Continual Growth Plan

When you arrive at the end of your teaching career how do you want to be remembered? I want my students to remember me as someone who listened to them and allowed them to truly be themselves.  I love to laugh and have fun with my students, so I’d like to think that students will remember me for that.
What will your "opus"/legacy be? I honestly do not know what my legacy will be; I hope to inspire students to create.  I value creativity, compassion, laughter and patience and I hope that students that come through my classroom take those values with them.
What are the steps you will take to get there?  I hope to never forget who I am and what my goals are as a teacher.  I am hopeful that I will be able to stay out of the “rut” of teaching; where I show up to work, do what I need to do, go home, repeat the following day.  I hope to continue to enjoy the students that I work with and stay away from the robotic teacher ‘rut’.  I hope to always believe in the power of education, no matter what the government wants us to do.  I think it will be important to believe in myself and the students I teach.


Five years from now I hope to have an even stronger visual arts program at the middle school.  I really look forward to starting an art club and opening up opportunities for students to get involved with the visual arts outside of the school day.  I also hope to involve students in community projects as well. I have done this in the past, and it has been amazing! I would like to incorporate more community work within my curriculum as well as with the art club.

Metaphors For A Teacher

This week we have been asked to read "Metaphors We Teach By" by Mary Ann Bowman.  We were then asked to think about our own transformation and growth since starting the M.Ed. Program, and find an object that is a metaphor for who we are now and that represents our transformation. The object I chose for my metaphor is tinder and flint.  As a big fan of camping, hiking and backpacking, I know the importance of a hot fire at the end of a long day, for many reasons.  Matches and lighters are not always the most reliable when we are out in the elements, so we learned early on that it is important to have an additional fire starter.  I found the following teacher metaphor at TeachHub.com.  This post is titled "Back to School Prep Guide: 8 Metaphors For a Teacher" by Jordan Catapano.

"Tinder and Flint: Apart, tinder and flint don’t do much. But strike them together and you’ve got sparks. Put those sparks next to a flammable material and fire roars to life. Teachers and students are like tinder and flint – what’s one without the other? Strike them together and, under the right conditions, you’ll have the flames of knowledge start small and begin to spread. A teacher (and their students) is tinder and flint."

I relate to this teaching metaphor because I truly love to learn with and from my students.  Throughout my action research this year, I have provided students with more choice in my art classroom and I have really enjoyed seeing and hearing their great ideas.  Working collaboratively with my students is what I look forward to each day.  When we are working together, I know we can make great things happen!

Be Your Best FOR the World

My mom has influenced me to be my own person and to do what I truly love. She has always encouraged me to do my best and to be proud of who I am and what I do. To this day, my mom is my biggest supporter with everything I do and I am so thankful for her encouragement and support. She has seen me through many ups and downs in my life and always seems to know exactly what to say at exactly the right time. I am thankful for her influence on my life and I am so happy to have the opportunity to pass these gifts along to my students.

My mom has taught me how to respect, and to truly know the importance of being respectful of all of the people around me, no matter what the situation.  Most importantly, I think, is that she has taught me patience.  My patience has helped me more than I ever thought it would as a [middle school] teacher and I am so thankful for this guidance.  My mom has also taught me the importance of humor in our lives.  This is a quality that I use consistently in my life, both in and out of the classroom.  Laughing is so good for the soul and it has been a great lesson learn as I continue to grow and learn as a teacher.

Three qualities that I can use to be the best for the world:

Quality: Patience

How I can use it: When I think about the quality of patience, I often think about my classroom and my students.  I use patience with my students on a daily basis.  This is not the only area of my life that I can use this quality.  Within the school walls I need to have patience with students, co-workers and myself.  I can really tell a difference in my own attitude when I have patience with those around me.

Quality: Respect  

How I can use it: Respect is a quality that I admire in people.  Everyone knows what it feels like to be disrespected and, simply put, it doesn’t feel good.  One of my main expectations in my classroom is respect for others (and their artwork).  In the art classroom, I know it not easy for every single student to create works, whether it is a drawing, painting, sculpture, etc.  so I make it very clear to my students that we must respect one another and the work we create.  This is a difficult lesson to teach, but I feel is an extremely important one.

Quality: Humor  

How I can use it: Humor gets me through the day!  I love to laugh with my students, co-workers, friends, family, anyone!  I feel like it eases the mood of my classroom and helps my students and I relax.  I feel that this is an important quality for the art room; if students are tense and stressed, they will not be able to create their best work.    

Spring Conference Implementation

Today I used brain break activities with my fifth and sixth grade students.  Both classes are beginning new units in class, and I wanted to try to break up all of my talking with an activity that would get students up out of their seats and moving around a little bit!

I tried the Palm Tapping Energizing Brain Break with my fifth grade students.  When I got to the "brain break" portion of my PowerPoint, I had asked students if they had heard of or tried brain break activities, they had not, so I explained quickly what they are.  Students seemed eager to get up out of their seats, so I thought that was a good sign, as far as timing in the presentation.  I had them follow along with the video and they did very well watching the students and repeating what they were doing.  I thought it was kind of funny because this activity did take some thinking (remember the steps) and it had a few students wondering, "How is this a brain break?  We're still thinking!".

Before I started the video, I told students that when the video ended, we would be done with the activity, and that worked really well.  Once the video came to an end, students were back in their seats and ready to listen for next steps in the unit plan.  I really enjoyed using the brain breaks with my students; I can see how this would be extremely beneficial for longer class periods as well.  Having activities that are fairly short, really makes these possible in any classroom setting.  I will be implementing brain breaks into my introductory unit plans specifically because these class periods require students to sit and listen for longer periods of time.

The other brain break I tried was the Nose and Ear Switch.  The class loved trying to switch back and forth from their ear to their nose.  I had a blast watching them and trying it myself!  As soon as the video was done, students went right back to their seats and were ready to hear their assignments.  I think implementing brain breaks into my classroom will be a really beneficial activity for students and myself :-)

2015 Spring Conference

We recently presented our Action Research at the SMU 2015 Spring Conference.  We could not resist a quick picture before lunch as we each presented in the morning!  Such a wonderful learning experience!

This week we have been asked to implement something that we learned at the conference.  I learned some very valuable information from the sessions I attended, and I will be incorporating many of these ideas into my classroom.  I am looking forward to working in many of these things over the summer months!

One of the sessions that I attended was focused on Brain-Based Learning, specifically how the use of brain breaks can be beneficial for our students.  The session presenter provided a lot of useful information about brain breaks, including multiple resources where we can find brain break ideas.  One of the main resources she shared with us is from a math teacher in Illinois.  David Sladkey has graciously shared many of his brain break ideas on his website and blog.  Hes has created a book as well that contains his brain break ideas as well as links to videos that he has created of his students showing what each brain break activity looks like.  Our session presenter also gave us some good team building ideas to use to get students to know one another better.  Some of the brain breaks are done individually, some with a partner and some with groups.  It is really important that students feel comfortable with each other to complete the tasks during the brain breaks.

My plan is to implement more brain breaks into my classroom.  This week I will be introducing new lessons in my fifth and sixth grade classes, and this usually involves more listening on the students behalf.  I plan to use some of Sladkey's videos to introduce a brain break activity with each of these four classes.  My initial concern with brain breaks, prior to attending this session at the conference, was that they would take too long.  Our session presenter had us practicing some brain breaks by following some of the videos that Sladkey has made.  Many were two minutes or less, and we followed right along with the video.  It was a great way to introduce the activity and get everyone moving, and when the video was over, we were ready to move on.  I know middle school students may not be ready to move on as quickly, so setting very clear expectations with my classes will be key.  I am excited to see how my students respond to these brain break activities, as well as have some fun with them trying to complete the activities myself!

Take Yourself to the Edge

It seems so fitting that we would be asked to blog about taking ourselves to the edge this week.  My husband and I made an impromptu trip to Chicago, IL. last week during my Spring Break.  The picture above shows us as the Sky Deck of the Willis Tower, the worlds tallest structure!  We have definitely taken ourselves to the edge physically, from stepping into a glass box over 1,300 feet above ground, or hiking to the top of Cloud Peak at 13,167 feet!

Now, what does that look like for our jobs as teachers?  This week, we have been asked to "take ourselves to the edge" and explain what that is like in our professions.  We have been asked to answer the following questions:

We usually think of "going to the edge" in terms of athletic endeavors. How might this concept apply to your job?  Personally, I think of taking my students work outside of the school.  I want to provide them with audiences that will make them really think about the work they are creating.  I would really like to push it even further and provide an opportunity for this outside audience to reflect of the student work that they are seeing - ask questions, provide feedback… I think this experience would be very beneficial for my students.

What I gain even if my efforts fall short: I think that even when I fall short, I learn valuable lessons about myself and my students.  When this happens, and it does and it will, I think it is important to push through it.  Reflect on what went wrong and how I can change it the next time I tackle something similar.  I also share these shortcomings with my students - any time I make a mistake, I make sure my students know it.  I then have the opportunity to show my students how I can work through it to turn my mistake into something great (or start over with something new if that what it takes)!  This is a valuable real-world lesson that students will need to learn sooner or later (if they haven’t already) and schools have to be a place where they feel comfortable to try and experiment.

Do you think that you always need to take yourself to your edge?  I do not think we always need to push ourselves to the edge.  I feel like there are times when doing the “safe” thing works and I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing.  I think when we get into a rut of doing the same “safe” things over and over and over again, is where we can come into some trouble, for both ourselves and our students.

Are there times when "good enough" really is good enough? I have certainly been there; I have thought “this is as good as it’s going to get...I’m done.” however I do try to push myself and my students to go beyond that “good enough” point.  There are many aspects working against us at times for this to happen perfectly every time, however.  We do not have time on our side.  We have a certain amount of material to cover in an already too short amount of time, and it can be very difficult to manage that.  Even saying that now, I know I have allowed more time for some projects and had to cut others short because I wanted students (and myself) push it a little bit more!  Money and materials is another thing that can definitely hinder moving beyond “good enough”.  I have had to tell students on multiple occasions that they cannot do something because we didn't have the materials or the means to purchase them.  It is definitely a tough situation to work through, however I feel that it is a great lesson for students to understand as well.  They are then challenged to find something within the art room, the school, their homes or the community that they could use to make their ideas work - it is an awesome challenge for them and can be very rewarding when they succeed!