My first day!!

Today was my first day with the students. My first class was an adorable 1st grade class. I can honestly say that after they left I almost cried years of joy for finally being where I am suppose to be. I have my own art room, own supplies, and my very own classes. SO excited and thankful for it all!! It's been a lot if work getting this far...so yay!

Here are some pictures of my little art room all cleaned up and ready for students.
I'm so happy with where I am. Soon we will begin making art! Cannot wait!!

My Little One

While putting my son to bed tonight, I had so many lesson plan ideas running through my head. So tonight I am staying up a little later than usual to get those ideas in writing.....but instead of getting everything done that I thought I would, I have been playing with google+ and this blog. I now have both apps on my phone...yay!
So while I'm up, I'll post my second post ever! :) I've mentioned that I have a son. He will be 5 in less than 2 weeks. That is so hard for me to believe! I'm going to hold on to him being 4 for as long as I can!! I'm soaking up all of the last minutes of "four-hood".
He is my very best friend, and just the best person to be around. He has been my first art student, as well. In fact, I have his first picture framed and hanging in my kitchen. It's just little crayon scribbles that I managed to get him to do when he was a baby...but it's the best art in our whole house.
This summer we've done several guided drawing projects. I really thought he was too young for that until I tried. The secret is I have to be teaching him to draw something he is really interested in. I mean really interested in! So far we have done s cheetah and a parrot.

I think his finished pieces are adorable, and I know I'll be keeping them for a lifetime. The only thing better than the art itself is the memories created while making it.

Love it.

My first post!

My Little Art Room

I am a recent graduate from Middle Tennessee State University. I majored in Art Education. Teaching art has always been something that I have wanted to do. I am so happy that the time has finally come to do just that!
My family just recently moved from Tennessee to Hoover, AL. My husband and I have a son that will be starting kindergarten in August (tear*), and I have been blessed with a job as the art teacher for a private school in downtown Birmingham.So many wonderful changes for our family!
My first day on the job is August 1st, with students starting on the 8th. I will be teaching kindergarten-8th grade. Wow!! I have a lot of planning ahead of me! While I am VERY grateful for the job I have been blessed with, and the opportunity to touch a wonderful group of students (do not let that be forgotten that I feel this way)...I have also been blessed with the TINIEST classroom imagineable! (eeek!) :) So to begin my journey in the Blogging World, I want to take you into my classroom, and the changes that I am putting it through. :)  My classroom may be small, but the creativity that will be inside is NOT.

My room has NO closets. Hear that? I do not have an art supply closet. The picture above shows all of my storage space. Time to kick an organizing OCDness gear (that I am not sure I have) into motion!!

All of the art supplies were brought downstairs from another classroom and put into my classroom for me to go through. While I was so very excited to see that I had more than I thought I would, I was also very overwhelmed by this. Phew!

 Heres a picture of the room during the 'going through all the junk' process. The back wall has 3 large windows...thats pretty neat.

 This picture was taken from outside the classroom door..so yeah, its a small, sweet room.

 After going through the 'mess' and getting most of it out of my way, my first task was to paint all of the tables. I couldn't stand how dirty, multi colored, and just plain messy they looked. After I painted them, I covered the legs (because you guessed it..I didnt even like the LEGS of these poor tables) with duct tape that has a paint splatter design. Kind of cute, I think.

OK- so this is the room at its most recent state. I have figured out a way to arrang the tables that will fit the amount of students I should have in any given class, and a place for my rug (for reading to the younger students.) I have also started one bulletin board and a little bit of decorations. Looks like Ill be going with a polka dot theme. Maybe.
Now, what this picutre doesn't show is the wall that has the board (and still a lot of other junk), and my storage wall. When I get it all done, I will be posting more pictures.

I have been pretty hard on this small room, but deep down I know that a lot of art making magic is going to happen in here. Cannot wait to fill the room with smiling faces!