The Dusty Art Room

Although I have many amazing students in art right now, these two students have earned the Art Student of the Month award! Both boys are 8th grade students who have taken on the challenge of creating extremely difficult projects.  October Art Student of the Month Award goes to Paul P & Gerardo P! Paul spent several days lost and unsure what to create out of clay this year.  The assignment was to make a clay container - "something that holds something."  Projects in the class range from boxes to bowls to vases to creatures!  After much deliberation, Paul decided to create a dragon!  ' Paul is not yet finished building this amazing project, but it's just stunning!  In fact, it is so big that it no longer fits on any of the storage shelves, so the dragon is living on my desk.  I can't wait to share this project when it is complete!  Congratulations Paul!   Gerardo has spent the last two weeks creating his screen print t-shirt...

For the third year in a row, I have been given the opportunity to bring my 8th grade class to the Art Institute of Chicago.  It's a little daunting bringing 140 8th grade students downtown, but with the support of some great parents, teachers, staff & of course some great kids, this year was another success! We started with a pizza lunch in Millennium Park.  I was a little worried about the coordination of our arrival and the pizza delivery, but it was perfect!  I had lots of helpers to carry the cases of water, chips and fruit snacks from the bus and another team of students who hauled the pizzas from delivery driver over to Cloud Gate aka "The Bean" where we ate our lunch in the park. What a beautiful day! After enjoying the beautiful weather and filling our bellies, it was time to proceed to the Art Institute.  Each group of 10 students is given a folder with a tour personalized by yours truly that guides the group through the Modern Wing, American Mo...

Art club is an after school club open to the students of Hester Junior High.  This year I have over 70 students who have joined art club and close to 60 of those students attend meetings regularly.  Since there are so many students, we meet either Wednesday OR Thursday after school so we fit in the art room (sort of, anyways). We had to borrow about 15 chairs and still there were students standing or sitting on the floor!  Most meetings I have students choose to work in the hallway to allow for some elbow room!   Here's what my classroom looks like with over 40 art enthusiasts busy making artwork: Some of the projects we have created so far:   Dr. Seuss inspired drawings with our new Mr. Sketch markers!  (My favorite supply from when I was a student in middle school!)  **Some students preferred to use colored pencils.  Confetti Bowls: Work in progress pictured above.  We cut up our own confetti a...