Thursday Think Tank: Jobs in the Art Studio

I follow this wonderful art teacher down in Florida named Mr. Briggs. He has some great ideas and has even flipped his art classroom!

I found his blog by perusing pinterest in search of a way to manage jobs in the art room, therefore stumbling upon his post here about how he organizes the kids. So I took the idea and ran with it, changing it up a bit a long the way cause over here we are in LOVE with the TMNT and if you don't know who they are you are missing out!  This past year I purchased some art from an Underground show and we're just running with the theme. Here are our mascots:

Now here at my school we have NEU(No Excuses University) which promotes college readiness and so I took some terms and vocabulary that the kids might not use to create a little more rigor in our classroom for the art jobs aka Careers.

I explained what each term meant in relation to art and the real world and then correlated that with a job they have in the room when they are in class. (The kids each have a different TMNT on the back of their chair.)

Docent

The clips rotate each week and so their jobs are continually rotating. I really enjoyed making this and the kids really love it!

What kinds of jobs do your kids have in the art room?

Monday Mayhem: Supply Order Shuffle

One thing I am completely blessed by is the budget that we are granted here in our district for visual arts. I teach over 700, yes I said SEVEN HUNDRED STUDENTS, all year so every penny is stretched and spent wisely.  I remember one of my Art Ed. courses in college where we had to build a supply closet with only 1,000 dollars and with the idea that in our imaginary first job art room we had only tables, chairs, and a kiln.  What would we buy with our budget? Honestly it didn't help prepare me much and so for the past 5 years I've definitely learned a lot about placing orders, I know it varies by district and state, but here are some tips:

1. Ask for a quote from your vendor. 
-It could be Blick, or Sax or [insert most affordable and good quality supply vendor] you never know if your district gets a little bit of a discount when you order a certain $$$ of supplies.

2. Make a copy of your quote for your records.
-Before you hand over your quote or supply order to someone, make a copy. This helps in two ways: a. you can keep track of the date of order and the amount you spend
b. you can keep record of the supplies you order so you don't double up and find yourself with 25 extra red watercolor ovals when you really need green, trust me on this I KNOW.

3. Be best friends for the person who has to submit your quote for a Purchase Order.
-Always be pleasant and thankful when handing over your stuff, if they like you it will probably be filled faster and you have less to worry over. It also doesn't hurt to occasionally give thank you cards and bring them candy, dough nuts, or cute teachery things like an apple.

4. Order ahead of time.
-don't expect to get supplies for a project you need to start tomorrow, it doesn't work like that. PLAN AHEAD.

Here are a few things that I just MUST have every year and some other things that I splurge on if I have some wiggle room in my budget.

Staples for me:
1. Markers
2. Pencils/Colored Pencils
3. Paper
4. Paint
5. Glue
6. Sharpies

Splurges:
1. Air dry clay
2. Organization tools like boxes for watercolors or supplies on the tables
3. Smart Fab, just bought some of this for next year, we'll see how it turns out.
4. Sharpies, yes this is listed twice, you can never have enough!
5. Funky colored crayons or paint
6. Crayola Twistables SAD NOTE: I bought some last year(so we could try them out this year) before our school was reconstructed...and they've been lost in a box somewhere or stolen, what a waste :(

I love the smell of fresh supplies in the morning...

The only problem is getting it all put away before
the kids come in and see!

I'd like to know what are some supply staples that you buy every year, and what are some that you only buy if you have some extra money left over?

Sunday Share: Confessions of A Teachaholic

So I've decided that I need to start sharing some of the amazing blogs that I've found or know about so here we go! This lovely blog comes from one of my colleagues the amazing Mrs. Andrews!  She is such an amazing and talented teacher and she definitely goes the extra mile for her kiddos! Check out her blog here:

Confessions of A Teachaholic

 I love her post here about how she hangs the notes the kids try to pass on the board for all to see, which apparently scares many of them into submission. LOVE IT! Check her out and give her some love!

Work it Wednesday: The smART Teacher Resource

Yesterday I shared a resource on thesmARTteacher. They have challenges each month and if you win, you receive a lovely gift of money to Blick or Crystal Art.  This month the challenge was to create a worksheet or handout and submit it.  I created the Quick Draw Challenge a while ago, but hadn't uploaded it yet so I decided to do it!

Then I noticed that thesmARTteacher had a twitter account so I followed, tweeted them and they responded! Not only did they respond they actually tweeted my resource AND shared it on Facebook! Talk about a total geek out moment! Can you see me getting all giddy and smilely through the computer screen because I really did get excited!

Here is a screen shot of the evidence!
eeeeee! so excited!

If you aren't on thesmARTteacher please check it out! They have great lesson resources and discussion boards as well! Did I mention that I also bought the shirt I posted about a few days ago? I can't wait for it to get here!

Monday Mayhem: Mini Da Vinci's present: ART AFTER HOURS!

My Mini Da Vinci art club came up with the idea to do a school wide event for art only! They came up with the stations, gathered materials, made signs, and prepared to teach. Yes I said it! TEACH! Every station was completely run by students with a few teachers walking around monitoring the crowd.  Many students and their families came as well as teachers, they were all very impressed by the effort and hard work put in by the Mini Da Vinci's! I was beaming the whole night!

I asked the kids to make a banner, didn't give them any guidelines...this is what they made! WOW!

Stations:
1. Weaving (God's Eye)
2. Fashion Star
3. Face Painting(one of my Mini Da Vinci's parent volunteered to do this! We have an amazing parent volunteer center who helped with everything!)
4. Graffiti Wall
5. Puppets
6. Photo Booth
7. Sign In/Punch Card Pick Up(This was my job, as well as spreading the word through a letter sent home.)

Non-Stations: 2 Paparazzi & 1 Camera Man, I trained two students to use a DSLR camera to capture the event which are still being processed! And I had one student use an iPad to interview people at the event.

Here are some images from the big day that I took with just my iphone:

This is from our Fashion Star Station!

The "graffiti" wall, which the Mini Da Vinci's gave people permission to
write their name in a creative way. Nothing illegal here folks!

An awesome tag!

Our principal getting in on some "graffiti" action after the event.

Our principal is awesome!

Here are some more great photos from a one of my lovely friends Leiza! She has given me permission to post these photos of her cute daughters as they are having fun at Art After Hours!

We LOVE our mustaches at Art After Hours!

I mustache you to stop being so cute!

This sweetie is about to go after the graffiti wall!

This was the first time in my 5 years of teaching that I'd ever done an art event at my school! It was so fun and I learned a lot from the experience about preparing, managing, asking for help and getting the job done. I can't wait to see what next year will bring with a new group of students and fresh creative eyes!

Have you ever held an art event at your school? What did you like about it? What would you do differently?

Thursday Think Tank: Random Acts of Art!

One of my colleagues, my partner in crafty-crime, and blogger bee Andrea Keller(find her blog here) showed me an awesome article about Random Acts of Art! So I wanted to try this out with my 1st graders and put a little bit of a technology twist with it.

Step one: Create a small piece of art that can be placed anywhere. We also add a little bit of an explanation on the back.

Step two: Place it somewhere a person can find it randomly and enjoy it!

Step 3: Hopefully they'll take a picture of it and put it on instagram with the hashtag #elliottRAA and tag @TheArtStudioatElliott which is our official Art Studio instagram! (click and follow us for updates on what we're doing!)

The kids have been really excited and we even went on a "secret mission" to deposit our RAA in the library for someone to find!

Want to join in on the fun? Here is what the process looks like, its simple and easy anyone can do it!

The note says: Surprise! I'm a RANDOM ACT OF ART! Put me on instagram with the hashtag #elliottRAA and tag @TheArtStudioatElliott

This would also be a great idea to teach kids about internet safety and how fast an image travels around. Note: children were instructed not to put any identifying names or marks on these random acts of art to keep us safe. :)

I can't wait to see where the kids put these and if people find them! Try it out and tell me about your experience!

Find of the Week! The smART teacher T-Shirt!

There is no SMART without ART!

I am going to get this t-shirt! I am so excited!

If you get this shirt take a #selfie and let me know!

Surprise! Interview with an artist!

At the Elementary Spring Art Show a few of my students were interviewed for our local TV network! I am so proud and now I can share it with you!

Elementary Spring Art Show 2014

My kids were so amazing and I can't wait to see what the future holds for them!

Monday Mayhem: Colorful Mixing

Starting a new project with the 2nd graders combining music and art! This is what we have so far, do you know what we're going make?

Thursday Think Tank: Paper Owl Sculptures!

In the studio last week we discussed sculpture and how paper can be used to make 3D forms and objects through origami and other techniques. So we used paper to make a cute owl!