Hi, friends! I've got a couple of things I really want to share with y'all today...and I think they go very well together: Finding Your Passion (and bringing that to your teaching) and Promoting Peace, Love and Kindness. If you are scratching your head wondering just how these two things go together, hear me out: You cannot be a happy art teacher if you aren't a happy person. And people are most happy when they are fulfilled. You might find fulfillment in hiking, painting, kayaking, or if you're me, sewing. Whatever fuels your tank, find it. And then make sure that tank stays full the very best you can. It will make you a happier person and a happier teacher. Happy people want others to find their happiness. If you don't believe me, think of the opposite, those folks that have tried to take you down a notch: they've insulted your creations, they've pooh-poohed your ideas, they said "you can't do that!" Those folks aren't happy and they don't want you to be either. It's salt in their wound. Once you've found your happiness outlet, and you've made the time to actively pursue it, you are going want to share the happiness. It's then that you want others to find their passion. You can do this by promoting peace, love and kindness. But more on that in a sec...lemme share with y'all how I struggled to find my happiness in teaching:
It took a long time for me to stop listening to the self-doubt talk. I oftentimes think of all the time I WASTED telling myself that I couldn't learn to sew, that it was too late to learn, that I should be doing something more productive with my time. What I didn't know is that creating is being productive! It frees the mind, opens the heart, makes you feel passionate...about creating and teaching. I hate listening to the news. I hate seeing all of the anger all over the world. I hate to even imagine just how this is affecting my students. What kind of world are we building for them? But I can't just go to my sewing room and pretend it's not happening. That would make me partially responsible don't you think? I've been chatting with other art teachers about flipping the coin and making kindness a priority. Next week, in Art Teacherin' 101, I'll be sharing some exciting ideas on how we can work together to help make the world a little bit of a kinder and happier place. To get the party started, I've created a Calendar of Kindness for the month of August that I'd love for all y'all to join me in!
You might remember, back in May, I hosted a lil social media photo-a-day challenge called #wecanmakeitmay. The same deal applies to this challenge: snap a photo for every day in August following the prompts and use the hashtag #peacefulheART. Share photos via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or all of the above. Let's share how we are promoting peace, love and kindness and flood social media with the goodness in the world! Let's learn from each other and gain lessons on how to promote kindness in our art rooms. Let's work together to create a kinder, gentler world for our students using our passion: creating and teaching art. Okay...are you in? Love y'all Ima head on back to my happy place and dream up some kind thoughts and practices...
Hello, art teacherin' types! I'm here with you today because those Back-to-School nightmares have already started. All y'all know what I'm talking about: crowded art room full of kids going absolutely bananas while the classroom teacher waits looking at her watch, shaking her head and tapping her foot. You scream, "Hey! Hey, guys!" about a half dozen times to get their attention only to see Susie cut a hunk off Janie's hair with a pair of razor sharp scissors while Billie and Beau crumple up artwork and break crayons over each other's heads. I wake up with cold sweats in a panic: I MUST GET TO SCHOOL AND PREPARE!
I'm here today to tell you this: DON'T DO IT! Enjoy what's left of your summer. You've earned every drop of freedom. However, I know it's hard to enjoy this time off when the dark shadow of back-to-school supplies at Target is looming over you. Well, lemme set your mind at ease. To prepare for the first coupla days of school, you don't need the prettiest art room, the most prepared lessons or plotted out script. All you need to do is remember one simple word:
This word is the perfect acronym for a fool proof back-to-school formula. Check it out: W = Welcome Welcome those kids to your art room with a heartfelt greeting! It will kick your class off right. E = Entrance Make sure your students understand how to "make an entrance". Getting your artists into your room in a calm, quick and quiet manner means you have more time to create! L = Let Them Know Expectations I have one rule: Be Kind. However, that one rule holds a lotta weight. So this year, I'm creating a short video to share with my students to quickly walk them thru my expectations. This means, I won't leave anything out when I talk to my dozens of art classes! C = Create! Make sure there is time to create on that first day! They've sat and listened to rules and procedures all day long...make your room different. Allow them to get messy on that very first day. They will love you for it. O = Observe Be like a scientist on a safari. Observe these art makin' creatures to see who needs to be moved, who needs to have access to different supplies, who needs more peer tutoring. Take all of that information in so you can use it in the future. M = Make Them Feel Special Everyone responds to love. Show it in a way that both you and your students are comfortable with. For me that means a lot of side hugs. We also use sign language in my art room. Signing "I love you" is one way we show we care about each other. E = Exit Making an exit is just as important as an entrance. I have a habit of getting the kids juiced up, it's just my nature. So I'm working on some new procedures to have them leave calmly. Sign language has really been helping in that department!
So there you have it! Instead of worrying away your summer about those first days of school, just breathe and remember WELCOME. Shoot, even paint yourself a sign if you have to. That's what I did! In other news, as you do plan for the new school year, check out my buddy Laura Lohmann's ART TEACHER PLANNER! What the what?! Where has this been all my life! Now I have no excuse not to get my life together. At least that's what my life coach tells me. Ya'll best check it out.
So, it's that time of year: End of the School Year De-Clutterin' Season. I thought it might be fun to chat about what items we should save and which we should trash in a lil something I like to call...HOARD IT OR HURL IT?!
Surprisingly, being the well-established hoarder that I am, I'm not opposed to hurling a thing or two. I know I just barely scraped the surface of all the stuff we art teacherin' types acquire. I'd LOVE to hear what you hoard...and what oddities you've been "gifted" that you had to quietly hurl. In fact, just this weekend, an art teacherin' friend told me she was once given styrofoam meat trays for printmaking...that hadn't quite been cleaned completely (that's a LITERAL hurl, y'all). So...what's in your closet?
I admit: my closet is kinda like the George Costanza wallet. It has pretty much everything even a hack MacGyver would need to weasel out of any situation. A box full of baby doll heads? Got it. A sack stuffed with Santa Claus beards? You betcha. I ain't proud. I'm just sayin'.
I try not to open any of my closets in front of my students because it usually just ends up looking like this. It's like I'm opening a portal to Narnia if the Snow Queen was a feature on Hoarders and Narnia was chock full of crap.
I've always thought: I CAN have all of my crap and much, MUCH more if I just have a place for it. So, once every 7 years, I go completely bananaz and organize, label and tidy everything. But then Fur Realz Cassie returns and messes everything back up again. I'll never be the Mary Poppins of Tidy-Town.
For me, I'll either need to get me a smoke screen like that one (um, genius!) or precede to HURL IT! It's on my summery to do. But so is spending countless hours in pajama-land and it looks like I'm pretty booked solid with that. So, whatcha got? And are you gonna Hoard It or Hurl It?
