There's Snow Time Like Winter

To contact us Click HERE
Hello Everyone!!
I have absolutely loved having this week off.  Christmas was a very relaxing and sweet day of celebrating so many things. I feel so blessed!
 I ended up getting a yucky cold later in the week, so I was forced to stay in and enjoy the snow from my couch.  It did give me some time to put together a little unit for later on in the winter, probably the week of Jan 21.  I love having time to plan ahead for a change.  This little unit includes some winter poetry and interpretation responses, some compound word activities, a word search, some math tub activities, including one with missing addend, a marshmallow snowman craft connection, some quick reader's response to go along with "The Biggest Snowman Ever" By Steven Kroll, a mystery picture math activity with addition and subtraction clues, and a fun science activity. Here are a few pics to help you visualize.

Looks good enough to eat!!

 

Unit has a Borax snowflake in a jar experiment.

If your fingers aren't too cold, click here for your 45 page wintry unit!

Now that I'm feeling a little better, I'm going to venture outside!!  Hope your time off is a time of blessings and joy!
Joyfully!Nancy

Not by the Color of our skin...

To contact us Click HERE
Hello Everyone,
I never really took time out to think about this, but in learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. we have an opportunity to make so many connections with ourselves, other characters and people, and of course, the world, and I think it's important for kids to do the same.  My little Social Studies unit on MLK does just that.  Many of the activities have and will help kids understand what life may have been like in the late 50's and 60's.  Many of us and unfortunately many of our kids have experienced discrimination to some degree. In our classroom we have discussed how important it is to look at the inside of a person, rather than how she looks, sounds, moves, etc.  From Chrysanthemum to The Grinch, to Rudolph, we keep digging to find the hidden meaning the author is trying to portrait.  
MLK is one with whom we should spend time on.  I have compiled many of the ideas we have used in the past and created a few new things to help those connections happen!

A 9 page mini book for the kids to make is included in the unit.

For your free unit, celebrate freedom and click here!
The unit is over 20 pages and includes patterns for the craft connection, some mini posters, writing activities, a book for the kids to make, a song, and a puzzle.
Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!Joyfully!Nancy

Word and Sentence Surgeons

To contact us Click HERE

Hello Everyone!
Happy January to all!!  During this month, I love to really celebrate how much my kids have fallen in love with words!  Last year I posted about having kids become word and sentence surgeons. You can see those posts HERE   and HERE. Those activities became some our favorite things we did last year.   I have had time recently to revise and update my "Word Surgery" and "Sentence Surgery" units.  We will be working on the Word Surgery unit soon and the Sentence Surgery a little later. Here are a few of the pages you'll get in the updated units.






























For the Word Surgeon unit click here
For the Sentence Surgery unit, click here!

Hope this helps in creating some great writers!
Have a joyful day!!Nancy

I'm a Person, Not a Service

To contact us Click HERE
Teaching Art can be a lonely pursuit, and the online community is vibrant and a wonderful resource. One of the main reasons, ArtfulArtsyAmy has continued is because I like to share my experiences in the classroom with other Art teachers. The other reason I blog is because I feel very passionately about giving back and sharing with the Art Education community.

It is important for us to contribute to our community.  Art Education, as a whole, becomes richer when we do so.  I've begun using lessons (and hopefully creating lessons) I might not otherwise due to my online exposure to Art Education blogs. Ultimately, that helps to make me a stronger teacher.

Since the advent of Pinterest, and few other positive reviews of ArtfulArtsyAmy online, I now get a lot of daily email from readers.  On the one hand, I'm incredibly flattered anyone likes anything I do enough to contact me. I've had the opportunity to collaborate with, and and actually meet, quite a few amazing Art teachers because they have emailed me. I wouldn't give up those opportunities for the world.  Yet, more often, I receive rather rude emails from teachers demanding something and/or emails from the technology-challenged who are frustrated about how to download a lesson etc. etc. I've received about five alone in the past week that were just really rude.  So, I thought I'd make a little informational list for when you contact blog owners and/or me.

1. Everything on this blog is free. If you find something of mine online and it has a cost, that is because the website host required it. I also do not actively or knowingly post anything on a website requiring a monetary membership.  If a site requires a monetary membership, it began doing so after I uploaded content.
 
2. I value sources. I work very hard and very diligently to link back to any source I use both in lesson plans, images, and PowerPoints.

3. I don't have a lot of time. I work approximately 55+ hours a week as an Art Teacher. I attend graduate school (working on my doctorate) full time.  I commute 3 hours round trip to my job. I write 36 pages of lesson plans a week (no really, I do). I want to respond to all of your emails. I take time about once a week to sift through blog emails.

4. I don't monitor my online content after posting.  Once it is up, I rarely go back after the first week to check links etc.  ArtfulArtsyAmy has been around for nearly four years, and has over three hundred posts. I am one person. The internet is a living entity that is ever-changing. I do what I can, and then let the rest fall away.

5.  I cannot help you with specific technology issues.  Feel free to send me an email when something is hard to download, a link is broken etc. etc.. If there is something not working, I will fix it from my end. But, I do not have the time to walk you through how to download online content. And, honestly, 99% of the questions I have about this are from people who simply are not tech savvy. I feel for you, and I'm impressed you're working outside your comfort zone. You should get the media specialist and/or a colleague to help walk you through the process. They can see your screen; I can't. But, I'm a sucker for nice people, and I love teaching about technology. . So if you send me a really nice email, I will probably try to help you.

6. I'm a person, not a service.  About half the emails I get each week read like this:  "I want this resource. Send it to me in this format."  I'm reminded of a line in Dirty Dancing when I get these emails: "I don't just have to do anything for you." I'm human. I like manners. I like the words "please" and "thank-you."  I will never, ever, email anything to anyone who can't be polite. When I get emails like this I read them aloud to my partner, and we laugh and the rudeness.

7. I love to collaborate; I love to help. If you have a collaboration idea or a question, don't hesitate to email me. It may take me a week to return your email, but I will.  I really, truly, do like to be helpful.

From the bottom of my heart I love blogging with and for the Art Ed community. This online community has been one of my favorite and best sources as an educator.  I really encourage you to participate by making comments on Art Ed blogs and/or maybe even hosting your own blog. 

Are We Pragmatists or Dreamers? Can We Be Both?

To contact us Click HERE
image from here
Honestly? I'm a bit of both. I've never stopped dreaming and/or fantasizing about what I hope to achieve. My favorite time to do a bit of dreaming is when I am commuting.  I'm also rather known for being a bit of an analytical pragmatist.  Standardized tests -in my home state- used to include a short analytical essay portion. I always earned a perfect score on that portion (and then scored rather marginally on the Math portion). My students know all about my pragmatism; I use it to help them make their art plans come to fruition. Sometimes, while day-dreaming in the car, I'll even talk out loud. . .It sounds bizarre (yeah, I know it is bizarre), but it helps me hone in on what I want, and how to get it.  So, there ya go. . .My dreaming and pragmatism working in tandem.

There is a wonderful opinion piece over on my hometown newspaper, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, wherein a local educator (Janusz Maciuba) discusses the three most dangerous slogans teachers instill in students:

1. You can be anything you want to be
2. Never back down
3. Be a leader not a follower

I really encourage you to link over and read the whole article.  What do you think? Do you believe we need to help students look inward to develop their potential (be all they can be), or do you think the slogans are helpful? I'd love to know!

Spelling for All Seasons Part TWO!

To contact us Click HERE
I AM SO SORRY!This was promised in November, and I just couldn’t get it finished!  The adoption approval totally took precedence in my life from the beginning of November through the first week of December.  There was SO MUCH paperwork to do, in addition to developing a 20 page Shutterfly profile (a 20+ hour feat in itself), and getting our home ready for our social worker to visit.  Seriously, not a second to spare! And, then, voila, it was Christmas!  Yesterday!  And, I turned THIRTY two days before that!    So, please forgive me for my month-long absence.  I have a bajillion things to catch up on, but – for now – here is the much awaited Spelling for All Seasons Part Two.  This is a follow-up from Spelling for All Seasons Part One that came out of the summer.  Check out the details HERE.   Here’s a little sample of the included craftivities to take you right up to the end of the school year :) Merry Christmas!  More to come…PROMISE!   {And if you want to know more about the adoption or our family goings-on, check me out here: www.babblingabby.blogspot.com }

New Year’s Resolutions: 2013

To contact us Click HERE

I’m a tad behind in joining the party (what’s new?!), but I’m excited to share some of my 2013 resolutions with you.  Though resolutions are usually very difficult to maintain, I’ll now have 5000+ accountability partners!  Ha!  Stay on me!  Plus, starting 2013 off with a list of things to do will help me pass the time while I’m waiting out this adoption process.  Seriously, the wait is EXCRUCIATING!  {Read all about it HERE!}

Technology

Resolution: I will learn to make my own clip art!

I’ve been thinking about doing this for awhile.  I mean, I looooooove to doodle. I always have.  There are so many times that I’ve been looking for a very specific graphic and couldn’t find it, and know that I could draw it but have no idea how to convert it to clip art.  Well, this year, I intend to learn.

Resolution:  I will no longer be scared of Photoshop. 

I’ve wanted to learn Photoshop for awhile and what better time than now?  I don’t know why, but it scares me.  All those layers and buttons and words I don’t know.  Plus, I’m pretty sure this will go hand in hand with making my own clip art.

Organization

Resolution:  I will organize and maintain a home office.

We actually just rearranged our home to accommodate a home office.  Here’s what I have so far and it is tres boring.  And not organized at all.  Clean, but not organized.   Those drawers are so full of random it isn’t funny.  Also, there’s a box in the corner (that you can’t see) containing an IKEA  shelving unit that has been there for around 18 months.  Unopened.

Resolution:  I will keep better records at school and at home.

Going into my new position at the beginning of the year, I really had no idea the amount of data I was going to be required to collect and organize, so I admittedly fell a little behind in keeping everything as organized as I would like. Since Walmart was running a great deal on 1” colored binders the other day, I picked up three so I can organize my data at school better {For the record, I think they were $2.74 a piece. And, they had really fun colors!}   I hope to give y’all a job update sometime soon.  I still looooooooooooooooooove it.  A lot!

At home, I need to organize bills and receipts better.  Right now – don’t laugh – I throw all of our bills and receipts into a cardboard Pirate Booty box that we got at Halloween in 2011!!!   Isn’t that awful?!  I  hate all the papers that we get in the mail and I would rather just throw them away, but then I worry about identity theft or that we might need that one bill for some reason or another.  Regardless, horribly organized and I need to do better!

Professional Growth

Resolution:  I will become more knowledgeable about best practices in reading.

I love to teach reading and early literacy skills, but feel that I could definitely use a better knowledge base for the best practices and research behind getting kids to read.  My school has graciously allowed me to attend an upcoming conference that I will post about after I attend.  I’m soooooo excited to go!  In the meantime, I’d love your recommendation for some literature I could be reading about reading!

Downtime

Resolution:  I know downtime is necessary, but I’m really trying hard not to have any these days!  I’m trying to keep my schedule full and busy so that I have very little time to twiddle my thumbs, hopefully waiting for a phone call from our social worker!!!!  I’m not kidding, just look at my December:

My January is shaping up to look very similar, though I’m crossing my fingers that a number of days will be filled with the words SNOW DAY!  We have five built in and will still get out on May 22nd even if we use them all!  Bring on the SNOW!

If I do need to unwind, it usually involves a Skinny Vanilla Latte {add whip}, a date with B, attending my favorite Jamz class at the gym, or being silly with my boys. 

           

So, I think I’m all caught-up!  I’ll try hard to come back tomorrow to post about getting’ my fitness on in 2013.  Goodness knows that after all the appetizers and cookies and holiday goodies I’ve consumed in the past week, I need to be at the gym!!!!

Do you want to link up with your resolutions?  Check out Amy’s post over at Step into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemons!  Plus, there’s a FLASH giveaway!!!!  Yay!!!

Happy, happy Sunday :)