Welcome Back

We have begun our first new week of the 2012-2013 school year and I am very excited to say that we are looking at hosting more students this year through our program than ever! With that in mind I am really revamping classes to make them a little more like the students who are going to be taking them! I am really going to be striving for excellence and I believe that I will see it! I can't wait to see what they can do!

sick

Well my big plan to time myself has gone down the tubes due to being sick this week and having to take yesterday for my four year old who seems to have exactly what I do. Anyway, until next week!

Tuesday's Time

5 hours 17 minutes 44.9 seconds= 317 minutes

Our school day for students clocks in at 8:10 and ends at 3:20. We have 40 minutes for lunch. so that means there is around 390 minutes in a school day for us with students.

390 minutes
- 317 minutes
_________
73 minutes of desk time (I do have a 47 minute plan period in this sittin' time)
Wowser no wonder I am tired at the end of the day!


Now today may be completely different. I am down for the count. I have a nasty, nasty cold.

Becoming a Better Teacher

This year our school has gone to a new evaluation system and it is rather interesting. Rather than just having the administrator come in and watch us and evaluate, we are asked to provide evidence of what we do and how we do it. At first I was extremely nervous and worried about the "extra" work, but I realized I had everything I needed it was just a matter of putting it all together. There are a few things that I would like to work on the next year or two. Figure I will start with one goal and work my way up.

Because of an illness I have I am not able to stand for long periods of time (hours on end). But I know that they are looking for teachers to be out and about with the kids more regularly and more often. And of course if you are like me, when you finally sit down, that is the point when one of the admins walk in and you think...of course. Anyway, I have decided for the next three days to not change what i do but each time I am up from my desk, I am hitting the stopwatch on my iPhone and seeing how many minutes/ hours I am up a day. I figure the next three days will give me an average and then I will begin to add five minutes a day to my time. Small Steps. I do think it will be interesting to see just how much time we do spend on average up and about in the classroom. i will report my time at the end of the day. If you decide to take the challenge too, post yours!

Cardboard Shoes

Our ICON in CARDBOARD SHOES

Things get a little crazy when we run out of hot glue!

One of our "almost" finished shoes

Drawing and planning of the design

Hoping we don't make a "wrong" cut as cardboard is becoming a hot commodity in the artroom

My Art 1 classes have using the works of Mike Leavitt, a modern artist, who began constructing in carboard in 2006 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Leavitt_(artist),as a springboard in the the design and construction of carboard shoes. This has become quite and process. On the first and second day of construction they were quite clueless as to how to begin. Finally with some help from you tube I found a video, http://youtu.be/l0oiIpjhNXc, that showed children how to make a shoe from cardboard using their template. Although the students have to create their own template, they were still able to visually and metally able to put all the pieces togther.

http://youtu.be/YpwK1uFOe0o Mike's quick put together

There are not a lot of required materials for this project. We used drawing paper and scotch tape for the template and clothing boxes and scissors, and hot glue for the actual shoe. We are going to be painting some of them, but I believe that spray paint will give us the nicest finish and then students can add detail if they choose.

Photo 2

Students are working on (and hopefully) finishing their first independent assignment for the semester. I have a very very small class this semester to at the beginning, we talked and decided that each student would work in an independent format. They had to research and present a syllabus of sorts to me as to what they were going to accomplish this semester. I am enjoying what I am seeing. Although I am not sure this type of teaching would have worked so well as a larger class, it suits us just fine. Above are a couple newly turned in assignments.

Rio

A few works from one of my seniors who spends the majority of her life in my classroom. I am not complaining. She is going to make an awesome art teacher in about 4.5 years!