This summer has been a great one. I have had some awesome opportunities to travel, get fit (both physically and mentally), and reflect on what goals I have for the upcoming school year. I purposely took some time away from planning at the start of the summer in order to clear my head and look at the last school year with a fresh perspective. I did this in order to know what I wanted to keep in my classroom, what I want to try from the heap of resources I have accumulated over time, and how I want my students and I to leap forward towards new ideas and opportunities. Rather than create a ridiculous list of a million and one things I could do for this next school year, I am going to focus on three ideas that I know will have the potential to move my classroom forward in tremendous ways. 

I am so excited that one of the highlights for my students last year when they filled out their was also one of mine. Overwhelmingly students expressed both an enjoyment and desire to work with others in collaborative ways in the classroom. We did this through our STEAM collaboratives and it is something I am very excited to continue as we get going with this upcoming school year. One of my favorite things about the start of the school year is that the STEM teacher and I combine our classes to work on a PSA collaborative starting on the first full week of school. This year we plan on continuing with our four STEAM collaboratives and I am excited to fine-tune this process as we will be looping various projects in new ways.

When I think of 'the heap," I think of a massive pile of various ideas that have accumulated over time; many of them are yet to be realized for one reason or another. These are things I have learned or have seen in other classrooms through professional development and social media, but haven't been quite ready or knowing how to implement in my classroom. These are things I have been inspired by when I see others put it into action, but where I haven't yet bridged the gap between admiration to implementation due to lack of confidence, total understanding, or most often, lack of time. 

Well, there is one thing from the heap of ideas that I am ready to try out and that is using Ozobots in my classroom. They are these really neat little bots students can program to better understand code through the variety of commands they give their bots. It is also a great way of incorporating art because you can program the bots to do different things depending on colors they encounter and other things along the way. I see this being a great way to get students engaged with design and problem solving and I am really excited to announce that you can help us get this project up and running by donating to our DonorsChoose page! 

I am beyond excited to announce that our STEAM collaborative, "Painting Under Paper Cuts," in the running to win our program $5000 through the Youth Collaborative Award in ArtPrize (VOTE 65259). This opportunity arose in late Spring and the STEM teacher and I worked together to get concepts and students together to make a work that was reflective of our student body and the nature of both of our classes. To put our name in the hat has been a big leap for this upcoming school year.

ArtPrize is in its ninth year; this is the first time my students or I have submitted work to it. It takes some courage to put your work out there, period; some might say it is a leap of faith. To add the element of having others to vote on it in the hopes that you will win both prestige and prize money for your classroom adds another element to the exhibition of the work. 

We almost didn't make it in to the competition, but thanks to Monroe Community Church, we were able to secure this fabulous venue and I look forward to working with parents and students to organize various ways we can promote the piece so people can vote for it. It is a leap I hope opens the door to even more opportunities for my students and myself to participate with these major events.

Now that I have had a chance to really hone in on some ideas using the keep, heap, and leap mantra about how I can make this next year the best one yet, I am getting really excited to start putting plans into action. 

I can't wait to meet my students in a few weeks and share these ideas with them and ask them to make their own lists of what they want to keep, take from the heap, and make a leap with to make their school year the best one ever! 

Do you have your keep, heap, and leap list going? If not, feel free to borrow from mine. If you do, please don't keep it to yourself. Be brave and declare it. 

See you on the Internets,

Mrs. C

I know that we should all still be in the thralls of summertime, laying out by the pool, drinking lemonade, and forgetting what day of the week it is. But, if you are like me, you have already had that first back to school dream (or nightmare) and have started to make strategic goals and plans for making this upcoming school year one the best one yet. Well, I have partnered with Scholastic to get your thinking about your classroom in this post and offer you a giveaway!

When thinking about plans for the fall, one that it a no-brainer for me is the inclusion of Scholastic Art Magazine to my curriculum. For those of you not familiar, it is a resource for your classroom that connects students to artists using a variety of timely themes, genres, and materials through print and online media.

I was lucky that I was first introduced to this resource during my student teaching days back in 2004. My mentor teacher said it was the single most important resource for her classroom because it organized artists and their work in ways that made it both relatable and age-appropriate for students. She had stacks and stacks of magazines that dated from decades before and that we both used them as ways to connect students with content in our lesson plans.

13 years later, I not only have stacks and stacks of my own Scholastic Art Magazines dating back over the last decade-plus that I can use with my students in various ways, I also have access to an online portal that allows students to view the content of current and past issues whenever they want. In addition to the text of the issue, students can access videos, slideshows, and other resources to deepen their understanding of artists, media, and concepts through the online portal. 

Here are a few of ways I use this resource in my classroom:

• Integrate reading and writing strategies in my classroom. 

If your school is like mine, we are always looking for ways to meaningfully weave reading and writing strategies into all of the curriculum. Using Scholastic Art Magazine offers an easy way to do this. Not only can you adjust reading levels on the online portal, you can also print reading comprehension questions at various grade levels to differentiate instruction based on your student population and needs. I use it most often for a writing prompt I call "Artist of Interest" where students use a specific-standards based rubric to write about an artist of their choice from any of the issues offered. 

• Easy substitute teacher plans.

Sometimes it is easier to go to school sick rather than figure out what to have students do when you are gone. As an art teacher, the amount of mess you might come back to when you leave your classroom can make the the idea of going to Professional Development Conferences seem impossible, too. With the amount of grade-level resources included in the subscription to Scholastic Art Magazine, I know that I can be away from my classroom without leaving a basic project behind for kids to do. I can use the worksheets, activity guides, and other resources to engage students in learning that can deepen their understanding of what we are learning in the classroom without the worry of it getting lost through a substitute. ​

• Connect students to Art Careers.

One of the more emerging areas of interest for me is connecting students to a career opportunities. There is a strange false narrative out there that artists can't make a living. I am not sure where it started and why it persists, but it is really not true. All you have to do is turn to the back pages of Scholastic Art Magazine and read the various careers they highlight in their issues. In addition to interviewing various professionals in the field (ranging from Crayon Engineer to Roller Coaster Designer and Wildlife Photographer), Scholastic Art Magazine's online portal showcases these careers in one spot and allows students to learn more about the professions including skills and education needed and even range of salary. I want my students to make art because they enjoy it and I want them to understand that they can also make a living from it.

I have also shared various projects my students have done on this blog using the magazines for research on their Elements and Principle Videos from several years ago as well as their Artist Rooms from just this past year.  I am also obsessed with the student showcase offered in each issue from former Scholastic Art Award winners and use that as a way to show students what their peers are doing in the art world, too.

So, now that you have heard some of the great ways I use Scholastic Art Magazine in my classroom, it is your turn to tell me how you would use it in yours! Thanks to Scholastic, one lucky teacher who comments below about how they would use a Scholastic Art Magazine subscription in their 2017/18 classroom will win a class set! Deadline to participate is July 17th! 

I am excited to read how you would use this great tool for your students, so please share your ideas! Then you can go back to drinking that lemonade, evening out your tan, and wondering what day it is... or more likely start prepping for the school year.