A day in the life of an art teacher...

Being a teacher is pretty neat.  One of my favorite things is listening to the Pledge of Allegiance and all of the fun mistakes really nervous kids can make when they know the whole school is listening...is that wrong of me?

I pledge of allegiance, to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, invisible, with liberty and justice for some.   We will now absorb the moment of silence.

It's pretty great.  But really, I love getting to know the kids and thinking about how they learn and grow.

March Showers bring Nature Photos...

Ready for Summer...

I got a new swimsuit from ModCloth! I am now ready to do some SERIOUS mixing and matching!  The new suit is more modest than many that I have [thank goodness!], it actually covers everything in the back [which is one of my least favorite things about most bathing suits].  Even though it was pricey, I think it was worth it for the fit and I've had a lot of these suits since high school/stolen from my mom AND it was time for an upgrade that I could mix and match with them [they've seen better days]. I would recommend looking through the links I put above for their suits [and their cute clothes of course]!

Foisy Family Photo Shoot

A beautiful morning photo shoot with a beautiful family!  

Easy Dinner

Shrimp Scampi Alfredo

  Ingredients-
Noodles
Broccoli
Your favorite Alfredo
Frozen Shrimp Scampi [or homemade if you're not lazy like me!]

Follow shrimp directions, cook noodles, steam broccoli and voila! This took 15 minutes!

Photographing "Things"

These are just a few things I try to keep in mind while taking pictures of things instead of people.  The angle of the photo, the background, and variety are all great things to keep in mind no matter the subject matter!
Angle-

Background-

Combined-

European Medieval Arts of Arms

I recently did a photo shoot with a group from the European Medieval Arts of Arms. It was a very different shoot from what I'm used to, but so fun.  They were a really fun group of people, and I like to call this shoot Medieval by day, Jedi by night! Enjoy!

Getting Organized

Last year was my first year teaching K-5 Elementary Art.  It was my first grown-up job, but I honestly felt more organized last year than I have this year.  I think part of my problem was that last year I had to make everything from scratch [all of my examples, lesson plans, research, etc.], and this year I have struggled to locate so many resources that I used last year.  I decided enough is enough and it is time to get it together!  I follow a blog called Deep Space Sparkle, and I stole her idea for organizing lesson plans and art examples.  Unlike a regular classroom teacher, art teachers have the issue of needing something other than a 3-ring binder to hold our lesson plans.  Everything is not an 8.5x11" paper in my world!  I went from a million papers, examples, folders, and misc. ideas and handouts to neat envelopes with concise labels to help me easily find what I need!

What do you think?