Miss Art of Teaching

I love my free pencil notepad birthday gift from Kikki.K. I have used it as a classroom decor and also as a teaching resource. By simply laminating the 'pencils', I am able to prolong its life. I am still planning out how to use it in the most effective way as a teaching resource. I will probably make it into a 'matching' game where students have to organise the pencils according to the features of the four frames and the conceptual framework. I am planning to use it for different topics.  

The last day of school is usually a breeze. The classes tend to be a bit smaller as not all students make the effort to go to school on the last day of the term. I try to use a bit of class time to organise the room to make it easier for myself when I return to work.  The start to my morning was horrible. I was stuck in a traffic jam that lasted for 1 hr and 10 mins. Usually it takes me 20-30 mins to get to work but today there was a major car accident just before the highway exit. I was a bit worried about getting to work late. The recent rain has made half the car park an unpleasant place to park. I had to drive my car through a pit of wet dirt to get through to the other side. For a minute, my car refused to move and I had to hit my accelerate hard. My demountable is adjacent to the car park so I could see my students as I was struggling to park.  Classes today were quite pleasant. All classes continued on with their practical artworks. While students were working, I wou...

My demountable is right next to the school hall. I was thinking of what motivational quote could be nice for both my classroom (before students walk in) and for students who often walk pass to enter the school hall for exams. I used the DIY blank paper bunting from Typo along with posca markers to make the simple buntings design. I plan to laminate each triangle since it needs to hang outside my classroom door area. Above: My dog being helpful. Above: Bought the DIY Kraft paper bunting on sale from Typo. This morning I also created simple signs 'suggestions' and 'kudos' to attach to my two gold spray painted tins in my classroom. I want students to have the option of leaving confidential notes to either say thank you or to express their concerns or suggestions. Above: Freshly laminated. Needs to be cut out.

Latest updates Above: My personal assistant.  Above: The process of making everything requires patience. My dog is clearly displaying this. Above: I had an idea about a wall where students can grab post notes and write happy thoughts or a compliment to one another. I am trying to keep to my 'kindness' theme. The letters were simply made by cutting it out of different coloured A4 paper and laminating it in an A3 pouch. Above: I made a background to match my door display. I think the post notes will match the confetti. Above: Classroom job distributor. The roles are listed below: 1. Messenger 2. Books : Distributes and collects Visual Arts journals  3. Observer : Reports on behaviour 4. Clock: Time keeper  5. Play: Sets up projector and changes slides on PowerPoint 6. Notes: Hand out notes and paper 7. Setting: Teacher assistant  8. Contacts: Mark class roll  9. Rubbish: Help collect rubbish and make sure bin is not ov...

I am really loving DIY lately or I could just be hardcore procrastinating from my real jobs. Today, I took on the challenge to create a door decoration for my demountable. But now that it is finished, I am thinking of attaching it to my store room door. Initially, I wanted to stick the door decoration right outside the classroom door. However, my door has to bear with all seasons: rain, hail or shine. I tried laminating it to make it weather proof but I don't think it will last over a long run. Above: I used three Posca pens for this project. Posca pen is pretty much paint inside a pen. It is easier to control and thus minimises accidents. I used black to write the word 'confetti', I used pink to make a border around the banner and I used white to write 'Ms'. The circle papers was purchased from the Reject Shop for $2.50. I used it to make the word 'kindness' and to provide a base for the word 'confetti'. For $2.50 it came with a generous amoun...

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...

Teachers who support teachers are SUPER AWESOME. And what amazes me is the network of teachers on Facebook who are willing to share resources without a blink of an eye. My favourite group is the 'Relief Teaching Ideas Community'. There are 30,967 members and many of them are happy to share resources, provide answers to questions and just willing to listen and help. I spent yesterday going through the 'files' section of this particular Facebook group and printed out a lot of useful resources for my Art classroom. Although most of the resources are generated for primary school setting, there is still a lot to take in as a high school teacher. I love what primary school teachers do. They use 'praises' often compared to any secondary teachers (a study was made and this was one of the findings- information gathered from my PBL workshops). Graphics are used to grab students' attention and many systems are in place to make sure routines work and students are achi...