Enjoying Summer

This last school year was a lot for me. I moved to a new school where all teachers and students were new to each other.  Our staff was made up of teachers and support staff from all over the district as well as outside the district. This meant we were able to learn so many new 'best practices' and traditions but also meant that we had to develop ourselves as a team.  All the students were new to the school and many to each other. This meant we spent many hours developing a culture and creating this new building to be a home for the kids that entered the doors every day. 

I worked with both Elementary and Middle School students... I was really excited about TEACHING this wide range of students. The challenge was Elementary I had for an hour in a 6 digital days rotation. I graded K-5 every trimester using an E (Exceeding), M (Meets), P (Partially Meets), and D (Does not Meet) grading scale. The littles were also graded in Trimester. The middle school, however, I saw every day for 45 days straight.  Art is a quarter class for middle school and graded on a traditional A, B, C, D, F grading scale. Their classes were 52 minutes running on a completely different schedule. My brain was so mixed up with this divide and shifting. 

My daughter, Matisse, came to my school for the first time ever. That was a new dynamic where we had to separate when I was a 'teacher' and her 'mom'. That took a bit to figure out, but it was an amazing experience. We rocked out to the radio every day coming into the school. We had inside jokes and I had 20 minutes there and back for one on one conversation with my daughter. I also got to know her friends and teachers well. It was wonderful, however, I discovered there was a lot less time in my day to work when I have my daughter with me. 

Because Matisse was at my school, I found myself signing up for a lot of volunteer opportunities that I hadn't in the past. I was one of our staff PAC (Parent group) representatives which required a meeting once a month.  I also found the opportunity at this new school to take on Yearbook. I also became one of our schools Union Reps, and unfortunately this year we had a 'no' vote on a tentative agreement and therefore, we held many meetings, sit-ins, extra events to try to educate our teaching staff and district staff on what would be a good compromise and why. Finally, I chose to be a coach for a program called Girls on the Run.

I wanted to do all of these things I signed myself up for.  I wanted to bring my skills to share with my new school. I was proud of my finished Yearbook, I enjoyed the curriculum and time spent with my daughter and the 40 other girls during Girls on the Run. I like educating myself on Union concerns and efforts. The PAC group was a highlight of my month. These parents bring so much amazing support to our schools (and I'm going to say it... we had a lot of laughs). I want to work with students from Kindergarten through 8th grade. That is why I applied for this job. But the listed activities didn't include my daughter's basketball, and softball, my son's choir concerts and baseball. It doesn't even come close to highlighting the fact that I want to be the best wife I can be to my husband for our whole life together and an amazing Mom to the two people I brought into this world.  There was no time for my family; my three sisters and their families, my Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles, and my Inlaws. Friends?  I remember friends... I hope they remember me.

The year was challenging.

After a meltdown and a lot of self-reflection. I have come up with some goals for the upcoming school year to help me find my balance again. I revisited my family mantra again... Goal or Soul... What are my goals, and what feeds my soul? I had to add another aspect to this idea, Time... Where should my time go at this point in my life. 

Where will I put my TIME?

• My husband
• My kids (and their activities-- this part of life is temporary, I want to give myself to them)
• Myself - I NEED to be creative (watercolor, drawing, creating lessons, creating... just creating)
• My Family and Friends
• School- Given my students/coworkers/my tribe

What are my GOALS?

• To provide for my family (full-time job-- or the equivalent in parts of jobs)
• To make sure my family knows with all their heart that they are my first priority. 
• Be known amongst my tribe (educators/art educators/artist) as a giver, and support
• Create a healthier me (PT for my back, Yoga for my brain and body, workouts for my heart, and drawing for meditation)

What feeds my SOUL?

• Create a love of Art for the students I teach
• Continue to connect globally with other Educators
• Feel the LOVE from my family in hugs, words of affirmation, and support (I know I need this in my life)

Because of this reflection and realization, I have come up with a plan for next year. I will be working K-7 (per my the schedule is given to me). I was told that this was non-negotiable if I wanted to keep working with ISD 728 as a full-time employee... so I will make sure my mindset is prepared for running the two schedules again this next school year with grace and positivity. I will continue to spill my heart and soul into teaching (there is no other way for me) I will let go of the Yearbook, PAC committee, and Girls on the Run for the 2018/19 school year.  I will continue to share on this blog, my Instagram, and Twitter when available to do so. I will go dancing, play pickleball, and go for walks with my husband. I will continue to support my kids with this interest (sports, hunting, conversations, future plans). When there is extra time, I will be with friends and family. 

To start on these efforts I will be taking a break. I will be posting again starting on July 10th when I am participating the 2018 Sew a Softie Blog Crawl. See you then.

Here are a few others to follow for the upcoming Sew a Softie Fun... 

Trixi Symonds

Founder of Sew a Softie

www.sewasoftie.com

www.colouredbuttons.com

Follow on Instagram these participants:

@colouredbuttons

@theembroiderist

@redtedart

@mollyandmama

@makefilmplay

@sumoftheirstories

@simplysewingmag

@fishmuseum

@missdaisypatterns

@cintaandco

@make_it_your_own

@cucicucioo

@minimatisseart

@sewingbeefabric 

@sewingschoolbook

@theartgardenblog

@mielaerkerasmussen

@curiositysprouts

@artcampla

@happinessatnr4

@thebluebarn

@_theartdream

@barleyandbirch

@schaeresteipapier

@thecrafttrain

@iheartcraftythings

@applegreencottage

@phoebeandegg

@creatingcreatives

@luluandceleste

@brainy_beginnings_network

@molliejohanson

@fluffmonger

@swoodsonsays   

@ohcreativeday  

@kate_laughingkidslearn

@honigkukuk

@mamasmiles

Day 15, 2017: #Reflect13

I'm excited to take part in the #k12ArtChallenge this month.  This month we are throwing out some prompts to help start a conversation about our profession and our upcoming school year. 

I have chosen a quote from "The Book of Joy" by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. The quote is... 

"Wherever you have friends, that's your country, and wherever you receive love, that's your home."

This quote is so strong in my world this year as I make a change from another amazing staff to join a new school.  I have had so many great experiences... I have belonged to so many amazing 'countries'.  Rogers Elementary (2004-2010) is my home 'country'.  There I made mistakes, learned how to teach, and was mentored by others more experienced than I. At Rogers Middle School (2010-2013) the 'countries' dynamic changed and so did my coworker's lessons for me.  I learned how to see what is important and love the students for the diverse people that they are. I looked to my fellow teachers and learned how to be scheduled and mellow, and how to have fun with the unique perspective of the middle level. My most recent 'country' that I lived in was Hassan Elementary (2013-2017). This environment gave me immense joy again.  I was surrounded by new teachers and they provided me with humor, wonder, and the will to get better. I was immersed in Yoga Calm, great wisdom, and understanding from the teachers and staff who have equal or greater amount of work experience. Now I wait at the door of my a new country, Prairie View Elementary and Middle school. This country is like no other I have ever entered before.  It's new territory for all of us.  We will all, staff and students, enter the doors in the next couple weeks as immigrants all coming from different parts of the world.  HOW EXCITING!! We will create new traditions, new experiences for our students, new learning.  I have no doubt that these people will become my friends... and I will receive love from them.  Yep, my work place can be 'home'.  

Please reflect on this question today... Day 15th of #Reflect31.  

Where is your country? Can your work place be your home??

Listen to my video prompt below (and forgive my sore throat). Be sure to post on Social Media using the hashtag #Reflect31 and/or #k12ArtChallenge... Be sure to tag me as well, 

Yoga Calm Camp

I love to celebrate the amazing community of Hassan Elementary.  We recently invited families to participate in a Yoga Calm night.  It was amazing.  We had lot's of students helpers and staff that helped to make this an fun night.

We had to do a little advertising so we had some of our student leaders help out with a video. 

We decided on a theme... and then... t-shirts were made, families sign up, mats set up on, s'mores were roasted, temporary camping tattoos were put on, and the room was decorated, and the calm nature music was played. I helped out with the background as seen below. 

It all looked so inviting!

There were so many families that came to get their Yoga on for the night.  We all had so much fun! 

Balance: Choice-Based Learning and the National Arts Standards

After posting about my 'Careers in Art' series recently (click here). I received the following comment below from Kellie Determan.  

It sounds like Kellie is exactly in the same place I found myself about two years ago. Two years ago I started watching the posts from TAB teachers and loving the concept of an Art Studio versus an Art Class.  I would offer a little choice in my class and post it to the TAB groups on Facebook.  I would get comments from teachers suggesting that what I was doing was not TAB... not even close. I was trying but I was taking baby steps... such small baby steps.  I would allow my students to choose the color of paper, or between two mediums but we would still all do the same lesson. Sometimes I would let them each choose their own subject, but make sure that they were still doing the same process. I think this is great.  It's a way to give choice in your classroom at some level.

Here is the deal... it's all TAB... check out the bold comment from the TAB website. 

I don't consider myself to be TAB.  I might call myself Directed Choice-based.  I'm totally seeing the benefits of choice as also suggested on the website under 'what is TAB'. One of the big ones is this approach to teaching has allowed me to be available for individual and small group teaching and support (see previous post). When I'm instructing, I teach to the masses, not the student. In this choice-based learning, I 'm available to the students as a resource. 

So back to Kellie's question, how do I explain what I'm doing to others who come into my classroom and see the 'fun' happening?

There is a structure to my class.  Yoga Calm calls it Calm>Active>Calm (see more on Yoga Calm by clicking here).  This is the format I have been using in my classroom for years.  I bring students into class and have a class meeting for the goals of the day.  We usually watch a flipped video and then they are asked to go make their choice of how they meet that goal. There is great activity in the classroom, we will end with a gallery walk, clean up, and a Bit-O-Bio so kids are back to calm again.

I have an 'I Can Statement' posted on the board... but instead of calling it a "I Can..." I call it a challenge or a goal.  The kids look at my classroom as a puzzle to be solved... I love this because it allows students to understand that there are no 'right' answers... They get to solve the problem in the way they choose for the day.

My goals given to the students are developed from the National Standards. Let's just look at the Architecture Lesson I recently posted on.  I'm doing the 'Careers in Art' series with my 3rd grade.

This whole series highlights the 'Create' standards above... Generating and organizing artistic ideas using a variety of processes and materials. These first two standards are covered with this one lesson.  I will be focusing on 'Refining and completing' in an upcoming lesson that I will have every trimester where they do a little reflection on the careers learned about thus far. So no... each standard is not met with every lesson. 

Again, present is not covered as much in this one lesson. This will be a focus for a follow-up lesson when students reflect on the process of being an architect and the other careers covered in class. 

Connecting is the main reason I'm covering 'Careers in Art' with my 3rd grade.  These broad standards are so big for my brain to wrap around.  I really focused in on the personal connections, the observation of surroundings and relating ideas and work with society.  This strand of the standards is why I have developed this whole series.  

As art teachers we tell our students that Art is all around us.  But do we show them how? So by giving students Careers in Art, they can see where, how, and who are the creators of the Art that is all around us. They can also relate that back to themselves.  A student might not feel they are an artist if they are not 'good' at drawing, or painting, or whatever is being taught in your Art classroom... If the definition of what an artist is broad, they might find a place where their skill set fits best. They will walk away from your class knowing that everyone has Artistic skills and it can be developed.  

Is this the 'right' way to reach the standard of Connecting?  It's one way. Teaching is just like a TAB room... there are so many solutions to the same problem even if our administration would often want us to be uniformed.  There MUST be fluidity to teaching in the Art Studio. 

Finally, responding.  I have the students do a 'Gallery Walk' almost every class period. This is an informal way to start the conversation of responding to art. We celebrate how we each reached an answer to the problem. There will be a separate lesson where interpreting and evaluating is the focus.  These were not the goals of this lesson at all.  

By the way, if you love this format of the National Arts Standards above, click here for the previous post of where I got this and so many more amazing resources for this year.  It's from Laura Lohmann's Art Teacher Planner.  That is a solid resource for sure! 

This is how I have found balance.  I still believe that students in elementary school are developing the building blocks to creating art.  This is why I give students a focus, allowing them to build their skills.  By 5th grade, most are actively applying their knowledge and the problem solving is much more evident in their creations. 

Happiness Recipe-- Inspired by Yoga Calm

I recently went to Yoga Calm training and was asked to come up with activities/lessons that would fit well in my classroom implementing some of the techniques of Yoga Calm.  I am using the book Yoga Calm for Children: Educating Heart, Mind, and Body by Lynea and Jim Gillen.

There is a section in the book where listening and community are highlighted.  These are two of the five principles of Yoga Calm.  As I looked at page 114 titled Exploring Feelings, I couldn't help but think about how this could very well support self portraits that are created in the Visual Arts class.  In short, the activity suggested on this page is to explore different feelings that we have, writing them on the board.  It then suggest having students act out the feelings so there is movement, and a little drama/performance. The rest of the students are guessing to identify the feeling being acted out. There are many other extensions to this activity as well.  One that was interesting is to have students demonstrate two feelings at once in the body.  Oh, that sounds like fun doesn't it.  Can you imagine the visual artwork that could come from that prompt?  

On page 115, there is an interesting activity called the Happiness Recipe.  There is a supporting worksheet that brings students through what makes them happy.  The worksheet helps students identify their happy triggers.  This allows them to make a choice in the morning to be happy.  They can do this by choosing some of the happy triggers identified. An extension to this activity is to have parents fill out the same worksheet.  This could really provide some good dialogue between parents and students so that both parties can recognize what truly makes the other happy.  This could lead to some great support from both parent and child... or perhaps students and teacher.  

Doing this Happiness Recipe activity again could support a different kind of self portrait... I love the literal interpretations of a recipe.  My thought is to title this 'recipe' as suggested in the book... Happiness Recipe. Then add all the ingredients visually.  A amazing artist that you might study when doing this is Koosje Koene. Take a minute to explore her work (click here)  I was introduced to her while taking a Sketchbook Skool Korse (she is an instructor).  Her visual drawings for recipes are spectacular.  I could see this activity for upper elementary to adult learners.  Watch the video below to get an idea of her process. 

I couldn't help it.  I had to do my own drawing.  I love when I explore a lesson plan and it sounds like so much fun that I can't wait to try it out myself. Here is my combo Yoga Calm, Self Portrait Lesson Plan and #k12artchallenge for this month.  #jfj16 is hosting this month check it out if you aren't already participating in it :)

Drawing Stretches-- Inspired by Yoga Calm

I recently went to Yoga Calm training and was asked to come up with lessons that would fit well in my classroom implementing some of the techniques of Yoga Calm.  I am using the book Yoga Calm for Children: Educating Heart, Mind, and Body by Lynea and Jim Gillen.

In the class, we were asked to do some of the poses and partner work taught in Yoga Calm.  There were some partner stretches that I thought would be great in my classroom.  I was thinking of them as a warm-up to drawing... so in my class, I might call them our drawing stretches.  

The two warm ups that I am going to share in this post are supporting three of the five Yoga Calm Principles; Grounding, Strength, and Community. I really like the community aspect of Yoga Calm.  I feel that this is a way to connect my students to one another in the art room even if I only have them once every 6 days. 

On page 80 of the Yoga Calm for Children book, it explains a stretch called Partner Pull.  This stretch involves two people.  They need to support each other in this stretch.  They hang onto one another as demonstrated in the picture below and lean back.  The arm and shoulder muscles are pulled and stretched.  The partners hold this pose for a given amount of time.  They then switch the pull to the other hand.  One thing that was explained was that what ever you do to one half of your body you need to do to the other half, such as this Partner Pull.

On page 86 there was another activity that I thought would be a good drawing stretch.  This was called Shoulder Clock. Partners press their hands together in a top position pressing into each other with a fully extended arm.  The gradually and slowly move their arms to the back, still fully extended. The arms then end at the bottom position again, still fully extended and still pressing into each other.  This would then be repeated with the other arms.

It would be so fun to have a warm up for drawing that I could teach my students and eventually say, 'It's time for your drawing stretches'.  They would know what to do after practice a couple of times.  My hope would be that they would then be in the mindset to draw, mind and body.

Back Drawing- Inspired by Yoga Calm

I recently went to Yoga Calm training and was asked to come up with lessons that would fit well in my classroom implementing some of the techniques of Yoga Calm.  I am using the book Yoga Calm for Children: Educating Heart, Mind, and Body by Lynea and Jim Gillen.

One lesson that I thought would fit well is something that I use on a regular basis. I posted on this game in 2010 on this blog.  I called it Teledraw.  My version shares a lot of the same possibilities and it's a perfect game to play in any class (or, as you can see, on the lake). I was inspired by page 62 of the book explaining the lesson, but was also inspired by this video found on youtube. 

I love the visualization of Lynea's words.  She brings her group through weather and rain.  That would be a great warm-up for a weather inspired artwork.  I can see where this lesson would be calming and support the 'whole child'.  The book suggest that this activity encompass three of the five principles of Yoga Calm; Stillness, Listening, and Community. 

In my class, I have used this as a teledraw game.  The person in the back is shown a shape. They draw the shape they were shown on the back of the person in front of them using their finger.  Then that person passes it forward as well, and so on until the person in the front 'gets' it and draws it on a white board.  I typically will have several rows/teams doing this activity at the same time.  Once all teams have something drawn on the whiteboard, they reveal it to the class.  Some shapes are spot on and others are way off.

In my version, we do several rounds.  First one we just do... there are students talking and upset because they can't figure it out.  There are people upset because their group didn't 'get the right answer'.  We then stop before the second round and talk about how we could improve the system.  Typically students will come up with the following answers after several rounds to make this activity more successful. 

• Be calm
• Be quiet
• Close eyes
• Designate signs for a redraw or an erase
• Cheer on and support your team.

Other versions of this game might be a shape review.  This is when two kids work together at the end of a task in the last minutes of class.  They draw shapes that have been covered in class on each others backs and guess the shape.  

I love the suggestion of a circle draw in this book.  That would really create community and is most relaxing to many of the students to have the positive touch.  I will most definitely implement this in my class. Of course, I would always allow for an 'opt out' if a student doesn't feel comfortable, but I haven't run into a student who didn't like to play this game thus far.