my kids to stitch up this year. I'd love any hand sewing/machine sewing project ideas if y'all have got any!
Finally Friday, I mean, Really!: I actually thought it was Friday all week long. That is not a good way to live your life as it only ends in disappointment. dress: DIY by me; belt and necklace: Anthropologie; shoes: Frye, TJMaxx
Speaking of having the kids sew, look at this! I made a lil mention of needing embroidery hoops for my 4th grade artists and a friend shipped a big ole box of these beauties my way! The kids are going to Freak the Funk Out. Yay! So much stitchin' goodness.


I do hope you guys have a super fun week! You especially, teacher friends! Just remember, if all else fails, just act like a crazy person and the kids will love ya. Welcome back!





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