Monday, August 30, 2010

Thanks Mr. E!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well my total obsession with my art ed blogs has just paid off. I check my blogs like email and anxiously await the next post... While I was vegitating in front of the tv watching the best movie of all time: GREASE, I was winning a contest by Mr. E. He is going to hand make a bulletin board for my art room ~ Whoo hoo!
Ok that big picture of me is really scary so I will have to return the favor.
I am going to decide and measure my empty wall tomorrow! Here are some samples of his awesome boards:
So which should I choose??

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Portfolios! ~ 4th and 5th Grade

For the first day of art class we go over all the procedures and rules, what I call the blah, blah and then create our portfolios for the year.
For 4th and 5th grade I give them a lot of freedom and tell them to write their name, first and last with their class code in the bottom right corner. Then they write their name in block or bubble letters across the whole portfolio. They decorate with construction paper crayons. I tell them to decorate in a way that tells me something about them.
5th grade used black paper and silver sharpies. 4th used colored paper and black sharpies.



This is the friend I wrote about last year. He is still fascinated
with Alice and Wonderland!

Loved how she used different pressure on the crayons inside of the letters!
Great designs and texture!

Monday, August 23, 2010

First Day of School!

Survived my first day of school today. Except for bus call taking 45 minutes all went well! The rest of the week should be smooth sailin' as I will do what I did today 4 more times. By the end of the week I will really be saying, "did I tell you that already?" or "Did I tell you about this yet?" Oh well! They will tell me the truth! I loved seeing all my old pals and meeting some new friends. The ones growing up and losing their baby faces and all of last year's 1st graders now have front teeth!

My baby boy is in FIFTH grade this year. He is a patrol! (most of the teacher's kids are since they get to school early anyway!) Here he is at his post. He also got to be the first one to start the school in the pledge over the PA this morning.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

My totally awesome, really cool art room!

Work week is over and the kids will show up tomorrow morning weather we are ready or not! I spent all last week puttering around in my room working on 5 things at once and getting sidetracked with another as I went along. Of course add in an all county meeting here and a staff meeting there...
I want to say thanks to all my blogging friends who gave me some great ideas this summer. Please comment with a link if you see something I 'borrowed'!
I am REALLY lucky as this is my third year at my school which is only 3 years old. This wonderful space was built to be an art room from day one. I have lots of counter space, two sinks, a storage room and a kiln room all built in! One wall has three large bulletin boards.

This is the view as you walk in the door. Three boards, three windows, materials counter, shelving below labeled with each teacher's name in order of arrival. AV cart with LCD and Elmo camera.

Standing in the room facing my desk area. The large ART banner is made of felt. The mentor teacher I had for Middle School gave it to me <3.

The view from my desk. Color laser printer, drying racks, cutting board, sinks, cabinets, door to the storage room.

 
The front corner of my 4 paneled whiteboard. This is where all the 'business' is: magnets, mini globe and US map, class score (5-1) which gets reported to the classroom teacher, seat helper, daily schedule, new grading rubric.

overall view from the back - notice a project on every table!

Bulletin Boards
Here is my color theory board, I am debating on what to do with the top - a big COLOR sign or I was thinking of horizontal and vertical examples.

I usually fill with one artists' work and change each quarter. This way there are examples of the work I talk about that students can refer to anytime, they don't have to remember them from the power point.

This is in the back of the room and last year I never put anything on it (yikes!) Actually stuff got piled up too high. Now I can refer to these as I teach and students can see the vocab in one place.


Storage/Kiln Rooms
It is really clean when the Fire Marshall visits :-)

I haven't even gotten my beginning of the year order yet! I got a lot of donations of random stuff I am still working on organizing.

Love my attached kiln room - when students glaze I have them bring it to me and I can arrange it on the spot and turn it on at the end of the day.

Room & Materials Management

Each table has a color palette with seat numbers contact papered to the middle. This year I had to add a table to make 8 tables of 4. Our 4th grade classes this year have 29 and 30 students! So I have six color wheel tables and two neutrals, grey and black.

This is how I organize materials. I haven't committed to taping down the labels yet. I added the wire shelving this year (WalMart - made for organizing your dishes in the cabinet.) I was thinking of putting upper grade materials on the shelf (harder for the little ones to reach). For certain projects I like to keep them separated to keep the nicer materials in good shape!

Last year I purchased larger scissors for the older grades. I found some of them their hands were too big for the mini ones. In posting this picture I realize I need to add a basket for my 8th table!

I set this up different this year. When students are done sometimes I have them choose a book to read silently. I found the books ended up all messy - so this year I separated them out and put the younger books in the bin below the counter - so for Kinder, 1st they can dig in and return easily without rearranging all the others! On the counter they are separated as Artist Bios and How to Draw books so if they are free drawing they can go to the left and silent readers can pick from the right.

The room still feels so bare to me. There is one wall that is usually clear which I will fill with some art posters. I am thinking I may need a mural project to get the kids involved in adding some decor to the room. I usually do not display kids art in my room - I save it to go outside in the halls.
By the end of this week every child will have a portfolio on the shelf with their first marks made for the year. I am excited to see my old friends back as well as meet all our new ones! I am so lucky to be able to have contact with EVERY student ~ all 635 of them...

Friday, August 13, 2010

Finally... SchoolArts is here!

Back in July I received the digital version of my favorite Art Education magazine, SchoolArts. I have every issue back to September 2004 when I started in the Art Education program at George Mason.

I almost don't like getting it digitally because I read it all and then when it comes in the mail it isn't a big surprise! I finally got my print version today and it is extra special because I HAVE A LESSON IN IT!! AND a colleague of mine, a fellow GMU MAT alum, Sarah D. Brooks wrote the front cover article.

This was one of my goals, getting published and I have been keeping in the back of my mind what topic or lesson I want to submit an article about. Back in June Nancy Walkup posted on her blog that they needed ClipCards for the next few issues. So I jumped on it and sent her two different ones, both of which will be published! Pretty good start, I'd say!

So here is my ClipCard Elementary Lesson on Jim Dine:
Tune in next month for an Early Childhood lesson that simulates stained glass...

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Versatile Blogger Award or Tag You're It!

So we are all giving the Versatile Blogger Award back and forth! Thanks to Mrs. Hahn at Mini Matisse for naming me as one of her top 15 blogs!


The rules are:
Rule #1: Thank the person who gave you your award.
• Thanks again to Mrs. Hahn, Thanks! I was a little giddy at seeing my name on her top 15 list.

Rule #2: Share 7 things about yourself
1. I just turned 39. I still feel like I'm 15.
(my senior prom 1989)
2. I have been with my husband since I was 15! We have been married for 15 years.
My Wedding Day 4-8-95
3. I love classic muscle cars, especially Ford Mustangs! My husband always says I know a lot about cars - not even for a girl - for anyone!
My hubby in his 1970 Mach I
4. My father is a mechanic (see #3) and my grandfather was a carpenter. That's why I love working with Stained Glass - I get to break stuff and use power tools.

5. My son Bailey weighed 10 pounds when he was born 10 years ago!

6. My husband and I were delivered by the same OB in the same hospital one year apart. (our mothers did not know each other)

7. My mom and sister live in Washington State and I hope to eventually move to the west coast to live closer to them.

and an added #8. I go over the top on everything...

Rule #3: Pass the award on to 15 bloggers whom you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic.
A lot of these have already been nominated but here goes:

1. There's a Dragon in my Art Room
2. Mini Matisse
3. Deep Space Sparkle
4. Art With Mr. E
5. Teach Kids Art
6. Daisy Yellow
7. that artist woman
8. mod podge rocks
9. Ms. Art Teacher
10. Ingrid Dijkers
11. Art On The Move
12. Art With Mrs. Smith (the Other Tisha!)
13. Mrs. Picasso's Artroom
14. The Teaching Palette
15. Wonder Brooks Extraordinaire (my GMU MAT Alum)

I have enjoyed this award going around - I have added a lot of blogs to my follow list - THANKS to everyone participating.

Monday, August 9, 2010

And this is why I teach...

I got this email from a parent today:

Hi Mrs. Burke,

I just wanted to share with you that {my daughter} entered 54 items in the county fair this year. She walked away with lots of blue ribbons and a special award for receiving the most exhibitor points this year. On many of her pictures the judges wrote "great use of space and color". {my daughter} said, "well that's because Mrs. Burke taught us how to fill up the whole paper and use lots of color."
So I just wanted to thank you for inspiring and teaching {my daughter} all that you have. It was quite a thrill for her to enter so much art at the fair this year.

How awesome is that? The student was in 2nd grade I have included a sampling of her work. I am always so honored when parents share what their children say about my art class. They take the time to email and I am very grateful. This comes at a perfect time as summer is winding down and it is going to get VERY busy in the next two weeks as I start back a week from today. I am going to deliver some stuff to my room today and get some fliers ready for meet your teacher night. You will all probably hear the groans worldwide when I tell my son he has to go to school with me today!!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

New School Year ~~ New Look

I was inspired by a few of my fellow bloggers to try on a new look. I think I will settle with this one for a bit...

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Getting Close...

to school starting again. It is hard to believe this will be my third year at Greenville! I am starting to get the hang of this being off in the summers again. Last year I felt a bit unproductive. This year I made lists and I had this blog to keep me honest :-) At least it helped me to feel like I was getting somewhere and doing something. This week I will be staying close to home - been taking care of drs appointments, organizing files and just wrapping my head around another great year of teaching ART to K - 5th graders.
Experimenting with dinner - need to add a few more to my list, my boys are getting tired of steak, spaghetti and breaded chicken breasts. Here is the Rachael Ray recipe I made for dinner. No leftovers and my son said "This is the fanciest dinner you've ever made, mom." I'd call that a success.
Back to curriculum ~ I made a list of what I taught by grade and attached the standards to see what I might need to add. I also listed what I taught last year but did not get to this year (mostly because of so many SNOW DAYS!) I also have my inventory lists and what I need to order. I have kind of shot myself in the foot by being good at fundraising! My principal brags that I am 'self-supporting' so with all the budget cuts I will not be getting any money from the school this year. I have to use all the money I raised. I do very well with a magnet fundraiser where items arrive in time for the holidays - it also helps that I teach in a rather affluent part of the county. I also make a pretty good sum from Artsonia. Here was my procrastination drawing on my folder.
I am working on an inventory spreadsheet to make this easier in the future. To quickly see how much I used for the year and what I need to order for the next.
All my files are organized in boxes ready to go back to school and slip into the file cabinet. I still have a couple 'not sure' piles - slowly working through them. I am proud of myself for not stressing over having the folder tabs alternate and having everything color coded - that is a big step for me... letting things like that go. It is organized and it serves the purpose - I am not getting graded on it... am I? So here are the three sections:
The files I keep in my desk divided into the following categories: My Art Program, County Art Program, School/County Admin, Previous Planning Books
Then the student handouts which I recently laminated and hole punched. (see this  blog entry) This is anything the students will use as a reference or complete.

Then I have all the lesson plan ideas I have been collecting. I organized those by subject:
Hopefully this will help someone either become more organized or give them permission to use *gasp* different colored folders and *gasp* handwritten titles. I know I need help! Maybe I should just set it all on fire (CED theme of the month!)!
Well this short little update turned into a novel as usual. Enjoy the last week of summer!