Elmo, Where Have You Been All My Life!

One of the best tools for teaching art. If you are able to talk your school into getting one of these, I highly, highly recommend it. I can tell you that if my school did not have the money for this I would buy a web came and make some kind of stand to create a make-shift document camera. It is totally worth it! I have found that the kids are more engaged, I am able to show drawing, cutting and painting techniques without dripping that everyone can see. Amazing technology!

Art Room

I decided to put up some pics of my classroom and share a little bit about how my classroom flows. I work for a small private school so my room is not as large as most art rooms. I can't complain because I feel blessed just to have my own room. You can see my classroom rules listed above my dry erase board. I like to keep a visible calender mainly for my 6th graders because they have more deadlines than any of my other art classes. If only I could keep my class room this clean all year.


The drawers you see in the back of the room hold all my art examples. I also have a big cabinet out in the hallway to hold all my student work. The school asks that I try and "hide" things, but it is very difficult to do. I'm definitely not a magician.
Every year I have trying new ideas for discipline and rewards. My newest attempt at this is the ART CHART. I keep the letters ART on my white board. If the class is too loud I take down a letter. If the T is taken away we are on whisper class, if the R is taken we are on silent class, and if the A is taken the next class will be silent class. If the class keep their "ART" they will receive a star on the art chart. Three stars will give them a free seat day. I am also thinking about a larger reward for so many free seat days. Not sure about that idea yet. So far this system is working well and the kids are paying attention to the ART Chart.