Back to School!! THANKFULLY!!!!

Yes, I said thankfully and back to school at the same time. YES, I am a teacher. So, why on earth would I be excited about back to school? I will tell you. It is more than just my awkward and weird love of the smell of new paper, new sharpies, fresh coffee, shiny waxed floors, having a real reason to be up at 5 am and I can't forget my new aprons.This summer has been CRAZY. A new-ish puppy along with my hubby and his partners starting a new business, ...well.....my routine is all out of whack and truth be told...I miss the creativity of all my kiddos. I have "Pinterested" till my eyes hurt, I have redesigned my curriculums,  I have reorganized my house-albeit not by choice(2 floods in June and July)-till I have no more organizational spots of genius left in me(or money left in my budget for totes and bins and Clorox), and I am ready for some normalcy.....and I AM really excited for some of the projects I have planned.

 My intro classes have almost all new lessons planned in pretty much every area, and my sculpture kids well, some of them actually started over the summer collecting their gear for the annual assemblage project which this year, involves a new twist. Printmaking has been revamped and the crafts kids will be pleasantly surprised this year. I am so excited to roll out the new stuff! AND I get to meet my new homeroom freshman class!!  I have so many ideas for their first week that I hope they will enjoy. I know I will, I mean what is not to love about mustaches, top hats and feather boas....a photo-booth, cup cakes, and  special invitations.

AND I get to do it all in a newly reorganized classroom-this time the reorganization was by choice. And I did make at least one classroom example to replace some of the ones that were destroyed. My sock doll Melton-who is a grilled cheese and spicy pickle aficionado and my rolling "lightening bug" finally was finished from my May workshop with Michael DeMeng.

Two weeks....that is all that is left of my summer, Two weeks that is all the time I have to "relax"..and two weeks...... is all I have left in my 30's. As crazy as this final summer of my thirties has been, I don't think I would have changed any of it........well, except for maybe the floods.

NEW CLASSES and mini monsters......

I always get a little bit overwhelmed at the semester change. This year is no exception with the 2 hour delays,  prepping for new classes and curriculum's, submitting works to the 2013 Scholastic competition, grading exams and final projects, and a mad dash out to replace a pretty sick lap tap. Add on top of that the spring musical marketing drive of posters, tees and props and my hands were completely full! I am thankful to say that my new classes are just as fabulous as my old ones, partly because I have a lot of the same students, but I am excited to see all these new faces and some I haven't seen in a few years as well! while we are trying to recover from the interrupted schedule and get back on track from the delays, please enjoy a few of the Introduction to Art student sculptures. They created a new breed of monsters to audition for Monster's Inc 3.

I

Plagiarism?

MUTT

Plagiarism and the arts is a very gray area. It isn't as clear cut for the Visual Arts as it is in other disciplines. I think we can all agree that blatant copying and passing it off as our own is unacceptable. It is the influenced by, inspired by, and subconscious strokes of genius that create those "gray" areas we question. In a teaching situation, we often have students attempt to recreate the masters. It is how we learn techniques and process. We look to artists of the past and modern day masters for reference and to instruct our students on timeless themes and concepts...... but where do we draw the line of what can be considered truly influence and what is considered plagiarism? I spend a fair amount of time in my classroom discussing plagiarism with my students because of this, grayishness.

In an attempt to help students begin selecting their works and understand the quality that goes to competition, we look at slides of past artworks and online galleries of many competitions. It is inevitable that we will find an example of questionable plagiarism and sometimes blatant plagiarism. While it is a wonderful discussion and life lesson for my students, it puts a sour taste in my mouth thinking that an original artwork by a student somewhere was passed over for a plagiarized one.

This year was no different, we looked through the online galleries of one competition with strict guidelines on plagiarism. This time I had multiple students react to an artwork that was shown. They had all seen the original image on Pinterest. It led to a discussion on responsibility. Ultimately, my students felt it was the responsibility of the artist/student to inform and that they should voluntarily pull their work. The discussion was immediately followed by students pulling out smart phones frantically searching for any projects online that might resemble anything close to what they were already doing or had plans to do.

mutt

The question that remained however, was who...if anyone..should contact the sponsoring arts competition and inform them, do we as educators and artists have an obligation to inform them, ........or do we just let sleeping dogs lie?

Conference Survival Guide!

Art at the Cinci Bridge

The 2012 Ohio Art Education Conference has come to a close and it is with a sad heart that we say goodbye.  All in all I would say another successful year filled with lesson ideas, new state initiative-eh, and new art media to explore :).  and now.........I have the post conference blues. You know what those are. You are a little saddened because you are out of the highly creative environment filled with like minded artists and educators who feel like you do about sharpies, kneaded erasers and mini art samples and happen to be for the most part over the age of 22.  I don't want anyone to think I don't enjoy the creative energies from my classroom, but it is nice to be around individuals who have voted at least twice in a presidential election-no matter who they voted for;)

The bonus from conference, the stuff that isn't in the daily list of classes, meal topics or event opportunities.............is the simple collaboration and time spent with other arts educators. Sometimes it seems as if you glean more from those sessions than scheduled and planned events. The cross collaboration between districts, the simple solutions to problems you thought you were the only one experiencing, a fresh perspective on a piece of art and celebrating each other's successes and failures together.

So for those of you who have never attended a conference, or are about to go to one, here is a simple Conference Survival Guide.

1. Leave space in your suitcase to bring back samples and other stuff you accumulate. I always take a huge suitcase but forget to leave space, so I look like a bag lady when I leave.

2. If someone offers you a tote bag, even if you have gathered 25 of them......take it. They are like gold in the classroom. Kids always need bags!

3. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. And alternate that with copious amounts of coffee. and breath mints.

4. Dedicate a note pad or sketchbook just for the conference. Jot down everything you think is important. You won't remember it otherwise. Get contact info for new people in there too.

5. Write down presenters names. If they were awesome, you will want to seek them out the next time. And if they were awful, you want to avoid them next  time.

6. Have lots of pens and pencils to suit your moods and pens to give to people who forget theirs. You don't want to give away your favorite super skinny green sharpie on "accident".


Missing Pig Sculpture

7. Remember, everyone has a camera at conference. Don't do anything stupid........like stealing someones pig sculpture. And you can use it to get pictures of all the projects too!

8. Sit in the back at regional meetings, unless you want to be volunteered for a duty or position. (Just kidding-sort of)

9. Keep your conference guides from year to year to help jog your memory on sessions attended and because it usually has contact info on the important people from the conference and the vendors as well.

10. Whatever you felt was missing from conference, make a plan to research it, and present it at the next conference! Remember conferences are made up of educators educating each other! Chances are, someone else, felt the same exact way you did.

mmmmmmmmm coffee

I know, another post about coffee but after the crazy and hectic few weeks I have had I think I probably could use it in an IV drip! Among the changing of major projects in the art room  for my Intro students, frantically setting my room for my sub and typing up all of the plans and handouts, and the Ohio Art Education Association Conference held in Cincinnati, Ohio, I had also been selected to Host a Barista Prima Coffee party from houseparty.com.

It was the perfect way to unwind after spending days with my brain being overloaded with new arts techniques, new state initiatives, new artists, arts advocacy, and new media options. After all the learning, all the socializing, and all the art, I just needed a night to unwind with a few (10) of my favorite people relaxing with a cup of joe and massive quantities of delicious desserts to pair the coffees with.

After driving from one side of the state to get home, I made fresh biscotti, and did some last minute house maintenance and set up the table and counters with desserts, creamers, specialty sugars, and all of the amazing sample boxes of coffee from Barista Prima. It was a perfect way to sit back and round table the events of the week with other arts educators, other educators, friends and family. What a great way to remember why being an arts educator was so important and some of the hysterical conversations that happen in the art room. I wonder if everyone has stories from their conferences like we do. Thanks to Barista Prima, this may become an annual way to end our conference! By the way, my favorite cup of coffee, was the Italian roast.

Well....they are up!!!

They are set, kids are drawing, and as much as I want to be able to say YAY and WOOHOO..............I just can't get past the the crazy mess my classroom becomes when still life season descends. My desk becomes covered...and it stays covered pretty much for the remainder of the year after this...........supplies are misplaced by students and myself........projects get placed in nooks and crannies from my advanced kids...... and the room becomes almost claustrophobic.

This year I handed boxes filled with items to my students and asked them to set the displays. We spent approximately 2 full days arranging, rearranging, and evaluating each others displays. I am very happy with giving them ownership of the process. There are a total of 7 still life displays available for the students to choose from. As we normally do, we started off creating thumbnails to help narrow their choices down. But this time I also asked my students to use their cell phones to develop and choose their final compositions. 

One of the bonuses to using the technology is that many of the students can send their images to my school email and we can print them in black and white to further explore values. For students who don't have this technology we have a classroom camera that they can use to snap their composition and print it out.


Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I don't see a value in the still life process. On the contrary, I think it is an essential part of any art program, just like color theory, 3-d explorations, and other areas of art.  Students need to be able to learn to use their observational skills and refine them. It helps them to develop and create important details in other art areas and disciplines. Developing the ability to identify details  is a skill that can be used in many professions.  I just have a hard time with all of the crazy disarray and piling  that occurs with the set ups in the room.

Coffee, coffee, and more coffee...............please

Some of my favorite ideas for lessons come at those strange hours between 3 and 5 where it seems I wake up so often. Unfortunately, it makes for a seriously long day and a vicious cycle of coffee consumption. I am comforted in knowing that I am not the only educator in my building with this affliction. Many times we are united by the late night facebook posts of "anyone else up?"

For whatever reason while I was unable to sleep, I remembered attending the Ohio art Education Association conference in Toledo, Ohio where I was lucky enough to have my hubby join us for the last day. One of the evening events was a special trip to the Toledo Museum of Art to see their exhibits. One that really stuck with me, and not because Mr. MAC set off the museum alarm while looking at it,  was an installation by the artist Marisol Escobar called the Cocktail Party. A room filled with mixed media, life size figures with cast faces, painted wooden block bodies and other added elements. I knew I could never have my students work in the scale she did, but I could at least expose them to her. As it turned out she was a hard artist to find a lot of readily available info so she went to the back burner and was filed away in one off the many holy grails of lesson ideas. However, right before school was in session this fall, and right after the 4th cup of coffee on one of these 3 am wake up calls,  I figured it out. A combination of recycled materials, a combination of artists, on a scale that was acceptable for 50 plus kiddos, and in my budget............. thus was born "the classroom!"

I have asked my students to trust me on the results. Not every student in my Sculpture classroom has had experience in sculptural techniques, so before starting our actual large scale project with the expensive materials, we spent the last week working with white clay creating fist sized works of wonder. Noggins in such detail that they created an eerie collection as they were put out to dry this weekend before firing. While this was an introductory lesson on basic modelling skills, it will finish as a project they can be proud of. It addresses many of the state standards for Art Education in Ohio, and can stand alone as independent sculptures or as combined as a group installation project. A win-win all around. I am so impressed with what they have done so far and I can't wait to see their new creations and how they finish these over the next few weeks. As a reminder, these are unfinished.....we will be finishing them up with acrylic paints (ohhhhhhh trust me they won't look painted, I know what you are thinking) and some mixed media techniques as well.