"BEE" Art Smart

This year I have a bulletin board that I can actually use right away! I am in the old wood shop room (the building is from the late 50's) and there are no bulletin boards -- just white dry erase boards placed over old chalkboards.

In the middle of last school year however, one of my old chalkboards was replaced with an actual bulletin board!!!! I was soo happy! I have two more that will hopefully be replaced sometime this school year! (hopefully sooner then later)

This year at my middle school we are doing PBIS -- a school-wide Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support program. Pretty much we reward positive and good behavior. We do not ignore the bad behavior though -- the kids just dont get a reward.

As part of this program, each teacher is supposed to have a board with the school motto on it. Ours at CCMS is to be a Peaceful, Positive and Productive school.

I wanted to post images here for all to see. Maybe it will inspire you.

Hi Ho, Hi, Ho Its off to work I go

In less then two weeks it will be the offical start to a new school year.

All summer long I have looked foward to this time. I was excited for what I have planned. I am still excited that I am getting to use all of my classroom this year.

I just wish I had more time. But then again my students are probably wishing the same thing.

I have so many wonderful art projects planned for this first semester classes that I just cant wait to teach them as well as see the work the students will come up with. I plan to get more art projects done this time around. Last year I was only able to get 6-7 projects done with each grade level. This time around I am hoping to get 10 projects.

I dont know if this is ambitous of me but I know the students want more and it isnt fair that they cant get more cause the class is only half a year.

We will just have to see.

Inspiration

This week I was writing a design unit for my 8th grade classes based on the design movement known as Art Nouveau. Artist like Gustav Klimt, Mucha and Louis Comfort Tiffany come to mind when thinking about this style in both painting and design.

I always characterized this style with the simpliest forms and shapes. The use of geometric shapes in Klimts paintings and the use of flowers and peacock feathers in Tiffany's lamps and vases. It is such a graceful style of art.

So I decided to create my own Art Nouveau inspired piece. But what colors to use? This is always the hardest part for me.

Art Nouveau Poppies
Watercolor, Ink, stamps, prisma color pencils
Art Journal c. 2011

Well... I came across another blog that I fell in love with! The Play Date Cafe does a color challenge that really spoke to me as an artist with no clue when it comes to choosing color.

The color challenge this week was for petal pink, coral and antique gold. When I heard that I automatically thought flowers.

What inspires you?

Education Wednesday

The end of the school year is always a bit depressing.

Mostly cause I hate having to take down everything in my classroom only to have to do it again in August. lol. Guess that is what happens when they use the room during summer school (no, there are no art classes in summer school)

Apparently I am a lot messier then I believe during the school year. While cleaning my room I kept finding things I thought was lost... papers I was looking for, paintbrushes, sponges, etc. I really need to stay organized better.

And my desk really needs to be neater then this. Although these pictures were taken during the last week of school when everything was being pulled apart, this is really what my desk looked like all year.

I call it creative chaos... others call it messy. I really need a maid at school and at home. Hopefully next year will be better. I am already coming up with ideas that would be helpful... hopefully.

Education Wenesday

I try to teach a very multicultural curriculum in my art room. Although I may not be completely versed in all types and forms of art history I tend to do a serious amount of research before teaching the topics to my students.

Here in Maryland, 7th grade students cover both Ancient and Modern China in Social Studies. I love the idea of matching what they are learning in their core classes to art that I had to jump on this chance.

Here I covered the history behind Chinese Calligraphy and we discussed the popularity of the Calligraphy Characters as tattoos. I gave the students a list of commonly used Chinese Characters and they had to choose three that represented parts of themselves like honesty, trustworthy, courage, etc.

The only hard part was to use the calligraphy brushes in the traditional manner. Trust me when I tell you that creating Chinese Calligraphy isnt as easy as one would think. This art form takes years and years of practice to get it right. After one afternoon of trying to do it told me that I dont have the patience to study Chinese Calligraphy.

But the students loved it!!! All my other grades wanted to do the project and didnt understand why they couldnt. My answer to them was that each grade does different projects just like in the core classes they learn different topics and study different things each year. Well, that didnt go over very well. But my 6th graders are really excited to do this project next year.

Education Wednesday

In trying to figure out how to incorperate my job as an art teacher into my personal art blog, I decided that every Wednesday is going to be "Education Wednesday" from now on!!!

YEAH!!!! (I know --- it is really exciting).

I thought as my first Education Wednesday post I would focus on something that is really upsetting to me about the American Education System and it is extremely important that everyone knows about this.

It is call "Last In, First Out". This is the system of education layoffs for teachers throughout the States. Instead of explaining it to you, I am going to show you.

You should Know about......

Newest Miss Representation Trailer (2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection) from on Vimeo.

This trailer really spoke to me when I watched it this morning.... I am always one to show that you need to be a strong, intellegent woman and not just the blonde bimbo you see on TV.

Working with children you see all the misconceptions that the world has about the female population and what the media is really doing to the future women of our nation. It wasnt that long ago that women were not allowed to go to school, to read, write or even think for herself. It wasnt that long ago that women could not vote for our leaders.

Today the women of our nation are practically giving all the rights that soo many work hard to achive back by filling in the roles that we are told we must be a part of because we are the "weaker sex".

March is Womens History Month. I always make it a point to share famous female artists with my students since these women are always over looked. Yesterday we looked at Mexican artists Frida Kahlo. Out of all the female artists she is the one almost everyone knows (that and having a movie made of her life helped :] ).