Self Portrait Time

My schedule this year is full of looooooong afternoons which means that I need to keep things flowing and not too cerebral. It also means that I finally have some extra time where I can do my Art History curriculum with the kids, something I've been trying to do on a consistent basis, but haven't been able to squeeze it in.

This year, we started out with Pablo Picasso. The kids made a Picasso-style self portrait collage using pieces of pre-cut construction paper.

We worked it into a literacy activity too, reading Pablo Picasso: Breaking All the Rules by True Kelley and Picasso: Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists by Mike Venezia. We then talked about what made Picasso's style so unique and wrote about something that makes us unique as well. Here are some of the finished products:

The following week, we did self portraits based on Picasso's Blue and Rose periods. We split a paper in half, drew a happy self portrait on one side, a sad one on the other (in pencil), traced over it with a black permanent marker and then did a blue watercolor wash over the sad and red over the happy. These came out great, too:

Classroom All Set For the New Year

I keep to a pretty minimalist design when setting up my classroom. The kids will fill it up with their little projects and personalities. Too much cutesy stuff makes me feel overwhelmed so I try to keep it as calm and bright as possible. Here it is, before 29 maniacs take over tomorrow. 

Library and listening center. Lots of cushions to veg out with.  I found this log cabin wood paneling bulletin board paper at Michael's and went a little nuts with it. I'm planing to fill the board with their writing and artwork.

I'm trying to create an "Engineering Center" filled with different types of blocks to create architectural designs. We have bamboo blocks, natural wood blocks, magnet blocks and more.

Here's the meeting area. Pretty run of the mill. I used to make all this stuff but this year I just bought it from Lakeshore. Ain't nobody got time for that. I teach on the rug but the kids have assigned seats within the circle. They also have assigned tables. I have a very progressive ed background, but I've really had to tighten up certain classroom procedures as my class size has grown (and grown…and grown).

Little Dramatic Play area with puppets and stuff to play Farmer's Market.

Teacher's area with tree. Changes seasonally. Makes everyone happy.

Too dark picture of my plants. I've always wanted to be the kind of teacher  who has plants in her classroom, wears dangly earrings and has a rain stick. Unfortunately, the kids pulled on my earrings and my rain stick broke open two years ago causing a great deal of chaos amongst my most challenging class. The plants will have to do for now.

New/Old Ideas

Back to work tomorrow! It's just meetings and classroom set up (which I already started) but still, feeling sad to be putting away my shorts and flip flops and knowing that I'm expected to be somewhere (early!) looking and acting like a professional, responsible adult. Sigh. 

Anyway, whenever I get mentally prepared to go back to school, I always start making a sort of internal pros and cons list of what worked, what didn't, what lessons could be recycled, what needs to be let go.  While going through this sorting process, I was thinking of one of my favorite units that I've ever done, my Restaurant Unit. I did this with my First Graders at The American School of Marrakech in Morocco, and it was one of the most fulfilling experiences I've ever had as a teacher. The unit encompasses all areas of the curriculum, social studies, of course, but also math, science and literacy. In Morocco, I only had 16 students and now I have 29 but I'm wondering if I could make it work with this class this year.

So on this eve of Back to School, I thought I would share some pictures of one of my favorite units of all time.

We made signs to promote the restaurant and posted them around the school as well as made invitations to send home to families. No judgements on the spelling! English was the third language for these kids, after Darija (Moroccan dialect) and French.

I split the kids up into four three jobs: hosts and hostesses, chefs and servers. They took their jobs very seriously! Here are the chefs prepping mini pizzas the day before the event. We did a breakfast shift and a lunch shift so the (tiny!) classroom didn't get too crowded. The mini pizzas were for the lunch shift.

A server taking a parent's order. They all wanted to wear chef's hats. Sometimes, you need to be flexible.


A proud server on her breakfast shift.


Bussers on cleanup duty at the end of the lunch shift.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation...

Elementary school teachers might spend the bulk of our days dealing with tattling, keeping track of who left to go to the bathroom and trying to unclog the Elmer's Glue cap but we have dreams too, you know!

If you're a teacher in the New York City area, you should, without a doubt consider applying to The Cullman Center Institute For Teachers at The New York Public Library.

For one glorious week, you and thirteen other lucky fellows will get to work on honing your craft as a fiction writer. Each summer has a little variation on the fiction writing theme and a different instructor leading the workshops. This year, I was fortunate enough to work under the brilliant Téa Obreht.

The day is structured as such:
1. Come in, get settled in your own, private, wood paneled, wifi equipped, view of 42nd street office.
2. Eat the free breakfast.
3. Spend the morning in an intensive workshop, reading, writing, talking.
4. Eat the free lunch. (We're not talking wraps here folks-there was a daily feast of sushi, Vietnamese, Mediterranean, I could go on).
5. Spend the afternoon working on your writing.

Oh also, you get at $300 stipend at the end of the week. As someone who gets bogged down during the school year with the work, gym, home, life grind and tends to let creative projects slip away, the fellowship helped me refocus on making writing more of a priority. I even finished a children's book this summer. (More on that later…)