I Got the Boot

...for my left foot, that is! Apparently, running on the sidewalk can be harmful to teachers too. I wasn't actually running, just turning to run & catch the busses because of a few students who were leaving late at dismissal last Wednesday. Turned, twisted an ankle & SPLAT in the dirt in front of an audience of my peers. So to add to the end of the year crazies, I'm lugging around this boot on my foot because of a sprained ankle!

Since I have all my grades to finish, I'm putting my 'sit with foot raised' time to good use. As I complete 4th quarter grades, I note which students have earned award certificates for the year.

My students are eligible for these 5 certificates...

1. Young Artist - met Az Visual Art Standards in all 4 grading periods
2. Outstanding Young Artist - met or exceeded Az Visual Art Standards in all 4 grading periods
3. Exceptional Young Artist - exceeded Az Visual Art Standards in all 4 grading periods (student receives a bag of art supplies in addition to certificate)
4. Improvement Award - student improved by 3 grading levels over course of the year
5. Art Volunteer - awarded to any/all students who volunteered to help me in the Art room before school. Certificate lists # of hours student worked.

What honors/awards do you give out to your students at end of year?
Do you give out certificates or...?

Our Annual Art Show

We have an annual District Art Exhibit which includes all 23 schools in our K-8 urban district. This year our show runs from April 18th - May 10th.

We display at the local shopping mall. Each school has a 6-sided panel (3' x 6' panels, hinged together) to display 2D work and an 8' foot table for 3D work.

The panels are set up inside by one of the main entrances to the mall and down the center aisles by stores.

Tables with the 3D artwork are arranged together in an open area.

There are awards given - one Best of School along with 1st through 4th place ribbons (5 of each). Teachers work in pairs to judge each others work. Later a team of 3 judges - not affiliated with the District - award Best of Show ribbons for 2D & 3D in different age categories.

I send parent letters home with every student whose work was included - this year we had a total of 101 2D & 3D artworks. An award ceremony is held on the last night of the show at one of our schools for those winning Best of Show, Best of School and 1st prizes so letters go out to those specific students as well. Those honored receive 'prizes' of art supplies.

I'll be posting some of the 2D and 3D work that caught my eye at this years' show over the next few days.

Stop by the blog There's a Dragon in My Artroom to learn how other bloggers organize their shows...

End of Year Awards

Finished school a few days ago so will try to catch up on my postings. As I completed the grading for 4th quarter & entered grades, I gathered up the info needed for end-of-year awards.

Our school has an award assembly at the end of every grading period to present certificates for a variety of reasons: perfect attendance, good behavior, honor roll, etc. At the final assembly of the year, additional awards are given which include those bestowed from MAP (music, band, art, PE) teachers.

I have three categories that I work from: Young Artist, Outstanding Young Artist and Exceptional Young Artist.

A Young Artist certificate is awarded to students who have earned B’s (met the state standards in Art) in every grading period. An Outstanding Young Artist cert is awarded to students who earned a mix of A’s and B’s for all four quarters. The Exceptional Young Artist cert is reserved for those who earned A’s in every grading period.

I develop the text for the awards & print them out on ‘fancy’ certificate papers. This year I had only a handful of Exceptionals, so I used the money generated from selling braiding supplies before school to purchase a ‘Summer Sack’ of art supplies for each of them, in addition to the certificate. I was fortunate to find ‘pony bags’ (those drawstring backpack-like bags) in the dollar section of Target which were the perfect size to fit in a 9” x 12” sketchbook, same size pad of colored construction paper, drawing pencil, eraser, watercolor paint set, glue & scissors.

I teach in a low income, urban school so many students come from homes where these items are a luxury. When I presented the ‘sack’ to my Exceptional 3rd grader, he immediately sat down on the floor to pull everything out one at a time with an accompanying “Ooooh” or “Ahhh!” much to the admiration of his fellow classmates.

Made my day…