School is in session

I started teaching 5th and 6th grade art on Thursday at my childrens' school. I've taught art in my studio for the past 6 years, but teaching in a classroom setting is a big change. I have 8 classes that I teach over a two day period, with around 120 students. I'm so blessed to be teaching in a Christian environment where I can share my faith. I don't know how else I could teach art because my faith is such a part of my artistic journey. To me, you can't have art without God. His creation inspires all art; and because we are created in His image, we are have an innate ability to create.

After just two days of teaching and getting the year kicked off, I have a whole new appreciation for teachers. I have been working pretty much 24/7 for the past two weeks, but loving every minute of it. There's planning, parent correspondence, setting up a grading system, discipline policies, entering lesson plans, etc. I'm not a very organized person when it comes to these type of things, so they have taken a lot of energy to wrap my mind around. I finally had some extra down time this morning to sit and reflect, be thankful for God's provision and direction, and do a little art journaling.

I want to share my journey this year with you. I am so thankful for the web and all the bloggers out there who share their ideas. I couldn't have put my year together without you! I even purchased a great planner/curriculum workbook from Patty at Deep Space Sparkle that helped me to get organized-the link is HERE.

Here's my first couple days and a pdf that you are welcome to use. I found several great "Get to know You" ideas out there, so I combined all my favorites and created my own sheet. I've had so much fun looking through all my student's sheets and getting to know them better!

Here's the link. Feel free to use in your classrooms. I've never embedded a pdf in my blog before, so let me know if you have problems accessing it.

Another thing we did, was take a quick look at the art of Origami. The "art of folding paper", originated in China, but was brought to Japan by monks who coined the term oru-kami, to fold-paper. We talked about familiar origami like paper airplanes, boats, hats, folded dollar bills, and looked at some more detailed animal pieces. I found a template for the "fortune teller" pieces by googling origami fortune teller-there's a ton out there. I let the students choose their own questions and use these as an ice breaker to get to know their classmates better. It was a fun and great exercise for a short class period for those first days. One smart student told me that these used to be used to hold spices in the kitchen.

 I found a great website here with lots of info about these. Being a child of the 80s, I also enjoyed making mine-brought back some childhood memories!