Funny Story Time!!!!!

A student said the funniest thing in my classroom the other day. I had fourth graders in my room at the time, and we were discussing how an artist could draw a self-portrait without drawing a picture of themselves, but by drawing symbols that represent them. I was giving some examples of symbols (such as signs on bathroom doors, etc.) and when I was confident that they had an understanding of symbols, I drew five symbols on the board that represented me. I drew a cat, a book, a music note, a crayon, and a video game controller. I asked the children what they could figure out about me from these symbols. One student said that I liked cats, another said I liked to read, I liked to listen to music, and I like to draw. But the one that just about made me pee myself was when I pointed to the video game controller and asked what it said about me, and a boy without thinking or raising his hand, yelled out "You're my kind of woman!" Now, this is a child that never talks, this seriously was the first time I had heard anything other than "here" when I took attendance. The class started laughing, the look on the boy's face as he realized what he said, and I lost it. I had to stand outside my door for a minute to compose myself. I love moments like this!

Art Room Bulletin Boards

Here are just a couple of my bulletin boards. The one that says "Watch Out..." is actually outside my classroom, while the others are inside. The leopard print letters are made out of felt, while the rest of the letters are made out of cardstock, and the border is made of construction paper. There are also a couple of scrapbooking stickers (the monkeys). I always use fabric to cover my boards. It lasts a lot longer than paper, and keeps it's color longer too.

This one is my behavior board. Each of the seats in my room are labeled with a number that corresponds with a numbered pocket on the board. Inside the pocket are colored pieces of paper- green, blue, yellow, and red. Every child starts out with their color in green, no matter what kind of day they have had in their classroom. After receiving a verbal warning for any infraction to a rule, I will change their color to blue. This a visual reminder that they have not had a perfect day in my room. If there is another incident during the same class time, their card will be changed to yellow. The classroom teachers at my school all have a similar system, so if the students get on yellow in my room, they know that they have to change a card in their classroom as well. If I have to change their card to red, they must go over to my phone and call their parents at work, and explain why they are in trouble (of course I make sure that they are really telling why they are in trouble, and talk to the parents as well). Anything that happens after this is an office visit.

This is my No-No Board. These are things that I do not want to see in my students artwork. These are things like no stick people, clouds are not blue, no floating people, the sun does not smile, the sky goes all the way to the ground, no scribbling, and their name does not go across the top of their paper, plus a few others. I find it helpful to have this posted so that the students are reminded, and can remind the other students at their table.

My Art Room

Here are some pictures of my art room. Originally it was a off white color, but I like to decorate my classroom in a theme, and I choose to make it a jungle. The cupboards were this horrible pinky, mauvy color (I hate pink!), so with the help of some contact paper, they now look much better. There was also some construction that went on in my room over the summer, after I had painted the room, and the construction workers repainted one section white. I chose to add some leaves on the wall instead of repainting (again).

Welcome to the art room!

I am an art teacher at Lakeview Design Center in Nashville, TN. I wanted to start this blog in order to put some lesson plans, bulletin board ideas, room decoration ideas out there for other art teachers to find. Luckily for me, I teach in a district where there are a lot of us art teachers, and out of these, I have a close group of friends to bounce ideas off of, and share my successes. I also know that there are art teachers who are not as lucky. This is a way to help these teachers. I am in the process of posting some photos and lesson plans, but if you have any questions, or things you would like to see on this blog, please let me know.