Fall School update

Hello all~

I'm still here- and we are three weeks into the school year. We've already had a "snow" or "rain" day as it were. We made it through Irene, but thanks to the remnants of TS Lee, we had no school on September 8th.  I think it rained for over 24 hours. It was crazy.  We were lucky though and only had flooding around the lake and more of our playground base washed away. 
Then, last Friday, we ended up having to close campus (not technically a lock-down) because there was a soldier who escaped police custody roaming the woods about 3 miles from school- armed.....If this is how the rest of the school year is going to go- I want to hit the reset button.....

How is your fall going?

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh..........summer break.....

Wait- who said teacher's do nothing over "break"? I started working as soon as the stuff was packed up in my room for summer cleaning. Unlike popular believe- most of the teachers that I know- have to work over the summer. This is made even more fun when you not only work with your students, but are expected to fit in professional development and of course work on curriculum and plans for the upcoming school year.....did I mention that I got a school supply sale flyer in my email box this morning......  We just finished school on June 23... Give me a break!

An ocean runs through it...and my art room (progress)

If you search a few prior posts back, you will see that I had posted about my h.s. sculpture class's adventure in 3d animal sculpting.
Here are how my lovely creative students are progressing:

Sea turtle

Sea horse

We have a whale, a puffer fish, two clown fish, oh and a dolphin.  I am so proud of how well they have grasped the concept of structure and framing.  Next week we are on to plastering.

When you have a day.......

When you have a day where you just want to throw in the towel...what do you do?
My morning went fairly well, other than the predicament that I run into every time I teach the coil yarn basket project to my eighth graders- a need to temporarily clone myself.  Thank God most of them understand that I can't help them all at once.
My afternoon on the other hand totally made me want to hide behind my desk, curl up and bawl...... Studio art left me drained and ready to scream. It's funny how one student in a funk can set the whole crew off and cause a nuclear melt down. Add clay into that mix and not enough room for bodies and there you have it.
-Caution-Vent below- (do not read if you can't stand when people vent)
Dear student;
I understand bad days. I understand that nothing is ever your fault and your classmates are totally uncaring, but when I ask you, your classmates ask you and then I ask you again to stop slamming the rolling pin into your clay and roll it like a civilized person- you should take the hint.  Screaming at the top of your lungs is something that I expect an overtired kinder to do, not an eighth grader. On top of that, you somehow managed to dump about two CUPS of my precious liquid blue water color paint that was siting on the back of the art sink. And then you were going to leave it....Nice......  I am so glad that after I told you that you needed to clean it up, that you actually did so.....No problem- I will clean up the blue splatters on the wall....That's why I make the big bucks; to clean up after you.
Tomorrow is another day. I hope that you wake up in a better frame of mind, or we may need to have a private talk.
Yours truely,
Your harried art teacher.


I may go home and down a pint of B&J.........Thank God for end of the day preps and Advil.

Here's my silly pooch. It made me smile.

Hope restored...at least temporarily.

As the winter snows melt, spring starts to slowly return to central NY.  The thoughts of spring returning always brings a returned feeling of hope. Hope that the bleakness of a long, white, cold, tiring winter will finally end. The hope that the weather will finally start to warm and the grass will sprout up, replacing the gushy mud.
I sorely miss the green grass, the beautiful flowers and the warm weather birds singing me awake in the morning. Right now my landscape is still sleeping; dreary and dead-looking. I see potential in the lilac buds, the geese resting on their way through the area, and the chickens finally laying consistently (anyone want some eggs?). I see a glimmer of hope.
This past weekend I was part of a benefit for one of my senior girls. She had been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma this fall and our school and community has been her biggest cheer leader ever since.  The benefit took place at the Herkimer VFW and was a huge success. I had volunteered to work from 4-5 and didn't leave until around 6:00. My job was to finish logging over 260 Chinese auction baskets that had been donated by the community. WOW! There was a 50/50 raffle, a lottery tree, a silent auction, and a wheelbarrow of cheer, among other things. There was face painting and activities for the kids, a dj, food and drink and later; a band. The place was so crowded that I didn't even wait in the long line for food.  The show of support for Emma and her family was not only overwhelming, but so heart-felt that it gave me hope in people.
I love living in a small town where we not only help each other when times are tough, but we go above and beyond to make sure someone knows we love them.  Keep up the high spirits Emma, we are behind you 200%!!!

Papier-Mache time....

It is time for my high school sculpture class to decide what ocean creature they will sculpt.  This year I gave them the choice of using papier-mache or the plaster gauze that they are familiar with. 
They are in the planning stages right now, but I can't wait to see what they come up with.

<-----This guy is the blue-ringed octopus that I made last year. He's pretty light- so we're trying to come up with a way to hang him on the wall near the ceiling.... He still doesn't have a name. Any suggestions?

Looking for......

Blogging.....
I have found that reading and writing blogs can be quite addicting. Granted, I don't think of myself as a fabulous writer, but somehow connecting with people who share my thoughts and artistic quests is both gratifying and comforting. Finding fellow art teachers, whether in the public education setting or just artist who share their craft with others, makes me feel a bit less "alone" in my little corner of the world. 
With that in mind; I am in search of some quality secondary art teacher blogs.  I don't know how unique my situation is as this year I teach Kinders, 3rd graders and 8-12.  (Who knows what next year will bring, as the powers that be think that I should be able to teacher everything that my colleague teachs at the drop of a hat... It is always blamed on the noble quest to appease the schedualing gods... but we'll leave that for another blog post.)
Anyway- I have a plethora of wonderful elementary art blogs; it all started out with meeting Phyllis (There's a dragon in my art room) at NYSATA this year and I haven't looked back.
I am looking for general art teacher blogs and secondary art teacher blogs. Do you know of any good ones to share?

So...what's new with you?

It has been a while since I have posted. It has been a while since my head has been above water, so to speak. I have been running around trying to play catch up with school work, college work and my other obligations. Oh did I mention that I was out sick from school for almost a whole week? I was missing my students and was pleased when I came back to a warm reception.
"They like me! They really like me!"
Our local school district, along with most of the other schools in our BOCES district had a conference day last Friday.  I was lucky enough to be able to spend it with my fellow art teachers. We had two guest speakers come in from Nazereth College to talk about art advocacy, how we are teaching "the big idea" and what new and exciting (read horrible and scary) things that the state has in store for our art students (and us).
What a scary, frustrating and depressing day it was. While I did enjoy talking about how to get students to think creatively, use problem-solving skills and just be better art students overall, I did not relish the thought of a standardized Arts test coming down the pike or the fact that probably half of the art teaches in the room would not be there next year due to budget and programming cuts.


My new slogan: "Save the arts in schools: So fundamental, cavemen did it!"     


What do you do to advocate for the arts?

Quick preview of Diva Challenge #7 (Just breath..)

I'm up to my eyeballs in drama here. Whether it's my new roof leaking, cheesed off hs students because of a postponed formal dance, teacher work or college work, I don't know why I didn't have time to get this tile finished for this weeks challenge.... I was almost finished too..... OH well, here's a preview- I'll upload it again when it is all finished.......

Week #6 Ixorus Weekly Diva Challenge w/out shading....

Once again, I'm late to the party. I finished this Zentangle on Thursday and posted it to my other blog before I created this one. Then all hell broke loose and I've been playing high speed catch-up all weekend. So I didn't get my link posted to the Weekly Diva Challenge in time for the slide show. Oh well- I seem to get closer and closer each week. Maybe next week I'll not have grades due for over 150 students, plus college work.  Oh wait- next week I'm putting on a semi-formal dance for the senior class that I advise...Hmmm....... We'll see how much I get done.

Introducing....another starving artist.....

So, I was sick and tired of trying to keep my art blog and my professional/masters degree class blog separate at "The Teetering Edge". The solution: start a new blog. It didn't even occur to me that I could have more than one blog. After all, who would want to read more about my boring live and the creative non-adventures of a single art teacher running on caffeine fumes at a thousand miles an hour...

My classroom door w/ paper behind the glass so you can see the almost finished Zentangles...