I Am an Art Teacher
My daughter is really into visual images. She is always current on cute memes and is constantly changing her collection of images. This summer, she even started to learn coding, so she could create her own images with her friends around the country. (She really misses virtual learning at home.)
I did a little digging and discovered the Monart Method, founded by Mona Brooks. I ordered her book, because she touts that she can teach everyone to draw. My original intent was to teach my daughter, but she knows that I am not a good teacher for her. (Her dad is the amazing parent!) Plus she's 11 now. Then I can still teach other people's kids. I *love* this, because every year I want to draw little images for my students on anchor charts, since many of them are pre-readers. I have been ruminating over Smarter Charts by Mraz & Martinelli, but my students couldn't understand my drawings. So, the method seemed like a good fit.
While reading Drawing with Children, I learned that teaching art is about teaching students to see the shapes that make the parts of images they see. And teaching art has been proven to help students read. Well, that sold me! We do teach the foundation of EVERYTHING in Kindergarten, and fine arts are even in the curriculum that we grade.
Then reality set in. I have been bogged down with a particularly challenging student, and spent So. Much. Time. And. Energy! controlling and documenting his behavior. I haven't been able to take out hardly any hands-on materials (no work stations) because of him. On top of that, our new BOY assessments were one-on-one ordeals. My poor students. But I have been doing everything to keep it fun and upbeat with cheers, singing, dancing and all the positive PR they're still buying. This year I have an exceptionally *caring* class. They're five, so they're still very egocentric, but the handful of selfish kids are clear outliers. I'm banking every minute with them, because I know I will not get this again. Ever.
So a couple weeks ago I told my team that I wanted to do color days, since I saw so many Kindergarten tweets about them. I have never done them, and the color words are at the end of our HFW list. But I needed some fun now, because I can't get burned out in the first six weeks of school. I am ALL IN, folks! This week we ate chips with ketchup, did candy corn pumkin math, made lemonade from lemons. Every morning I hang a new butcher paper strip curtain from the doorway. All day long they're jumping and hitting it. The sound is annoying, but when else are they going to be tall enough to do that? It warms my heart to see their smiles.
And every morning on my way to class I am warmly greeted by our art teacher. I was inpired. On yellow day we read The Yellow Ball by Molly Bang and I gave them a yellow circle and white sheet of paper. Most of them drew the sun or moon and left a lot of white, but there were three beautiful ones. I stapled them on the wall.
I had sorted six packs of construction paper the night before to do Go Away Big Green Monster art. (I have LOVED Ed Emberly for 50 years!) So of course I left them at home. Friday is my short day with the students, so I had no time to prepare. There was paper E_V_E_R_Y_W_H_E_R_E! In the middle of it I was looking out thinking, my-type-A-uptight-before-meds-self would never have been able to stand this. Instead, I was happy -- my students were doing art. They were learning something important. Besides, they had most of it cleaned up in ten minutes before we went out late for recess. (The $2 sweeper and dustpan is the best thing I buy every year. They can't get enough of it!)
So, I am going to continue to carve out time to do art. I believe that in the long run, it will serve them well. It isn't easy for many of them to follow directions, and others are uncomfortable with the art itself, but we have time. And my heart is happy.
What do you do to bring joy into your class? Please share!
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