It's official! And we even have the jacket to prove it...

It's would just happen that I would go and make some proclamation on here about how I don't know the next time will be when I'm on here and then I'm just all of a sudden on here two days later all, "Hi! I have one more thing to say..."

*insert awkward smile and wave from me here*

*shrug*

More than three years ago, I embarked on a journey that finally ended (with an unexpectedly beautiful flourish) TODAY. I cannot be more delighted and overjoyed to report the end of such an incredible... hmmm... fight? 

To be completely fair, it's not been a fight so much as it's been me just persevering and seeing this all the way through. And that is? It's the jacket that you see me wearing as I'm doing something that I rarely (well, honestly more like never) do - a bathroom selfie. I honestly cannot even believe that I'm wearing this jacket because... well... it has taken me YEARS to be able to get this jacket approved in order for it to be made to begin with!

Here's the thing: Nearly EVERY student-interest group/team at my school is (very obviously) visibly represented when you gather our students together in a whole group. The athletics teams all have official jackets and other sorts of team apparel. The choral, performance arts, and instrumental art groups have matching (read: UNIFYING) apparel that they "sport" with great pride. There's even students of certain social studies classes that get matching shirts every year at the end of the course study as a way to celebrate the bond that they have formed together and the love that they have discovered for what/how they have studied it. But the VISUAL artists in my school? Well... we (because I include myself in this) have allowed our artwork to be seen but never ourselves and while being behind the scenes is something that we very much enjoy, we (meaning: the art students AND myself) have always wanted to have some matching (read: unifying) "gear" to sport in school colors and in solidarity with our brother and sister artists who we spend all of our time designing and creating alongside in our beloved art studio spaces. 

I am a person of dreams as much as I am a person of prayers as much as I like LOVE to MAKE. THINGS. HAPPEN!!!! There have been SO many dreams that I have shared with the student artist community and we have always said, "Hey! Why can't WE get jackets too? We can even design better ones than *insert any other jacket that everyone else has here*..." (We really aren't trying to put other people's jackets down. Seriously.)

So after enough talking (and lots more praying), I got to work on trying to make an official jacket happen for the visual art student community. I drafted up a few designs, put out "feelers" for which ones were most preferred and then approached administration to get their blessing to do it. I was given a little bit of a maybe but ultimately a no. I was bummed but hardly discouraged because the issue was a matter of our uniform policy (that we have and try very hard to keep to for very good reasons). I went back to the drawing board in both literal and figurative ways and I tweaked the things that they said could stand to be tweaked and then I approached administration again. I was told maybe for even less time and then no even faster than the first time. I wasn't bummed though and instead I became very VERY determined to not take no for the final answer. 

Time passed and administration changed and every time I approached them and asked again and almost always with the same outcome and (for me) the same determined response. The more I was told no, the more I believed this to be just a problem that required a more creative solution that needed to be thought through. It only took me YEARS to get to a point where administration stopped giving me no's after their maybe's and their maybe's started looking more like OK. I don't even think it's because I "wore them down" - though I'm sure my persistent did that a little bit - and it was more that prayer is a strong force to contend with AND I was also willing to flex and bend and compromise with what was being requested of me and the whole business of this jacket. 

Long story a little longer, today I am wearing the OFFICIAL jacket that has been so many years in the works and at times that felt like a (pipe) dream more than anything. It's really only me and 11 other student artists wearing it but the offer was put out to everyone to join with us and we're all hoping that now that people are seeing the jacket? They will be encouraged to join us and get one for themselves and I will be more than happy to place a second and much larger order with Custom Ink. Maybe the next order will be even cheaper than the $49 that it cost us since the more jackets you order at once, the more everyone saves!!!

I would love EVERYONE at my school to be able to wear this jacket if they want to because the way the visual arts works is that I get to see/meet/know nearly every student at my school. Some just take the visual art courses for the general education/graduation requirement but even those student artists really treasure their time in the art class they take and want to take more even if they don't intend on ever "doing" art again beyond their time at the school. 

I also think that EVERYONE at my school ought to feel as if they can rightfully wear this jacket because I do believe that God has seeded the gift of creation within all of us because He truly did create us in His own image (and He is the master artist if there could ever be a master of the masters!) and because I believe we are called to be imitators of Him? Well... that means every last one of us is 1) called to create, 2) enabled to create when we seek to answer the call, and 3) CAN rightfully identify ourselves as ARTISTS because when we answer the call to create and then we create in His name and for Him - we are artists no matter where we come from who we think we were before we acknowledge and embrace ourselves as artists. 

Today is a day when big prayers were answered and blessings were provided with abundance and I couldn't not mention it here on the blog no matter how flaky I've been and how many times I've promised you that I would be scarce here. I had to tell you about this day. I had to tell you about how great God is and show you how he delivers in mighty ways when you dream for Him, PRAY to Him, and then CREATE FOR HIM. 

Art Teacher Hack :: Managing Supplies in Classpacks

You ever have one of those moments when you are teaching/planning and something occurs to you along the lines of "Why don't you just do it like THIS?" and you do that very thing and all of a sudden you have a solid chunk of time that you never had before???!!!

I had one of those moments last week when I was trying to manage the classpack of Portfolio Series Oil Pastels that I both love and hate because they are a favorite and awesome media to work with. I mean, maybe it's me? But pretty much anything in classpacks is a real pain in my side to have to deal with. Are you the same way? Well, comrade-in-suffering-by-classpacked-supplies? OUR pains shall be no more!!!!

(Perhaps I am behind on this sort of classroom and classpack management technique but just humor me, OK?)

A typical Table Box and it's contents

My main system of dealing with everyday materials is to provide each of my students with Table Boxes. This is basically a plastic shoebox sized vessel that holds every day materials - pens, pencils, erasers, simple coloring materials, etc. I usually only pull out the Table Boxes at the beginning of a lesson when the students are drafting ideas and generally trying to figure out what they will do for their personal project endeavors. For what it's worth, it works well enough. However, it stops working so well when we get toward the midway of creative process when there are specialty materials that have to be drawn in. (This is where the whole business of classpacks comes into play...)

While I would love to assume that my students (who are high schoolers and mostly trustworthy I feel like) will be able to handle something like a nicely packaged and neatly organized classpack of beautiful Portfolio brand Water-soluble Oil Pastels, the keeping of such a thing just doesn't happen and I have learned enough at this point to not expect it to start happening. And why it doesn't happen and won't probably ever happen? I don't care what the reason is. The point is this: I just want a workable solution to end the issue of broken and/or disorganized classpacks of pastels (or pens or gluesticks or whatever) so that I don't have to have individual vessels for every little portion of every type of supply I might want to use.

So, I got to thinking: Wouldn't it be nice if I just had an individual tray for each table where I could portion things out almost catering-style? And I got all forlorn because I didn't have any trays until I realized that I DO because I could use the LIDS off of the Table Boxes that are already numbered (and the students are "trained" to use) to begin with!!!!

Oh My LANTA! What a gorgeous site and amazing solution this works out to be!!! I will never go back again!!!!

Something even better about this solution? It makes it REALLY easy to prep portions ahead of time and once they are prepped? They take barely any space to store until they will be used (see stack below). 

Prepped, trays stacked NEATLY and ready for distribution for the next follow-along demo in 2D Design

After they are used? I have the students take a moment to reorganize their portions on the lid trays putting them in spectrum order so when I collect the trays and then have to put back the colors in their respective compartments in the original classpack box that is NOT damaged in any way, it's completely easy-peasy for me. A bonus is that them learning to group and order their materials teaches them a little bit about the color spectrum and relationships within it as well!

And there you have it! My quarterly revelation (Seriously. How slow am I about this stuff sometimes?) of how to better manage both materials and my students during class activities. Let's not dwell on the fact that I might have told you something you already know and just virtually high-five me that I finally am a little more "with it." *wink*

TICONDEROGA PENCILS. Forever and ever!!! (And ever and ever.)

What kind of pencils do you use in your classroom? Do you have a favorite brand? I do. I am ALL ABOUT the brand loyalty and the pencil brand I am most loyal to is Ticonderoga...

This shot reminds me of the movie "You've got mail" with Meg Ryan when she mentions how the beginning of a school year makes her want to have a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils.

Now, I try not to be an elitist and equal opportunity when it comes to the supplies that are used in my artwork and with my classes but in all honesty? When it comes to pencils, I have learned my lesson that there definitely are some very inferior types and brands of pencils especially when compared to the amazing standard (of superiority) set by Ticonderoga brand pencils.

The thing about Ticonderoga pencils is... well... what ISN'T there to love about them? Seriously! The wood casing is so well structured and of high-quality material that it doesn't splinter or split very easily (if at all). The lead itself applies itself beautifully. Even the erasers are awesome!!! Also, they sharpen really REALLY well and the pencils themselves don't ruin pencil sharpeners the way so many other pencils do. Just this year I got myself a heavy-duty and quite fancy sharpener and though I have (fiercely) protected it by locking it up so it's not used and the engine is burnt out by the whole school (Seriously. I used to have students interrupt the goings-on of my class to sharpen their pencils!!!) - the sharpener is STILL holding up like a champ. I am convinced it is not only because I keep it locked up but also because I am not allowing for low-quality pencils to be burning it out and dulling the blades. Anyway, the pencil sharpener I got is pictured below and it is called the Stanley Bostitch QuietSharp6 Electric Pencil Sharpener. I ordered mine from Dick Blick HERE at the beginning of the year with my annual supplies order.

Pencil sharpener with the pencil organization system everyone on Pinterest also uses.

I feel like this is the first year (in four total) that I have pencils AND a pencil sharpener that are going to hold up against the general wear and tear (and beatings) of the year and if you are in the market for a new brand of pencils and/or sharpeners? Consider both Ticonderoga brand and the Stanley BostitchQuiet6 Sharpener. Both brands will set you back a little bit in terms of time but consider the fact that the money you spend is an investment that will pay itself back in dividends since (at the end of the year) you will easily still have a working pencil sharpener as well as a stock of pencils that don't get eaten up and easily split from regular use.

Worth the wait

How do you feel about paintbrushes? Are they a big deal to you? While I am not solely a painting teacher, I do plenty of painting with my classes - most of which are foundational in nature. Because they aren't super advanced artists (yet!) I insist upon using top-of-the-line brushes and I mostly just want to focus on ones that are solidly built without sacrificing key things I want my students to learn - like which brush type/size is most appropriate for specific tasks of painting - meaning I want to be able to have a wide array of brush types for them to be able to choice from for their individual purposes.

All of that said? I have found that the best brushes to use with my classes are the Big Kids Choice Paintbrush sets (with the classroom caddy if you can get them like this!!) by Royal & Langnickel. They are short-handled craft style brushes (vs. being long handled artist length for painting on an easel) with synthetic bristles and both flat and round tips in three different sizes each...

They are very popular among art teachers (as I have come to find out) and around this time of the year they are almost always sold out because they are so highly sought after. Years ago when I first discovered them on accident, I got them for a STEAL by buying them in bulk (I bought more than 3 of them) and they were only $55 a piece!!! Amazing! Nowadays it is much more likely that you see them for at least $75 a piece and if you are lucky you MIGHT score some for just a little less than $70. I have ordered them every time from Dick Blick and if you search for them you will find that there are two listings that appear to be for the exact same thing with the exception of the price. One is listed as $2 more than the other. Why? Because one of them has a blue handled teeny-tiny brush perfect for details and then a red handled one with a nice wide flat one perfect for painting reasonably large areas and the other one has six sizes - three of round, three of flat that I would guess are in sizes that are the most popular overall for artists of any ability or age. That being said? If I were you I would spring for the set that has the teeny-tiny blue handled brush because if you are buying them in bulk, the price difference is only 9 cents. I made the mistake of not ordering that set and though I wish I hadn't I have enough of them on hand that I am not bothering with sending them back and exchanging them.  Below is a picture of three baskets of the cheaper set.

Better than bouquets of flowers in my book!!

Now, while I have made it pretty obvious that I work at a school with great means (read: budget) as it pertains to supplies ordering or just resources in general? I actually don't always just get whatever I want, whenever I want it. I Do have a budget that I adhere and it doesn't allow for me to just order my favorite things all the time/every year. The way I manage that is staggering the ordering of the the frequently used/favorite supplies that might also happen to be more on the pricey side of things like these brushes. I feel like even if we did have the money to buy these brushes though, I might not do that because then I feel like the students wouldn't understand the importance of taking care of your materials so they last. Afterall, art materials (and nice art materials at that!) are not meant to be used once and discarded forever. To be an artist also means learning how to take care of your materials and that includes maintaining them so you can keep using them if they work so well to begin with.

Something else about the Big Kids Choice Classroom brushes with the caddy? They come in these really great plastic cylinder packages that are so useful to use as storage in the studio classroom! I like using them for every day materials because it's easy to chuck things into them without them looking messy - similar to the way a glass cookie jar might look! Currently I have some of these from my last order that are storing/organizing markers and other coloring materials and it is so nice to put these in a cabinet and be able to SEE what is in them so I can pick and choose what will be taken out for use.

These brushes were back-ordered so I only just got them shipped and despite the fact that I received a heads up email that they were coming, I forgot about them and it felt like Christmas unpacking them, setting them up, and preparing them for use. I completely agree that "Good things absolutely come to those who wait" even if that wait means waiting every 3-4 years to be able to get these brushes.

That being said? I also am the proud owner (FINALLY AFTER 1.5 YEARS OF DILIGENT PRAYER AND ASKING AROUND!!!) of something pictured here...

If you watch my instagram feed, you might recognize this as a picture I posted a couple of weeks back when I was in the throes of attempting to acquire some of what is pictured without success. Am I being annoyingly elusive? Don't get what I'm talking about? I don't expect you too because I wanted to share the fact that I have been working on something VERY special (and I guess secret as it has been) for my school to enjoy - both current art students and not AND faculty as well - that seeks to make art appreciation stretch far beyond the confines of it happening in the studio classroom alone. This "idea" of mine is one I have been carrying around for a seriously long time and this year I finally got it in me that I had to make it happen - no ifs, ands, or buts. And that is ALL I will tell you for now until it's good and ready to go for me to present it as something for you to do in your classes too. ;)

iPad App review: Penultimate

According to my blog stats, it's teacher planning time!!! The most visited portion of this blog lately is the lesson planning idea page. Pretty cool, if you ask me. And like you all? I am doing plenty of planning for next year as well.

Pinterest has been a huge wellspring for inspiration for me but I also find lots of ideas via my blogroll managed by my Google reader. Every time I see something I like, I will star the posting so that I can return back to it when I need to. Now, this system has worked for me but it has also been a little clunky (if you will). It required me to do a ton of printing, filing, spreadsheeting, and inevitably forgetting about the file stacks of lesson plans that I had printed and never really looked at again since all I ever really used was my single printed spreadsheet that I would write all over and dirty up.

Enter: Penultimate for iPad

OH MY LAND!!! This app TRULY blows me away!! It does everything that I was doing in a format that is incredibly efficient, portable, and shareable, but also doesn't force me to give up certain elements of lesson planning that I just can't stop myself from doing - like using pictures for reference, making lists, compartmentalizing my ideas, and physically writing notes about what I intend to do with my project plans for each of my classes.

Penultimate is essentially a wellspring of digital notebooks that you can use to put pictures in and then handwrite notes about what you want to do with them. I created a notebook for each of the courses I am instructing this year and I access them by simply touch-scrolling through the lineup until I get to the one I want.

When I get to the one I want, I simply touch it open and it brings to me to the last page I completed.

Pages can be changed to be a grid/graph background, have narrow or wide rule notebook lines, to-do checklists, etc. You can import pictures either from the on-board camera OR from your camera roll. You can put more than one picture of the page and layer them as well.

After you put your picture on the page, you can hand write notes on or around it as you like. What works for best for me for the purposes of supplies ordering is just putting a picture (for visual reference/recall) and then listing the supplies I anticipate needing right next to the picture. This works well for me because there are a lot of project ideas that I see that are not standard art education lessons and I do a lot of top-down planning.

Once you have a handful of pages finished, you can view them all together and rearrange them if you like. The below is a view of all of the notebooks open to their last completed pages but this is the same view you see if you look just at the pages within one notebook. You can touch and move any of the pages to rearrange them and reorder them if you need to.

Something I haven't done but plan on trying is sharing and/or exporting any of my notebooks either to email or to other apps. This is good for people who might prefer typing over handwriting since *I think* the Penultimate imports elsewhere as an image file that is put on a page where you can type things around it.

Before I got Penultimate I considered Evernote (which I got and honestly don't care much for) and Pages. I got Penultimate randomly but I am so glad that I did. It is the ultimate digitized notebook if ever there was one.

The usual suspects: Materials i love and get every year!

As I stated in my previous posting, I'm currently in the throes of the annual supply ordering for all of my classes. Before I started at my present school I had zero experience in this area. My first go round of supply ordering took me a month. Kind of excessive? Well, I had a VERY tight budget that year and so that month I took was used cross-checking prices on every single product I had on my shopping list so that I could stretch every dollar I was given to the absolute limit and my diligence paid off handsomely because I believe I saved upwards of $400-500 by ordering between two of my most reliable suppliers - Dick Blick and Nasco. These days I order mostly from Dick Blick since they do maintain very competitive pricing on top of having very quick shipping and top notch customer service but there are some things that I will always return to Nasco for even if it saves me a measly $10. (I mean seriously? Ten bucks can go a long way when you're talking raw art materials and tools and could help me replace/upgrade something that is long overdue for such a thing. Call me cheap or frugal or a vigilante - I don't care because it yields me having a beautifully stocked studio for my talents students to use!)

All this being said, I'm a bit of a materials/supply junkie. (THERE. I SAID IT.)

I'm a huge fan of trying out new supplies in order to get the most optimal results possible in every project I do -  whether personal or in my art classroom. I'm always on the lookout for upgrading things that aren't quite that great to work with but I also have a running list of products/brands that I am incredibly loyal to. The way it goes is if I find something and I like it a lot (not even love it) I will stick with it pretty loyally and not budge. (So suppliers? Do it right the first time and I promise you I will stick with you for the longest haul ever!)

I have at least a dozen tried and true supply that I re-order every single year because they are such a hit in the classroom with the kids, they are beautiful to work with, and they are pretty reasonably priced. Curious what they are? (This might be a boring repeat for those of you who haunt the product and materials review section here on the blog) Here you go...

• Crayola Watercolor pencils - classpack
• Prismacolor/Design brand kneaded erasers
• Carton of Pacon Super value posterboard - 50pk in white
• Blick Sculpture wire - 14-gauge in a 350 ft spool
• Blick EZ-grip knife - basically an "off brand" Xacto knife
• Xacto #11 replacement blades (for above Blick knives) - 100 pk
• Gorilla brand Super glue
• Ampersand Aquabord - 6"x6" in a 4-pack
• Balsa foam printing/relief class pack
• Playbox brand plaster of paris - 25 lb box
• Scholastic Scratchboard - 11"x14"
• Blickrylic student acrylic paints - usually buy any color I get in half gallon handled jugs

There is more than just that but that's the most of what I always seem to put on my supply list year after year. The quantity of anything (in case you were wondering about that) is determined by the number of students I have in my classes. Since I teach a a private high school, the students I work with pay supply fees per each art class they take - studio and digital alike - and so this helps tremendously with keeping them in the freshest and highest quality/grade supplies possible. I know that the brands I've noted above are some of the best brands out there and many who read the list will be amazed that my supplies budget can afford the things I have noted year in and year out but it's honestly because of the supplies fees that are collected! (And I know this type of thing is a HUGE blessing when compared with the budgets that have to be juggled in the public school sector or even on the college level when poor college students are charged with getting specific items on supply lists and they always end up trying to "make-do" as much as their wallets can't bear.)

Anyway, I'll update again with more about supplies ordering in addition to specifics with regard to new projects I'm doing this next year! And if you ever EVER have any questions about anything I post here on the blog - be it about the supplies/amounts I have just discussed, specifics about supplies as they pertain to projects/lesson ideas I feature on here, etc. - please don't hesitate to contact me via email at dreampraycreate{at}gmail.com. Thank you!