Painting Shoes

I LOVE painting shoes! They are a fun, inexpensive way to enhance any wardrobe. I just finished these commissioned Mother/Daughter shoes for an upcoming baby shower. How cute are they!

I got on a sports kick right before Christmas & made myself some shoes to wear.

Go Royals!

Go Broncos!

Shocker Basketball

My School Spirit!

KC Chiefs (these were a gift - ugh!)

Teacher Tools

Online Tools
* I just discovered the most awesome art teachery site! It's a title generator called Content Idea Generator. (Not too exciting a name, but it's well designed & looks amazing!). I am SO using this site next year for my classes! Give them a topic & have them create whatever pops up. Fun!!!

* Who hasn't used Pixlr?!?! In my opinion, it's the closest thing to free Photoshop I've ever seen. It has it's limitations, but when I want to do a graphics lesson with my middle school students on their laptops and they don't have software installed, this is a great alternative.

* Another great photo editing site is Fotoflexer.

* A good tool for review is Spiral . Input your questions, add images if you want. Students use their phones or laptops to go to a link (Spiral gives students a link & login code), and they answer questions live.

Art Educator's Sites
 * One of my favorite art teacher blogs - I love her sense of style! Even though my personality won't allow me to dress with as much flair as her, Cassie Stephens has inspired me to start using my wardrobe as another teaching tool. I've started learning to sew and I'm adding jewelry & clothing as I find it. I found her sight right after I painted my Starry Night dress. :)


Classroom Videos 
* Monument Men - An unlikely World War II platoon is tasked to rescue art masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their owners. Based on a true story.

*Woman in Gold - Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the Austrian government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family. Based on a true story.

* Vincent and the Doctor (Dr. Who) - The Doctor (Matt Smith) has taken Amy (Karen Gillan) to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, where they admire the work of the post-impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh.

* Exit Through the Gift Shop -  I found this on Netflix. The story of how an eccentric French shop-keeper and amateur film-maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. Good for teaching about graffiti art.

State Placers!!!

AJ

I am the TSA advisor (Technology Student Association). My TSA members competed in two state competitions recently and I couldn't be prouder of them. TSA state AJ placed 2nd for his Music Production where he wrote a song on GarageBand. This qualified him to participate in the National Competition in Nashville TN the last week of June. I am SO excited! Seth placed 5th for his PSA video "Be the Change" at the KSTL state competition (Kansas Student Technology Leaders). Awesome job guys!

Seth

Halloween 2015

So if you think my school persona is just that, guess again! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Halloween & Christmas. My yard is just a wee bit excessive when it comes to decorating, and how can you decorate that much and not dress up yourself? I'm not sure I liked my make-up, but I loved the costume! Next year it'll be bigger & better cause I'm teaching myself to sew, so I'm hoping my costume will be crazy cool!

When choosing between school pictures & school spirit

Not my school picture but is my outfit

So homecoming rolls around and me & my colleagues are really into this school spirit thing. Dress up day is blast from the past, so we dress up and enjoy our day. Then the photographer comes along. Dilemma: do we go ahead & get pictures taken? Do we plan on retakes? Do we find this funny? Answers: Yes, we all get our pictures taken. No way are we getting retakes! Yes, this is hilarious! Best part? We are in the yearbook!!! Winning!

Guidance Counselor: 80s Rocker

HS Math Teacher: John Wilkes Booth

HS Social Studies: Abe Lincoln

Fall Homecoming 2015

During the pep rally for homecoming some of us got together and challenged the winners of the senior vs junior volleyball match. I don't know why I was so sad.... ;) We have discovered the students love it when we participate with them, and we, as a staff, enjoy each other's company! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

Fear the Beard

For Fall Homecoming Week we celebrated with "Look-a-like" Day. We have 2 new teachers who sported these crazy-cool beards. They also just happened to wear plaid button-ups everyday. A quick trip to Goodwill for a shirt, a trip to the costume store for a beard, and I was ready to go! (Ironically they both trimmed up their beards the previous night without warning me!)

How Germs Spread...

Check out this awesome video my computer kids made! It utilizes keyframes and LOTS of patience!

Ugly Christmas Sweaters 2014

Things get crazy & hectic in schools in December. There's always so much to do, everyone's anxious for the holidays. I decided it was time to organize Ugly Christmas Sweater Day 2014. Our awesome district clerk decided if we were going to do this we should have prizes, so she ordered some Bernie Bott Jelly Beans (those really nasty ones that are hilarious!!!).

My partners in crime

My middle school mini-me!

Score

March 2014: Our incredibly awesome 4th grade teacher approached me to create a motivational testing video. We looked online & decided we'd create one titled "Score". Enjoy!

It's All About Your Best

March 2015: Last year our awesome 4th grade teacher approached me about creating a motivational testing video. Of course I said yes! We had so much fun with it that of course we made it our new tradition! This year's song was "It's All About Your Best". Our high school girl's choir sang the new lyrics, our secretary & one of our para's filmed and I edited it all together. It was fun to all work together to create this fun little number to inspire our students to do their best on those tests!

Employee of the Month!!!

I was nominated for Employee of the Month January 2016!!! I am so flattered that my co-workers think enough of me to nominate me! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am speechless!! (Enjoy the quiet while it lasts!)

Space Rocket Project

Last fall I came across a site that was promoting art by having students K-12 create 2'x2' paintings based on specified themes. These artworks are going to be turned into wraps and put onto a REAL space rocket that will tour the USA! The topic I chose was inspired by Brown vs Board of Education and the theme was "Expressions of Freedom & Equality". After prepping our 2' canvases & talking about the history of this topic my students were ready to begin. I had two high school groups and 4 5th grade groups. They rocked this project!

Flinthills Broadcasting

 We started a brand new program this year - broadcasting school events live! I visited a nearby school with my principal & an interested student to see if we could figure out how to do this. There is a huge learning curve and I spent most every spare moment figuring out the technical aspects on how to do this. I about cried when I finally got it all to work! Then I wrote a grant (and was funded!) through donorschoose.org for some additional equipment (extension cord, portable table, & hardshell suitcase) so my students could take their newfound skills on the road. I can't wait till next year when this opportunity will be available to more students!

Giant Paintings

My school went through a giant renovation/remodeling a few years back, connecting our high school & elementary buildings with a new wing housing our middle school & library. The hallway through this area was boring (art teachers don't always do will with blank white walls!). I had my 5th hour HS art students and a group of my 2nd hour HS students paint these giant 3'x6' or 4'x8' paintings with the theme "Student Life" and including a suitable quote. We built frames, stretched canvas, & then I turned them loose. The results were incredible!

2016 Staff Dance

Last year (2014-2015 school year) I saw a staff dance making the rounds online & I was TOTALLY jealous! I emailed my co-workers & asked if any of them would be interested in doing a performance. They said YES! So we did a performance and it was awesome. And a tradition was born! This year I came up with the idea of doing a dance off, cause it would be a longer dance with less to remember. Dividing up into teams, Team Red chose new current songs, Team Black re-visited the 80's. We performed at the last home basketball game this year. That awesome guy performing as Vanilla Ice & Michael Jackson is my superintendent. You all go ahead & be jealous! The students & crowd went wild! It was a great bonding experience for all of us. Love my small community!

Team Black (80s Rock)

Team Red (New School)

Ag Olympics

Meet the 2015-2016 Team Teach Ag Olympics team! Our FFA program had Ag Olympics week, and since there wasn't any rule about teachers not participating I got my team together and made us some shirts. The kiddos LOVED it! We made our grand entrance wearing our shirts and proceeded to roll tractor tires, rope practice bulls, and walk together on planks with ropes (don't ask!). We didn't win (we did come in 2nd, cause one team kind of quit...). But what fun we had! Next year we'll dominate (JK! We don't stand a chance at winning anything other than best dressed!)

Trading Cards

So this project totally grew from a small idea into a great one! Our HS boys basketball coach had this idea to have giant posters made of his senior boys in action. I had the boys all come into my room where I photographed them in a variety of poses, then took my favorite & Photoshopped them into these posters. I included our one senior wrestler as well (we didn't have any senior girl athletes this year). I got them all finished and printed them onto one sheet for final approval from the coach before sending them off to be printed. When I saw them printed I realized they looked like authentic trading cards, so I printed off 150 of each boy. After a pep rally each senior athlete went to the lunchroom, sat at a table, and we had an official autograph session for the elementary students. It showed the seniors that they are role models, and that the elementary students DO look up to them. The elementary students were able to meet their idols and begin dreaming of their own athletic stardom!

Kindermonsters

My Graphic Arts students seem to only really get into a project if it has real-life applications. So we brainstormed what sort of projects would inspire them, and one was to work with our elementary. So I contacted our kindergarten teacher, who had just created these incredible monster collages with her class.

I printed out images and had my GA students start by recreating those adorable monsters out of modeling clay.

 

Then my GA students created packaging for these cuties! The students quickly discovered how teamwork was going to be vital for making these creatures look like they were a cohesive project, as they wanted them to look like they were part of a collection. The students settled on similar packaging, including the back story of each creature and giving it a name, and using the same logos in the same locations.

The final step was to give them to the kindergartners! The kindergartners were estatic, and the high school students were thrilled with the results! Winning project all the way around!

 

Scorer's Table

Check out this awesome paint job created by one of seniors! My teeny tiny school has 3 gyms (crazy, I know!). When we added on our great big new gym our "old" gym seemed to lose all appeal for it's upkeep visually. The score table was a prime example. It was just this ugly white box, which was fully functional but boring. So I asked one of my super talented, creative seniors if he wanted to take on the task of beautifying it. He did an amazing job!

The artist and his helpers

Spirit Monster

One of my goals this year is to promote team spirit - meaning my teaching team! One fun idea is our Spirit Monster. One day I got this zany idea & grabbed this old abandoned clay project from forever ago, painted it up, & sent it on it's journey. The rules are simple - display it on your desk for at least 24 hours, sign the card, then send it on it's way. Some teachers didn't want to part with it. Many showed their school spirit by posting images of their class with the little guy. It was such an easy fun way to get some school spirit going among our staff (and share this awesome abandoned art project!)