Artist~Teacher... tishalou

I just attended the VAEA 2013 Professional Development Conference in Falls Church. It was only about 45 minutes away but I was able to get my school to pay for the registration and a hotel for two nights. I roomed with 2 other art teachers from Fauquier and we always have a great time together as well as learn a lot from each other! Seven teachers from my county attended.

It is always great to catch up with the professors and fellow students from the MAT program at George Mason too! It is like a built in support systems to see them at my session as well as attend theirs.

I know embarrassingly, I have not posted here for a year, but frankly every time I tried to sign in I could not figure out how to edit my blog since everything on Google changed! This time I was determined to make it in!

I wanted to share my resources with the wonderful educators who attended my session!

First, there were a few blog posts from when I taught the electives class.

• Friday Electives ~ Off and Running
• Faerie Houses 

Then here is my Power Point Presentation - it was a bit large to email.


Please let me know if you have any questions about the information.

Our guidance councelor put together a great program to celebrate our diverse heritage. Each of the specialists teachers taught special lessons that week to tie everything together. Here is a little preview of what went on in the art room...
Here is the bulletin board I put together to show off my student's hard work.

Kindergarten traveled to Japan to design kimonos - we read Suki's Kimono by Chieri Uegaki.
1st grade made Australian Aboriginal Dot Paintings after reading Animal Dreaming by Paul Morin.
2nd grade went to China and created traditional brush paintings.
3rd grade made the Egyptian profiles as discussed in an earlier post.
4th grade made Day of the Dead skulls out of wire after watching this great video. It is actually a British Airways Ad but I love it - and the fact that it is in Spanish and they have to read the subtitles is a bonus!

I have been a bad blogger... not updating as often as I would like. So I am going to try to get some updates going. I have been implementing a lot of ideas I have pinned on Pinterest so I will start by describing a few.
Last year I saw these white umbrellas in the Oriental Trading catalog and thought those would be great for my Art Club to make a donate to our Holiday Auction. But I wasn't sure how the designing would go.
So this little photo from Pinterest got me started...

Here is where it came from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmhurt71/4498578774/in/faves-mycreativebuzz/

tie dye polka dots!

GES is our school - I like the popcorn, soda movie mask idea!

Nature and animal theme

this one had an animal, nature theme. They were inspired by my animal print - wild about art theme in my room! they put their names into a word search on the last panel.

Trying to get mentally ready to head back to school tomorrow. I had a great 5 day break and did a lot of crocheting and crafting inspired by my Pinterest boards (more on that later).
I was just cleaning off my camera and remembered that I took some shots of my room before I left on Tuesday - this is what I have to look forward to tomorrow...
My drying racks were full to the brim and overflowing onto the counters.

Kindergarten is working on Cardinals in the Snow.

4th Grade is printmaking with Collographs inspired by music.

1st Grade is finishing up their Aboriginal Dot Paintings. 2nd grade is working on Chinese Brush Painting.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving break with friends and family! Back to School tomorrow - 3 weeks and 2 days until winter break (but who is counting :-)

As promised here is my VAEA Presentation
The Artful Power of Children's Books
Thanks so much for the wonderful feedback I got on this presentation. Going to conferences is always such a great motivator! Virginia is for Art Educators!

Here is the link to the Audio for There Was an Old Monster.

We have finished our first two weeks of school here in Fauquier County, Virginia. Our first week was interrupted by a little 5.8 earthquake and our first weekend was filled with wind and rain from Hurricane Irene! I borrowed a great first day project from Natalie at smART Class.
Every student created a monochromatic self portrait on a 4x6 index card. Students received thick markers, thin markers, colored pencils, regular crayons, and construction paper crayons all in different shades of the color of their tables.
I usually do not have any artwork ready to hang in time for back-to-school night because first we decorate our portfolios and next we create artwork for the Original Works fundraiser. Who says the portfolio has to be the first thing we do??
Here is is in the hallway - I made sure it was done before I left on Friday and luckily as each panel went up there was a helper walking by!

I put all the cards on butcher paper - I used up about 3 rolls of double stick tape using on e of my favorite tools in the art room - the Scotch ATG 700. I purchased mine through our school's Kurtz Bros account. It is awesome for mounting anything! I use it when getting ready for our yearly county art show.

My students have been working on the Doodle 4 Google contest. I had all 5th graders working on it as a grade in class. They could fill out all the paperwork to have me send it in to the contest if they wanted to enter. 3rd and 4th graders could take the template and do one on their own. The theme this year is What I'd Like to do Someday...
Each entry must have a supporting paragraph to go along with it. I just love reading student's writing, it gives me more insight to their personalities.
Here are some of my favorites:
5th Grade:

There will be no shortage of teachers or veterinarians in our future! Students really enjoyed this project and I think they had a real connection to it as well. I showed them the winner from last year and explained she was a 3rd grader. I was disappointed to hear a few say - well I'm not going to enter mine won't win anyway so I emphasized that the winner was not the best drawn or most skilled artist - that it was a combination of the statement and the execution of the idea.
I can't wait to see the winners!

A little update of what is going on in my room:
5th grade gargoyles are almost ready to be fired - one more class needs to finish.

4th grade - elongated portraits a la Modigliani. Adapted from Kathy's blog Art Projects for Kids http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/09/modigliana-portraits.html They are adding a textured tissue paper background with mod podge.

3rd grade - not all classes are on the same day of the lesson thanks to these funky snow days but they are all enjoying painting hearts and learning about Jim Dine and Pop Art.

2nd grade is printing their Styrofoam plates to make some great radial symmetry designs. Inspired by the this lesson from Art. Paper. Scissors. Glue! http://art-paper-scissors.blogspot.com/2011/01/radial-symmetry-prints.html They are turning out great but I have found that I need to print with them in small groups or it is a disaster. I have four kids around the back table and ink the plate for them and then they line it up on their paper.


Kindergarten is taking a little break from art and PE while they rehearse for their big music performance next week.

my finished birdie

a strip before coiling and coils of different sizes.

the box top with my in progress work and strips and templates for the kids. template to size coils on and create outline finished snowflake (hard to get the points!) Notice the all blue paper! my Fave! I love the combo of tight and opened coils these are the two I purchased that started the whole idea!

I saw more versions of this idea on Cut out & Keep like this one: Recycled Magazine Ornaments and Recycled Magazine Necklace. Fun site!!

Abstracting an Object

I start off with a power point about the life and work of American artist, Georgia O'Keefe.

 My fave from last year: I love the lines...