Target Dollar Spot

 Well it has started already! The target dollar spot is stock full of teacher goodies. Here are some school stuff I have already scooped up!

 Lesson plan book...not sure if I am going to keep this! I bought it before I remembered I already have a teacher binder
(yes target steals my memory)

Yay useless pages inside the planner!

Grade book 

Some of my favorite art pieces from the 2015 art show!

Links to templates

Here are links to my templates for the weekly lesson pages. They aren't perfect, but they work for me!

Monday + Tuesday

Weds + Thurs + Friday

For "time" I entered the class time, such as 10:10-10:45
For "subject" I entered the teacher's class I taught, and grade level.

I included lunches, planning periods (I wish), and so forth. If needed, I can merge boxes, or delete them to fit the schedule.

Teacher Binder

The new Erin Condren teacher lesson plan book came out today. I tried to make myself buy it (its soooo cute!) but it is just not practical. It is too much wasted space in pretty packaging. I am going to stick with my teacher binder I made last year, and just update it when I know my schedule. It is a bit of work upfront, but really it will be easy to refill each year.

Target binder $8. 1 Inch. I could probably upgrade to a bigger binder if I wanted to hold more "stuff" (grades, rosters, etc). I choose one that had a plastic sleeve cover, so in the future I might take this sleeve off and get a new binder (sans sleeve) and put the sleeve on for protection! I could have written/stickered "Lesson plans" but really this binder is always laying open on my desk, so it is not necessary.

 When you open up the binder, you see my name. New for 2015/16 I have slipped a calendar inside the sleeve. This calendar is $6 at target. I may use this instead of the monthly calendars, which you will see in another picture.

I bought these tabs for a few dollars from target. They are easily removable, and I stuck them to the page protectors. I also bought cute page dividers for about $5.

For each month, I made a calendar (using a word doc template) and I also created a monthly lesson plan overview. This is where I wrote the standards, vocab, etc. If you have someone really looking at your lesson plans, this is necessary. I stopped using this overview by December.

I created this weekly lesson plan page after I received my teaching schedule. Even then, it changed a few times throughout the year. I liked this because if someone walked in, they could see what time it is, and what I was teaching. I actually did not end up using any "morning to-dos" or notes areas. I always left this binder open to my current teaching week. This is great for walk-throughs and I wouldn't have to say "oh my lesson planner is in my bag!" Every monday I would "sketch out" my plans for the week.

For me, it was essential to create this custom schedule, instead of trying to use a pre-made plan. On some days, I teach 5 classes, on some days, only 3. Some classes are 40 minutes, while others are a hour. I switch some grade levels after the semester ends! I would be writing in all of these details in by hand every week if I hadn't gone this route.

Hypothetically a sub could even use this to teach, but I always end up writing detailed sub plans. 

Pouch $3 and extra weekly lesson plans 

So for the new school year, I will need to print out new calendars (if I choose do a monthly calendar, I may just use the pull out calendar I bought from target) and 1 copy of the weekly schedule. Then I just copy the schedule at school using the copier. I already have the page protectors, so it will be very little cost to update this binder for the new year!

Lesson Plan: Perspective

How do you teach perspective? Here is an image of an in-progress lesson of perspective that I was working on with 5th grade. 

Here is how I teach perspective...I make it a unit!

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Day 1: Introduce Perspective with PPT...show images of how to make a box 3D, photography and perspective, 1 point perspective vs 2 point perspective, Da Vinci's last supper, etc. A nice overview of the horrors to come! Mwhahahah

Have students put shapes into perspective...such as a box, a circle, a rectangle, a star, and a triangle.

Day 2: Review perspective powerpoint, review how to put a box into perspective. Show them how to make block letters, and students practice putting their name into perspective. They can color it when they are finished. (I use a block letter "cheat sheet" that I created for the students who struggle with block letters)

Day 3: Final review of perspective. Introduce city project. Students need to make at least 5 building in perspective for their city. Creativity and detail is key to making their city interesting!

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I like teaching perspective this way because it gives students multiple days to try to "figure out" perspective. On the first day a lot of students think that making a box is easy...until they try it and get really frustrated! I try to help as many students as I can...but I can't reach everyone that first day and a lot of them give up early. But on day 2, we use perspective in a different way with letters, and then some of the people who didn't get it before suddenly get it! Also...some people who had it lose it with the more difficult letters. By the end of this unit, 90% of students can put 5 boxes into 1 point perspective.

Traffic Light and Artopoly

Time for another classroom management post. Now that you know about "show me the Mona Lisa" I'd like to introduce you to my traffic light!

The traffic light works not only as a visual reminder, but as way to play Artopoly! Here are the rules:

1. The traffic light determines their behavior/sound level.
• Green Light: You can talk in a normal inside voice
• Yellow light: You are being warned for being too loud or unruly! Whisper until you have earned green light again!
• Red light: Stop! You are too loud! Silent art for 1 minute, or longer if the class can't follow the traffic light. Sometimes I even have the class put their head down until they can be quiet and under control.  They can move back to yellow if they work silently!
2. AFTER cleanup (this is key! Sometimes its the only way I can get the kids to clean up) and everyone's head is down, I will roll a giant dice.
3. Whatever number I roll, their pin moves on the board. Each pin is labeled with their grade, and teacher...for instance 2M.
4. Sometimes they land on prizes such as radio day, switch seats day, etc. If they make it the whole way, EACH student who didn't get their name written on the board gets to pick a prize out of my treasure box.
5. **I only roll the dice if they are on green light! If they end they day on  yellow light "they have to go slow" and only move 1 spot. If they are on red light, they don't move at all**

This game was a BIG hit with all grade levels. Even my "too cool for traffic light games" six graders would whisper if they went to yellow light. My best classes even made it to the treasure box twice. Between "show me the mona lisa", the traffic light, and the artopoly game, I was able to somehow control my classes! The kids love this game!

My artopoly game was inspired by this pintrest post. However, I am not a huge fan of Monoply and I wanted a more whimsical "candy land" like feel!

More assessment!

Here is what my assessment looks like for older students, grades 4-6th.

We talk a lot about self assessment and reflection, and how it makes us grow as artists. Believe it or not, I get really honest self-assessment scores...nobody ever just gives themselves all 4s! Next year I am going to add a visual rubric poster  in my room, to help students remember to color in their art completely, take their time, etc.