Art 310

My classroom is the biggest in the building. I am not sure how many square feet it is, but it is pretty large. Every time someone comes into my classroom for the first time, they are completely overwhelmed by how large and bright it is. Along with how large the space itself is, I am lucky to have so much storage. I share no issues with many art teachers around me regarding storage areas. I have three walk-in storage closets and almost wall-to-wall cabinetry and shelving. I also have 4 working sinks. The highlight is that my classroom can also access the courtyard that is in the center of the school. My classroom is a dream.

The tall ceilings, without ceiling tiles, create an open, airy feeling. Combined with the windows that span most of the back wall, it is an inviting space by nature. My student tables are narrow rectangles; there are twenty of them. They used to be in islands of two, laid out across five islands in two rows. I had that layout for three years. Last year, for our Visual and Performing Arts art show, we organized them into a giant “U” to make the gallery walk easy to follow. It reminded me of how my studio drawing class was set up in college, and I liked the idea. In college, the art professor would walk down the center of the shape our tables were in, which made it easy to ask for guidance. I tried it out with my student tables, and that is how it has been for over a year now.

My classroom is a place that the majority of students want to be, whether they like art or not. I have really put a lot of effort into the “building relationships” part of teaching pedagogy, and I have had incredible success with it. We support everyone in the art room. Everyone belongs, and everyone is safe. I achieve this by stopping bullying, mean comments, and unkind behavior IMMEDIATELY. Sometimes this is a calm discussion, sometimes it’s a mediation between peers, sometimes it is a call to guidance, and seldomly even a call to the Dean. By handling conflicts as they come, my students know that I am not a teacher who “does nothing”.

My students are from all different backgrounds, and one of the things I love most about where I teach is the racial diversity. For my classes, I would say I have a pretty even balance between black and white students, and I think it would be fair to say that it matches what we have in our school population. We also have some native Polish students, a few from the Phillipines, and many different Latin students, and a lot of those are our MLL (Multi-Language Learners) in the building. I would say one extremely interesting thing is that the highest grade level with Latin MLL’s is 6th grade. In one class alone, I have 9! Right now, we are doing a unit on Dia de los Muertos, and it has been incredibly fun because most of them actually celebrate it. We are an open district, so we do have a lot of students that don’t actually live in the area. I think the numbers shift a little based on that. I think that the area still sees a good mixture, but we have a lot of out of district African American students. A lot of them are just from the neighboring district, so demographics are similar, but as far as the technicality of in and out of district, that would pull the community to the larger majority being our white students. Either way, makes no difference to me as far as how I view teaching. I welcome them all, and most of the time, I don’t even look at the addresses to know. I learn a lot from all of my students and having such a cool mix of kids is without a doubt top three reasons I love my job!

We have the “Lucky Ducky” classroom management reward system, “Free Art Fridays,” and classroom holiday parties; these are all based on behavior. Some are earned individually, and some as a class. This helps hold everyone accountable in different ways and also gives them something to look forward to. These are built into our routines. They know that “Lucky Ducky” tickets happen on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and on those days, our “Do Now” is the “Mini Art Gallery” prompts. The “Mini Art Gallery” is the Post-It wall. And then the other two day are SEL promts for the “Do Now”. After the Do Now, my students know that they are to do one of two things, immediately grab their projects and continue working, or grab their folders because we have notes, sketches, or something else to do. They know this based on what I tell them as I greet them at the door and they enter the room. I think it’s pretty awesome though that all my older kids don’t need to be told. They know the flow of how the units go, so most of the time they just say a simple “working?” or “folders?” as they enter the room- and that is why routines are so important; they will make your life easier.

In Art Room 310, we have everything we need. Some of the students say things along the lines of, “It feels like we exist in our own little bubble,” and I have to agree. I love it there, and I think the kids do, too.