New Art Teacher! Help, I'm going to panic!

[Sphinxxy13]

Hi :waving:

I was hired Monday (yesterday), as a new art teacher for a local charter school. It is another girl who applied and myself that will be teaching...(or co-teaching I should say). TODAY was our first day.

So here is the deal. I'm on my 2nd year of college for art education. She is basically fresh out of high school!

They handed us 100 students, no curriculum, no ideas, no supplies, and said "you two handle everything when it comes to art". Which includes getting 100 pieces of art work done to present from the school for the county fair in October.

The class set is 2 grades per class.

Tue is 1st & 2nd for 45 min, and 3rd & 4th for 45 min.

Thur is 5th & 6th for 45 min, and 7th & 8th for 45 min.

Everyone is really nice, but didn't seem to pay much attention to the art program. So haven't had much advice. This is a awesome opportunity, and I'd hate to blow it. But we are so unprepared and under experienced, I'm worried its going to turn into a mess.

Does anyone have any suggestions for what we should cover? Or fun projects to do? What about setting up some rules for when we are in class? How should we approach it? What about grading? :confused2:

Also ,we don't get our own classroom. We are "floaters". This seems to make it really hard to plan any really fun projects, since most of those take a lot of set up time. :(

Any piece of advice would be helpful at this point. :eek:

[Brit]

our curriculum here focusses on what they call the "elements of design" -- line, colour, shape, form, space and texture -- and the "principles of design" -- balance, emphasis, rhythm, unity, variety, and proportion. understanding and demonstration of these skills is what we grade on.

with my little guys, exploring colour is my favorite thing to do. If you have paint, paper and scissors, you can do a lot. My favorite activity is to put two blobs of primary-coloured paint on their papers and have them fingerpaint it together to make a thrid colour. This can also be a texture lesson, as they strive to make different textures with different touches. THEN, when everything is done, have the kids look at the colours and the textures, share with friends and cut apart the paintings to make collages.

Another fave is to go to a used CD store and get a bunch of old clear crystal CD cases (they give them to me free here if I take ones that are a bit cracked) and let the kids do a relief sculpture inside the case. Easy clean-up, little storage needed.

We also enjoy doing rubbings in my primary classes -- of ANYTHING, just to check out textures. I've seen older groups extend this by using the textures they've found in pictures (e.g. the roughness of a basketball becomes an asphalt driveway).

[teacher5]

WOW! You've got a real challenge, but you are lucky there are two teachers. Be sure to support each other. With the older kids, I would try to tap into the curriculum and connect it to an art project. For example, if they are studying any kind of animals (i.e. sharks) draw the outline of the body on a giant piece of folded mural paper, have them cut it out, paint on the features: gills, eyes, around the mouth, etc. Have them staple the two sides part way and stuff it with newspaper. Have them glue on teeth from styrofoam packing nuggets or popsticks, or something else. Draw out a background scene on a piece of mural paper with underground caves, rocks, plants, other fish, that some other kids can paint and work on. I hope they gave you some money to buy supplies. I hope the classroom teachers will give you some storage space for supplies. Storing finished projects will be a challenge. Work with the school custodian, too, to find some creative ways to store the work before October. Good luck!

[Sphinxxy13]

Thank you both for the answers. I was so nervous when first starting up (still am a little). Now that I've actually been in the classroom a few times I'm starting to feel better. I just wish we had our own room! lol

[Brit]

can you use hallway boards to "store" art? display it until your fair?

[scradduck]

Here are some random thoughts/ideas (in no particular order):

Organization - Make some easy portfolios by taping/stapling large sheets of posterboard or tagboard together. You can keep all your classes seperate this way and carry them easily from room to room.

Clean-up - ask other teachers to save large coffee cans. Put one of these in the middle of tables that students are working at. They can put scraps of paper, pencil shavings, etc. in here and they can be thrown in the trash at the end of the hour.

Lesson Ideas - Anything you can do to support the classroom teachers will help your cause. Ask what units they will be covering in their classrooms and try to do something that merges art with science, social studies, math, etc. They will be more willing to help you with what you need and might begin to appreciate your job even more.
There are so many lesson plan sites that you can take ideas alter them to fit your needs.

Good Luck!

[Just ducky]

http://www.doe.state.in.us/standards/arts.html

I realize that you are at a charter school, but if your state publishes standards for the grade levels that might be a great place to start. Indiana's standards for the visual arts was just updated this summer. I have posted the link if you are interested in at least checking out what is suggested by our DOE.

[Sphinxxy13]

Thanks. The link with the visual art standards helped. I had found some from San Diego...but apparently California is insane! Maybe its not as bad as it looks on paper...but 1st graders were supposed to know about concepts I'm learning in college. lol

Thanks again everyone!