Miss Art of Teaching

I've been writing blog entries to reflect on my daily teaching practice. I must admit that sometimes I forget about the readers. My intentions are not to grab views but rather to document my own journey and share my passion. Thank you if you are popping by for the first time, or returning here for another post. I want to share a few photos of the 'before' and after shots of my Visual Arts high school classroom. I teach in an extremely old demountable. It smells a bit funny. Everything is still in progress as I am always looking at new ways to improve the classroom. A reader asked if I have funding for all the furniture and stationary items in my classroom. I have been using the same furniture for years. Recently, a coworker's father closed his book contacting business and I have been going CRAZY with the free supplies. I have been contacting walls and tables with the assistance of fast finishers. My friend's work place was disposing off tissue papers, col...

I purchased a lightbox from Kmart more than half a year ago and never bothered to take the screws out and insert the batteries. It also occurred to me that that it wasn't very sustainable to have the light box on every time. After having a lightbox sitting at home for a while, I decided that I would like to move it into my classroom. To take my light box to work, I had a few things I had to keep in mind: 1. I don't actually want it on. 2. I don't want letters to be flying out if students pick up the light box (a while back I held up a large light box in a homeware store and all the letters flew off- very embarrassing). Above: The work set up: Posca pens ($5 each from Officeworks), an A4 office cutter from Aldi (less than $30) and a light box from Kmart ($19), black A4 cardboard from Typo (on sale for $2). The next task after setting up the work station was to look for inspirational quotes on the internet. I found two that I liked and sms my friends asking fo...

School starts tomorrow for teachers. I have already made two trips to school in the past two weeks. Each time I look like I am going camping for an extended amount of time. Bags, bags, bags and more BAGSSSSS.... In prep for school, I have done two Aldi runs during their 'Back to School' sale. I am in love with the new rose gold range (magazine holders, pencil holders and rubbish bin). From my latest Aldi trip, I also bought a 2 in 1 office cutter and a large calender desk planner. Above: I have cleaned out my desk and put in my new purchases from ALDI. Tomorrow I am doing a presentation on 'Classroom Management'. This is one of the reasons why I started my blog and how I got interested in DIY projects. Here are some pictures of how I am getting my classroom management in place and making my classroom a tiny bit more inviting. I live and breath inside an old demountable and plan to give it a more refreshed look throughout the year. Above: I wonde...

I've had an extremely busy day of running around. First stop was Aldi, then Bunnings, then Office works, then back to Aldi (to get a few more things) and finally the Reject Shop. Here are some purchases and what I plan to do with them: Above: Items for myself. I'm in love with the label maker. I've never had one and its so much fun! Top row from Aldi, bottom row from Office Works. Above: Aldi stationary as prizes. The price range was from $99c - $3.99 per item. Above: I went back to Aldi to purchase more prizes ($2.99 each) and the large pink bucket ($2.99). The clear containers are all from Reject shop. The large one cost $16 and each jar is $4 each. The paddle pop sticks are $2.50 per packet and the circle paper are also $2.50 from the Reject Shop. Above: Using my label maker. Above: Dog being tired. Above: Labeling my pencils. No more missing pencils!!!!! Above: I took the pencils from the funky pencil topper sets from Aldi as I like ...

My laminator is starting to hate me by making weird noises when I feed it with more paper. Time to hit Aldi and get a new one for $17. Aldi's 'Back to School' sale is starting tomorrow and I am going to fight for goodies. I should probably set myself a budget so I don't overspend. It was too hot today to trek out. But I have been eyeing 'The Beach' event at Barangaroo. It is literally an enormous man made beach with 1.1 million recyclable polyethylene balls.  The event is part of the Sydney Festival, which runs until the 29th of January. This event is free before 9am and the last free entry ends at 3:30pm.  Today, I tried to do a bit of work by reading up materials in prep for my first Year 11 Visual Arts class. I am happy that I have the opportunity to teach a senior Art class this year. For the last couple of years I have only been teaching Year 7-10 Visual Arts and Photography subjects. I have experience teaching Year 7-11 TAS subjects but I have been wai...