Another Great POW WOW!

Every year our Kindergarten classes study about various Native American tribes for two to three weeks, in their classrooms. I try to have the students work on a small clay piece when they are with me to teach the importance of that medium to these people, as it was used to create vessels, bowls, everyday items necessary to life, ceremonial items, as well as items with which to barter.

To culminate the entire unit of study, the whole kindergarten class participates in a huge POW WOW, including Native American music and dances. The resource team is responsible for running the various centers that the students visit throughout the day. My job is to talk about natural dyes and paints made by the early Native Americans and then let the students experiment by painting with beets, paprika and tumeric. Always fun! The students really have fun playing with food, but they also learn a lot about having to be resourceful with what you have available.

FAEA Conference Report

I can't believe how much time I DON'T have to post info on my blog. It has been forever!

Just wanted to say the FAEA Conference was wonderful as always. It seemed I was really in "collage" mode as most of my workshops dealt with collage techniques. One was particularly interesting, as it dealt with layering digital images ( on a very wide variety of papers) to create a collage. I am thinking I need to think about doing this with some of my 5th grade classes.

My other workshop was about different collage techniques, using a large variety of media. It was fun and refreshing. I had done something like that before BUT we can always use a second time around reminder.

I attended the District Workshop and was amazed at the art advocacy and activities going on around the state. We came back with some wonderful ideas for DATA to think about.

One workshop I attended was a lecture on how one school created large mosaic murals. I am thinkin'.....I am thinkin'............

The big thing that happened was I was elected to the FAEA (Florida Art Education Association) board as the Elementary Chair for the state of Florida. WOW! I start officially in January. Now I can really get great ideas from around the state.

I will try to blog more often so I can share all the wonderful things happening here , and now, around the state.

Miss Fravel Moved to Music City

So it has been almost 6 months since I completed my internship and graduated from UNF. Amazing how it only seems like yesterday I was teaching the students about maps and helping with the Kids Art Fair Fundraiser!

After graduation I looked for jobs in Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and Tennessee. I saw more jobs for art teachers in Nashville then anywhere else, so I made the decision in May that I would move to Nashville, TN.

However, they have a strict policy to not see anyone for interviews unless they have a TN teachers license, I started the long paperwork process as soon as I graduated, first needing a FL license, then needing to apply for an out of state teachers license in TN. The good news is I just got my TN teachers license last weekend! The bad news is all the jobs have been filled at the moment.

I moved in August, now living with one of my best friends and her family. They have helped me adjust to the new environment and shown me what an exciting town Nashville can be! There is a lot of support from the community to keep art and music in the schools since it is Music City, and there is a growing art scene here. I am very excited about how much they seem to love art here, and the new superintendent is really doing a lot to improve the school systems here for students and teachers.

I start substitute teaching next week, which will be a great way to improve my classroom management, as well as learning more about the schools and students around the area. I have also been doing some volunteer work in the area as well through a great organization known as Hands on Nashville. Volunteers can participate in many different kinds of activities in and outside of the schools, so far my favorite volunteer work has been going bowling with the blind.

I certainly miss Jacksonville and can only hope my experiences in the schools here will be as wonderful as Chets Creek, but I feel I am off to a great start experiencing the town and getting involved in the community.

Here's a picture from the park downtown, Cenntenial Park, its a very large and beautiful park, there are always people there jogging, picnicing, painting, and enjoying the outdoors. There is a giant Parethenon replica which you can see in the picture in the middle of the park.



And here is a picture from the Opry Hotel, which is one of the largest (or maybe it is the largest) hotel in the country and its right next to the Grand Old Opry (one of the big tourist attractions here). Inside the Hotel are lavish gardens you can walk through.


I hope everyone is doing well and having a great school year so far!

WELCOME TO STEVE TAMBURRINO!!!

Many of you who walk the halls of Chets Creek Elementary have heard the name Tamburrino plenty of times............as it pertains to Music Teachers. Now you are going to hear it twice as much because MR. TAMBURRINO will be teaching Art, two days a week. We are very excited to have him and can't wait to see him rolling through the halls on his way to our students' classrooms. Welcome, Mr. Tamburrino, we are all glad you are here!

THE VALUE OF ART!!!!!!

You may have seen this on other art blogs, but it is important enough to repeat here, as well. If you ever wondered WHY it is important to teach art to ALL of our students on a regular basis, you might want to read "10 LESSONS THE ARTS TEACH." This is by Elliot Eisner and was sent from the National Art Education Association.



1. The arts teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships. Unlike much of the curriculum in which correct answers and rules prevail, in the arts, it is judgment rather than rules that prevail.



2. The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution and that questions can have more than one answer.



3. The arts celebrate multiple perspectives. One of their large lessons is that there are many ways to see and interpret the world.



4. The arts teach children that in complex forms of problem solving purposes are seldom fixed, but change with circumstances and opportunity. Learning in the arts requires the ability and a willingness to surrender to the unanticipated possibilities of the work as it unfolds.



5. The arts make vivid the fact that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.

6. the arts teach students that small differences can have large effects. The arts traffic in subtleties.

7. The arts teach students to think through and within a material. All art forms employ some means through which images become real.

8. The arts help children learn to say what cannot be said. When children are invited to disclose what a work of art helps them feel, they must reach into their poetic capacities to find the words that will do the job.

9. the arts enable us to have experience we can have from from no other source and through such experience to discover the range and variety of what we are capable of feeling.

10. The arts' position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important.

SOURCE: Eisner, E, (2002). The Arts and the Creation of Mind, In Chapter 4, What the Arts Teach and How It Shows. (pp. 70-92). Yale University Press.

Pretty cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a lot more going on in the Art Lab than meets the eye!