SHARPENING!!!

I have to say that I never realized how much time is taken up at the elementary level sharpening pencils. Why don't I let the kids do it? Well, one reason is that my pencil sharpeners are terrible! I've already had two electric sharpeners die on me and my manual ones shred the pencils! Also, I have found that students k-4 are obsessed with sharpening their pencils. They would be perfectly happy if I just let them sharpen their pencils all class (they purposely break their pencils so they have a reason to go to the sharpener!) I don't know what to do? The other day I spent an entire prep block sharpening and sharpening. Next year I am going to buy the most expensive industrial sharpener so that I won't destroy my hands at the manual sharpener.

Full swing!

Well, I'm in the midst of my second week of school and wow! I'm already a little worn out. I see over 100 kids a day and don't know how to keep up. I have bursts of energy and also moments of hopelessness. The kids certainly do keep me going. They are so excited and enthusiastic that it is hard not to be right there with them. I try not to lose my patience when students get disruptive and to remain calm when it seems like all "you know what" might break loose. But in the end it's a lot of hard work! Here are some before and after pictures of the revamping I've been working on to get ready for school in 3 "new to me" classrooms.

I started out with one room like this   

A bunch of randomness everywhere!       

 Then I started to organize! I got colored bins, started some bulletin boards, used a lot of blogs for help.

A cafeteria classroom... before

After

This is all the space I have in my second cafeteria classroom! I haven't organized anything yet in this picture.

These are some pictures of the first room I started to organize after about 16 hours of clean up.

 Some storage boxes for each class that I see through out the day. It helps me keep the work separated and easier to find.

Getting Ready

The first days of school are quickly approaching. This will be my first year teaching k-4 and I'm trying to get everything in order. In addition to working out my curriculum, I'm also trying configure my classroom management strategies, and complete my supply list. I have found so many great ideas by reading through a bunch of blogs. Now I just need to organize everything! As I get this all put together, I will try to post as much as possible.

First Blog

I decided to start this blog because I recently switched from teaching secondary art full time to teaching elementary art part time. In a effort to find more diverse lesson plans and classroom management strategies I stumbled upon some amazing blogs. I decided to join this community so that I might share in the inspiration and resources available. I hope to collect and document a variety of art related information that will benefit my artwork, future students, and hopefully some teachers.