Thursday, May 13, 2010
Making Students Responsible in the Art Room
I don't think any classroom in the school gets as dirty and unorganized as mine does in one day. I guess I'd describe myself as neat and somewhat anal about the way our art supplies should be kept organized. You would never know that fact by looking at my art room. It's impossible to keep it clean and orderly without extra help. I knew a long time ago that I needed my students to take part in that effort everyday. The 7 Habits have helped me a great deal with clean-up time. Near the end of class I ask my students to synergize and work to clean-up the art room. I will say that the 6th grade class is still a bit sluggish in this effort. Some like to sit and watch while others do most of the clean-up. These students don't sit for long as I make sure everyone is part of the clean-up experience. On the opposite end of the spectrum are my kindergarteners, clean-up is their favorite time. They like nothing better than to synergize and wash 'n dry my tables. In fact, I had to delegate wash and dry jobs to specific students because everyone in the room was scrubbing one day with wet paper towels. Can you imagine 29 kindergarten students washing my tables at once? It's a beautiful thing. Synergizing is working well in the art room and getting better all the time. I'm proud to say that I really see the 7 Habits working as my art students synergize to help clean-up the art room.
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Karen, I too struggle with trying to keep my little speech room neat on a day to day basis. I think that part of the problem that we both face is that we have one group of students leaving as another group is arriving. This leaves no time to reorganize before starting onto the next lesson. I like your idea of having the students synergize to help with the clean up. I have enjoyed reading your blogs! You contribute so much to Winchester!!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog Karen and picturing the students cleaning up in your art room which by the way is very neat and organized. I know the clean up from one class and the set up for the next class must seem overwhelming at times. Today Hailey Wheelock told me that "you hired her" to take care of the Art Room. She was so proud that she would be able to keep you organized!!!!! Got to love these kids.
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