Project: What's On Your Mind? for 5th Grade

My example of 5th grade's What's On Your Mind? project.

It was a great alignment of schedules, testing requirements, and a religious holiday that sent my school on a week-long holiday barely two and a half weeks after we returned from summer vacation. Believe me, though, we appreciated that break when it came. I was a little worried that the rituals and routines we had established at the beginning of the year would be forgotten but so far so good in coming back strong!

Before break, students started a project in our Getting To Know You unit. These projects ask students to creatively communicate information about themselves as the first subject of the year. Following the theme of this unit, 5th graders worked on the What's On Your Mind? project. A 12x18" white drawing paper serves as the background for a photograph of the student with a thought bubble filled by small sketches of objects and ideas that are important to them.

Students began this project by completing a questionnaire exploring their interests, preferences, and personal experiences. You can grab the questionnaire we used in the step-by-step directions below. Once students had their wheels turning with details about themselves it was time to make it artistic. We discussed symbols, where we see them in the world around us, and students came up with their own definition for "symbol" as a picture that represents a bigger idea without using words. A good example of this from my project that I shared above is the sun and waves I used to represent that I used to live on the coast in Florida before I moved abroad. I simplified my idea down to something easier to draw than a whole beach scene. Put together, these symbols create a very graphic effect that highlights students' drawing skills. 

So what about the kids who hate drawing? Don't worry, we've got them covered too. Offer students old magazines, scissors, and glue. They can collage together clippings that still represent their interests, preferences, and personal experiences without the stress of creating them by hand. In my own work, I am in the process of filling some of the spaces between my symbols with magazine clippings of interesting colors and textures. I also let students trace some symbols such as sports logos, technology icons like the Apple symbol, and flags. Remember, this is the beginning of the year and I'd rather ease them into art-making than start off on the wrong foot with reluctant artists. Finally, students added color with fine-tip markers and colored pencils. The blended effect in the background was done with chalk pastel. Have students tape their brainstorming questionnaire on the back for a great artifact to put in their portfolios and a baseline for some basic drawing and fine motor skills.

Step-by-step directions:

1. Students fill out a questionnaire about their interests, preferences, and personal experiences.
2. While students are working on the questionnaire, go around and take a close-up picture of each student. Before the next session, print these pics in black and white to save your school's ink cartridges.
3. Students cut out their pictures around the shoulders and head (careful not to cut off their hair, since a surprising number of mine almost made this mistake!). Glue the picture along the bottom edge of a 12x18" white drawing paper.
4. Students may use computers/devices with Internet access to find images for tracing or reference for their sketches.
5. Sketch or collage magazine clippings in the thought bubble above the student's picture.
6. Add color with fine-tip markers and/or colored pencils as these are easy to control while working on small details.
7. Use chalk pastels to add color to the background. I recommend giving a mini-lesson on the pastels before letting students loose with them. Many students need reminders to press gently, apply a few swipes of color and then blend with a tissue to avoid massive colored dust bunnies gathering on their paper. And the table. And their neighbor's artwork. Some artists also dip their chalk pastels in water before applying color, which is effective at reducing dust, though it has shortened the life of pastels in my experience.

My classroom is by not necessarily choice-based or TAB. However, I encourage students to exercise their creative muscles in projects to explore their ideas and the materials. Do students need to sketch a symbol for every answer on their questionnaire? No, but it's a good place for inspiration if they get stuck. Can they add symbols of items not covered on the questionnaire? Sure! Does every student need to add a blue blended background? Definitely not! At the beginning of the year I tell my students they aren't allowed to ask me "Can I...?" questions. When they ask if they are "allowed" to do something I usually respond with, "That sounds like a creativity question." I am their art teacher and I feel that it's my job to facilitate creative experiences, not be the warden of ideas. Do I come up with interesting, visually effective projects? I think so. Do I have the best ideas? Not for each child. I want them to feel confident in their creativity and proud of their artistic expressions. The only time I rain on their idea parade is if it might hurt/waste the art materials (like mixing all the paint colors together).

What projects do you introduce at the beginning of the year? How do you get to know your students? In what ways do you encourage creativity in your students?

Artfully,

Catherine

Storage Closet Of My Dreams

My happy place!

Fifth stop on the 'round the room tour in the storage closet (of my dreams)!

One of the my favorite holidays of the year isn't recognized by banks, stores, or even Hallmark. My favorite day of the school year isn't even the last day when we wave everyone off for the summer. Don't get me wrong, the last day is glorious but you arrive at it battered, bruised, and baffled that you survived. I much prefer a day at the beginning of the year when (drum roll, please) NEW SUPPLIES ARRIVE!!! Art Teacher Christmas is a very real thing and comes with all the glory of a year complete but with the enthusiasm courtesy of a summer off. As if this day could get any better, my joy was even greater because I had a newly renovated storage closet in which to organize my new treasures. Bliss!

The storage closet in my classroom used to be rather dismal place. It was overwhelmed by two large metal cabinets with doors and dilapidated shelving. Behind the cabinet doors were rusted shelves, home to a jumble of supplies that you had to excavate to find anything. I'm being totally serious when I say that it would have been helpful to wear a headlamp and dig with a shovel to reach the back of these things. Just the memory of this makes me shudder. My eternal gratitude goes to the handy carpenters working on our campus improvement project who made this change possible.

I even have behind-the-door shelves that are the perfect size for liquid watercolors and printing ink!

But let's move on to happier thoughts - my new and improved shelves where supplies are strategically arranged, easy to find, and color-coded just because I can! I actually came in before the scheduled teacher return because I was so excited to see my room and play in, errh... I mean, organize the supplies. In the end, I decided to empty almost everything out, group like items together, and put them away in a logical arrangement. Previously, I mentioned my philosophy about organization in a post on the first stop in my room tour, What Do I Keep On My Desk?. I will say it again and again, or shout it from the rooftops if they let me: I am NOT a hoarder! I also believe that you don't have to be a hoarder to be a good art teacher. But I am not so judgmental as to think you can't be a good art teacher if you are a happy hoarder, different strokes for different folks, friends.

My one argument against hoarding that I feel holds true for everyone is that it can lead to a lot of waste. I took over this classroom after several years of teachers had done extensive ordering and there were piles of every imaginable material except, oddly, crayons. Not too many of those, which is a shame because they don't go bad! Paper, paint, and markers, though? Faded, moldy, and dry. That's like getting coal in your stocking on Art Teacher Christmas. So what did I do? I sorted and selected materials in good condition and were also needed to get my classes through until Art Supply Santa comes next year. It hurts my heart to admit that some materials were thrown away because they were in unusable condition. I know those supplies did not enter the room that way but neglect is a silent killer. There were other supplies that were on the fringe - things that were still in good condition but in quantities that couldn't serve a grade level or even a whole class. This included lots of paper in odd shapes or one-off colors, individual boxes of markers when I had a new class set in my order, and my fourth gallon of blue paint that didn't stink but the label indicated it was from long ago. (Please note: I already have a very healthy scrap box for collage projects) Items like this were donated to classroom teachers and they were THRILLED to get them.* I was thrilled to have a manageable space full of beautiful materials that are inspiring and accessible.

Not in the storage closet but you can see the abundance of supplies AFTER making a donation to homeroom teachers.

So if you aren't converted to streamlining your stash then I beg you to take the time to sort and organize all that you do have. Here are tips to get you started, which echo Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying:

1. Gather all like supplies together, this can be done one category at a time if you can't disassemble the whole room.
1. Paint, brushes, palettes
2. Clay
3. Paper, by color and/or type
4. Writing utensils (pencils, erasers, sharpeners, charcoal, Sharpies)
5. Coloring utensils (markers, oil pastels, chalk pastels, colored pencils)
6. Visual aids
7. Printmaking
8. (Insert your own category from your curriculum here)
2. Assess for wear and damage, then discard the materials that you wouldn't be happy to offer to students or other teachers. Marie Kondo advocates asking yourself if an item brings you joy.
3. Find storage solutions to keep like items together and easily accessible. IKEA sells plastic storage containers with lids!
4. Return items to shelves and cupboards by proximity. This means items you and the students always need are immediately accessible. Heavy items should be stored on lower shelves even if it's something you use infrequently. No sense in hurting yourself trying to put it up or down. 
5. Labels make quick work of finding materials for yourself and others. Has anyone else noticed that all liquid watercolors tend to look like they came out of the black lagoon? I wrote the color on the lid and organized it like a rainbow (if only in name).
6. Pro tip: create an inventory that itemizes every material you have. My inventory list will include a description as a material comes in an order (Red paint, 1 pint), starting quantity (12), ending quantity (TBD). This will help me in ordering for the following year to prevent build-up and waste.

Whether you are storing a pond or an ocean of materials, an organized (storage) room is pleasing to the eye, inspiring to your curriculum design, and a signal to students that materials are precious. Art teachers can't afford waste or lost materials when budgets are shrinking and students' schedules are being eaten up by test prep. You will spend time now (yes, probably hours) but that time investment now will be made back in the days you get to go home on time and the relaxed pace of your classes because you aren't hunting for the materials you need. Or the excitement your students will feel when they get to use the treasures you undoubtedly found buried in the trash.

What are your tips for organizing materials? Is there a piece of trash that's actually a treasure we should be keeping?

Artfully,
Catherine

*One of the most difficult professional situations an art teacher has to deal with is when colleagues ask you for supplies, sometimes even in the middle of class. Teacher tip: address the situation before it even begins with an email sent to the whole staff. If you have extra materials, like I did, that are nearing the end of their natural life and you won't be able to use them before they are too tired then offer these supplies to homeroom teachers. In your offer, I suggest phrasing it in such a way that these are the only extra materials you have and everything else has been carefully ordered for your curriculum this year. If teachers ask for non-consumables then give them a time of day when it's most convenient for you to lend out those items. It is my opinion that sending a student down in the middle of class is disrespectful to your time and the students whose creativity is being interrupted. Ordering for Art is done once a year and I work very hard to estimate quantities as well as anticipating projects months in advance. Why then, are homeroom teachers given a pass on planning so they can come in at the last minute asking for paint, posterboard, etc? I feel like it establishes an unfair double standard that is passed on to students whose teachers are unprepared.

Take A Seat - The Art Of Tables

Freshly painted walls this year make the room so much bigger and brighter!

Fourth stop on my room tour - the seating arrangement!

I usually have 22 students in a class and there are 6 large tables with 4 stools for them to be seated. Last year I suffered by letting my students pick their seats and then having to revoke that privilege for those who just couldn't handle that responsibility. This year I started off with seating assignments AND table jobs. Students seem to be enjoying this arrangement and my head hasn't exploded from trying to figure out who can(not) handle sitting where.

Table jobs and each table numbers.

Just this year I decided to implement table jobs. After two weeks managing materials, artworks, and cleanup... I can say this is one of the best decisions of my career. Seriously. In an ideal world, students would be able to take responsibility for their own materials, their own project, and leave the room as nice as they found it, if not better. Alas, giving 22 kids a 5-minute window for cleanup and not having some kind of miscommunication happen was a rarity. Students would inevitably put their artwork in the wrong place, try to keep working, run/slip/trip, put hand soap on sponges for wiping the table (grr!), or something that never even occurred to me as a possibility after I had carefully explained the cleanup procedure. Sometimes cleanup went fine but there is just too much turnover in the art room to cheerfully accommodate the disasters listed above. At the end of the year, I was worn out and frustrated. There had to be a better way. 

This year, I got my butt in gear during my prep days and gave assigned seats with jobs for each student. These jobs are the same at every table:

• Supply Tracker: the only person who collects/returns materials for the whole table at the beginning/end of work time. This prevents a stampede of students to grab or return materials and saves me from racing around the room before a class arrives trying to put out the things they need.
• Artwork Curator: the only person who touches artwork at the end of the lesson. I have this person make sure everyone put their name and class code on the back of their work, return sketchbooks to the shelf at the front of the room, and make sure wet artwork is on the drying rack or dry work is in the class drawer. 
• Table/Floor Cleaner: the only person who can grab a wet-with-water (not hand soap - grr!) sponge to wipe tables as well as the one who makes sure scraps and materials aren't left out. 
• Noise Monitor/Sub: secretly, this is my favorite person at the table because they shush people who are noisy during work time and they are on quality controller duty during clean up. They are also the ones that do someone else's job when they are absent or if you don't have a full table. Teacher tip: make your most irresponsible and/or talkative students fill this role. It might not always work but it could help channel their extra energy into being helpful rather than disruptive.

A little smudged since we've been using oil pastels this week!

Each table also has a sign in the middle with the table number, a major artwork we will be studying, and biographic information of the painting. I chose to feature works by Leonardo da Vinci, Vincent van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali, as well as an example of Aboriginal art and Arabic design. I hope that exposure to these artworks will familiarize students with diverse art styles and help them recognize major works someday. It's also easier to call table groups to line up at the end of class than individuals. Table groups are also responsible for each other so they exert peer pressure on each other to follow expectations so they may line up quickly.

What are some other helpful table jobs that can be assigned in the art room?

Artfully,

Catherine

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Whiteboard Action At The Epicenter Of Learning

Third stop on my room tour at the whiteboard!

I like to think of my whiteboard as the epicenter of learning because it is a focal point for how I share information with students. All of my tables are arranged so everyone can see the whiteboard and it's often the place where our lessons begin. My whiteboard is very long so there is space for my projector to display as well as space on either side where I can write information that doesn't have to be erased during presentations. The photo above shows my agenda and a handy classroom management tool that I call the noise tracker.

First, I'll discuss the agenda. I cannot stress enough the importance of maintaining an agenda. True story: I scored a job interview (and subsequently the job) by mentioning my agenda as one of the tools I use to keep my classroom organized. The woman interviewing me over the phone even admitted that I was the only candidate who talked about one and it happened to be on the school's checklist for hiring a teacher. Win! This agenda is pretty basic because we are just starting the year. I add more details as students get deeper into projects or if I need a visual reminder to do something with the class, like return artwork, that may be forgotten if I'm caught up in the momentum of the session. Remember, I have a typical short, art teacher attention span and am excited about getting kids working with materials. Students appreciate the agenda because it lets them know what they are doing that day so they can anticipate the process better. It also alleviates some of those "what are we doing today?" questions that slow down the start of class.

"Make sure the consequence you choose is something you are willing to enforce or it will be completely ineffective."

Onto the noise tracker, which arguably has an even bigger impact on the day-to-day operations of the art room than the agenda. It's a simple tool that allows me to non-verbally communicate to the class if they are being too loud or disruptive. If the volume goes above a comfortable level or students are talking over my instructions then they lose a letter, starting with the "e". To save my voice I often remove the letter and hold it up silently until students notice and start to shush each other. If I need to, I can give them a reminder that the letter was lost because they chose to be too loud/disrespectful so they connect the consequence with their actions rather than my whimsy. When a class loses enough letters that the noise tracker reads "no" then there is no talking until the session is over - and I stick to that! No whispering, it is absolutely silent. If students are bold enough to keep talking after they've lost that privilege then I start taking minutes of recess, 5 minutes for each letter (n and o). This could be done individually or as an entire class if many people choose to disregard the loss of their talking privilege.

Make sure the consequence you choose is something you are willing to enforce or it will be completely ineffective. One of the funniest and entirely true things I learned in teacher boot camp was about consistency - it is like pregnancy, either you are (consistent) or you aren't. I find that teachers fall into inconsistency if they are uncomfortable with a procedure/expectation and then only fall back on it when the measures they ARE comfortable with have failed. Here's another thing that art teachers should always feel comfortable having in their management toolbox: art class is a privilege and the teacher's time is valuable. That privilege can and should be taken away if it's being abused, i.e. make students put away their materials early (or don't even get them out) if they cannot respect the creative environment.*

Remind students early and often that they are extremely lucky to have access to art materials because it isn't guaranteed everywhere in the US and certainly not around the world. Very likely they are scheduled to come only one or two sessions every week, if not less, making their art time even more valuable. Art teachers may feel like glorified babysitters and just a cover for homeroom teachers' planning time. The administration may reinforce this by allowing specialist classes to be overcrowded and under-resourced. But remember, someone somewhere fought for students to have access to art in your area and if the art teacher falls into the trap of believing the subject is less worthy than others the students will immediately pick up on that. 

The noise tracker isn't always a negative thing. Classes that make good choices and control their volume, demonstrate respect, and so on earn points toward the Golden Specialist award. Whichever class earns the most points in a month receives the Golden Specialist award at our monthly assembly. I have also added that classes who win the award multiple times in a year will get a special art party. I think this will be something like watching an art movie with treats or using special supplies. I can't take credit for this idea because it was already being implemented at my school. At first, I thought it was silly but the students take a lot of pride in it so I was able to build their investment in the noise tracker by linking those two things. I like this system because there is a minor time commitment in using it, the rewards are nearly free if I don't buy food for the art party, and it helps maintain a calm creative space where my head won't feel like it's going to explode. I know some of my more-sensitive students feel the same. Even the really bold ones appreciate not being yelled about their volume, which is pretty counterproductive and hypocritical if you think about it. So, instead: you get art and you get art and you get art and you get art! I'm going to continue my Oprah moment in private now...

What are some other successful behavior management techniques? What consequences work best with students to help them reflect on their behavior without being punitive (taking away recess is the unpopular last resort at my school)? Or what motivates students to stay on their best behavior?

Artfully,

Catherine

*Full disclosure: my first year of teaching was in a school in a district that purposely left a loophole in regulations about class size for specialist subjects. Enormous numbers of students could be crammed into the art/music/library/PE room (or even an auditorium if need be) to give homeroom teachers planning time to implement all of the initiatives passed down because many schools in the district were failing. The school I happened to be at was also designated as high-need because of the socioeconomic background of 99% of the students. My classes were filled with students that needed more attention, not less, but as a novice and mere human being I couldn't support my students in the way they needed. On top of that, I received tremendous pressure to just get the kids in the room and do something, anything with them because my room was next to the front office (lucky me) and the noise from students in the hallway was disruptive to administration (poor them). At a faculty meeting sometime after the start of school, my principal even gave me a congratulatory pencil because "the students finally got to make some art". It is unsurprising, then, that halfway through the year the district sent in several high-ranking administrators to support our school with academics and behavior because we were again in danger of failing the state's standardized test (which we did). I did not remain at that school after my first year but I do know that the art teacher who came after me did not allow students to make art until almost Christmas because the behavior continued to be so unmanageable. No one interfered in the teacher's decision because there was new leadership at the school.

Grading Artwork, Or, The Bane Of Every Art Teacher's Existence

Image found via Google search and sourced on this site: wecreatearttutorials.blogspot.com.

As an art teacher, I think the only thing worse than grading is having to sit through irrelevant professional development. I know, I know, we are all language/math/whatever teachers. But that's a topic for a whole other post so let's get back to grading since it's the next stop on my classroom tour. This chart is between my desk and the whiteboard so it's in a prominent place in the studio.

At the beginning of the year I have a conversation with all of my students about craftsmanship. This magical and mysterious word encompasses the skills, knowledge, and behaviors my students are expected to demonstrate to achieve mastery of our objectives. For administrative purposes, craftsmanship is graded on a 1-4 scale that measures performance on at least two standards each term with a separate behavior grade. I have put in a lot of time writing rubrics and standards in student-friendly language, which I will share in my project posts. Today, I'm talking about a more holistic approach to grading that can be applied in any art classroom. 

When I asked students what "craftsmanship" meant they used context clues to relate it to sportsmanship but in the art room. Close, but not quite how I want them to think about it. I believe that grading artwork is extremely difficult because art is subjective and art students will not enter or leave the classroom demonstrating skills in the same way. To them, I say art is different than a class like math or science because in those classes you are trying to find the right answer and providing too many wrong answers will get you a bad grade. While I am not offering a choice-based art program (maybe someday) I do try to empower my students to make creative choices in their projects so they feel inspired to solve art problems in a variety of ways. Bad or wrong "answers" in the art room typically revolve around harming materials or disruptive behavior.*

I encourage my students to use the craftsmanship chart at every stage of their project not just when they are contemplating the final product. The craftsmanship definition on the left provides questions for students to reflect on their work. Next to that are pictorial examples of different levels of mastery. I liked one example I found on Pinterest so much I pretty much copied it verbatim since I don't like reinventing a perfectly good wheel. Someone named Mrs. Dodson came up with the original and I thank her for it, wherever she is. Each level of mastery is associated with a scale grade as well as an emoji because I'm a hip teacher. Just kidding (but for real though). Actually, emojis are the best way I've found to represent how I truly want students to reflect on their work and how that translates into a report card grade.

A student who meets grade level expectations will receive a scale score of 3 on their report card. This is connected to the regular happy face emoji. I turn to students and say, "This emoji shows how you feel about your artwork - happy and proud - just like your friends and family will feel when they see your artwork." I believe it's important for students to consider their audience when reflecting on their work because professional artists often make work that is meant to be shared with others. Many a student has gone back to work after being asked if they would be proud to show their project to their parents. It's been an effective deterrent to students who rushed through their work and cheekily announce that they are done. Not so fast if it doesn't pass the refrigerator test. Scale scores of 4 are rare and I explain that students must do work that exceeds expectations. In student-ese, I say that exceptional work looks like it was done by an older student. 

Conversely, scale scores of 2 represent work that doesn't quite meet expectations and is not on grade-level. Check out the emoji and notice that students/family/friends will feel sad and disappointed when they see work like this. If I score students at a 2, especially in the beginning of the year I mean it as a wake up call. When I discuss craftsmanship with students I explain that earning a 2 means something went wrong and they didn't produce their best work. This usually happens for a couple of reasons: 1) they wasted work time by being off-task or managing time poorly; or 2) they didn't ask enough questions to clarify their understanding to make sure they knew what was expected. As a teacher, one of my chief responsibilities is conferring with students to check their understanding but I refuse to take sole responsibility for this. Students must also recognize when they have a breakdown in understanding and learn how to seek help. This is one of those life skill moments when I'm setting up students for success by simulating real life in a low-risk setting. If they don't know what their boss expects of them someday it isn't totally up to the boss to seek out each employee to make sure they know what to do. Especially if you have 350 employees, I mean, students, that you see twice a week. Scale scores of 1 are just as painful as the wailing emoji and I don't go into too much detail with students - this grade means something went terribly wrong and you are way off track. Your work would only pass the refrigerator test if you were in PreK.

Students like this system because it's visual and easy to understand. They've even offered to create examples to expand the scale from 0-5. I like this system because it gives me several different ways to give feedback and prompt students' best work. Both of us have a common vocabulary to describe the process and the resulting product. 

How do you explain craftsmanship to students? Do you have a grading philosophy?

Artfully,

Catherine

*As an aside, there is also a debate about whether art should be graded more rigorously on how well students demonstrate performance skills as they would in other classes. With students at a primary level, I feel like art class better serves them by celebrating individual progress rather than focusing strictly on uniform mastery of techniques.** Older students who choose art as an elective can and should be held to different standards; they've chosen to devote a significant part of their advanced studies to this subject and failing to grade them rigorously ill-prepares them for judgments in the real world. Back in elementary, my has been experience that as students develop awareness of themselves in relation to others that their perception of self quickly dissolves into black-and-white/I-can-or-I-can't with a very fixed growth mindset. Whether students use their art skills professionally or not someday matters very little to me. Art skills can benefit people in many professions and I want my students to develop a lifelong appreciation for art. Furthermore, I hope all of my students feel comfortable with art-making so they can use it as a healthy outlet and have the confidence to undertake creative projects, whether that's DIY or a hobby.

**Note that I separate performance skills and perception or explaining understanding. Students who may struggle to communicate their ideas visually should be able to explain either verbally or in writing about the process of art-making, historical connections, and contemporary relevance.

What Do I Keep On My Desk?

This is my desk at the end of the second week of school. It looked like this almost every day last year and I intend to keep it that way!

Here is the first post touring my classroom! I will start with my desk since it's the closest thing to the door as well as the place where my school year starts and ends.

So what do I keep on my desk? The answer: as little as possible.

I can hear art teachers across the land sighing, gasping, and even tsking when they see a picture like this. The ones who aren't impressed were probably relieved when it came out a couple years ago that there is a high correlation between messiness and creativity. Those people can pat themselves on the back because they are in good company. 

See this article for pics of famous creatives' messy desks: 5 Reasons Creative Geniuses Like Einstein, Twain and Zuckerberg Had Messy Desks – And Why You Should Too

Einstein is quoted as saying, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk a sign?" As a genius, it's hard to argue with Einstein's implication that messiness means your mind is filled with so many brilliant thoughts that you can't be bothered with tidiness. But is that really the case? If you can operate in your work space with an overflowing desk then more power to your creative brain! If you operate this way but find yourself stressing about lost items, forgetting to do's, and getting distracted by a mess that you aren't proud of... I hear you!

Read: A Messy Desk May Spark Creativity, But At A Price: What Science Has To Say About Being Organized vs. Being Messy

I don't come by organization naturally. But there have been enough frustrating, stressful, embarrassing moments in my life to make me want to avoid disappointing myself and others with disorganization. This is something I work at every day and some days are better than others. My desk at school is one of the places I work the hardest to keep clear because while I am an art teacher and expected to be creative everyday, I am also an employee with expectations that have deadlines and a lot of little people counting on me. Part of why I like teaching art is that everyday has a huge variety of activities so I'm never stuck doing the same thing all day long. That short attention span gets terribly distracted if I have piles of papers and miscellaneous debris gathering dust on my work space. I also find myself moving things constantly when they aren't in their "home" so I'd prefer to touch it once and get it out of the way rather than painfully juggling books, papers, materials, artwork, and a laptop when I need to get some work done.

I know this goes without saying but teachers are notorious for working long hours prepping, differentiating, organizing, and changing students' lives. Unfortunately, our compensation doesn't always reflect our level of effort. To keep my sanity, I need a healthy work-life balance (don't we all ?!) where I have time to work out, stay in contact with family and friends, and make dinner with my husband. That means I arrive a few minutes before I am expected to be in the building, which is well before contact time starts, and try to leave campus when my contract says teachers' duties are complete - about 30 minutes after students depart. Of course I stay longer on days when I'm coaching or leading art club but that is the exception and not the rule. If my desk wasn't organized then I would never be able to make this happen.

I have two pieces of paper that constantly live on my desk. One is my daily schedule that lists which classes are coming and at what time. Sometimes I make notes on this if a class has missed a session and is at a different spot in the project than the rest of their grade level or little reminders if a class needs laptops, etc. The other paper I have on my desk is a monthly calendar. Check out the calendar here because the column headings are in rainbow colors so it's a little bit artsy without being distracting. Here I write down when I have meetings, clubs, and obligations. My system is simple but I haven't missed anything yet - and best of all, it's free!

The only other things you see out are a box of tissues - is there a word stronger than necessity in a classroom? - and some office supplies I use everyday. On one side there are a couple drawers that hold more office supplies that I don't want little fingers to find and some paperwork the administration wants us to have on hand. As you will see in the rest of my room tour I try to organize everything by proximity. I ask myself how often I will need it and where it should logically live. Like supplies are together and easily retrieved.

Since this is the first room tour post and there is more to see, I have a confession to make: I am NOT a hoarder! More sighs, gasps, and tsk-ing. I would never want to deprive my students of an art-making opportunity but I simply don't believe that a heaving room, overflowing with cast-offs and good intentions is conducive to quality artwork. If I ever received a donation or found materials for a someday project I would make sure that I had a good way to store it before bringing it into my room. Shoving a box into your storeroom and promptly forgetting about it is a sure way to waste materials. Keeping supplies in a haphazard fashion teaches our students to disrespect the materials we hold so dear. So I try to set a good example from the very beginning - creativity doesn't always mean a sloppy mess, especially in a shared learning environment like our art classroom.

Artfully,

Catherine

Good Intentions

Sneak peek into the rainbow on the open shelving at the back of my classroom.

It has been about a year and a half since I posted in this blog. Clearly I need to do better at making this a part of my professional routine...

A lot has changed since I last posted and I hope those changes will make it easier to share awesome content here. I am teaching at a new school in the same city but the experience is quite different. For one thing, I only see students in grades 3-5. On top of that, the school is so large that I only see half of each of those grades. Our campus is broken up into 4 divisions but we operate as one tribe (says the branding). That means I actually work across the hall from another full-time art teacher, and on the same campus with more than 5 other visual art teachers. It has been incredibly rewarding to work so closely with creative people rather than seeing these folks a couple times a year at whirlwind district gatherings.

A professional goal that I have been developing since my last post is to create year-long curriculum plans for the grade levels I teach. With the support of my current school I have actually had time to work on these in a meaningful way. The next step in this process is organizing the resources that back up the units and lessons within these plans. I'm looking forward to creating a space that brings together all of the inspiring bits and nitty gritty details to execute my plans.

Next up: peek at my classroom and the organizational tools that keep the art room a more creative, less chaotic space!

Artfully,

Catherine