Miss Art of Teaching

I am quite pleased with the purchase of my sparkling brand new whiteboard from Daiso. It is an awesome little monthly schedule calender. They even reposted my picture on Instagram. At 8am today I had my Work Health and Safety workshop on how to use a fire extinguisher. I actually need to buy one for my own house! I had Year 7 classes from Period 1-3 and most of them are finishing off their oil pastel drawings. Some are starting the painting process. Here are a few photos: At recess, I went to visit my Deputy Princpal to talk about cabin organisation for the Year 8 camp. Careful consideration must be given to how groups are form to minimise discipline issues and conflict. My first break from teaching Year 7 (don't get me wrong, I love them!) was during Period 4. I took my Year 9/10 combined class to the darkroom. I have not been in the darkroom for about two years now. Need to brush up my skills and reorganise the room. There n...

What I am doing?.... A few weeks ago we had a guest speaker coming in to the school to talk about our teacher well being. He recommended that we name our to-do list as the ta-da list. This means crossing off the completed job, waving your arms around and do a little happy dance. I have been working my way through my list. Not much of a dancer so you will not see me wiggling around after every task. I have logically categorised my workload: marking, work samples, reports, program submissions, Year 8 camp organisation, Positive Behaviour for Learning team planning.... This year I have all my theory work uploaded onto Google Classroom for grades 7-12. It makes life so much easier for the student and for the teacher. This virtual classroom allows students to ask questions, submit tasks and for teachers to mark and send back the feedback. I no longer have to take piles of papers home to mark and drain the ink from my pen. My Year 7 students are making print making, drawing and paint...

I've been away from my blog for about 9 months. A quick overview of the past 9 months: 1. Invitation to be an admin for the Art Teachers Australia Facebook page. 2. Got engaged. 3. Purchased a house and moved out. 4. Appointed as the Positive Behaviour for Learning Coordinator at my school. Why I am back: 1. To be more proactive. 2. Exchange and share ideas about teaching pedagogy. 3. Implement classroom and school-wide systems. 4. Encouragement from people:

Kikki.K is one of my favorite shops. It is a Swedish stationary brand founded by Kristina Karlsson. Besides being aesthetically pleasing to the eye their designs work well for the classroom teacher.  Today, I walked into the store to spend my $10 rewards birthday voucher. I was contemplating on what I needed in the classroom. I ended up purchasing the pencil shape notepad. I plan to laminate them and let students write on top of it for a lesson activity. If it is laminated the surface is almost like a whiteboard. I can also have words/procedures/names of artists/art movements on them and let students rearrange it into the correct order.  At the same time, I can use it as a classroom decoration by making it into a bunting.  I was very close to buying this massive sand timer. The RRP price is $20. I like it quite a bit but I have the smaller version. I spent some time today looking for a storage system for my scalpel knives. Students will be starting their...

Being a high school classroom teacher and a Year 7 Adviser means I need to have good organisation skills. My TOP three tips: 1. Make a To-Do list.  I like creating a weekly To-Do list. Sometimes the list seems crazy but I ALWAYS end up clearing the list. I might not be able to clear all of it in the same week but at least 80-90% is crossed off. There is a deep satisfaction when I tick off the job. And one needs to remember not to freak out if something isn't cross out. It just means that it isn't important and one can come back to it later.  I also like looking back and checking when I had completed certain tasks such as calling home to parents, completing workshops, room changes etc. 2. Allocating jobs to students. Students love helping. You should also reward students when they volunteer their time to help you. They love responsibilities. I usually get students to help with laminating, tidying, sorting out resources and so on. I also have an 'Ihelp' chart t...

This week, I have avoided taking work home. This is probably the 'procrastinate' period. I tend to always do this before going on full auto-pilot mode (except I do focus on the material at hand)  Above: How I imagine myself when I go on auto-pilot mode. Over here in Australia, it is Week 3 of Term 2. Here is my to-do list in order of importance: 1) Art Teacher role: Get Year 11 'Portraits' resources printed as textbooks for senior students. 2) Art Teacher role: Finish marking three late Year 7 Case Study assignments and one late Year 10 Case Study assignment.  3) Art Teacher role: Finish marking three class set of Year 7 Self-Portraits.  4) Art Teacher role: Start three class set of Year 7 Visual Arts reports, one class set of Year 7 Technology Mandatory reports and one class set of Year 9/10 Visual Arts reports. 5) Year 7 Adviser role: Prepare Week 5 Tuesday PowerPoint and resources on 'Study Skills' and '7 Habits of Highly Ef...