Last week, I discovered a little magical device that worked wonders with a chatty fourth grade class: this wee plastic sign from the Dollah-Make-You-Hollah Tree! So, just how does it work? In short, I start off by placing it on the table of the hardest working group. Then I set my timer for seven minutes (because five minutes broke the class up too much) and when the timer went off, the Rock Star group chatted about who was the next set of Rock Stars. The wee sign was then passed to that table and Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Allow me to do a slightly better job explaining it to you here:
I'm REALLY BIG into putting the kids in charge of stuff like the Happy/Sad board (see below-below), the clean up signal, and, now, this. I could tell a big fat hairy fib and say that it's because I like putting ownership in the kids hands or instilling responsibility. I suppose that's a super sweet side effect but the fur realz reason is that 1. I'm Lazy and 2. I'm Crazy. I'd forget ALL of that stuff each and every art class if the kids weren't so stinkin' good at reminding me and keeping up with all of it. So there. Now you know the truth.
In case you missed my Dollar Tree shopping spree finds, here you go! It truly is Art Teacherin' heaven, y'all.
And in case you missed that bit about the happy/sad board...dudes. I love this thing. It's quick, it's easy and it's a visual for the kids. It's also great for when I have a sub as he/she can keep up with it as well. In my sub videos, you'll often see me chat about it as a reminder to the kids that I am watching. ALWAYS WATCHING...(something on Netflix).
Because I did a lousy job explaining my table set up, here it 'tis. With my bigger glasses, we use every seat in the house except those end cap seats. That's where I like to plop down and check out the happenings.
Now to figure out what to do with the rest of the little signs. I have a feeling this idea is going to progress so stay tuned. Love to hear your tips and tricks for management in the art room. We can all learn from each other!
Welcome back to school! Over the summer, my husband and I played an Escape Game. If y'all aren't familiar, the concept is that you are "locked" in a room that is filled with clues to help you escape. The clues usually involve code-breaking, riddle-solving and just plain old hide-n-seek. We had so much fun that I decided to bring the concept to the art room. I thought it would be a great way to introduce my kids to the rules, routines and the space that we call the art room. It was such a blast that I thought I'd share it with y'all!
As the students entered the art room, I had one kid stand at the door and pass out these small slips of paper. There were 7 different colors with about 5 of each. This year I average about 32 third and fourth graders per class so I needed to make sure I had enough for everyone. Once seated on the floor, I started this video:
A whole lotta (poor) editing went into this bad boy. Apparently I forget to edit the part where I adjust my wig. AND, if you make it all the way to the end of this video, you'll catch a look of how I really felt wearing that too-tight head piece and super-sweaty pleather jacket. Regardless, the kids ATE.IT.UP.
Just before I let them have at it, I read them the wee rules of the game...
Now, if you're worried that the kids will get a lil to wild playing this game, I found a sure-fire trick: Tell them there are SPIES watching. I fibbed to the kids and told them that before class had started, I had pulled aside a couple of kids to be my spies. Their job was to listen and share the secrets they overheard with other teams. Oh my goodness, y'all. Those fourth graders took that so seriously it was bananaz! My only other rule was no running...I have a big room and there was A LOT of excitement. But we can't be running in the art room, y'all.
Once I gave them the go-ahead, the kids immediately teamed up and went to their coordinating table. There they found this:
To make things easy for myself, I made all the puzzles identical. Some kids figured out that they were just to look for the yellow heart...but my rule was that all puzzles had to be solved before moving on to the next. My favorite was when one team said, "our puzzle is too hard!"...and I'm all, "Dudes. They are all the same."
Once the puzzles were solved, the kids went in search of their heart. I made sure to hide these pretty well so it was a bit like an Easter egg hunt.
Once they found their box, the kids discovered the following inside:
A dry erase board and marker, a decoder and a code to solve. Each of the seven boxes contained riddles which revealed the class rules. They were to solve the riddle and return to our spot on the floor with their dry erase board.
Just in case you'd like to use the code feel free! The Rockin' Riddle Rules the kids solved here: have fun, be respectful, follow directions, raise your hand, take pride and be nice.
They were highly engaged, that's for sure! Once everyone had their rules, I played the next clip in the video where I chat about each rule. Then we were on to a self-guided room tour complete with a back-stage pass.
(Yes, we refer to the place to put our dirty paint brushes as a "hot tub". Don't judge.)
I tried to think of the places in my art room where the kids would visit the most. I also came up with fun clues to help them find those places. I had specific dry erase marker colors in each spot so they couldn't just write the answers in. Also, I had them go to the places on their pass in the order listed so we wouldn't have any traffic jams.
A peek at how I labeled the places and placed the markers.
After the passes were full, we met again on the floor. In the next part of the video, I take them on a tour explaining the different places in the art room and emergency procedures.
The final phase of the game was a "solo mission". Each artist was given three Post-It's and a Sharpie. They could pick from any of the six questions on my board to answer in a complete sentence. Once finished, they returned to the floor where we played a quick round of Smartest Artist before heading out the door.
You.Guys. I hadn't had a chance to read what they had written until this morning. It made my day!
I mean...
This was only after a couple of classes had a chance to write. I can't wait to see these filled up! I plan to hang them around the school for our Open House Night.
Because my focus is Peace, Love and Kindess this year, this is an important question for my kids.
Their responses let me know that they KNOW the answer...we just gotta make it happen. Thank you for allowing me to share this super fun way to kick off the school year! Feel free to steal any ideas you see here. I'd LOVE to know if you do this kind of thing with your students. The kids told me that they are excited to play this kind of game again...which can only mean that this will be a new and fun way to introduce new concepts to the kids. An Elements of Art Escape Game, anyone?! YES, PLEASE!
Okay, y'all. Starting tomorrow, The Countdown to the Bitter End beings! Dunno what art teacherin' land looks like on your side of the universe, but if I were a Bettin' Betty, I'd say that it's just as chuck full o' craziness as mine: stacks of half-finished projects, piles of art show prep, a kiln waiting to be unloaded and reloaded, an over-turned coffee cup, paint spills, lost car keys, a missing cell phone...you get the picture. Well, I say that we need not suffer thru this insane time of year alone! Let's attack it together with humor (and adult grape-flavored drink) and more humor! To do that, might I suggest a wee Photo-a-Day Challenge that I've dubbed #WeCanMakeItMay. One of my fave bloggers and instagramers Art Teachers Hate Glitter did an art teacherin' photo challenge back in March which I had so wanted to participate in. However, my fugly To Do List made that impossible. Here's to hoping I can stick with THIS challenge! So here's how this works: each day o' May, snap a photo. Tomorrow, being May 1st and all, we'll start with numero uno. Take a picture of your art room (or wherever you work, I don't wanna exclude any of y'all!), pop it up on instagram, use the hashtag #WeCanMakeItMay and be sure to tag me (as well as all your friends, the more the merrier!). Let's share this journey to the end together and have fun while doing it!
I'll have you know that this is EXACTLY what my face looks like every morning I walk into my art room. That's me just looking at all the messes, stacks and piles. I don't plan on sugar coating it for y'all. If you follow me and ride along for this journey, you're sure to see some of the hawt-est, stankiest messes in town. Almost immediately after dropping my bag and chugging my coffee, I go into full blown hustle mode:
If I only had an Ethel, I'd get so much more done! Now, I just did a look-see and, despite the recent occurrence of undesirable behaviors in my art room that leave me making this face:
there's not to be another full moon until the end of the month! I coulda swore we'd been experiencing a full moon of the last coupla weeks but turns out I was wrong. For once. I have been writing down the random silliness that has been taking place from kindergarteners eating clay (WHHHHY) to another passing so much gas I coulda swore an elephant was in the room. Like, a BIG elephant. Who just ate five pails of beans. Anyway. Share those silly stories with your photos, y'all! We could all use the laughs. After all, it's just a matter of time before we do this...
And wake up at 10am every morning only to stay in our pj's everyday and do this...
Can't wait to make it to the end with some of my favorite people! And, dudes, don't worry if you miss a day, just pick up the following. I'd be willing to put money on it that I'll totes miss a day or five. Looking forward to seeing your snaps of the countdown cuz...#WeCanMakeItMay!
Howdy, friends! Who's ready for the NAEA Art Teacherin' Convention in the Windy City?
Y'all. I'm stoked. I've been preparing, packing and gettin' all kinds of ramped up for weeks. This will be something like my fifth convention and I've learned a coupla things along the way. I thought I'd share them with you in this here Top Ten Things You Need to Survive NAEA 2016!
So let's hit it!
1. Comfortable Kicks, y'all Lookie here, kids. I'm a girl who loves her shoes. And I can usually spend a good 8 hours in a pair of heels. However, I learned real fast when making the two block hike from my hotel to the convention center in NOLA last year, that such shoes weren't made for walkin'. Thankfully the convention center was next to a mall that provided me with the most fashion-less and flattest of flats known to man. My feets were happy. My sense of fashion cried itself to sleep at night. C'est la vie, baby. This year, I'm all sorts of prepared. Chicago in March is a total crap shoot when it comes to weather. One thing is for certain: I'll be walking a lot and my feet will prolly be a lovely cocktail of cold, wet and/or tired. For that reason, I decided to invest in a comfy lil lace up boot and a flat stacked-heel golden sneaker (yes, this qualifies as legit comfy shoes in my book). I've spent the last week or so breaking in these bad boys and I do believe they are NAEA ready. Trust me on this folks: Get you some comfy footwear (more on the pencil shoes here).
2. Ditch the Shoulder Bag, Use a Pull-Behind
You guyzz. Last year I scooped up the cutest pencil-shaving themed bag from ebay-ville and thought it'd be the perfect thing to schlep around all my stuff. What I didn't realize was just HOW much stuff I'd have to schlep: snacks, water, laptop, wallet, vendors freebies, you get the idea. Throw in that 20 lbs. NAEA catalog and I thought I was gonna need a shoulder replacement by the end of the first day! (Love this Britto-inspired one!)
I noticed that several NAEA veterans were using a wide variety of pull-behind wheelie bag things. From those plastic fold-out carts to the backpack on wheels, these peeps were zipping around the convention without a shoulder/neck/back pain on their minds. Take it from me: get you some wheels. If you love this one, check it here.
3. A Coffee Mug/Water Bottle/Flask When I don't drink enough water, I get a headache. When I don't drink enough coffee, I get a headache. When I have a flask, all is right with the world. I've found that for some wild and wacky reason, getting hydrated at conferences isn't always the easiest of tasks. For that reason, might I recommend BYODD (Bring Your Own Drankie-Drink). It don't matter what it is, you know we art teacher's aren't here to judge. Just make sure you are armed with your go-juice of choice. My fave travel mug is this one by former art teacher turned full time artist My Friend Court!
4. A Miniature Drugstore I'm married to a boy scout. Which means I'm married to a man that is ALWAYS prepared. I can't find my a## with both hands but that man can tell me exactly where he keeps his altoids, Advil and Aveeno. Sadly, he won't be coming with me to the convention which means I need to (wo)man-up and create my own pocket-sized drugstore. Might I recommend y'all do the same. Here's a short list: * gum or breath mints (enough to share, it's nice to make friends) * headache meds (for when the coffee fades) * hand sanitizer (like, ew. What did I just touch?) * hand lotion (like, ew. Why are my hands so scratchy?) * tissue (for that tear-jerker session!) * dental floss (cuz you got some spinach riiiiiiiight there) * GLITTER PILLZ (get you some here)
5. Cash, not Credit
If you're like me, you're all about the plastic. However, being in a big city like Chicago, plastic isn't always your friend. Cash is fast, everyone takes it and there's not a chance that someone is gonna swipe your identity. Loading up on singles is always a good idea so that you can tip (or tuck a buck, I'm not one to judge) easily.
6. Layers I'm, like, always cold. Except for when I'm hot. And then I'm REALLY hot. Between the Windy City weather and nervous sweats from presenting, my internal thermamertor is completely whack-a-do. Which is why you'll usually find me swaddled in layers. From a sweater to a scarf to jacket layered by another jacket, I almost always look like a colorful art teacherin' onion. And, if you've got that handy dandy pull-behind on hand, you can just keep your rolling closet with you! You can see more of my splatter paint coat here.
7. Un-Business Cards
Business cards are a necessity but they're also a dime a dozen. Because you'll be running from one session, museum, dive bar and tourist trap to another, you'll need a quick and easy way to exchange info with new found art teacherin' friends. But let's be honest: unless that buznatch card is something out of the ordinary, it's gonna hit the bottom of your handbag and more than likely be forgotten. So that doesn't happen to you, might I suggest create a lil un-business card? Instead of the normal sized shape and size of a card, why not go bigger? This will allow you to showcase more images of whatever it is that makes you unique: your blog, your students work, your art. A nice photo of yourself is also a good addition. I'm terrible with names but I don't usually forget a face. I think most folks are the same. If you are in a pinch, why not create your own card? Use a die cut machine, stamps, collage, ribbon to create a mini-masterpiece. If you someone something you've made, they are likely to save, cherish and remember who it came from. So clear that dining room table, set up an assembly line and get to un-business card making!
8. Cheapo Camera and Sketchbook Leave that big and expensive camera at home! It will just cause you neck/shoulder pain and stress (cuz if you're anything like me, you'll be uttering the words "where did I put me camera?!" all too often). I always carry my lightweight and dinged up cheapo point and shoot. I wear the lil strap like a bracelet around my wrist and use it like a mad woman. I prefer it over my phone because it doesn't wear the battery down. (Camera fabric found here!) A pocket sized sketchbook is also a must. I get a new and shiny one for NAEA every year. I've got a lil collection of NAEA sketchbooks with business cards, notes, thoughts and drawings. I have the habit of uploading photos and forgetting about them...but I always go back and flip through my sketchbooks.
9. Snackage
When I get hungry, things can go downhill real fast if I don't refuel. Finding fast, healthy and inexpensive snackage at the convention is a near impossibility. That's why I always have on me Lara bars (a healthy alternative to PowerBars), nuts, dried fruit and chocolate. Lots of chocolate. Trust me, nothing is worse than a growling belly in the middle of a session. I speak from experience.
10. Patience and Positivity
Okay, here's the truth: you might not make it to that session you had your heart set on because of people traffic, shuttle lines, accidental detours (searching for a restroom without a mile long line will take longer than you'd ever imagine) and conversations with long lost/new found friends. Just breathe, y'all. Enjoy the moment. Slap a smile on your face and know that you are with your people. Those that do what you do everyday: have fun teaching and creating with young artists. Be in the moment with these peeps as the convention will go by in a blink! (and if you missed the emoji dress, it's here).
