This is my first display as a real-life art teacher, ohhh my.  My fifth-graders did it and they were so awesome about it.  Since I started my job in October I didn’t have much time to pull together a Halloween-esque project, but all of my fifth-grade classes did these “Haunted Masterpieces” in only one class period.   I mounted them on orange, black, and purple construction paper, made some 3D letters for the title, and threw it all up there during the afternoon I had to stay late for parent-teacher conferences.

First display = success =)

Hi!  So remember back in the day when I started this project?!  Well it is DONE.  I actually finished months ago but, well, ya know.  Here it is…. !!

Thoughts?  I have good news about the inspiration behind the project, and that is that I finished the mini-marathon that I ran in May.  And I ran the whole thing.  I KNOW.  I couldn’t believe it either.  Since then I finished student teaching (so sad), substitute taught the remainder of the school year, and taught art all summer at a camp.  I have been searching endlessly for a job teaching art but haven’t found one yet so I am back to subbing and searching.  I now have teaching licenses in both Indiana & Illinois so hopefully something will pan out soon!

Oh and my friend Karyn has started a blog to document her first year teaching, go look!

Hope everyone is doing well =)

A few more examples of my students’ work!  These are watercolor/pen & ink drawings based on songs.  They were asked to use a watercolor wash first to illustrate the overall mood of the song, then they were able to go back later to add more color once they had the drawings done in ink.

As of last Wednesday, I’m officially done student teaching – so sad.  I’ll do a student teaching recap sometime soon!  There’s lots to say.  For now I’m working on finishing up the things I need to do to get my teaching license, applying for jobs, and substitute teaching.  Subbing is a lot of fun so far, but we’ll see if I still think so after working with middle school kids tomorrow.  They are the most intimidating age group by far… dun dun dunnn !!

Hope your weekend was wonderful!!  woooo =)

See #1 here.

So… about that mini marathon that I mentioned I am running.  It is one month from today.  Yup.

I will be running 13.1 miles and to be honest, the more I train the more I wonder why people do things like run crazy long distances.  It just… doesn’t really seem natural, you know?  But regardless, I am going to do it.  And I’m not backing out like I did a few years ago.  I’m only getting older, right?  (Though apparently I look like a high school kid!  What.)

I’ve been tracking my progress with Daily Mile and love it.  I used to use Runners World, but I like how simple Daily Mile is, it tells you how many donuts you’ve burned while running (this is essential info) AND it’s a social network which I really need to keep me on track.  There’s a feed that shows the workouts of my friends and they also see the workouts that I post, which is a huge motivator.  Especially because my two brothers follow my workouts there and they are also training to run the mini (though, when they throw in their 10 mile runs and comment that they were “easy” it gets just a tiny bit frustrating.  But lets me know where I should be.)

Anyone other runners out there?  Training for any races?  Does anyone know why I started to get intense knee pain once I started running 5+ miles?!  (Yes, I know, I should get it checked out.)

Let me know if you’re on Daily Mile too =)

PERIDOT

I just added LOTS of new mini books, art, and prints to the shop… lots.

Go look! =)

Printmaking is probably one of my favorite things, and the students will be starting on this next project once they get back from spring break so I’ve been working on my example.  We are trying to get them to think more conceptually, and to really approach this project as if they are artists (up until this point they rush through projects just to get them done, and have trouble making simple decisions regarding how to proceed with their projects.)

They are going to have a ton of freedom with this project, and the only requirements are that they have to do a series of four prints, they have to use medical illustration imagery, and that imagery should be a metaphor to something that they are going through, something about them, or something going on in their lives.  Other than that, they can go wild.

Here are my brainstorming phases… I decided to go with the image of a knee (the bones, muscles, etc.) because I am currently training to run in a mini-marathon and am having some serious knee problems as a result.

It’s less than a month away… oh geez.

This is the printout of the knee I decided to use, as well as a simplified image of me “running” (haha) and the block I used to carve into.

I printed out a bunch of things from the mini website so I could experiment with printing my image on top (a map of the course, merchandise, an image of all of the people lined up at the race.)

I decided that I wanted to use the knee for sure, so I transfered the image to my block and…

started carving!  This part is going to be especially fun with the kids (please please please no injuries.)

Then I went CRAZY and printed about a million times.  I used different colors, printed on different papers, printed on top of prints, did multiple color prints… I was on a roll.  This was probably my favorite part.

And after this came the hard part.  I had to narrow down which prints I wanted to use and figure out how I was going to put them together.  DECISIONS oh my.

To be continued…

I’m going to start a new Monday feature here based on thx thx thx, a blog devoted to thank you notes.  Leah Dieterich writes thank you notes to pretty much anything, even things you’d never think you’d be grateful for.  Here are a few examples in case you aren’t familiar with her site:

They’re really interesting and amusing and I always look forward to reading them.  She’s also coming out with a book!  I was writing (real) thank you notes today and STRUGGLING, big time, so I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to start writing thank you notes like her (for practice, and to be more appreciative.)  I also thought it would be a good way to let you all get to know a little bit more about me – I’ve been thinking about ways to make this website a little more personal.  So let me know what you think!

Okay, time for my paper sculptures WRAP UP.  To refresh your memory, this was my example to show the kids:

The original image, and then a reinterpretation based on a chosen artistic style (they learned about impressionism, post-impressionism, and those crazy Fauves.)  Mine was focused on post-impressionism and specifically, pointilism.  Yeah.  PARTY.

Okay so here are a few that my kids came up with…

You really can’t deny that the treasure chest is bangin… it’s 3D & pops out from the page (wowza)

I love her second interpretation, and there is a TON of texture

This one is just, dead on.  He is so good at paying attention to detail, and he doesn’t try to rush through projects just to get them done like the other students tend to do.

I really wish this student had done more (he’s very talented) but he was too anxious to get started on the next project that he rushed through.  I included it because he is the only one who did a reinterpretation like this and I love the crazy cool colors.

Whatchya think?  If I did this project again I would emphasize depth and using more than one color for things like the background… there wasn’t a lot of value changes so I think I’d include a lesson on that before getting started.  Also, if the students had been more interested I would have had them do more interpretations and even get really crazy with them… but that might work better with a more advanced class (this is an introduction course.)

I only have three days left of student teaching!  Oh.  My.  I’m on spring break right now though so those days are delayed a little bit, thank goodness.  I have lots of posts planned about their work, my experiences, etc etc… and I will be starting my job search.  Like, yesterday.  Soo if you know of any art teacher position openings in Indiana or Chicago I’d love to hear about them!

Did any of you take art in high school, and what were your experiences like?  I’d love to hear them so I can find out what really stuck with you (and what will most likely stick with my students too!)

Have a great weekend =)

Okay, I know, all I do is talk about my drawing students.  And my 2D students.  But I also have ceramics students, and those classes have been a HUGE challenge for me.

Now, that challenge is not in the behavior of the students (though generally, the kids who sign up for ceramics are not at all interested in art, and are more interested in obtaining an honors diploma.  And it goes without saying that teaching is more fun when the students are interested.)  My kids are great.  I am completely spoiled, and this high school has ruined me for all other high schools I’m sure.

The challenge is in that this is a brand new skill for these kids.  And these kids belong to a generation of efficiency and having things done for you.  And most importantly, I myself only learned this brand new skill a few days before I taught them.

Yeah.  I learned at the end of one week, and began teaching the following Monday.  Throughout this whole experience I have been keeping just one step ahead of the students.  And they have No.  Idea.  Whatsoever.

In fact, they’ll often say things like “Well it’s easy for you, you spent all of college doing this!” & “Well I’d be that good at it too if I’d been doing it for three years or whatever.”  Ha ha ha.  Please keep my secret.  They can never know… even though I am absolutely dying to tell them.

I’ve spent planning periods and time after school practicing and sometimes would whisper questions to my cooperating teacher so that the kids would not know I didn’t know the answer.  And I did it.  I now feel completely comfortable on the wheel (though I have a lot to learn) and my students have produced some high quality work.  I can spot a student across the room doing something wrong, and instantly know what they need to do to fix it despite having never seen the problem before.

One of my friends is teaching art history right now, and he told me he heard somewhere that you remember 20% of what you learn, and 90% of what you teach (or something like that.)  I remember so much more from my research now, knowing that I will have to present it to students and answer questions about it, than I did while doing actual coursework for my classes (where I just had to get through a paper or exam.)  I imagine that I am going to learn so much more from actually being a teacher than I did while studying to be a teacher, though I know I wouldn’t be able to get through it without that education.

So that’s what I have been spending half of my time doing at school these last few months.  I am so glad that I not only know how to throw pottery on the wheel now, but that I can teach others how to do it successfully.  I also know that I will be able to take on any other medium I am less familiar with and teach it if I am ever given the opportunity (I’m looking at you, jewelry.)

I’ll try and take some pictures of the finished pieces, and maybe even a few of my own =)