An NYC Summer Escape!

Ever since the last day of school in June I have been missing in action from the blogosphere. No blog posts for more than a month! Last time I contacted the cyber world I announced that I got a job at an elementary school in MN! To prepare for my first job I'm currently creating a rough outline for the year breaking up each month into a theme and then giving each grade a lesson for that theme. It's calming my nerves to at least pretend to myself that I have a plan. Things will change and morph into what is appropriate at the school year progresses, but at least I'm setting up a schedule... right?! Anyways, on top of preparing for my adventures as a first year, full-time, Elementary Art Teacher, I have been embarking on one of my greatest life adventures to date, an NYC summer. In May I received conformation that I had been accepted for a summer teaching internship at the Brooklyn Children's Museum. Lasting from late june to mid-August, I now have two more weeks of teaching left, and only a handful of museums to check off my list as this summer inches to a close. I feel empowered to approach my next adventure as a teacher as NYC summer comes to a close. Good bye bright lights, and hello small city! 

Ms. L Got a Job!

I have been a long term sub art teacher for the last quarter of the school year at a charter school in Forest Lake, MN.  Unfortunately it must come to an end when the school year does. I have truly enjoyed my time here and will be sad to leave but a new chapter has been opened for me in recent days. I have accepted a teaching position in Granite Falls, MN as a full time elementary art teacher!!! I was initially job searching in the twin cities and surrounding area but was not having much luck. I would either interview and it would go really well (I thought), even getting second interviews in some case, or I wouldn't get an interview at all. No call or communication. I personally thought that was just bad business not to send any conformation or communication. It wasn't until I moved away from the metro when the hospitality increased. Email communication immediately after sending application, personal phone call to schedule interview, meeting immediately scheduled for the next week, and phone call for job offer five days later. Im very excited to begin my new position this August. Stay tuned! You will be seeing elementary lesson postings from me next year!!!

Cute Book:)

Im dedicating this blog post to my college/teacher/blogger friend Molly (also known as "art and ideas that grow"). She opened my up to a love to everything mustached. This book, written and illustrated by Kevin Sherry, is about a cute little octopus who paints all over the ocean spreading his creativity for other creatures to see. Great inspiration for an art lesson. 

World Masks

Students learned about masks in four major cultures/ geographical areas from around the world. They then completed a worksheet where they listed major mask characteristics including materials used, colors, uses, etc. for each culture/ geographical area. Students crated a "mask skeleton" out of old grocery store sale signs that had been donated to the art classroom and tape. The combination of slits and tabs in paper cut put help to create 3D elements. This skeleton was then covered in plaster gauze strips and then painted with acrylic paint. Very fun and engaging project!!!

Wolf Kahn Landscapes

These are sample drawings I did for a landscape lesson I hope to further develop soon. School year is coming to a close very quickly and I'm running out of time for experimentation. The artist Wolf Kahn has great color blocked landscapes that I think would work well with a younger age group. I tried it with High School students and it was a constant struggle to get them to think beyond what they thought a landscape should look like (green grass and blue sky). Younger elementary students think about the world in color already so why not expand on that? 

NLA ART WINS BIG!

Students at North Lakes Academy won big at an area juried art show!!! We are a small school with a substantial amount of art talent which has been a continually pleasant surprise as my long term substitute contract moves into a its sixth week. The two drawings on the left were from my 7th graders and they took 1st and 3rd place for the middle school division. I had a 5th grade student win 2nd for his quirky magazine collage and also an 8th grader win for a large zentangle inspired drawing we titled "Chutes and Arrows"! This post is in congratulations to them!!! 

Non-Objective Drawings

5th Grade students were asked to create a non-objective colored pencil and oil pastel drawing that was inspired by a small triangle magazine clipping. Clippings were required to be abstract and have a good amount of lines, shapes, patterns, and colors to help inspire the non-objective drawing. Final projects were required to have movement (we talked about how an eye can move and dance around a drawing following the lines, shapes, and patterns) and unity (as a class we looked at various student examples of this project and we critiqued each drawing talking about whether or not the drawing had unity). Overapping was encoraged in order to give the drawings a sense of space.