The Dusty Art Room

Each month I like to take a few moments to recognize those students who show exemplary work in the art room.  These students work hard, contribute to a positive and peaceful environment and challenge themselves to improve their work with each project.   November Art Students of the Month 6th Grade: Aldin Halilovic 7th Grade: Maya Madej 8th Grade: Victor Alvizo 6th Grade: Aldin Halilovic Aldin has a great enthusiasm for his art work.  He works hard during class, thinks through his choices and treats the art studio with respect.  On the Field Museum field trip, Aldin was excited to observe the collections and listen and read more about the artifacts.   Aldin skydiving out of the plane!  7th Grade: Maya Madej Maya works well with others - talking out her ideas and taking her time to create them.  She uses the supplies with control to create a variety of effects.   8th Grade: Victor Alvizo Victor has been an ...

New to the art room this year is the incorporation of green screen technology!  Second trimester students created a paper collage background and then used the DoInk Green Screen App to add themselves and sometimes their friends to their portraits.  These are so wonderful that I just had to show them all!  Enjoy!  6th Grade Portraits:  7th Grade Portraits 8th Grade Portraits

Each semester Leyden puts on an art show to feature the work of the current art students in each of the art classes.  Hester is invited to display work during this show as well for 7th and 8th grade students.  It's one of my favorite shows to attend because I get to see the work of my past students and how they have grown as artists since graduating.  I am proud to say that just over 70 Hester Alum were represented in the Winter Art Show this year!  Since there were so many photos, I put them into a video, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the show!  Congrats to all the artists for their hard work! The following Hester students had work selected for this show: 7th Grade:  Andrea Gutierrez David Guzman Ernie Abdic Jason Merino Jessica DeValle Karely Garcia Mia DeLeon Nicole Fallorin 8th Grade: Amber Bautista Anna Rudka Andres Flores David Cardenas Eldin Sakanovic Erick Ramos Gabe Monarrez Hannah Stocks Jasmin N...

The Illinois Art Education Association is an organization of art teachers that are dedicated to their field of teaching.  Each year, the IAEA hosts a student art show of 45 student artists that are selected by a jury from over 800 entries.  Hester is lucky enough to have an artist featured in the show for the past two years in a row! Emily Kwazny, currently in 7th grade, had her monochromatic self-portrait painting from 6th grade selected for the show this year.  The artwork was featured at the fall conference in Normal, Illinois where students and their families were invited to attend a reception honoring this achievement.  Emily was unable to attend, but Ms. Zill was able to select the award on her behalf.   The student art show will travel the state for the next 9 months visiting a different location each month celebrating the accomplishments of the students.   Here's a few pictures from the show: 

Part of being a good teacher is continuing to learn yourself.  The fall Illinois Art Education Association Conference is one of my favorite places to learn and grow as an art educator!  For the past 5 years I have both attended the conference and presented different sessions and workshops.  This year I hosted a workshop on creating plaster masks and a session on ditching the grade book and using feedback to inspire learning.  In addition to hearing several PHENOMENAL keynote speakers, I attended several sessions and workshops. The conference was held at the Marriott Hotel on in Normal, Illinois right on the Illinois State University Campus.  The conference opened up to speaker Cassie Stephens, one of my favorite art educators from Tennessee who has found her passion in fashion and dresses each day to match her lessons!  Her energy and enthusiasm for the profession is an inspiration!  After hearing her speak I was fortunate to work with Cassie in a sm...

Once a year I get the opportunity to meet with the fine arts department at Leyden as well as the other middle school art teachers from the feeder schools to discuss what we are doing in our classrooms as well as how the students are transitioning to Leyden.  Although it is always hard to be away from my classroom, I LOVE getting to see some of my former students in action during the short visit.  I make a point to check out all of the work on display to see how my former students are succeeding in their creative endeavors.  I was lucky enough to catch a few of them still in class this year!  Here is some of their work: