My Eraser Soapbox.

Remember these?

Well, here I am at the end of week three of school.  Things certainly have not slowed down yet, the art room is in full force.  With school starting and the beginning of my quest of grad school underway I'm looking  ahead to the long weekend and can only be a little thankful to put my feet up and say "phew."

On another note, I have a serious issue at hand. Erasers.  First you need a little back story.  When I student taught (3 years ago) I had an awesome, groovy, cool cooperating teacher.  She gave me many "aha" moments and set me up to be successful as I started off on my own.  One of the biggest, but small things I took from her is she didn't have erasers out for students to use.  She was a K-5 teacher and NEVER ONCE did I hear a student complain or whine about not having an eraser.

Having an eraser seems like such a small thing to be worried about.  I see more and more students being afraid to just create and becoming more concerned about it being perfect or just right.  I always tell my students "if you make a mistake it's not a big deal just make it in to something else." I took the no eraser practice with me.  I'm in my third year at the same school,  students know I don't give out erasers, yet they still always ask.  Then they start to complain and throw a fit.  Some become wise and bring their own, which is fine if they don't leave it in my room.  AND when an eraser does get left in my room what happens?  Everybody thinks it's a good idea to poke their pencil in it and then it falls apart into a million tiny pieces crushed into the carper and who gets to pick it up?--ME.


What's your take on erasers?  Seriously, am I the only one with a vendetta towards the "E" word?


My favorite Art Professor in college taught me one of my favorite things.  When drawing or painting, even the masters left behind marks.  Evidence of the work that had been done, they weren't perfect, they didn't get it in one try.  It gave you a chance to see the history of the work, where it started and what it became.

Eraser Soapbox done.

On another note, I hope your summer was awesome.
Here's a quick photo montage of mine.

What was your best moment?

David Hockney Beach Umbrella

I wanted the final summer school project to be well--summery.  I don't know what feels more like summer than the beach.  Students learned about artist David Hockney. We looked at the evolution of his artwork from 1950 until now.  I've always loved Hockney's Beach Umbrella painting, the simplicity with the color is quite pleasant.  After looking at some of his landscapes we decided to combine that style with his beach/swimming pool paintings.  We drew the umbrella together, using colored pencils students colored the umbrella however they chose.  Then using crayon students used lines and patterns in a "Hockney-esque" manner to fill in the sand and water.  Using liquid watercolor students filled in the remaining white spaces.  For a final finishing touch students were able to put down a clear gloss coat and sprinkle sand over the beach area.  

Jasper Johns takes Flag Day and 4th of July

This project was originally done incongruence with Flag Day, but I found it fitting to share on the 4th of July.  The community where I teach is very military oriented as Offut Air Force Base is located here.  The majority of my students have some sort of military tie so they always love doing these patriotic type lessons because they are excited to give it to a family member that is or was in the military.  

What better artist to talk about other than Jasper Johns?  

Students were to pick out 6-7 words that described "who they are." They found and spelled the words using magazine clippings, giving the project a sense of identity.  

I gave students this prompt: "If the President of the United States asked you to create a new design for the American Flag what would it look like?"  Using sandpaper students pressed hard and colored with crayon to create the flag.  We used a faux-encasutic technique by ironing the sandpaper on top of the white collaged paper.

Students were then asked to write the reasoning and meaning behind their new design.  In the end, they created two pieces of art one from the sandpaper and the second from the wax crayon transfer onto the white collage.

 See the inspiration for this lesson here.

Keeping Summer School "Groovy"

One of my favorite things in this world is tie dye.  I thank the Art of Ed for this lesson.

I loved it. The students loved it. 

I had some students make over 5 designs discovering something new each time.  

I did require each student to make me one that I could keep so we could have a groovy hallway display when school is back in session.  

It'll be rad.

Here's some of my summer tie dye! 

Clay Elephants

It just so happens that elephants are my favorite animal.  When I get the chance to do ANY kind of project where we can use the elephant as the subject, I get excited.  We learned about the two different types of elephants; African and Asian, we also looked at this prezi.  We made them step by step together creating the body using two pinch pots and putting them together then adding in all the parts after.  I gave students free reign on how they wanted to paint them.  Many students chose to take this project home for a Father's Day gift. 

Surrealism Dreams

We spent the first part of summer school talking all about Surrealism and dreams.  We watched a Brain Pop Video on Surrealism, read about Surrealism, Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali in this Scholastic Arts magazine.  After we had learned all about surrealism and how it can relate to dreams, students were given this prompt to write about "What's the strangest dream you have ever had?"  After spending some time writing  students created a self-portrait with their surreal dream serving as the background.  Students spent a lot of time translating their words to imagery, mixing colors, and using new watercolor techniques.  The inspiration for this lesson came from here.  I was in awe of the work these students did and wanted to at least try out a portion of this lesson.  

Teacher Example

Student's who finished early came up with a title for their artwork that correlated between their dream and painting.