Allen House

I was fortunate enough recently to tour the Allen House in Wichita, KS. I have no idea how this Frank Lloyd Wright gem sat right in my backyard for all these years! It is in an area called College Hill, an affluent area filled with colonial style homes. The Allen House was built in Wright's Prairie Style. No indoor photography was allowed, but I doubt I'd have remembered as I was enthralled. Wright was a genius, far ahead of his time!

Gerry Brooks

I had the opportunity to see Gerry Brooks Sept.3, 2017 in Lawrence KS. His videos are hilarious, and his talk gave some background to his videos, which made them funnier. Then he opened this slide up and WOW! When he said that if teachers show up with their classes 5 minutes late they are often taking away 1/6 of the art teacher's curriculum time that week since that is the only time we see them. This was followed by "if a kid is supposed to be somewhere, send them. Don't keep them in your room to finish something for you (meaning classroom teachers). That's not fair or respectful." He obviously respects the arts. 
Respect is probably one of the most important things I try to teach my students. I model this to my students, my co-workers, the parents, and the community. If I see trash on the floor in the hallway I stop and pick it up. How else will our students learn respect if they don't see it modeled for them! 

Gerry Brooks is one of the best speakers I've heard. If you get a chance to go see him do it! 😊

Senior Pictures

It's that traditional time of year - seniors are graduating and moving on. I'm getting so many senior pictures and graduation invitations from all of my favorite seniors. A co-worker put the idea in my head that I should do my own take on senior pictures (thanks Tiffany!) Today I printed them out, signed them, and gave them out. My seniors loved them!

I "see" how amazing your future
is going to be!"

I "cinco" your future is
going to be amazing!

Add a little color to
your future plans!

Your future is "picture perfect"

Don't let anyone "rain" on your
future plans!

Your future is going
to "rock!"

I'm beside "my-selfie" with
excitement over your future!

I scream with excitement
for your future!

I can't wait to "watch" you
achieve your dreams!

I can't stop grinning
over your amazing future!

No matter what, keep
your head above water!

The Disrespected Art Teacher

I was on Facebook reading one of my art teacher pages and a topic of conversation came up on art teachers coming online to vent at the disrespect shown to them. I've been there & I totally get it! I got to thinking this might be a great blog topic for today and I have a few ideas for you to get that respect you deserve!

BE VISIBLE! That's right, BE VISIBLE! Notice how I did that in all caps? That's cause it's that important! If you go to work, do your job, do it well, then go home then you are that invisible art teacher. It's easy to ignore what you don't see. Here's a list of what I do to "be visible".

Art Teacher camoflauge

1. Form relationships! Eat lunch with the staff. Let them get to know you & how awesome you are! Get to know your students - they are the best promoters of your program.
2. Don't be a complainer! Be the positive! When you see someone walking up to you & you just KNOW they are going to complain you're likely to run the other direction. Don't be that person!
3. Get involved. Someone has to be on all those committees. If you aren't on any of them you're probably going to get noticed, but not in a good way. Find something you can do and volunteer to sign up. Let your voice be heard! I'm on the PDC committee & Technology Committee. Both take minimal time, but since administration is at those same meetings they see me sitting at the table giving input on how my students are impacted by the decisions we make.
4. Make your school look good! If they look good, you look good. I promote my program in multiple ways - Instagram, Facebook, the district webpage, our school newspaper. I put an article in every school newspaper (with pictures!). I post cool projects the students really enjoy on our school Facebook & my school Instagram. 
5. Get to know your community. This one is probably the hardest, but getting to know your parents really helps. Know the people on Booster Club or PTO. Go to student events & mingle with the crowd (if your district has staff shirts then wear it so parents know you're a teacher).
6. Use your talents to "WOW" them! I've had students create staff caricatures to hang outside their doors, organized and created videos of the staff to promote learning (we show it to the students before state testing begins), organize the annual staff dance that we perform as a 1/2 time performance at a basketball game, have students create giant canvas paintings to display around the school. I'm an organizer (not to be confused with organized! LOL!) and love getting people together to create experiences.  

Being involved in your school makes you feel connected and gives you a sense of belonging. If you are involved your peers and administration are much more likely to see you as a part of the staff and not as the "support team". Of course there will always be those people who view art as "fluff", and thereby assign your roll in the school as less important, but if you just keep promoting yourself and your program in a positive manner you're sure to start seeing a change. Plus it makes going to work a whole lot more fun!

Art Teacher Hints & Tricks

1) My favorite! I have a huge stack of tracing paper sitting on my desk cut into appx. 3x5" sheets. When a student doesn't understand how to draw something I grab one of those tracing papers, plunk it on top of their drawing & show them what to do. I don't touch their artwork but am able to physically show them what needs to be done.

2) Start the day off with some kind of greeting. I like cheesy ones that starts our day off with a smile, but any kind of "happy to see you" greeting is a good one!

3) BINGO!!! I gave my students a list of vocab words at the beginning of the semester and blank BINGO sheets. They took the vocab list and filled out their BINGO sheets in whatever order they wanted, choosing whatever word they wanted. Everyday at the beginning of class they immediately get out their sheets and when I forget to give them a new word they quickly remind me. I can't believe it took me this long to get them excited about learning new words! I have reviews on Spiral to make sure they are paying attention. Fun way to sneak in that extra learning!

4) Start an Instagram and post pictures of the students! If your district frowns on posting student faces then post their artwork. I didn't even promote mine and had 5 followers after posting just 2 pictures. Students love pictures and they love positive attention and this is a super quick, easy way to give them a pat on the back!

4) It's late & I'll add more tips as I think of them!

Staff ID Cards

My district is pretty tiny. In the 23 years I've worked there we have never had ID cards, never really needed them. Everyone knows everyone, we punch in codes to check out books or eat lunch. So the concept of needing Staff ID cards never really came up. Then suddenly businesses everywhere start offering discounts & free stuff for teachers - you just have to show your staff ID card. Well, everyone likes free & cheap stuff, so I took it upon myself to make us some ID cards (I was under a deadline as McDonalds is offering free breakfast to teachers next weeks!) I thought about putting a barcode or something on them to make them "official" looking, but what good is a meaningless barcode? These ought to do the trick! 

My MS/HS Art Room

For those interested, my MS/HS art room is just as colorful as my intermediate room.  Drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, & all kinds of art making go on in here. My graphic classes are in the lab down the hall. That room hasn't gotten a makeover yet - it's brown & boring.

The "Scream" & "Starry Night" shelves are for student storage.

I have a "Mona Wall" full of Mona parodies. The green screen walls are used for all sorts of creative projects

The back corner is my senior bricks, where seniors come paint a brick, marking their passage from high school art into adulthood.

My desk is organized chaos. I have a storeroom behind my desk, which is an incredible blessing.

I teach two other schools via my Polycom. It's super cool & we can see and talk to each other live. As small as my district is, the other two districts are even smaller. The office behind my tv's gets used mainly by students since I no longer use it as an office. Seniors usually take over my office & use it as their own private studio.