In the Art Room: Teacher Fill-In-The-Blank for your PD!

For fun, I created these Teacher Fill in the Blank forms for our first day of professional development (I know, my nerd status just got elevated to Uber Nerd). It started with one I created after getting the idea. I ran it past my admin and she suggested I make a couple more for our opening meeting. I ended up creating these three. They were such a hit today that I thought I'd make them available for you! 

Feel free to download and use! Here they are...credit to yours truly would be greatly appreciated!

To kick off the meeting, I placed just the fill in the sheets on the tables, not the story. I did this so that the teachers would be more random in their word choices and thereby making the story more funny. The teachers worked in groups at their tables to compile their lists. After about 5-7 minutes, I passed out the paragraphs and the teachers dropped in their words in the order that they'd written them on their first sheet.

Table by table, one teacher would pop up and read their paragraph. Y'all...they were HILARIOUS! We were dying laughing and it was just about the most perfect way to start our school PD...says me. I love a good belly laugh with friends in the morning. 

If your school, or just the folks at your table during a PD, are looking for a fun time, this is it. Let me know if you do it, I'd love to hear what you think. Have fun and WELCOME BACK!

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Leading a Professional Development for your Faculty and Staff

Well, it happened...school started. Not for the kiddos (they return this coming Wednesday) but for all teachers and staff. We kicked off the new school year on Wednesday. While most days were filled with meetings, note-taking and information-overloading, on Friday, the faculty and staff at my school painted! 

Recently I shared my painting of my "why I teach" mantra. You can check it out and the process of making it right here. Not long after sharing that, the vice principal at my school asked if I'd do a similar project with our faculty and staff. Like my online bookclub, the teachers in my building are also reading The Wild Card by Hope and Wade King. In that book, they talk about remembering your WHY...why do you teach? We decided to take it two steps further: not only come up with our why but to also put it in kid friendly terms and make a painting featuring our WHY. 

VIDEO WITH DEMO...of me leading the PD and some how-to clips!

We decided to have this professional development this past Friday. I knew many things going in: that the teachers were swamped and mostly likely stressed with everything they already have on their plates; that this might not allow them to entirely focus and enjoy the experience; that they might be anxious about painting and feeling stress over their perceived lack of artistic skills. With that in mind, I decided to loosen up the painting portion by making it into a little bit of a game. All of the works of art that you see were created by teachers who previously would have told you that they cannot paint or that they are not creative. Check these out...I beg to differ!

 Supplies:

8" x 10" matte board
6-8 colors of paint
brushes
Sharpies

Optional:

carbon paper
tissue paper with patterns
Modpodge

 The painting portion of our activity was done right before lunch. We spent about 40 minutes painting and adding bits of patterned tissue paper. I won't go into every detail as I cover it in the video. So you should, like, watch that. 

 There were 50 of us so it was a packed house. My room is very big so we were able to squeeze everyone in. There were 8 painters per table. I provided 8 cups of paint, served up in condiment cups with lids. 

 Oh! I almost forgot the most important supply! CHOCOLATE! I almost always provide chocolate when I run a PD...I always like to sweeten the deal. 

 

 The inspiration behind our painting game was Art Workshops for Children. I just got this book in the mail and I'M LIVING FOR IT! 

 I think the teachers were pleasantly surprised by their paintings even if they did freak when I told them to CHANGE SEATS!

 But what that did was free them up a bit...made them less anxious and got them having fun. When they returned to their board, they could make it their own. 

 Y'all, I'm SO doing this painting project with my students to kick off the new school year. More to come on that, I have some ideas that are still formulating but I'm SO EXCITED!

 Golly, I love me some thick brush strokes. These folks were not shy with the paint and I loved it!

 After lunch, teachers were to come prepared with their WHYs. They could have it in their minds, have it typed and printed out, whatever. I had prepared them ahead of time about this. The day before I had told them a little of what we'd be up to so they would know to come with a print out of their WHY.

 Having a lunch break in between our painting process and adding our WHY gave folks a little time to come up with it too if they'd forgotten. 

 In the video, you'll hear me share the three options for adding the WHY to the canvas. 

  The choices were free-hand, cut and paste from the printout or use carbon paper to transcribe the WHY. The first option was the least popular and the last was the most. 

Thats the reason everyone's font looks so amazing and even...the carbon paper left a ghost image that was traced over with Sharpie!

 From here, my admin would like to see them framed and hanging outside of each teacher's door. Of course, I love that idea because HOW BEAUTIFUL WILL THESE LOOK IN THE HALLS?! And I love the idea that the kids will know that their teachers value art and are artists too. 

 But, most importantly, their WHYs will be visible for all to see, read and comprehend. I know I love seeing mine...I think it will be a reminder for both me and my students. 

 Big shoutout to my coworkers for stepping out of their comfort zone and making a beautiful piece that says so much about them and their dedication to our students. 

 Our school song, the Johnson Song, starts off with "I'm so glad I go to Johnson School..." And THIS is why!

These are truly amazing educators who teach and touch so many little lives. 

 I wish I could share them all but then this would be my longest blog post ever...I'll try to share more in upcoming posts!

 If you decide to do something like this at your school, I would love a shout out! I love sharing lessons and ideas with y'all...but letting folks know where the idea came from so they can find it and benefit as well is ALWAYS appreciated. 

 BEE POSITIVE, Y'ALL!

 Thank you so much for letting me overshare. Feel free to drop me a line below if you have any questions!

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Art Scouts, Ohio Camp 2016

This weekend, I was a very lucky girl. Not only did I have the chance to spend time with my very favorite art teacherin' friends, Ginger, Laura and Jennifer,  but I also had the opportunity to work alongside them and share our passion: making the teaching of art good ole messy fun! We were super fortunate that so many art teachers decided to join us on this journey for the first ever...

That's right, Art Scouts! On the beautiful campus of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, we met and grew to love some of the nicest, brightest and just plain hilarious art teachers in the world. And I really do mean the whole world as we had friends traveling as far away as Seoul, South Korea, Canada and all corners of the U.S. to grace us with their awesome presence. 

Now we'd warned our Scouts ahead of time that earning those badges wasn't going to be easy (and, yes, in case you are wondering, they did receive super cute badges!). But each and every one of them rose to the challenge...although I do believe Jennifer made mention that "there is no crying in Art Scouts!" once or thrice. 

Speaking of Jennifer, she and I spent two days together sharing just about as much fiber arts and printmaking practices that we could. In preparation, we decked out the tables with all of the goodies our artist friends were to use in their art makerin'. Our fabulous sponsors, listed below, provided some of the supplies our Scouts used to create.

Because we'll be hosting another Scouts in less than a month in beautiful downtown Franklin, Tennessee, you won't find too many spoilers as to what skills the Scouts mastered. Sorry, friends! Badges were earned with blood (like, literally, right Lee Darter?!), sweat (woven sweat bands are on their horizon, y'all) and tears. Oh, wait! Jen said no crying in Art Scouts! Scratch that last one.

What I will say is that we were elbows deep in good ole messy art making fun. As it should be at a professional development, say we Scouts. While working with Jennifer, our Scouts had the opportunity to meet one of the most kind-hearted and loving art teachers. When Jen speaks about her students, you can hear the love she has for them. She reminded us all what precious gifts they are and how fortunate we are to create with them each and every day. She has a true gift of bringing out the most colorful and creative works of art in her students. Her secrets, tips and tricks were shared with the Scouts.  

We were so fortunate to work with some of our favorite brands and companies. This allowed us to share the supplies that we use with our students in our own art rooms. 

During our two day session, our Scouts hung with Jen and I before flipping to hang out with Ginger and Laura for their clay and painting badges. We all had so much to share with our Scouts that it was crunch time the whole time. 

Case in point: the "Working Lunch" written on our schedule. We left that "optional" but all of our Scouts were game to keep on Scoutin'! Don't worry, none of them earned the Starving Artist badge as we were feed very well with catered Mediterranean and gourmet lunches. Oh, and cookies. Warm, fresh outta the oven cookies, y'all. 

The amount of projects our Scouts accomplished will easily carry them through the middle of their school year, at the very least. Because our Scouts teach such a wide age range of students, adaptations were provided to either enhance or scale back lessons.  

Y'all know fibers is my jam, I could talk about that for days!

Just next door, the Scouts were hanging with Ginger and Laura earning their clay and painting badges. We knew they were having a blast because of the wild eruptions of laughter coming from their room. Ginger is our resident Zen mama with her calm, cool and reflective approach to teaching and creating art. On the flip side, Laura is a wild card who keeps us on our toes and rolling in laughs. A good mix, just as troop leaders should be!

Their tables were set with their clay and painting tools of mass creation.

Not only do our scouts have a wide age range but we all come from different situations: cart or classroom; no budget or big budget (wait, WHO HAS THAT?!). Working with clay can be tricky in certain situations but Ginger made sure to provide ceramic clay alternatives.

If you follow her blog, then you know she also creates beautiful murals with her students. The goPro videos of her students working on those murals are truly amazing! Our Scouts had the opportunity to paint a mural that was later used as our Photo Booth backdrop under her guidance.

Laura Lohmann is the Painted Paper Queen! Long before I knew her personally, I'd followed her blog and tried to emulate her painted paper techniques. But, I gotta tell ya, there is NOTHING like learning from the master. She shared her tips and tricks with our Scouts and the projects they created were out of this world. 

But catching her in a rare moment of seriousness is like snapping a photo of Loch Ness, a near impossibility! 

Now, just like any good camp, there were shenanigans aplenty! My Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feed were flooded with some of the funniest and most colorful characters I've seen. 

 Our Scouts truly are the best art teacherin' folks!

I mean, who else would take time out of their summer (or school year, some of them still have WEEKS to go!) to attend a professional development? The dedicated, awesome and fabulous teachers you see here.

 Okay, just a coupla spoilers from social media land...

I truly miss all of our Scouts already! It was like going away to camp.

At the end of our last day, we snapped a ton of photos, shared a lot of hugs and stories. 

We gave away door prizes that were generously donated to our Scouts.

Said our Art Scout Oath, lead by Troop Leader Lohmann.

And maybe shed a couple of good bye tears. So, yes, in the end, there was crying in Art Scouts...but they were happy tears. 

Special thanks to ALL OF OUR SCOUTS for making our weekend such a wonderful one! We loved having each and every one of you and can't wait to see you again!

BIG THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! Here is a list of who provided some of our supplies that helped make our creating possible. We'd also like to give a virtual high five to Artome for providing everyone with a frame and snacks; the Art of Ed for fabulous swag, door prizes and snacks as well as Square One Art. We have been so fortunate for the Scouts to have such support. 

And, of course, last but definitely not least, we would like to thank BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY and (from left to right) Barb, Jordan, Beth, Sara and Tina for being so very fabulous! They made us feel warm and welcome, catered to our every need (as well as our Scouts) and were just the hostesses with the mostesses. We appreciate your hospitality and dedication to the field of art education!

And that's a wrap on Art Scouts at the Ohio Camp, 2016. We are so excited for our Tennessee Camp coming up soon! To keep up with all Art Scouts happenings, follow Scouts on Facebook and Instagram. Until then, happy creating!

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