3 Ways to Organize Now, for Next Year

I have found that it is much easier to start a NEW school year organized if I END the last year organized!
Here are three tips to help you get ready for next year, right now!

1. Plan out your projects for the year.
       I have a simple grid that I made once and just adapt each year. Its color-coded and allows me to see my entire year at a glance. Things certainly change and I rearrange/shuffle/insert/delete projects as I go, but this is a great road map to start the year with. The reason it seems to work is that I make this chart in the spring of the previous year. I can see what supplies I might need to order and it helps me see how the projects will flow from one to the next. And most of all, it makes me feel like I have most of my ducks in a row before the year even starts.

Example of Project Grid - a year at a glance

2. Organize your supply areas.
     I am blessed to have a large storage closet in my room, but come the end of the year, I just want to shove supplies in there, quickly slam the door and run out to greet summer vacation! But I know I will be so annoyed with myself in the Fall if I do that now. Go into your storage area, dedicate some time (30 minutes or so seems to put a nice size dent in such a big job) and just push through. When you find another chunk of time, clear out another section. It will be easier to come back to a clean, organized area next fall.

3. Make a Beginning-of-the-Year Checklist.
     There are so many things to do at the beginning of the school year and I don't know about you, but I'd rather walk around and socialize with all my coworkers and hear about their summers than stay on top of my to-do list. But all the fun stuff can still happen if you organize your to-do list ahead of time. Think of all the tasks you know you HAVE to do EVERY year: make seating charts, put up the calendar, type up class lists, decorate the bulletin boards, etc... Now, make a list of all of those things so that when you're done chitchatting and catching up, you've got a focused "plan of attack" for your art room. Here's an example of mine:
Beginning of the Year Checklist


Here's to hoping your school year has ended well and you're ready to rest and recharge so you're ready again next Fall.

~Amy

I almost missed this!

If it weren't for THIS post at The Art of Education, I may have missed an opportunity to see a beautiful example of growth from one of my kindergartners.  Can you believe the top picture is from the first day of art class in September and the bottom one is from today?! 

What a difference a year can make!

It's things like this that make the craziness of the last few days of school so totally worth it. Thank you to Sarah at the Art of Education for encouraging us to keep an eye out for those successes!

Art Show 2013

Welcome Aboard Bulldog Airlines!  
2013 Art Show

Our FIFTEENTH Art Show is officially over and minus a small bout of a stomach bug the DAY OF the show, it all went off without a hitch! We had a horribly rainy Spring, but on the day of the show, the sun came out, the wind stopped and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I couldn't have asked for better weather for a sky/space/weather-themed Art Show!
Besides the +500 pieces of art on display, we also had a photo booth, two snack stations, and three make-and-take activity stations. We also had a great family donate their time and talents by bringing their hot air balloon to show to our students and their families. And we also had a stunt kite demonstration from a local kite & aviation store that was really amazing. We had over 500 people in attendance including members of our school board, our district office staff, parents, friends, families and teachers. I was really honored that so many people came out to support my students and their hard work!

Please enjoy this video that shows the in(sides) and out(sides) of this year's Art Show! If you're a Pinterest Addict like me, you may recognize some elements of our show that were made possible because of the generosity of fellow art teachers around the web!

BBES Art Show 2013

~Amy

Art Show Must-Haves

Displaying a TON of student art work can be overwhelming, but I have found some tricks along the way that make the process a little less daunting. With our Art Show happening in just two days, I thought I'd share some photos of my Art Show Prep Must-Haves. 

First, I am a person who loves PILES! If you ask me, piles are a perfectly good organizational strategy if you label them like this!

Piles = bad         Labelled Piles = AWESOME!

And without a long reach stapler, the Art Show could not happen! Well, that may be an exaggeration, but it sure makes things easier.

Long-Range Stapler

Another great invention, if I do say so myself, is my "Tape Donut Station"! I use three self-healing cutting mats and when kids are done early with a project or don't want to go outside for recess, they make oodles and oodles of "tape donuts" and stick them to these mats. It makes the tape easy to use and PORTABLE! I can put up the entire Art Show and then walk around and just add tape where it is needed.

Tape Donut Station

I bought the next item at our school's "Books Are Fun" display in our teacher's lounge thinking, "This might come in handy some day." I had NO IDEA how great it would work for the Art Show! As a student pointed out last week, it's like an "Art Show On the Go", which is so true. I can use it at school, at home, it folds up to fit in my school bag, and it holds everything I need to keep the logistics of the show in one place. It's called a WonderFile and I think they were originally an "As Seen on TV" item.

Art Show On-the-Go

The last three things that are crucial to Art Show success are mine and mine alone. You can't buy them in stores or online, but if you're lucky you already have something like it in your life. 

Family.

My family is so supportive of all my school craziness and help out with whatever I need, whenever I need it. My kiddos actually spent SEVEN straight hours with me, at school, during spring break, helping me staple and tape everything. They did have some TV/iPod/snack time, but they earned it! 

And my hubby rearranges his own work craziness to accommodate mine. I'm a lucky wife and mama, which allows me to be a great teacher!

I love our all-school Art Show - it is one of my favorite days of the year! It's a lot of work, but its worth every staple, tape donut and name tag. And I can't wait to see my students' faces when they see our school transformed into a celebration of all their hard work and talent!

~Amy

Free Lesson Plan - Day #4

Today's lesson plan is a great one for 5th graders. They study the different biomes in science class so they already have a lot of prior knowledge regarding deserts and the animals that live there. And I've noticed that when they've learned something in their classroom and we apply that in the Art Room, my students already feel successful before we even begin! Can't ask for more than that, right?

I'm sharing a project that I have found to be a successful addition to my vault of lessons, but I don't claim that these lessons are mine and mine alone, so if you recognize them, send me a message and I'll give credit where credit is due!

And I have a completed SMARTBoard file for this lesson as well. You can find it on the SMART Exchange in a few days: SMART Exchange


Please - read, print, share and enjoy!
~Amy

Free Lesson Plan - Day #3

Today's lesson plan is a great one for 4th graders. It combines different watercolor techniques (which are gorgeous just on their own) and then adds an element of printmaking.

I'm sharing a project that I have found to be a successful addition to my vault of lessons, but I don't claim that these lessons are mine and mine alone, so if you recognize them, send me a message and I'll give credit where credit is due!

Please - read, print, share and enjoy!
~Amy

Free Lesson Plans - Day #2

Today's free lesson plan is a great one for 2nd graders. It's on a long, thin piece of paper so it really makes them think about composition as they draw. And it mixes watercolor paints with tempera paints and I always love that combo.

I want to share projects that I have found to be successful additions to my vault of lessons, but I don't claim that any of these lessons are mine and mine alone, so if you recognize them, send me a message and I'll give credit where credit is due!

Please - read, print, share and enjoy!
~Amy