Top Tips for Surviving Back to School!

Today I was asked if I was ready to return to school next week and I just nearly spit out my coffee. 

Like, wait. What? 

OMG. I do start back to school next week! It's not even next week, y'all. It's down to just mere days and hours. Minutes even. How in the world did I slip into such daze of delightful denial that I had forgotten? 

Okay. I'll be honest. I have not forgotten. It's been on my mind since July. 

As a teacher, I think of July as a month-long version of Sunday night. You teachers know what I'm talking about: Sunday night is the one time of the week that you dread because you literally spend the evening running through all the work that lies ahead. What's first-grade learning? Is second grade finished painting or will I need to prep paint trays in the morning? Fourth grade was on a field trip so half of them are behind while the other half is ahead...so who's doing what tomorrow? Third grade, did I plan a lesson for third grade? And, kindergarten. Lord have mercy on my soul, what will I do with kindergarten tomorrow?! 

If that's our average Sunday night then y'all know what our month of July feels like. Especially in the midst of this wild world we are living in. 

Needless to say...I have been having just a tiny bit of trouble relaxing (ahem). But I have found some ways that have been working for me and I thought I'd share them here. Let's start with something I've recently mentioned on Season 2, Episodes 1 and 2 of my podcast: BLISS.

This morning, I was going over all the things I needed to do today and I started to have trouble calming myself down. I've only had a couple of panic attacks before (once during my third year of teaching when I MELTED DOWN A KILN and immediately lost sight in my left eye and was sent home. Good times) but this morning, I noticed that the feeling over being overwhelmed was effecting my breath. Meaning...I couldn't catch it. Not a good feeling at all. Then I remembered my acronym BLISS. 

The B is for Breathe. It helps when breathing to have a gatha or a phrase that you say mentally as you inhale and exhale. What this will do is help you to focus on your breathe. Just taking a deep breathe and exhaling is great but, if you are like me, your mind will rapidly move to what it is you are currently fixated on. So if I have myself mentally say, 'Breathing in, I am calm; Breathing out, I can relax,' it really helps. Try looking up gathas or writing some for yourself. If, after a couple of breaths you aren't feeling better, keep trying. Breathe deeper. Relax your shoulders. Focus on the present. You'll get there. 

The L is for List Your Gratitudes. By that I just mean, while you are breathing, stop and take a look around the space you are in. Mentally list off what you are thankful for. Currently, I'm thankful for a comfy chair, a cup of coffee and the sewing room I am sitting in. You don't have to write it down. Just take in the present, 

The I is for Indulge in Your Feelings. Look, things are not easy right now. It's okay to have all the feelings. I've mostly felt confused (by the tons of emails) and overwhelmed (by knowing that the load on my teacherin' plate is about to get bigger) and upset (because I know I won't be able to do it all). And I think it's okay to get all up in your feelings now and then. As long as we don't live in that space, I think it's fine. 

The S is for Stop Reading Social Media. When have you EVER hopped off social media and felt like that was time well spent? I mean...I am an epic social media time waster! I spent a couple of days this summer completely off social and not only did I not miss it but I felt so much lighter. I recommend a little social media vacay if you can. 

And the last S is for Surround Yourself with Joy...whatever that may mean for you. For me...it's creating, sewing and painting. If I don't take my creative vitamins, I swear I go through a withdrawal.

Wanna know what is keeping me up at night and my mind on a constant hamster wheel of thoughts? LESSON PLANNING. I keep thinking "how can I possibly provide my students with the best art education they deserve if I'm on a cart or on a screen or they are spaced so far apart?!" This little phrase right here has been helping me keep a positive mindset. 

Your only limitation is your imagination.. 

I was chatting with an art teacher the other day who has been teaching for 31 years. I've been at it for 22. Neither of us have EVER seen anything like this current teaching state. Which means...we are all in this together! It doesn't matter how long you've been teaching, this is a challenge for us all. Her mindset was, "a challenge can be fun." And she's right! Not the kind of 'fun' any of us signed up for...but if we think of it as a challenge and accept it as such, maybe it will push some of us out of our teaching comfort zone. This challenge has the potential of making better teachers of us all. 

All that to say...I'm still not ready! I'm still not sleeping well! I've been having my BTSN (Back to School Nightmares) like crazy and they seem to be even worse this time around. Y'all, I had a dream that there were WOLVES in the school the other night. My mind is on overdrive! I shared this with my friend Virginia who recommended I start at the beginning of the alphabet and think of all the foods I could. I got to the letter H before I had to get out of bed and hit the kitchen for a snack. All that did was make me hungry! 

A couple times this month, when sleep has completely illuded me, I've tried Melatonin by Natrol. I had no clue what Melatonin was until recently. It's a natural hormone that your body creates to let you know when to hit the hay and get outta bed. Twice this month, when my mind wouldn't allow me to rest at all, I found this to help. I even woke up without my standard morning headache (do y'all get those?!) which was a nice surprise. 

Just know...that if you are feeling a little panicky and overwhelmed, it's okay. Also, just know that yours truly will be teaching children in THIS ROOM next week and what you see right here is the clean and tidy side. 

Also know that my face has permanently frozen this way (just as mama said it would) as I've made it so many times when asked "Are you ready for school to start?!" Hahah, yep! Sure am! Doesn't it look like it?!

In all seriousness, y'all, we got this. We handled it like champs in March when it came out of nowhere and we suddenly found ourselves as YouTubers, videographers, Zoom-Call champs and more. We can do this new thing and we'll be doin' it together. Love y'all! Mean it! 

School Wide Collaborative for our Library!

Way back in May, my students worked together during field day to create some artwork that was requested by our amazing librarian. Well, I'm excited to share that last week, their work was hung and the library looks incredibly colorful because of it! Check out this tour:

My excited face and vein popping neck say it all, folks. 

School wide collabs (a project that all of your students work on that remains in the school as a permanent display) can be a big task. Especially when you only see your students once a week. That's why I love to do my school wide collaboratives on a day when I see all of my students at once: FIELD DAY! In the past, I was supposed to do sidewalk chalk for a day as apart of field day. You all...I did that one time in the 90 degree humidity that is Tennessee spring and I decided never again. And that's how our Field Day collaboratives was born. You can read more about it in detail here. Or you can hear more about it here:

I have about 350 students in my school. I had to have a lot of options available for them on field day so they would each be able to take part. I loved how each piece ended up turning out. 

We painted on 8" X 11" canvas board for the numbers and letters. However, matteboard would have worked as well. In a pinch, cardboard might even do the trick if it were primed with gesso first. 

 If these look familiar to you, that's because we did our first large painting like this the year before. It was such a hit it inspired several more. You can read about our first attempt here. 

 The set up for the day was pretty easy. We simply used up the paint we'd had at the end of the year. My chairs were gone because we'd just had our art show . All I had to do was move some tables around, make some signs and prep. Okay. Not gonna lie...the prep did take a while...

 Like making these big banners to be used at the start of the school year...

And these giant canvases...

 But, you know what, totally worth it. 

I think the letters make me the most happy. I drew the letters in pencil on canvas board. The kids could either paint the letters in all cool or all warm colors and then use the opposite for the background. 

 I thought they looked amazing...and then we framed them. Fabulous!

We've done so many school wide collaboratives now that I think I'm long overdue for a recap post! I love doing them because it's like we are leaving behind our own little fingerprint on our school. Just thought I'd share!

The Biggest Secret about being an Artist and an Art Teacher

This photo was taken my very first year teaching, in a portable, some 20 years ago. It was field day and my room was being used for the face painting station. I was 23, clueless and completely freaked out about teaching art. I'd moved 6 hours from my home in Indiana to Nashville, Tennessee without knowing a soul or having any idea what in the world I was doing. I wanted to share my journey with you in this podcast episode. I'm not going to go into too much detail here as I want you to take a listen. Think of this blog post as the visual for that episode. What I have to share took me 10 years to figure out...and changed my art teacherin' and art makin' life FOREVER.

If you like to take a listen, here you go:

I attended middle and high school in a rural school in Indiana. If you are from Indiana, I attended Northfield High School, just outside Wabash. My graduating class had something like 70 kids. It was super small and, I would NEVER have admitted it at the time, I loved that it was small. 

I was the big, weird, sassy, annoying, artsy, drama kid back in the early 90's. There weren't too many of us weirdos at the school as many kids wanted to fit in. It's human nature. I wanted to fit in too until I realized I just never was gonna. And then I started to embrace that weirdo. As seen here. 

I had the lead role in most of our small productions. I was on the speech team and traveled every Saturday to schools across Indiana reading prose, reading comedy, doing dramatic pieces. It was fun. I found my people. We were all just a buncha kids who didn't fit in but had each other. 

I was pretty confident, for the most part. I didn't mind being me.

Until I went to college. College was very hard for me, especially my freshman year. I attended Indiana University which had a student body of 30,000. Suddenly, in my mind, every kid was more creative, better at acting and public speaking and more unique than I was. I clammed up. I stopped talking to people. I began to hate myself. When was I going to be as cool and confident as I perceived the people around me to be?

And then I took an oil painting class the summer of my sophomore year. I literally fell in love. I made big messy paintings full of stories. I don't think I ever finished a single painting! But I loved making them. Suddenly I found something I felt I was good at. I had a purpose...and confidence. Again. 

While I was in the BFA painting program, I was also pursuing my art education degree. And that's where I noticed something strange.

When my painting professors found out I was also getting an ed degree, they stopped taking me seriously...after all, I was not focusing solely on my art so why should they? And my art ed professors? Well, let's just say one of them, after coming to my art showing, said I should stick to painting. She was tired of grading my lame lesson plans. 

The read-between-the-lines I was getting was that I had to pick a side. I had to choose a team. I had to figure out if I wanted to be an Artist or an Art Teacher...because, according to their message, I could NOT be both. 

In August of 1998, I took a job 6 hours from my home in Nashville, Tennessee. I became the K-2nd art teacher at Hickman Elementary. 

I had a portable classroom that was under the flight path of the Nashville International Airport. I literally had to stop talking and hang on to something every 15 minutes as planes flew overhead. I had no idea what I was doing and I was so scared of messing up. The art education of these kids depended on me and I was CLUELESS. I decided to devote all of my time and energy learning everything I could about being an art teacher. 

It was then that I decided to join Team Art Teacher. 

And I spent every moment of the next seven years reading every book, taking every class, decorating my art room, making lesson plans, doing camps...you name it. If it involved teaching art, I was all in. I was gonna be the captain of the flippin' art teacherin' team. 

And I was miserable. 

You know what a miserable person is as an art teacher? A miserable art teacher. I had neglected creating art. I had gotten so far away from my art making side and allowed myself to only focus on teaching. The face in this photo, taken when I first came to my current school about 15 years ago, says it all:

Tired. Bored. Uninspired. Uninspiring. 

I knew I had to change something. 

I knew I had to create something. 

I knew that I had to rejoin team artist...but how? How could I give up my time to my students and (selfishly, in my mind) make time for me? 

You have to, y'all. You HAVE to do both. You HAVE to be an artist and an art teacher. You'll be happy. You'll be fulfilled. You'll be what your students need. But, most of all, you'll be who YOU need. I hope you enjoy this episode...and the many more to come. 

In the Art Room: Those Last Days of School

Real talk for a minute here: the last days of school are INSANE. With schedule changes, field days, assemblies, field trips, art shows, awards days and all the rest, there is lil teachin'/learnin' taking place. The kids are hot, tired and ready to go and the teachers are right there, ready to hold the door open for them as they run off into the sunset of summer. So, instead of fighting that Last Days of School beast, why not embrace it? Ditch the tables and chairs, pull out the blocks, games, drawing books and more, crank up the Alvin and the Chipmunks album (it's what we've been rockin' out to) and HAVE FUN. Here's how I set it up in my art room:

 I started by pulling out all of my Early Finish centers. I've accumulated a TON of items for my early finish centers over the years...but the big hits are always the following: blocks (with dinosaurs!), Fashion Plates, spirographs, stitching cards, origami and my how to draw books and drawing prompts. If you click on this link, I'll walk you thru those centers. 

 A couple years ago, I created a little video explaining this end of the year set up, which you can watch right here:

In the past, I relied on the kids to read the small labels on the bins to know how many young artists could work at a center. Those little labels are hard to read...and not all the bins are labeled. I used these plastic picture frames from the Dollar Tree for our Field Day activities that worked so well, I decided to use them again here:

 I loved fashion plates as a kid and my students use the set that I once had! I also have a couple more sets that have been gifted or found at the thrift store. Amazon sells a great Super Hero rubbing set that has both boy and girl super hero characters for the kids to create. 

When I picked up a set of Spirographs from the Dollar Tree last year, I wasn't sure how great they'd be...or how well my younger students like first grade would work with them. But check out that amazing design by a firstie! I usually have to give a hand over hand tutorial for the kids because there is a learning curve. I also allow them to use mechanical pencils as they are the only ones with lead that is long and lean enough to fit into the holes of the wheel.

 In this blog post, I share with you how I set up my drawing books for early finishers. I got so tired of the kids just randomly placing the books where ever...so I spray painted the binding of each book to make it easier for them to clean up. Also...I limit them to one paper per artist. 

 If you are a new teacher with few centers, just know that I don't have a ton either. To be honest, with 30 minute art classes, it's a RARE occasion that my students are able to visit these centers. That's why I love having them available these last days of school. It's fun for me to see what they gravitate toward...and gives me ideas for the new school year. If you have limited resources, keep in mind that the following are free and/or cheap:

* Origami printouts!
* How to Draw printouts!
* Blocks borrowed from a kindergarten classroom!
* Random objects around the art room for observation drawing!
* Pictionary! You don't even have to have the game. Just a dry erase board and a group of kids that can come up with an idea of what to draw on their own as the kids attempt to guess.

My favorite places to find early finisher/end of school year activities are Target Dollar Spot (where these stitching cards are from), the thrift store, yard sales, end-of-the-year email to teachers asking them to send old games/toys your way and the Dollar Tree. 

 When my older students came in, I busted out the dry erase boards and my Pictionary game. I found it at the thrift store and, really, all you need are the cards with the drawing prompts. We sat in a circle of kids (the ones who opted to play) and had a great time playing. One of my favorite things about these days is that I join the kids on the floor! I chat with them, play games and build. 

 I do tell the kids that after 10 minutes of exploring, they will be given the opportunity to change centers. They can either opt to stay or go, AFTER they've tidied their spot. During clean up, I simply ask that they tidy which ever spot they were working at and then stand silently beside their area. To encourage a quick, calm and quiet clean up, I silently walk around and just place a couple of stickers on the kiddos who rocked their clean up. I learned this trick from my P.E. teacher buddy. She doesn't announce that she's giving stickers, she just places them on the kids who are on task. She only gave out a few and if the kids asked for a sticker, they didn't get one. It worked SO WELL in her gym that I had to try it on the last day in art...it was MAGIC. 

Do y'all do something similar on your last days of art? I'd love to know what you and your kiddos are up to!

Field Day Activities for the Art Room

Two years ago, our school reformatted our field day. I'm not sure if your school does a field day but, previously, the field day activity time took place during our students' specials class. Now, the kids do field day all day, rotating, by class, from one activity to another every 15 minutes. Most activities are outside. Our first year, I was placed in the sidewalk chalk activity and, ya'll, lemme tell you, it was THE LONGEST DAY OF MY LIFE. I was hot. The kids were hot. We ran outta sidewalk. We ran outta chalk. We ran outta patience. At the end of the day, I decided never again. 

The following year, rain was predicted but the show had to go on. I decided to do a different activity indoors. Last year, we painted Welcome Back banners to be hung at the start of the following school year. You can read all about it and watch a video here. 

This year, I decided to change it up again...well, really just add more to it, by having multiple painting stations for my students. Here's the set up:

I created 3 painting stations and, just so there was no confusion, overcrowding or the normal mayhem that ensues on field day, I numbered the tables with the amount of kiddos who could create there. They had to pick a spot and stay there. No chairs. Just grab a brush and go. Here's a little video with more of a look-see:

The day was so much fun and it seriously flew by! We worked on three things: 4 Welcome Back banners for the new school year, 4 2'X3' giant canvases for the school library, 9"X12" canvas board alphabet and numbers 1-9 for the library also. 

 Last year, during field day, we made this sign...and our school librarian loved it so much, she promptly claimed it and requested a series of paintings for the library. It only took me a year to get around to doing it with the kids...but they are complete, thanks to field day fun!

We painted with tempera paints on the canvas. The canvases were purchased with funds from our school (not my art budget!). The morning crew of younger kids painted the flat colors while the older students painted the patterns. 

Once the kids were done painting for the day, I went back over my black lines and added the white pops of paint.

 The kids did paint on top of my black lines...which I wasn't worried about. I just touched them up.

 I love how happy and whimsical they are. I cannot wait to see them in the library!

 I also retouch the banners but those I do with a bingo dauber so it goes really fast.

 These will get rolled up until August!

 It's a great way to jazz up the otherwise boring walls when we return to school. 

 Out of everything we worked on tho, these letters and numbers might be my favorite. This was actually a lesson I did with my third and fourth graders...as well as a collaborative I'll be sharing this week! I simply give the kids two paint trays, one filled with warm colors and the other cold (tempera paint is what we used, Sax Versa Temp is my go-to!) and ask them to pick one color family for the number and the opposite for the background. 

 They painted as much as they could and then the next class just picked up where they left off. They were to use dots, dashes and dabs of color. 

Aren't they the prettiest?! I need a set for my home too. 

What field day activities do you all do? I'd love to hear more!