What the Art Teacher Wore #202

 First Day of Art, 2018! I had to wear this costume I scored from Amazon. Y'all, it's THE WORST COSTUME. If you follow me here, then you saw what a limp (ahem) paintbrush I had. I seriously had to clip a small hole in the brush and insert a thin dowel rod into it. As for the palette, it is too small (it IS a kid's costume so there's that) and I'm not even sure if I'm wearing it right. No matter tho, the kids LOVED it!

Happy first week of school with kiddos to me! To celebrate, I thought I'd share my school photo from third grade. This is pre-glasses and pre-(much needed)braces. I'm obviously channeling the sister-wife look with my Holly Hobby get up (you 80's kids know the reference) and my long hair. Can you believe that blonde? I'd love to have that cornsilk hair again!

My week back was filled these rules and routines and this Getting to Know You sculpture lesson. It was a super week back and I'm excited to start next week!

 For my older students, next week will be their second art class...for my littles, it will be their third and fourth. This coming week will be our last to work on our sculptures before each grade level dives into their start of the school year projects. Brace yourself, we are going to be doing some exciting things.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT THOSE THINGS ARE YET. 

But I'm pretty sure they'll be exciting. I hope. And pray. 

Wore my Coloring Book Dress this week. It's crazy to think that the kiddos who colored most of this dress, who were in kindergarten at the time, are now in 3rd grade! I love wearing this dress and hearing them remember laying on this fabric while it was on the floor and coloring all over it. The fabric is from IKEA and we used fabric markers. 

 I was super thrilled, humbled and excited to be featured in Scholastic Teacher's Cool Teachers feature. I'm far from cool but I was stoked that they think I am. Thank you so much, Scholastic!

 Each year, I try to make a Back to School Dress...and, sadly, this year, I totally dropped the ball. Why? What's wrong with me? Honestly, I think that summer went to fast and the school year started too soon. Can I get a do-over? When's fall break again? This one was made a couple years ago from a pattern I've not repeated. Those giant shoulder wing things were a one time deal. 

 With all the kiddos doing sculptures my art room is quickly becoming a land mine of sculptures. I'm all WATCH YOUR STEP, PEOPLE to anyone who dares walk around my room. 

 So I'm trying a couple new classroom management thingies this year and this is one of 'em. I plan to share my fave management techniques this week, right here, so stay tuned. For now, I'm just sharing a snapshot...any guesses how I plan to use this?

 I can't even explain the face other than I was born with it. This dress was created from my all time favorite IKEA fabric. A sweet art teacher sent me a remnant and I created a dress with every scrap! More details here. 

 Mid-way through the week, I switched the background paper to black and I'm LOVING it. I plan to display these in a checkerboard pattern and I'm beyond excited.

 I have an ever-growing list of things I wanna do/try/work on/expand upon this year. Growth mindsets is at the top of my list. I'm re-reading The Growth Mindset Coach and loving it. This month, we've got a mantra to kick things off. 

 I realized after wearing this dress that it's pretty much like Art Teacherin' Camo...I nearly blend right in with my art room. Also...if you know me at all, you know I don't love washing my hair. It takes time that I'd rather spend sleeping in! So on this particular morning, I decided to just do a half bun thing or...what I decided to dub...

 My Art Teacherin' Mullet: business in the front, party in the back. After getting to school, and seeing myself in the mirror, I realized I was channeling my inner Jonathan van Ness and okay with that!

After a week of school (and MAYBE dealing with this!), Mitch and I took a quick trip down to Disney for their Not-So-Scary Halloween event. Halloween is our FAVORITE time of the year so we hit the parks a lot. It was so much fun and nice to get away for a hot minute. Back to reality tomorrow. I've got lots coming your way next week so be sure and pop back by!

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What the Art Teacher Wore #200

Monday's ensemble: shirt: from Uniqlo a couple of years ago; skirt: do y'all have Buffalo Exchange where you live? It's my FAVORITE resale clothing shop. If you have one, get thee there! That's where my skirt is from; shoes: Trashy Diva, couple years ago. My problem with sharing where I got my clothing is that most of my clothing is pretty old...or thrifted. So it's tough to say where it's from!

Guess what I'm bringing back? My What the Art Teacher Wore feature! My blog got it's start with 3 weekly blog posts: What the Art Teacher Wore, DIY's and art projects for kids. Well, over the years, I dropped WTATW and I don't know why! I now share my daily wears here. I've decided to share them at the end of the week here as kind of a highlight reel of my wacky outfits and my wacky week. So let's get started!

 I kicked off my Monday with a morning meeting at school, a lovely brunch with the other art teachers in my district (I work in a small k-8 district with 8 art teachers) and a haircut! If you follow me on IG then you know I've recently become the proud owner of what I'm calling Bang Toupees. I even took them in for a hair cut. Yes, that was awkward..."would you mind cutting my fake hair? Thanks!"

Tuesday's outfit: shirt from The Crayola Experience in Orlando; skirt from H&M

Tuesday was my last official day of summer vacation. My intention was to spend the day working in my art room. I got ONE bulletin board done (see below) and then spent the rest of the day buying all the 90% off things at a local craft store and eating tacos. Which is really how I'd rather spend my last day anyway!

 This board sits in a place of my art room that is both hard to see and rarely viewed. So I decided to create something big, impactful and semi-permanent. I used wrapping paper I found at Marshall's and boarder from Joann's. I cut the wording out from white paper.

I love how well it goes with this side of my art room!

 Wednesday: This was our first official day back! I wore my jacket from Forever21 that I added a million patches to. 

 Lots of rainbow patches of course. I forgot to snap a picture of my dress underneath...it is a recent thrift store score. 

Our district always kicks off the new year with a motivational speaker (they are always AMAZING) and then time for the teachers to attend PDs. My sweet friend Jennifer organized a wonderful PD with Ashley Owens of Black Sheep Goods. It was super fun!

 Thursday! The top is from Forever21 a couple of years ago and my skirt is from Modcloth!

Thursday was filled with meetings. I was excited to score this shoe bin at the thrift store for just a couple of bucks. I'm really hoping it works well as a yarn caddy in my fibers area! 

 ORANGE YA GLAD IT'S FRIDAY?! Y'all, I've been waiting all week to wear this skirt and say that! Shirt from Target, shoes from wherever you buy Chucks and skirt by me! 

 If you read my last post, than you know I lead a PD at my school on Friday. It was so fun! I cannot wait to do something similar when my kiddos come back in a week!

 Added bonus: all the tables and supplies are prepped for the kiddos. AND the teachers served as great test-drivers...even if they didn't know it. 

I hope y'all have a wonderful week! My kiddos come on Wednesday. I cannot wait!

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DIY: Round Towel to Circle Skirt...with Pockets!

I think this summer may go down as the one I went to Walmart, LOST MY MIND, purchased all of their round beach towels and stitched them all into circle skirts.

And you know what? I'm okay with that.

Cuz now I'm the proud owner of an assortment of super absorbent, albeit VERY warm, food-tastic skirts. Perfect for all occasions. National Pizza, Donut, Watermelon, Kiwi, Orange and Hamburger Days. I should know cuz I've already marked my calendar. 

Because I know you will want to make your own, I've provided a handy tutorial. What this tute is missing is...pockets! 

That's right. After I made my pizza skirt, I realized that not having pockets was just THE WORST. What kind of monster makes a skirt without pockets? This one, apparently. I knew adding pockets to the last five skirts would add more time but, c'mon. Pockets are always worth it. 

After I made the pizza skirt and it was so simple, I literally hit Walmart and bought EVERY round towel they had. The lady at the check out counter asked me what I planned to do with so many towels. I was wearing my pizza skirt at the time and I said, "Look! I'm making them into skirts! This one was a towel too!" She just gave me the side-eye and was like, "oh, okay." She does work at Walmart tho...they see IT. ALL. 

Some towels translated to skirts better than others. Like this donut...I thought it would be my fave but it's not. 

 The orange one, however, makes me so happy. I didn't think much of it until I put it on. It's so cute!

The hamburger one...well, I'm still on the fence about it. It's wacky tho and that I can totally deal with. 

In other news, GUESS WHO HAS BEEN BANNED FROM THE ROUND TOWEL AISLE AT WALMART?! If you see any cute ones, pick 'em up for me, would ya?! 

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Painting my WHY I TEACH

 Hey, kids! In my last post I shared that during our LIVE chat, we'd be sharing our WHYs. Why do we teach? It's such a simple and important question that I can honestly say I've never been asked or given thought to. WHICH IS JUST PLAIN CRAZY. 

The question was brought up during our online bookclub chat. We are currently reading The Wild Card by Hope and Wade King. You are always welcome to join our chats, even if you are not reading. This summer, I've been going LIVE every Wednesday at about 9:15pm CST. 

Last week, during our chat, we decided it would be fun to come up with our WHYs, put them in kid-friendly terms and make a work of art featuring our WHYs for our classrooms. I started to paint mine while live last night and, in usual form, it looked like a flaming hot turd. However, now I'm pleased as punch with it! So here is my WHY: 

 I've had this round canvas forever and I thought it would make a fun surface to paint my WHY on. Once I decided upon my WHY, I came up with the palette idea. I finished that off after our chat:

Here's a lil behind the scenes of the process:

I'm THRILLED to see so many other teachers jump on the paint-your-why train. I think it will be so wonderful to share with out students at the start of the school year. Check out these amazing WHY works of art created by other teachers. Be sure and give them a follow on their social media as they are all amazing and inspiring! 

 My sweet buddy Ashley created this precious WHY for her art room. In case you don't know, Ashley is INSANELY talented and known for creating teacher caricatures. You'll have to check out her IG to see more. Side note: her husband is a super talented art teacher also who just opened an Etsy shop with posters for the art room!   

 I love Sarah's WHY so much. The message, the colors and the drawings around the border are just so cute! You can follow more of Sarah's colorful adventures in her art room here.

 Kim's rainbow-tastic WHY is the stuff of art teacherin' dreams. I love how simple and colorful and PERFECT this is!! I want one! Be sure and give Kim a follow. She's fabulous!

 Another rainbow-lover! Crystal's WHY is another one that is just perfectly simple and kid-relatable. That's what I feel is so important...so the kids can read them and understand just why we are there! 

 Isn't this quote just the most amazing thing? I LOVE this so much, Phyllis! Sharing what art means to us and why we value it's place in our student's lives is such an important thing to share with our kiddos. Beautifully put, Phyllis!

 If you don't follow this Disney-loving art teacher, you are not livin' your best life. Everything Mrs. Cook shares is sprinkled with pixie dust including this quote! 

 Over on Facebook, during our LIVE session, folks were painting right along! Check out Raquel's reason for teaching art...the kids are like a fountain of youth!

 Michele's WHY is perfect for the kiddos to see and understand...but my favorite part is the heart, the palette and the 3D element with the paint brushes. LOVE it! 

 Jacqui's art makes me so happy. I know my students would LOVE that happy faced, big-eyed Earth and would probably love to replicate it. I think her quote and image are just magical. 

 YES, Shelby! This is kinda what I was going for too with my quote. You put it into words perfectly...and with a rainbow to boot. 

Hilary, this just makes me so happy. The different fonts, the rainbow order and THE MESSAGE. Y'all...you nailed it!

If you feel inspired to create a WHY, feel free to share it on my IG and tag me, I'd love to see it! 

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