like this awesome Elmer's Glue Dispenser Pump! I wish that you didn't think I was joking about how awesome it is. You try filling tiny glue bottles with a one gallon jug of glue and then you'll understand my excitement upon purchasing the pump!
I received an order the other day that included this box of colored pencils. I spent a considerable amount of time just looking at the pencils after I opened the box. There's just something so wonderful about brand-new art supplies that gets my blood pumping! (Glue pumping?) Another thing that gets my blood pumping is lifting 25 pound boxes of clay. I don't remember my art teachers being particularly buffed out when I was a kid, but you can't be a pansy and an art teacher. (Though really there are more reasons that that's true than just the heavy lifting thing.)
As a part-time art teacher at a charter school, I don't actually get a classroom, just a small office where I hide from the monkeys...I mean, children. I took a picture here of the wall I face while at my desk, which includes the 2 small mannequins that I ordered; the cart that I 
push around the school to teach art in all of the classrooms (I do NOT get paid enough...), and the magnetic Mr. Man and Little Miss mood indicator...better watch out when I'm Little Miss Scary. 
What was my point again? Oh, yeah: I teach art to small children and annoying tweens, and when I get overwhelmed, I try to find little things to focus on to make me happy. Like glue pumps and mannequins and colored pencils. I don't think much about the fact that I'm an art teacher, but then, every once in a while, I think about Mrs. Walker, my elementary school art teacher. She was the best! She always seemed to have energy and great art project ideas. I remember once when a kid dropped his lunch tray in the hallway. I don't remember what food had been on the tray, but I remember specifically the spilled chocolate milk. Mrs. Walker came by just then and said, "Hey, look! It's art!" I must have been 7 or 8 years old, and that has stuck with me to this day - find art and beauty in everything you see. I wonder sometimes if my students will remember me and the lessons that I teach them.
Do you have any art class memories? Or fun memories from elementary school in general? if so, please share with the class!
5 comments:
I loved Mrs. Walker! But when I had her she was Mrs. Cambell I think. She got married later. She really was a great teacher - I learned a lot from her too! I remember one time I was trying to draw something and was struggling to get it right. She said to me, "Just draw what you see." So simple, but it really opened my eyes!
That glue pump really does look awesome too. For real.
You didn't even mention the pink bicycle horn that's attached to the Magical Box of Wonderment. Now I'm stuck wondering!
i think buying school supplies in general help me feel at one with the upcoming semester... which often is filled with varying degrees and levels of hell. somehow new school supplies bring a balance to all of it.
and that glue pump...sweeeeet.
i wonder if i will be using enough elmers glue in my bus. stat. class to justify buying one....i am tempted ;)
Oh, yeah! The Pretty Pink Horn on the Magical Box of Wonderment! The horn is to get students' attention without shouting over them (it scares them every time...). The MBofW is full of "free draw" options - when they are finished with a project, they can get something out of the box to work on, like mazes, "how to draw" books, coloring pages, etc. It's pretty wonderful! :)
**I never took art beyond 6th grade. But my favorite memory is when we did a bunch of lines of colors on a piece of paper then put black all over it then scratched out a picture. That was magical for me. **Was that a picture of Dwight in the corner of your office board? **Fact: Mrs.Walker was not buffed out. [sorry - just the thought of Dwight got me into the FACT mode.] **The glue pump euphoria reminds me of "a bouquet of freshly sharpened pencils". **I hope I never meet Little Miss Scary!
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