A Couple of Questions....

How the art teacher feels, when her 14 year old daughter, while working on a packet for her Intro to Art class says," The primary colors are red, yellow and green, right?"  I just stared at her in complete dismay... her reaction was, " What? Not right?" " Don't look at me like that Mom! The last time I learned this was a long time ago! I don't study the color wheel you know!" Next was, " What are the secondary colors again?" and " What the heck is a hue?" " How do you get an intermediate color?"  Needless to say I began to go into teacher mode and explain to her how the color wheel works... mind you she was looking at a page in her art textbook and the answers were staring right at her... I could see them on the page from across the room... by the time we were done she knew how to navigate the color wheel ( not that she wanted a lesson, she just wanted the answers, sorry, she got a lesson on to figure it out for herself...) ( I kept randomly quizzing her all night... she really loved that... not...)

This brings me to the never ending questions I have been discussing with colleagues all school year... 

1.)  The kids want all the answers handed to them, they don't want to think... how do we get them to start thinking for themselves? I have spent a lot of time this year working on questioning and discussion to get my kids at school to start thinking and figuring out the answers for themselves.  I find my younger kids K-3d are more willing and receptive than my older kids 4th and 5th to think for themselves and discuss, but we are working on it.

2.) I know I teach certain facts/techniques and at the time the kids will know it. If I ask the same questions a month later some will remember but a lot will act like we have never discussed it before! How do we get the kids to retain for the long term what it is we are teaching them? How can we as teachers get them to remember these facts and not just memorize them temporarily while they need them and then throw them out of their head when we move on to something new? Usually it will take some prodding and reminders to remember something we have learned in the past. How do we change how we are presenting our material so that it sticks in their heads? 

Any ideas? Anyone else find this with their students also? Any ideas on why this is? Talk to me down in the comments! I'm curious what you all have to say!  :)

Update: Just as I ask you all about how to get our students to think I see this post by Krissy at Venspired .  I found Krissy's blog a few years ago, read what she has to say about how to get our kids to think. I love her thoughts( amazing, thought provoking thoughts ) on education and how to teach our kids to be creative thinkers.

Still working on my "superpower" T for next Friday at school... stitching around each letter is taking FOREVER... after a while it's making my eyes go buggy so I have to stop and give it a rest...  Most of the stitching is going into the "creative" box, the rest will just get simple outline stitches...

Finally in the home stretch with my shawl... on the final edging now... getting tired of this one, I need to move on...

                                 I really need to go do errands but I'm not feeling it...

                                              I'm stuck in snooze mode today..........
                                                             Mrs."C"  :)
           

Lazy and Doing What I Want...

Laying around and enjoying my Spring Break! 

I am absolutely, totally, 100% alone and loving it! Everyone is either at work or school...

I am happily stuck in the house today, drinking way too much coffee! I need to switch to tea as I am feeling just a wee bit too jittery from caffeine overload. Tea caffeine doesn't bother me, coffee caffeine sets me loopy! 

My pussy willow tree has bloomed and is starting to bud leaves, the Forsythias are trying to bloom ( we had a cold snap last week after two days of 70 degree F weather, it actually snowed a half an inch Tuesday night with 5 degree F wind chills!) Yesterday was gorgeous and sunny! Most of the week is looking the same way! 

I have been living in the same jeans for the past couple of days and they are now all stretched out and super comfy... ( admit it, you do the same thing...) I'm going no where today, as my car is at the tire center getting much needed attention. They are putting on 4 new tires. I have needed tires all winter, but you know, life kept getting in the way and other things needed to be addressed first. My tires had become pretty desperate though and I quote Ralphie from, A Christmas Story, " My old man's tires were actually tires in the academic sense. They were round and once made of rubber." Yeah, that was my tires, sadly... They are also putting on new brakes, fixing the alignment ( NJ is pot hole hell this year... the town just filled the caverns and craters on the  joining road to my street yesterday. I noticed when I started to do the daily strategic, swerve around the pot holes yesterday afternoon  :)  Our roads are literally swiss cheese... ) and doing an oil change. ( Update: garage called, lot's of little things wrong causing all the quirks my car had going on... maybe not getting that new refrigerator just yet...  :(  

I went to Michael's to pick up a few things I needed to make this t-shirt.  The Friday back from Spring break is " Show your Super Power Day" as 3d-5th grade is getting ready to start State testing, NJASK the following week. This is the last year for NJASK, next year NJ will be implementing the PARCC test ( Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) ( that be a lot of words... ) I ironed some light interfacing to the inside to stabilize the shirt for sewing the fabric on the front and the embroidery I am now doing. 

I'm ready to start the lacy border on the Nordic Shawl I've been working on... ( this is the third one I've made. Just finished my Mom's yesterday...)

I am going to start the Loopy Lou Poncho as soon as I finish the shawl... 

I also picked up this sketch book ( it was on clearance and has really nice, heavy paper in it ) and...

these Prismacolor watercolor pencils... ( I wanted Derwent, I really love Derwent colored pencils but they have gotten way, way out of my budget! )

I did a little sketching yesterday and played with my new pencils... ( I did pick up some individual Derwent drawing pencils though...  :)

                                                 Love the watercolor pencils!
                                    Well, that's it for now going back to stitching...

                                                            Mrs."C"  :)

Creative Chaos in the Art Room...

Just a few pictures from the past week at school... A little creative chaos!

Brown paint for kindergarten's textured trees...

Kindergarten's patterned owls and textured trees...

Second grade swamp creature props for the Second grade Spring musical...

First grades radial pattern painted flowers drying...

The K-2 art room last Wednesday... Second grade warm/cool painting for weavings, Kindergarten texture trees for their pattern owls and First grade flower paintings around their concentric circle designs... we were creatively busy,busy, busy!!!

My white board is packed with stuff! It's only 4'x6' ish (not very big) I have to bring in a scraper to get all the old tape off it! I prefer to draw on paper instead of the white board...I actually hate white boards, I prefer chalkboards... the chalkboard is on the music side of the room...lots of little gifts of drawing from my students taped to the board... need to make somewhere else to display them, they are taking over the board....

Our well loved watercolor sets... 

Our well loved tempera paint cakes...  I started putting the primary colors into the plastic paint cups I use so I can move them in and out for color mixing. The plastic cups fit perfectly into the paint tray. Next year I am going to put all the colors into a paint cup first so I can move them all in and out easily as needed...

My desk is actually under there somewhere... by the end of the day it was organized again. Because of the craziness of my schedule and the day I was literally taking pictures off the drying rack and just throwing the piles on my desk to put away later. I work in a small space with little storage can you tell?

Organized, Creative Chaos... that was my week... it was a good week... a productive week...

a creative week...  :)

Have a Creative Week!

Mrs."C" :)

SPRING BREAK!!!

At 3:30 p.m. this afternoon, a mass exodus of teachers flowed out the doors of my school... there was no staying until 4:00 or 4:30 to catch up loose ends, grade or work on plans. No, this was the much anticipated and long awaited for moment that marked the official start of Spring Break! I finished organizing the drying 3d grade prints, put lids on the paint cups, cleaned the last of the paint brushes I had thrown in the sink, rinsed out the water containers and neatly stacked them on the shelf above my sink. I grabbed my things, locked my door, went down the hall to say, "good-bye and have a great break!" to several people and got in my car and left without looking back!
               Enjoy these pic's of flower paintings with concentric line design centers that my 1st graders are working on! ( these are still in progress, but they are turning out so awesome I wanted to share! ) If your also off this coming week, ENJOY! If not have a good week where ever you are!      Mrs."C"  :)

Learning New Tricks...

Hi all! It's been BEAUTIFUL weather here this weekend! It hit 72 F yesterday! Today is looking like it is going to be just as nice! Life is still crazy but I decided this morning I needed to expand my creative brain and figure out how to knit on three needles. Yes, three needles...( I know this is a blog about Art education and what goes on in my classroom, but I am so burned out from school right now that I am not feeling it at the moment today. I will get back to what's going on in the art room soon but until then...)  I have attempted this several times previously and given up each time in major frustration... 

What inspired this frustrating ambition is the Arm Warmers pattern from Sheila Zachariae . I love Sheila's patterns and have purchased several. Mostly crochet but I fell in love with the knitted Arm warmer pattern and bought it this winter. My love/hate relationship with knitting and my frustration with trying to figure out three needles at the same time had me put this one in the "time-out" pile until this morning. 

I found this site, Creative Bug while looking around the internet. I signed up for my free account and starting looking around... Lo and behold there was a tutorial on how to knit in the round with three needles! I started watching it and had several "ah-hah!" moments and ran over to grab my Nana's double-pointed needles that she used religiously... maybe I could channel her knitting brilliance with them this morning and finally figure this out! 

Ok, so generally I feel this way, but after an hour of starting, screwing up, starting, dropping a stitch, re-starting, I was ready to commit suicide with double-pointed knitting needles! I stopped, called my mother, expressed my frustration, relaxed and tried again when I got off the phone. This time I got it! Yeah! Trying to work with all the needles is as the woman in the tutorial stated, " like trying to knit with an octopus..." I think I am getting the hang of it and how to let the extra needles hang so that I can knit. I'm trying to ignore them, but they are constantly reminding me that they are there! I feel good though, I have a headache,(really, knitting always gives me a headache, never crochet, you'd think I would get the hint...) but I accomplished what I set out to do!

I'm putting them away for a little while and going back to finishing up the Nordic Shawl I started for my Mom last weekend. I am just finishing up the edging. It's mainly gray with pastel accents in the striping. She loves it! This is something that I find very relaxing! Crocheting never pisses me off! Knitting, although I love the look of it and can do it, really pisses me off at times! I find it so much easier to work with one hook! 

I found this meme on Pinterest and it cracked me up! My daughter (and others) are constantly calling my projects knitting! It's crochet people, big difference...   

Well, I'm off to make pancakes for everyone (yum) and at some point today I will load all my grades for school. I'm not feeling it at the moment, as I said I am having major school burn out...

Enjoy(really enjoy) the awesome weather if it is your way this weekend! My daughter said yesterday," The snow is finally ALL gone!" Yeah!!! Sorry winter, I do love you at times, but I was done, ready for the warmth! Have a great week! 

Mrs. "C"  :)

Life as a Teacher this year...

So this has been my life as late...    sorry I have not been around much, but life has gotten in the way...
Between my class, " Showing Student Growth in Art " from The Art of Education, (which by the way was excellent! I learned so much and got to bounce ideas off some great educators! I will definitely be back to take another class!), finalizing my SGO data for this school year, compiling and uploading all my evidence for Domain 4 ( as well as filling out the 5 templates for the 5 different sections and writing a summary for each...sigh...) of our new teacher evaluation system here in NJ and 3d marking period grades I have all I can do to remember what day it is! ( picture mindless zombies from the Walking Dead bouncing into things, yeah, that's been me ) As each item has been completed I would literally feel weight being lifted off my shoulders...  :)

When I finished up my Domain 4 summaries on Sunday morning I closed the lap top, got up and began to dance with joy ( Snoopy came to mind ) !!! My 14 year old daughter gave me a bizarre  "What in God's name is Mom doing!?!" look... I said to her, " You have NO idea..." and continued to dance  :)

Grades go in this weekend... next Thursday is the last day of school before Spring Break... 

(sigh of relief...)

:)

Still Here...

Sorry I have been absent of late...  today is a re-charging of my soul day... crochet and reading blogs... it's been extremely busy at school and at home leaving me with very little time and energy to catch up with all of you...

I'm busy at home taking an on-line class at The Art of Education. The class has been very eye-opening to how many different growth models there are out there and how everyone(different states)is using them! I forgot how much work there is in taking a class! We are also starting our Final Assessments for our SGO's for the State. There are still three months of school left so we are hardly at the end of teaching but the district needs our scores so they can put them on our annual evaluations... which raises the question, are the SGO's being implemented so we can see how our students are growing or to judge the effectiveness of the teacher?

Moving on... it is warm enough today to open the windows! I love the smell of fresh air and how it feels blowing on your face! The cats do also! As soon as I opened the windows they came running from where they were sleeping!

Our mountains of snow are starting to melt, actually a lot of it has melted but there is still a lot to go! I am going out to cut branches from my Forsythia today so I can force some of those beautiful yellow blooms in the house! It has actually hit 50 degrees today! ( woohoo!)  That's all I have for now folks... going into the kitchen to bake a couple of loaves of Irish Soda Bread for dinner tomorrow. I have 3 corn beefs to cook tomorrow. That may sound like a lot to those of you who are not Irish or love corned beef, but trust me, they will be gone in the blink of an eye! My husband is Italian, I'm part Irish(my Dad's side) but we all LOVE corned beef! My Mom will take some corn beef, Irish Soda bread and Scotch to the cemetery on St.Patty's day for my Dad  :)
Hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy St.Patty's Day!
                                 
                                                  Mrs. "C"   :)

The First Full Week of School This February!

Sometimes you just need to go off track and just play....  :)    One of my 5th graders was having fun decorating his hand while finishing his landscape...

My Smartboard covered with directions and student examples... inspired by this pin and this pin.
4th grade is working on the 3-D cityscapes...

3d grade is working on Op Art hand forms....

They just started them this week... next week I will have them add visual texture to the background with rubbing plates.

Anyone who was done early took a circle sheet ( warm or cool color ) and designed a circle. I'm saving them all in a box to create a large collaborative piece. I will have different grades do different size circles or different shapes, haven't decided yet...

2nd grade has been fingerprinting hyacinths! We added details with oil pastel and a border from painted paper scraps.  

Sorry for the glare... I took the pictures after they were hung on the bulletin board in the front hallway at school.

Kindergarten is creating tulip fields... they are printing the tulips with the tines of a plastic fork, inspired by this pin.  I showed the classes a short video about the tulip fields in the Netherlands.
Next week they will add details with oil pastels.

They had so much fun they wanted to keep printing tulips on activity paper! This sweet Kinder worked carefully around her wet tulips to add details! It was too wet to take with her so I will give it to her tomorrow to take home. Isn't it beautiful? 

Well, that's what we have been up to this week, it is the first full week of school we have had the entire month of February!  Next week it will be March ( yeah! ) sorry February, but I'm so done with Winter this year! It's not over yet though... there may be flowers in the art room but it is going snow again here Sunday into Monday,  6 to 12 inches ( oh yeah...)  

Oh well, for now I will just have to live Spring vicariously through my students Spring flower creations! 

Hope you all have a great weekend! 

Mrs. "C"  :)