Starting New Job

I will be starting a long term sub position on January 25th at St. Ignatius elementary school. I will be teaching grades k-8 (!) for about 8 weeks. I am excited and have begun the process of lesson planning. The 2 hardest grades for me to create lessons for are kindergarten and 8th grade. Isn't that funny? I think its because Kindergarteners still are learning basic skills and you have to make lessons that focus on this. And the 8th graders in this school are at the point where they don't want to be there anymore and it is the teachers responsibility to hyper motivate them and show them that there still are new and wonderous things to experience in art class. The budget at this school is low and the classroom is small with relatively large class sizes so you really have to be creative concerning all of these issues. Another great site that gives hundreds of ideas appropriate for very young children and incorporates children's literature is http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/

I used to reference this site all of the time when I was a children's librarian and was planning storytimes. It is absolutely fabulous! But again, the ideas are really for the very youngest of children as they tend to be crafty.

I am planning on incorporating lessons on the Winter Olympics, Chinese New Year, Valentines Day, Canada, Pennsylvania folk art (since that is where I live), still life painting, elements and principles, Aboriginal art, weaving, foreshortening and batik. This should take me through the first month if not more because I will be finishing up lessons that the art teacher who is there now is teaching. I will definitely post the kids artwork as they complete their masterpieces.