What Art Teachers wish parents could understand:

•   We see students for 30 minutes to an hour per week.

•  Teaching 3-4 of your own children one art project in a week is very different from teaching 125-300 students one art project per week.

•   There are probably more than 10 students in each art class at one time.

•  Your child acts differently with you at home, than they do in their homeroom class with 17 of their friends.

•  Your child acts differently in their homeroom class, than they do in a Specials class or with a substitute teacher.

•  Everyone wants to be the "Room Mom” but there aren’t generally “Art Room Moms.”

•  Students are often learning at least one new skill per class! 
• The goal of Art Education is not to create artists, but to prepare students to be empathetic, citizens of the world that are motivated, creative thinkers, problem solvers, communicators, and well adjusted individuals. 

•  The Art teacher will be thrilled with any advice you’d like to give on projects if you can help to facilitate them, so if you think a digital portfolio is a must then maybe you would like to volunteer to photograph and upload 2,000 pictures into student portfolios online.

Volunteers welcome! http://www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=131725

•  If you have some ideas to share for projects the teacher will most likely be thrilled if you volunteer to come and volunteer to help prep, and facilitate that life-sized dinosaur paper Mache project, as long as you can clean up, pack everything up and find storage within the class time.

•   We do not know your child as well as the homeroom teacher knows your child, because we don’t spend 6 hours a day with the same group of students.

•  We may temporarily forget your child’s name or the spelling, but we know his or her interests and passions.

• We see a lot of students each day so when something concerns us we want to help, even if it means that telling the truth will make our life very difficult.

•  It is easy to ignore a problem, give an A or a perfect report and pretend everything is perfect, but it is very difficult to report a concern that we have for your child.

•  Teaching Art is more than just the in-class projects, there is also, evaluation, material collection, preparation, storage, advocacy, filing, community contests, school displays, performances, Art contests and collaboration with the homeroom and specials teachers.

•  Very often, a holiday, party, school event, sickness may mean that your child attends less than 4 art classes per month. 

•  Art teachers generally meet students (especially the very young) elementary students late in the day after a full morning of academics.

•  Sometimes, things happen before the student enters the art class that effect the student’s motivation and focus in art class, for example: a bad quiz grade, a fire drill, a class party, an incident on the playground, the hall, or Billy might have just thrown up on Bobby.

•  Students often will tell us if you are divorced, that you went on a date, that you like to drink, wine, beer and say “bad” words, and all before we can tell them "hello" or ask about their day. Students feel more inclined to talk to us about personal trials of life, in the art room.

•  Students come to us for help, because they know we care about them. 

•  Responsible Art teachers talk with the homeroom and other Resource teachers as often as possible regarding individual students.

•  When we see your interactions with your child, we understand what your relationship and expectations are for your child. 

• We help you child to find place and responsibility within society

•  We dare to tell you the uncomfortable truth about your child because we hope that you will accept the information and partner with us to help your child.

• We have to organize constantly so that your child will be equipped to create with a variety of tools. 

•  We couldn’t pass the buck if we wanted to, we have to deal with issues as they come up because we are going to be teaching many of the same students every year, we don’t want to be miserable and we don’t want our students to be miserable.

•  We aren’t looking for your child’s approval today; our focus is your child’s well-being in 20 years,

•  We love our jobs, and care so much for our students that we are constantly thinking of ways to enhance the lives of our students in and out of school. 

•  If we didn't think that we could help change your child's world for the better, we wouldn't be teachers. 

Educational Rug Design

I recently designed a rug for linguistic education for a contest. I hope that I win this I will post a link on Monday for voting!

June Paintings

I have had some free time to paint the last 2 weeks and I have been experimenting with a new technique and trying to develop a loose impressionistic style that is my own. 

This succulent painting is a still life inspired by my own little planter. 

This beach scene is an expressionistic piece that had no image to reference. 

 This was inspired by a still life of some plants in my garden.

This water color was an experiment from an FAEA water color workshop with Dorothy Greene in Miami, we were able to try a variety of techniques, I used color blocking, and also tried using the salt and plastic wrap for texture. 

Interview with Edna Hibel

Today I had the amazing experience of being able to speak with the artist Edna Hibel and her son, she is 95 and mentally very sharp. It was amazing to be able to discuss art with a Leonardo Da Vinci award recipient and artist that holds 6 honorary doctorates.

We are so lucky to have a Hibel Museam here in South Florida on the campus of FAU it was intriguing to look through the art and memorabilia after reading the biography of the artist.
Hibel Museam at FAU

I was especially interested in the chinese painting, learning about her trip as the first artists to show in the PRC after the death of Chairman Mao.  The museum features a gorgeous painting of the artist's dear friend "Winnie" a Harvard grad who was a casualty of China's cultural revolution. I was also intrigued to learn about the artist's beginnings in Boston, this will definitely add to my trip this summer.

The interview has definitely made my research very interesting, I will be sure post more on this after my paper is complete if you are a local you will be interested to know that the artist will be making an appearance at her gallery in August. I will be sure to post more after I finish this research paper!

For once, a positive mom!

At last year's FAEA conference I heard a speech from a positive mom for once, and it was awesomely encouraging!   I keep thinking about the speech that Jaqueline Roch gave at the FAEA conference, she is inspiring, as not only is she a brilliant artist but a mom of 4 children.

(all images are the work of Jaqueline Roch, Miami, FL)

She challenged us artist teachers not to make excuses, as a full time teacher she worked on her pastels.  Later Jaqueline was eventually able to be a stay at home mom she said that she had much more free time than when she was teaching so she was able to spend time perfecting her craft. The teachers at the conference we all gained insight on how she worked; it was fascinating that much of her painting time was during her children's naps.

The pastelist talked about how teacher's often try to hide behind the successes of others almost as an excuse...wow that one really hit home! I feel like sometimes as women we hide behind others successes and claim them as our own as an avoidance tactic. It is especially easy for teachers to pat ourselves on the back because of successes in other's lives due to our investment. I think it is quite difficult to break outside of the success of others and also make time to engage in personal development.

I feel myself becoming frustrated as more and more as I see and hear from moms who get to stay home can't seem to take a shower, yet they freely tell me how easy life as a teacher and full time student must be after all "you don't have kids yet" so you can't possibly be busy EVER.

In stark contrast is this artist mother of 4 who stopped the excuses, as you can see her art is spectacular and she recently sold rights of her works to furnish the cabins on a cruise line.

She isn't blogging about how she doesn't ever get a sick day, how exhausting it is to put her child to bed, or how she is a professional expert on every subject known to man because she has children; instead she is supporting her family with her craft, creating beauty, and inspiring teachers all over South Florida.

Jaqueline Roch, Pasel

So every time I hear some cynical mom imply that women's personal aspirations must die to become a good mother I just smile and remember that there are indeed women who bring more value to their family, personal development, and community during nap time than some do in their entire lives. As teachers we can continue to wear the "I inspire"t-shirts but how much inspiration can we offer if we are not personally inspired?

Lighouse Center for the Arts Show inspiring art!

The following are snaps of a local k-12 art show.  We have some truly amazing teachers and students in Palm Beach County! I took some pics of my favorite artwork from the show to inspire new projects and ideas. 

Art Advocacy Tile wall

So just how did we create the tile wall art advocacy project? Take a look below: