Category Archives: Classroom

Aug14

My Portfolio Rack Hack.

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Several years ago I made wooden cradles to hold my students’ rather large portfolios. I attended a session at the TAEA conference about building racks and the presenter gave us her plans. Well, they lasted me about 6 years, with some repairs here and there. Had I screwed them together instead of stapling them, they might still be around. Hindsight and all.

At the end of last year, I tossed all but one; I had built 7.  This year I needed something new. I looked and I looked. I toyed with plastic drawer units which would require smaller portfolios.  That saddened me, but I couldn’t think of much else. I tried to make something out of a window box planter liner and some wooden feet.  It sucked.

Then it hit me in the car on the way to the aquarium. Wire storage racks and zipties. My daughter and I headed to Lowe’s (after looking at the fish at the aquarium of course.) They had 6′ lengths and I needed half that. Luckily they had bolt cutters there for that reason.

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I ziptied the sides on first.

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Then I cut the end of the ties

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and tied the last piece down the middle.

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I added the upper supports today when I put in some portfolios to check the strength.

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As you can see, it will hold portfolios for 2 classes. I have 4 classes that need portfolios.  So, I built 2 racks. I just need to cover the sharp tips and they are done.

I am quite pleased with my hack.  And, it was relatively inexpensive.

Mar4

Update on Giving Choice

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We are starting on our second week of choice in Art 1 when creating a project about informal balance.  Today I walked around and talked with the different groups to check in on their progress and to make sure they are on the right track.  I want to say that about half understood informal balance and are able to incorporate it into their artworks.  About a third of those who didn’t understand it and were not consciously addressing are now able to once talking through things with me.  And, well, out of those that are left, some just are making things out of egg cartons, and one group basically said they weren’t going to do anymore, and to just give them a 70.  At least they were honest about it.

I am excited and surprised by many.  I have to be honest that there are some students that are surprising me in their art.  Some that I thought would be the ones making the egg carton alligator are thinking outside the box.  While others that I thought would nail this are the ones making the alligator.

Choice hasn’t been easy for me.  Not knowing the outcome is hard for me.  But, I have to learn to go with it.  I will update once the unit comes to an end.

STUDENTS WORKING HARD 🙂

P1030628             P1030631 P1030632            P1030634 P1030639              P1030645P1030643

PROMISING ARTWORKS AND OUT OF THE “CARTON” THINKING

shark

shark
beginnings of a truck

beginnings of a truck

plan on using texture to balance

plan on using texture to balance

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using the egg cartons to make a 2-d work (bas relief)

using the egg cartons to make a 2-d work (bas relief)

will balance with color

will balance with color

Trees

Trees

ARTWORKS THAT ARE “PREDICTABLE” AND NOT OUT OF THE “CARTON”

P1030654        P1030655 P1030656        P1030657

Feb14

Thank the Lawd…my water is back on!!

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Yesterday was a bit of a tease.  The plumber showed up with my Gleco traps.  I was super excited.  He got down on the floor and started to do some stuff under the sink.  Then all of the sudden he was gone.  And I was sad again.

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However, he showed up again this morning and picked up where he left off.  He finished installing the traps and was on his way.  Now, there is one last thing to do because someone in the district doesn’t want the under sink area exposed.  I guess the pipes might feel neked.

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And, by mid morning, my water was back on!!!  Cue the angelic choir!

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I am so excited to no longer have to bring buckets on a cart to get water from next door.

   

Feb8

Stink! Stank! Stunk!

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I have two words for you.  Clay. Trap.  That is one thing my sinks need to help avoid another day where 900+ students were mad at me because of a smell that was so beyond my fault.  If I had know it was going to be that bad, I would have waited and had them come in during spring break or the summer.

I put in a maintenance request to have my sink drains cleaned as they were started to clog after 2.5 years of being treated like, well, sinks in an art studio.  I did my best to keep as much clay out of there, but one can only do so much.  I have learned there are other measures I can take as I continue on the clay journey in my sculpture classes.  But that doesn’t help what had been done.

I thought it was going to be an easy thing, but apparently, it was not.  The drains were full of clay/slip and paint.  The plumber had to wet vac it out.  He still will need to snake into the wall.  The stink from the drains (a cross between sewage and rotten eggs) had gotten so bad that I had to move my afternoon classes to the front of the school, shut the classroom door, and opened the door to the outside.  I am sure the plumber was not happy with the cold as it was below 30 degrees outside, but I had to do what I had to do.  (I must mention here that when I did return to my room, the smell had lessened quite considerably and it was 56 degrees in my room.)

To maintanence it appeared as if we just dumped clay down the sink.  That is not the case–it was run-off from when we washed our hands and our tools.  But, that is neither here nor there.  What is important is at this moment I do not have running water and I will be halting all painting lessons.  Clay lessons will continue, and we will have buckets of water to help wash tools and hands.  Life goes on.  Clay settles, so the buckets make sense.

They (maintenance) will keep my updated.  Hopefully water will return soon.  And they are going to put clay traps under my sinks.  I am mixed about this.  I am happy as I hope this will help, but I will have to change the traps every week or so when they get full.

Lessons learned here… I need to be harder on my kids about how they clean up in the sinks; I need to change the way I run my classroom; and it is more obvious to me that people really have no idea what I do in my classroom.