Lately, I've been shamelessly plugging my blog anywhere and everywhere for people to see. Today, I wanted to take a moment to promote my friend and fellow art ed'er's blog here: 

 http://annemarquardt.weebly.com/

You won't be disappointed with what you see!

I want to thank everyone who has helped get me to where I am at today. I couldn't have done it without each and every one of you.

It was once again sad to say goodbye to my students. I was glad that their art class was only a semester long so their last day in art was also my last day in art. I learned a lot from the students and will miss them dearly. On my last day with the students, I told them that at one point in my life, I had wanted to be a writer. They thought that was pretty cool and it was even cooler when they found out that I had written a poem for them as a way to say thank you and goodbye.

To you my dear students,
whatever could I say?
Our time has come and gone.
Today is our last day.

To you my dear students,
forever I am grateful.
Everyday's a new lesson.
Everyday I am thankful.

To you my dear students,
I've learned a lot from you.
I hope I've done my job
and taught you something too.

To you my dear students,
I view you as a friend.
When my day is over,
my thoughts of you won't end.

To you my dear students,
take the time to think of me.
Learn everything that you can.
Be all that you can be.

To you my dear students,
I hope you'll never forget,
all the lessons you have learned.
There is one more for you yet.


To me my dear students,
you are all amazing.
The world it could be yours.
It's there for the taking.

I have been fortunate enough to work with Kathy Bareis over the last several years, including student teaching with her. She has helped to convince me to get my Adaptive Art certification. Working with these students of varying abilities has really opened my eyes to the idea that anybody can and should be able to succeed in the art room. Here is a project that I did with them right before ending my student teaching experience. We took large sheets of paper and folded them in half and then unfolded them again. We painted one half of it using cool colors. They then folded the paper in half, transferring some of the paint to the other side. We cut the papers in half. For the half that they initially painted, they were given string and several warm metallic colored paints. They dipped the string into the paints and then danced and snaked the string across the paper. Many of the students found using the string very relaxing. The different colors of metallic paint created a really cool feeling of depth. With the half of paper that had had the paint transferred to it, they stuck pieces of contact paper to it. Then they used slick/paint sticks to cover their paper. Some of the paint showed through the slick/paint sticks. After they were finished, they peeled up the contact paper to reveal parts of their paper that hadn't been colored over.

I have begun my second student teaching placement at DeLong Middle School in Eau Claire. Before student teaching, I had worked at DeLong for a year and a half with Kathy Bareis. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work with Kathy again. Eau Claire is stricter on the content that I can post to my blog so I will be posting pictures of my own work, rather than my students'.

At DeLong, I have been helping with an eighth grade class that Kathy has everyday. She largely has control of that class because I came in during the middle of the project. However, I have been teaching all but one of the sixth grade classes she has. I have also been working closely with an independent study student. I was surprised by how quickly the students embraced me as their teacher. I have been having a blast with them.

I had the pleasure of carpooling with some of the teachers to school everyday, one of whom was a kindergarten teacher. Her class decided to make me going away cards. I still have each and every one of them.

I have been a bit behind on updating my blog so I am just starting to get caught back up... Although I finished my placement at Black River Falls several weeks ago, I still think about my little tikes nearly everyday. I miss everything about them, from getting sneezed on to learning to count in Ho-Chunk with them. I never would have dreamt of teaching elementary art if I hadn't been forced to for my student teaching placement. Now, it feels like my heart lies with them. Each week I have written a reflection about my experiences. I just took the time to go back and read my last entry for Black River Falls and everything I said then still rings true today. An excerpt from that entry can be seen below:

"I honestly don’t know how to write this without sounding like a mushy sap. As of Thursday, I have begun telling my classes goodbye. It will be tough to leave these kids in a few days. They have grown on me more than I thought they would. They have embraced and respected me as if I were a full-time faculty member. This past week, some of my students took the initiative, with my CT, to begin filming a “Why you should hire Mr. Calvert” video (which can be found in my 'About' section). They make me proud in so many ways and it makes me question if I did enough for them. These kids (many of whom come from tough situations) deserve the world and every possible opportunity that comes with it. Without them knowing, they have reassured me that I will be doing something that I truly love after I graduate. Every struggle up until this point has been worth it."