Nail Polish for Art Teachers

Let's face it; art teachers and nail polish don't go together. You paint your nails on Sunday afternoon, by lunchtime on Monday, they're covered in acrylic paint and clay and probably some glitter. So I gave up painting my nails. But then I discovered Julep. Julep nail polish is the most resilient nail polish I've ever used. I painted my guest room this summer and had latex paint all over my nails. It scraped right off and left my polish intact. I'm hoping it hold up as well to whatever my kiddos can throw at it. If you want to join Julep's Maven subcription box (and you should!) use my subscription link below.  Also, use the code FREESIZZLE for a free box, or look for another one if that one is expired.

        

If you try it, let me know how it holds up for you!

Kelsey

Bulletin Board!

We've been working on this board all week in art. All of my students, 1st through 4th, wrote and drew what art is to them. I love how it turned out. Yes, my room will probably be littered with no longer sticky post-it notes before too long but oh well. 

Oops. I forgot to blog for a whole year.

Well as usual, I'm not very good at blogging. But here we go again. I'll give it a shot. I'm at the same elementary school where I started out last year. My first year was super crazy and good and terrible and scary and fun and so many more things. I'll try to post about it soon. 

Also, I go back to start a new year tomorrow. I feel 100 times more prepared than I did last year. I actually feel like I might know what I'm doing. I know the people I work with, I know my kids, I know some lesson plans. I'm actually even feeling almost confident enough to possibly present at an art educators conference in November. We'll see. I have to decide and submit a proposal by Friday. 

Additionally, I got married this summer! My kids will now call me Mrs. Fortune. Although I'm pretty sure it's going to take months to convince my kids that had me last year to not call me by my maiden name. But at least my kinders won't know my previous name. 

After all of that, I'll leave you with a photo of a rubric that I made for this year (thanks to Pinterest obviously). 

Until next time!

Kelsey

Being a new teacher is scary, you guys.

Seriously. I'm a pretty confident person normally but I feel so lost and out of my element. I've been in so much professional development these past few weeks that it feels like my head might explode. I thought I was prepared but as it gets closer and closer, I'm terrified. Terrified in the best possible way of course, but still. When it comes down to it and the first class of kids walks into my room, I'm sure I'll be fine and do exactly what I'm supposed to do, in the meantime, I guess I'll keep planning until I can't plan anymore. And asking questions. I've asked so many questions. People are probably getting tired of them by now. But everyone has been so nice. So far, I love everyone I work with. We have a FANTASTIC arts staff at my school. I'm so looking forward to working with them. I still need to ask someone to help me with my Promethean board though. And my printer. And bus duty. So yeah, lots of questions still, but I'm doing my best. 

home from vacation.

I went to Galveston last week but now I'm home and ready to do some serious curriculum planning.

I've tried several times to lay out my curriculum for this coming year but I keep changing my mind halfway through. I'm going to blame some of it on Curriculum Design being one of the worst classes I've had but most of it on my indecisive nature.

This is what I have so far. It may stick. It may not.

First Semester

Unit 1: Line
Weeks 1-4

Unit 2: Shape
Weeks 5-8

Unit 3: Color
Weeks 9-12

Unit 4: Texture
Weeks 13-16

Last week before Christmas break: makeup projects, fun projects, games, etc.

Second Semester

Unit 5: Value
Weeks 1-3

Unit 6: Form
Weeks 4-6

Unit 7: Space
Weeks 7-9

And then the last nine weeks won't be unified as a particular unit; it will be different projects for the different grades that build upon and synthesize the elements of art.

Like I say, I change my mind a lot. But I'm happier with this than anything else I've come up with. Thoughts?

exciting mail today!

I was just thinking earlier today that I needed to post something today. But I didn't have anything to post. Then I went home for lunch and found this waiting for me in the mail:

I'm so excited! I also got all my paperwork from the human resources department to fill out and return to the school. That's probably not exciting to most people but it was to me. :)

Kelsey

some interesting data.

In my Internet Research class (which I still don't like), I'm writing a research paper. I chose to write about variables that impact student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test for Visual Arts. I found some pretty interesting things. (All of the below graphs were designed by me using data from NAEP Data Explorer.net. (2008). National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved June 20, 2013, from http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata )

PS all of these graphs are much more legible if you click on them for the full view.

Two things that we often assume will help our students learn better, allowing them the freedom to choose their own projects and having them write about their art, are actually detrimental to their scores when we make them do it too frequently. Moderation is the key here. Give them freedom sometimes and structure sometimes. Have them write some but not always. 

This next graph shows sort of the same thing with exhibiting artwork. 

Students who have to exhibit once or twice a month didn't do as well on the test. Maybe they didn't have time to learn because they were always having to stress about making their art "good enough" to exhibit. Students who just did it once or twice a year did much better. Both groups scored above the average score (150) but I would rather my students be in the 1-2 times a year group, wouldn't you?

This last graph is about what kind of room you teach in. This may not be up to you, but maybe you can talk to your principal about this data and see if you can make some changes. Students who are taught art in their normal classroom or just a regular art room with no equipment score below average on this test. 

Interesting stuff, don't you think?

Again, all of the graphs are made by me with data from the National Assessment of Education Progress Visual Arts test. This data (and SO much more) can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/naepdata/

Thanks for reading,

Kelsey