Ta-Da!

Hello world!

I've started this blog for many different reasons.

I think we all need to share more.  And not just pictures of what we did.  We need to share written lesson plans, share our ideas, share what worked, what didn't work, and how we fixed it.  And I don't plan to charge you for these things.  They are free!  I think we need to share more with each other to make art classrooms BETTER and LESS STRESSFUL!

I also need a place to vent... and who understands teacher problems better than fellow teachers?  I'll also be sharing my ways of de-stressing and calming myself.  I'm a highly anxious person, and I've had to carefully develop my go-with-the-flow attitude for my classroom.  Let me tell you... I grew more gray hairs my first two years than I can count.  Hooray hair dye!

I've also noticed that I've kind of let my art go.  I recently brought in some work from a few years ago, and I realized I can't draw like that anymore.  If you don't use it, you lose it.  And drawing simple things for elementary students everyday REALLY isn't helping.  So to keep myself in the groove, so to speak, I will *attempt* to complete some kind of artwork each month.  And hey! If I get good at it, I'll try for more!  I've set up an art space in my office devoted solely to ME!

We had our local Back to School rally today.  It was fun, uplifting, you know the drill.  It really made me think though.  Last year, one of my best friends won Teacher of the Year at her school.  I started to think about how the related arts are sometimes overlooked.  At least they are here.  I do a lot of little things for this school.  I don't really like being in the spotlight, so I don't usually volunteer to head a project, but I am willing to be on a committee.  I've decided I'm going to teach and volunteer every year like I want to win Teacher of the Year.  I noticed that those who do win, teach like that regardless.  It's easy to fall into a slump and just cover your standards.  I need to be more accountable for the things that I do, and I want those things to be excellent! (But I still secretly believe that these things are rigged and that the school doesn't actually vote on who gets nominated) *cough* SO! Moving on!

So anyway, that's that.  I'll be blogging my lessons, you are welcome to take and use them!  I find a lot of stuff on Pinterest, so I'll be sure to give credit!  Please feel free to comment or email me.  This blog gave me a gmail account, but I'll have to remember to check it! I think it is artteachersgiveahoot [at] gmail.com

Good luck!  Have a wonderful school year!  I hope to see you again soon!