Art Leaders Care, Learn and Lead

After school for me is 2:40, which happens to be my planning period but I don't usually plan during this time. I use this time for 6th grade art leaders to come down to the art room and help me catch up on ongoing projects, prepare for next day lessons or just basic cleaning (work smarter, not harder). Today I have students synergizing to help complete our Goal Posters for Open House next week. All the squares have been painted by students in art class, but some squares still need to be glued and the center signs have to be painted. Not all of this work will be finished during class art time, so I need my art leaders to assist me in getting the posters completed in time for Open House. 6th grade students really enjoy coming down to my room late in the day to help with art projects and preparations. I count on these students for help because they know what I expect from them and I can trust that they will do a neat and efficient job and they genuinely want to help. Today I had three students synergize to paint the center signs for the posters, and glue some remaining squares. The posters look amazing, and the students are helping me while enjoying themselves in the process. Synergizing is my favorite habit because many hands make light work, and it's so rewarding to be a small part of something bigger and then see it all come together. I know these posters will look amazing in the classrooms and they have already succeeded in helping the students remember our school goal, We care, we learn, we lead. My art leaders live the school goal by example.

Start the year with Habit 3

As teachers we all start the year with Habit 3, to put first things first. The first week of school is filled with rules and procedures for starting the year on the right track, and in the art room there's no exception. As a third year teacher, I've improved upon clearly defining the rules in the beginning of the year, and reinforcing those same rules throughout the year. It's not that I didn't know to do that in my first year, but with experience you learn from your mistakes and see first hand how discipline and classroom management can go awry if you don't stay on top of it. I think often about something Kathy says when talking about procedures in the classroom... "What does that look like?" is the phrase that comes to mind. Yes, what DOES that LOOK like to the student? So my first week of school now shows them exactly what my procedures look like. We practice the clean-up routine with a model table actually getting out of their seats, pretending to put away wet paintings in the drying rack, going back to the tables to gather wet brushes, paint trays and water buckets and placing them on the carts. Next, my model students show everyone the proper way and time allocated for washing hands and going back to their seats where an art leader is allowed to clean their own table with a wet sponge. And last, the model table shows everyone how to line-up at the door for dismissal. The model students act like performers and the student audience loves this style of learning. We clap and thank the model students at the end of their presentation and allow for questions at the end of the class. The students really benefit from seeing exactly how art procedures work in the classroom, and I benefit too from all my students understanding the rules, so I can enforce them fairly all year long.

A Celebration of the Arts at Winchester

Fine Arts Night was a celebration of the artistic and musical talents of our Winchester students, a true win-win for us all. As our students entered with their parents and families, they beamed with pride as they led their families to locate their artwork. I told each student that it was like a treasure hunt, and you had to walk through the entire exhibit to find your work. At least two works of art (some students had three) were displayed for each Winchester student which totaled to approx. 700 pieces of art displayed. That's a lot of tape! (and thanks again to all the staff members who helped to hang much of the artwork - I love you guys!) As you know the tape did not hold up this year, and during the show I had tape rolls under the display table so I could add more tape to keep the artwork on the walls! Even if you could not attend the event, the halls were filled with colorful artistic expressions for all of us to enjoy. The students really benefit from seeing all their work on the walls of the school. They take pride in their accomplishments and enjoy the beauty and energy of all the colors, shapes and textures that surround them. Believe me when I tell you that they are diligent in their search to find all their artwork, and are quick to let me know if anything is misspelled, falling down or not positioned correctly. We as a staff are also the winners by being able to enjoy original artwork made by our own students hands. I never tire of viewing all their work, remembering the process and sometimes stuggle that they go through to get things just right. This creative, problem solving process is what art is all about, and what I believe our students will take with them as they go through school and on to their careers. Even if our students never paint or draw again as adults, having a creative mind and having the ability to think "outside the box" is what art class is meant to instill in our students. Being able to problem solve with a creative mind is a skill that will be necessary for our students to succeed in the 21st century.

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.

Synergizing for Leadership Day

Our first annual Winchester Leadership Day is soon approaching and you can feel the buzz of the entire staff as we synergize to arrange every last detail. There have been logos, banners and bookmarks to design, placemats for students to decorate, songs for children to learn and sing, hallways to adorn with Leadership themed work and presentations to be made perfect. There is food to prepare, schedules to make, invitations to send out, packages to be organized and so much more not even mentioned here. Walk into the staff room at any time and the conversation is a buzz with Leadership Day talk and preparation.

I cannot imagine what it takes to organize such an event and remember every last detail so the day will be as perfect as it can be. It obviously takes much more than one person, but one person is really responsible for bringing the "The Leader in Me" to Winchester. We owe such vision, patience, dedication and love to our principal Kathy Brachmann, who was inspired by reading "The Leader in Me", saw all of us and our students in it, and led the way for her Leadership vision to become reality. I am proud to be a member of the Winchester staff whose dedication and passion for our students is second to none. I will be beaming with pride on that day as we watch our students confidently lead the way toward Winchester Elementary's future.

Students Are Speaking the 7 Habits

My sixth grade students love to come to the art room at the end of the day to work on projects, help clean up or sometimes just play with art materials. Friday in particular is clean-up day, and for some odd reason many students want to come down to my room and CLEAN! I'm sure their parents would be surprised to know this, even the students that tell me they don't clean their rooms will clean my art room. On one particular Friday, four girls wanted to splatter paint like Jackson Pollack. Now this style of painting can get very messy, so I told them they could as long as they prepared the tables for painting, and cleaned up the entire mess when they were finished. They agreed and started to prep the room. When they finally finished painting, I looked at my room and it was a disaster! I wondered if they would clean it all up in the manner I was expecting. To my surprise they began the task of putting the papers in the drying rack, collecting the newspaper and putting it in the recycle bin, and finally washing the tables, cleaning the brushes and putting all the paint away in the cabinets. One girl joked "hey, we're synergizing" and I replied "yes, you are and it's awesome!" I laughed to myself and was really excited that this student used the language that we've been teaching them since September. It's only a matter of time that our students fully adopt the 7 Habits, and use the language in their every day conversations.

Sharpening the Saw Sculpture

My second grade art students are working on Hip-hop Haring figures based on the artist Keith Haring. The figures are simplified bodies that are in a dancing motion. The students started the lesson by dancing to get the motions just right. They drew and cut out a large, dancing paper figure, traced it, and cut out a second. The two figures are joined together by staples, adding a little bit of stuffing inside to make it look like a flat pillow. We glued a rulter at the base so the figures looks like a giant dancing lollipop. The students are now busy painting these figures with colorful patterns and shapes. We hope to make these figures into a "Sharpening the Saw" sculpture to display in the school building for Leadership Day. I'm thinking of creating a wire tower that the figures can be placed into using the stick to hold it in place. That idea is in the planning stage... stay tuned.