Idaho Teachers: Setting the Record Straight

Recently I was seated between two friendly women, each of us Southwest bound to Oakland, California. I was traveling to see my two year old granddaughter. My seat mates: Peggy, 55, a longtime employee of Kellogg, and Marieda, 75, who for years worked in the olive industry, mostly as a sorter. Within the first ten minutes of our flight I had already inquired about what the other two ladies did as an occupation. One would think this would lead into the segue of "so what do you do?" but it didn't so I left it at that.

Most of the trip was consumed with giggles and preoccupation with the male flight attendant. We all agreed he was a plant for the show Punked, however Ashton Kutcher never showed. Sitting in the front row of the plane does have its perks. All was going well until dear Marieda brought up the subject of Idaho teachers.

"Did you know that Idaho is 49th as the worst schools? Idaho teachers are awful, they aren't teaching our children anything." You would think this was the perfect opportunity to defend my 30 year experience as an Idaho teacher. There was just a handful of minutes left in my flight so I decided to just listen.  After several minutes of what seemed to be a clip from the Charlie Brown comic, Marieda's voice morphed into "wah, wah, wah. . . " If this had been a longer flight, I swear I would have revealed my occupational identity and set the record straight.

I would have told Marieda how we "teachers" stay after contract hours to prepare riveting bell ringers and presentations, how we rack our brains to come up with innovative incentives to reward our students for their efforts, and shed tears of frustration for those students who interrupt this amazingly choreographed dance we spent hours to prepare. The staggering amount of money we spend out of our own pockets to make our bulletin boards pleasing, supplies for special projects, and to supplement those students who don't bring pencils to class.

Does Marieda think we are sitting behind our desks eating bon-bons while our classes' run amuck? Seriously. Fortunately the conversation diverted with Marieda's complaint about how the government is trying to run everybody's lives. "Can you believe it? The government is telling us we can't eat French fries cooked in trans fats!" Oh Marieda. Dear, dear Marieda.

Education is a partnership. A partnership between parents, students, teachers, the administration and the government. If any entity of this partnership isn't giving its all, it will not be successful. So my question is: What are you doing to contribute to the success of Idaho education?

Pablo Picasso: An Innovative way to Create a Report

As I sit at my school computer on this crisp Friday afternoon, I breath in a huge sigh. I did it. I successfully made it through another trimester here at MMS.

I recently have asked myself what drives me to continue teaching. I have done it for over 30 years. With all the budget cuts, and new changes in the district, new discipline procedures, and curriculum protocols sometimes it can feel quite overwhelming. Sometimes I have to give myself pep-talks throughout the day. I have to remind myself of the "why."

Teaching art is more than just a paycheck. It's seeing  the pride of my students after they realize I wasn't kidding when I told them they would learn to draw. They struggled, and sometimes they didn't like me that much. I pulled and pushed them along until they started to believe it. As a teacher there is no greater feeling than to know that your students' are actually learning. I am not just teaching, my students are learning.

This trimester my 8th grade students explored a different way of writing reports by creating a Pablo Picasso "report" using Bitstrips for Schools. Bitstrips is a really cool program that provides the user with tools to create avatars that can be used in a comic strip. The program provides backgrounds of different scenes, and ways you can move your avatar around, creating various facial expressions, hand movements and postures. If you haven't heard of Bitstrips check it out.

I thought I would showcase one of my students' Picasso projects. This student incorporated her comic strip into a movie with narration, music, and sound effects. What can I say, she is a delightful overachiever!
So, sit back, grab yourself a bowl of popcorn and take a tour of Pablo Picasso.

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Welcome 2013-2014 Art Students!

I am still trying to wipe off the summer cobwebs, how about you? It's going to be a fantastic year here at the Art Alley and I am getting so excited I can hardly stand it. That's what art does, makes me kind of giddy.

I will be posting blog information weekly on what's going on. Here is what's been happening the last five days:

6th Grade: Learning all about the color wheel, how to make secondary and tertiary colors from those three, much reliable primary colors: red, blue and yellow! Did you know these pigments come from minerals and plants?

7th Grade: Learning how to draw. Yep, ANYONE can learn how to draw, it is true, and there are 70 7th graders becoming believers (it is so rewarding!).

8th Grade: Reviewing the color wheel, tints, shades and monochromatic colors in preparation for our coveted mural project in the ART YARD. It's indeed a privilege, and it takes lots of discipline and team work to be able to paint outside so we are practicing our painting skills before this project begins.

LEGOS!! In preparation for our Trimester II mural project, we are asking those in the community to donate legos. Yep, any size, color, or shape, we aren't picky! If you have Lego's to donate, please drop them off at the MMS office. Thank you in advance!!

Sculpture Garden: We will be continuing our Sculpture Garden fund raising again this year. We are asking for donations of cake mixes and canned frosting. Again, we aren't picky, and will GLADLY accept anything you can send our way. Brownies work great too!

Here's to a great year everyone! I would LOVE to have you subscribe to this website. I will be posting photos of student work and lots of cool links and artsy stuff too.

ART NEWS: Mona Lisa's bones found. . . http://www.nbcnews.com/science/mona-lisa-skeleton-her-kins-remains-are-due-dna-testing-6C10874613

Food for Thought: The Majestic Plastic Bag

MMS FaceOff: 8th Grade Students Work with Latex

If you have ever had the opportunity to watch FaceOff you will understand a little what my 8th grade students have been up to this past trimester.

We started the unit playing around with special effects, creating realistic scars. You can read this earlier post here. We segued to making nose prosthetics so the students could understand the latex process without being intimidated. Working small really helped and the students seemed to enjoy the process and the humorous outcomes. I realize these are far from perfect but doesn't it look like we had FUN!

MAKING THE LATEX MASK: The students worked in partners to create their mask. They started with a clay positive, this was then plastered and the clay inside was removed. Latex was poured into the mold, left to dry for 24 hours and then pulled and finally, painted.  I will post specific photos of this process in the near future. 

A few of our students really took ownership of creating their final reveal.

Student creates "barnacles" using tissue paper and liquid latex

Students are helping apply fish scale texture with netting fabric and paint.

I have a large mirror in the art room (was once a home-ec room) so this came in handy when this student was applying his paint.

 This gruesome affect above was made with tissue paper (Kleenex) and liquid latex. It is amazing how realistic it looks!

Below are a few masks the students completed. 

 This unit was possible by the donations made to Food for Art. We are hoping to have a successful Food for Art campaign again this summer. Watch my FaceBook feed for more information.

Trimester II Art Show

Trimester II has come and gone. The weather is getting warmer (thank goodness) and we are off to a great Trimester III. I didn't want too much time getting away without posting a few of our Trimester II Art Show photos. Enjoy!

8th Grade Surreal Drawings

Some students chose to draw cartoons for this project



7th Grade Self Portraits 

Sample of one-point perspective rooms

8th Grade Art Students Create Special Effects

You might wonder what special effects has to do with art? Our MMS 8th grade art students are experiencing a different type of artistic application: special effects makeup.

In prelude to our latex mask series I thought it would be helpful for the students to understand form, specifically how light and shadow affect the illusion of depth. With a purchase of scar wax, fake blood, and a bag of makeup artillery, the students were able to experience making realistic facial scars.

Here are a few photos of their spectacular work. Viewer discretion is advised.