My latest Pet Peeves *edited with additional goodies!

Every so often I express some personal opinions here on the blog, talking about stuff that bugs me, usually in regard to art education.  This little post is another one of those, sort of.  You can read previous "pet peeves" posts  HERE (September 2015) and HERE (October 2011).

Today's annoyances are simple ones.  Let me admit up-front that I'm kind of a freak about spelling and proofreading.  Yes, I make mistakes, but I try my best to keep them to a minimum, and to edit them if I am able to, so they don't appear for the world to see.  But there's two errors I've seen made frequently lately (in blog posts, and in several Facebook art teacher groups) that drive me bonkers!

 1) Tempera / tempura

I can't tell you how many places I've seen "tempura paint" written lately, not only in blog posts and on Facebook, but also, surprisingly, in some on-line shopping situations.

I happen to love both tempera (1st pic above) and tempura (second pic above), but they couldn't be more different.  We paint with tempera.  We do not paint with tempura!  Tempura is a Japanese meal where stuff like shrimp and veggies are fried in a crispy delicious batter.  It's delicious, but it is not paint!  Please don't depend on spell-check when you are writing about tempera paint.  Your phone or computer doesn't know that tempura paint isn't a "thing"!  (And by the way, NEITHER ONE of them is spelled "tempra", though I've seen that lately, too!)  Also, in case you're interested, tempura and tempera are both pronounced differently from each other.  The paintings pictured below, and the cat at the top of this post, are all painted with tempera.  I believe it represents us poorly when we talk about a common art material and confuse it with a food! 

2) Borders / boarders

A boarder is someone who pays you to stay in your home with meals included (hence "room and board").  A border is an edge or boundary.  In art, we usually think of a border as a frame that is built into your artwork, or as a decorative edging on fabric.  But over and over again, I've seen people write about putting boarders on their artwork, or putting a boarder on their bulletin board.  (Hopefully you don't have anyone living on your bulletin board and eating meals there! )

I don't have boarders in my home, but I'm kind of a nut about borders on student artwork.  I think a decorative border can really enhance a piece of artwork.  When I retired, someone collected quotes from my students to share at a retirement dinner.  Evidently several kids quoted me as saying stuff like "put a border on it!" or "everything is better with a border!"  I didn't even know I ever said that!!

Again, you can't depend on spell-check for this, because your electronic gadgetry doesn't know what you are trying to write about! The artwork pictured above and below all have decorative borders, not boarders.

 And the paintings pictured below all have white borders. 

There's other words that can be similarly mixed up or confused.  For example, palette and pallet both have completely different meanings.  We generally use palettes in art.   Can you think of other words that can present a spelling challenge, or that sound alike but have different meanings with different spellings?

Since I wrote this post yesterday, I've received many responses about other words that should be on this 'pet peeves' list.  So without further ado, here they are:

• Complementary/complimentary: Complementary colors are across from each other on the color wheel.  A compliment is a praise or approval.
• Principal/principle: your principal is your pal.  Don't give up your principles to do something you don't agree with.
• A tortillon is a blending tool.  It is not spelled 'tortillion'.  And it is not a tortilla!
• Pollock/Pollack: Jackson Pollock is the artist. Check out the spelling! Sydney Pollack was a film director, producer, and actor.
• The spelling is Michelangelo, not Michaelangelo!  
• Lose/loose: you lose a marker, you set a wild animal loose.  
• Jewelry is the correct spelling for adornments like rings and bracelets.  Not jewelery, or jewlery.  

I'm sure there's still lots more common misspellings, but the ones listed above are probably the ones you are most likely to use in an art room!  

This will be a quickie post.  For my loyal readers who like to leave comments on my blog, I want you to know I appreciate you.  I do NOT, however, appreciate the spammer who recently has been leaving links to some really inappropriate garbage in comments on the blog.  I have tried  using a word verification thingy, where you have to type what you see, but somehow the spam gets through.  Anyhow, I know it makes it much more of a pain for those of you who want to leave an honest comment.  So word verification has not been on the blog for a while and will not be returning.

Instead, as of today, I have added 'comment moderation' to the blog, which means that no comment will appear until I have approved it.  I believe I can handle these approvals quickly and easily, so there isn't much lag time until your comments appear, as I appreciate your desire to have your comments posted immediately.  This way, at least I know that these blatantly offensive comments with links to inappropriate comment will NEVER be seen by a reader of this blog.

So thank you for sticking with me.  If you are wondering about the photos in this post, they don't specifically have anything to do with the content of the post.  Though my cat does look pretty annoyed sometimes, doesn't she?  Beware to anyone who wants to mess with her; her veterinary chart has the word "WARNING" written across the top!   Seriously!  (Though usually she's a sweetie-pie.)

Speaking of pies - as for the blueberry pie above, the face on it does look pretty formidable too, I think.  It's an old photo; the face on the pie was pierced in the crust by my son, after I asked him to cut some lines in the pie for air to escape.  And this was what he did. 

Thanks again!  Next post will be back to some artsy stuff! 

A little blog update - now you can search!!

Just wanted to let you know, as of a few days ago, there's a new search bar on the right side of my blog.  It became a necessity when I was looking for an old post on my very own blog, and couldn't find it!  How embarrassing!!  I searched the label cloud at the bottom, and what I wanted wasn't there.  I scrolled through 4 years of month after month of archives, and it wasn't there.  I scrolled through my list of 609 posts on my dashboard, but the titles of the posts didn't jive with what I was looking for. 

So finally I did what I should have done ages ago.  I searched for new gadgets available for the blog, and discovered there was a search bar gadget that I could add, that I hadn't known was available. And I promptly added it to my blog layout. 

So now, if you want to find a lesson on surrealism, or collage, or weaving, or learn about the Chihuly tower we made a couple of years ago, or find out about my approach to still life and Matisse, or see pictures of our papier-mache garden gnomes, or see my very first blog post (which was about papier-mache fish) almost 4 years ago, or my opinions on just about anything, or find photos of my silly car, or learn about our hunt for my grandfather's totem pole, or see pictures of snakes and turtles from the vantage point of my kayak, or basically anything that I might have written about in 609 posts over 4 years, use the search bar!  Yippee!!  By the way, the links I've included in this paragraph are just a sampling.  If you search, for example, for surrealism, or collage, or Matisse, you will find way more posts than just the one I linked here today.  But feel free to visit these links anyhow!

Happy Searching!  Let me know if there's something you are unable to find!

Getting the most out of blog reading

Lucy under construction, July 2004

(*The photo above has nothing to do with this post.  I just always think a post is nicer with a photo or two.)

 How do you go about reading blogs? This may seem like a silly question, but really, I've given it a bit of thought, so bear with me please.

I use the blogger dashboard to scroll through the zillions of blogs I follow to see what posts I want to read. If I want a little more of a snippet, or if I want to search for a particular topic, I sometimes also use the Google reader.  If you have a blog, you automatically have both the dashboard and Google reader.  I know some of you subscribe to other readers or feeds or whatever you want to call them, but I find the blogger feed and Google reader to be very simple and easy.

BUT some of you do all your blog reading in the reader, and never jump to the actual blog.  When I find a post I want to read, I like to open it up so that I am reading the blog directly. But, here's the clincher. Lately I do a lot of my blog reading on my iPad. When you open a post on an iPad, if you scroll to the bottom you will find that it offers the option to 'view web version'. I'm betting many of you never choose this option.  There's an important reason why I do choose that option, and that's why I am writing this post.

Lucy under construction, August 2004

There's a lot more on a blog than just the post content.  If you are doing all your blog reading on a reader, or on a tablet without clicking 'view web version', you are missing a lot of what's available for you on a blog.  The three things most meaningful to me (other than the post content, of course) are the labels, the blogroll (of course both are often renamed on blogs to as per the desire of the blogger; my blogroll is called simple FAVE BLOGS), and the followers. Why am I so interested in these?

• The labels interest me so that I can find an old post on a particular topic.  For example, looking for something for kindergarten?  Click on the kindergarten label and you'll find any post tagged with that label!  Simple!  You won't see the labels if you are viewing the posts only in a reader.

• The blogroll interests me because often you might include a blog I've never seen before on your blogroll, and I can jump there directly from your blogroll!  Again, you won't see the blogroll if you are only using the reader.

• And the followers!  You can learn a lot about a blog by finding out who is reading it.  And you can click on the follower and find out if they have a blog too, and if they do, and you've never seen it before, then, well... you get the idea! 

Again, this image nothing to do with the post...  I just didn't have a good way to end the post.  Anyhow, how do YOU read blogs?  Have I given you any food for thought? (Food!  Time to go cook some dinner!)

Premio Dardos Award!

The Premio Dardos Award

I've been granted an award!  Twice!  It is the Premio Dardos award, and I've been given it by both Gretchen at Gretchen's Art Blog and by Rina at  K-6 Art. Thank you ladies!  It is always such an honor to be recognized by your peers, so I really appreciate that you both included me.  I'm a big fan of both of your blogs as well! 

The Premio Dardos award  is a virtual award sent as a ‘gift’ from one blogger to another as “recognition for the creativity, effort and dedication” we each put  into our blog. The award originated in Spain around 2008-2009 and has been sent from blogger to blogger ever since.

 
If anyone can tell me what the name of this award means, please let me know!

To accept the award, you simply:

1. Link back to the person who nominated you (which I already did above)
2. Display the award icon (also above), and
3. Nominate others whose blogs you admire for these qualities.

For my nominations, I tried to choose some blogs that I have not seen nominated, since we know that these awards get passed around and around and frequently arrive back in the same mailboxes over and over again.  So if you are one of my long-standing blog friends and your name is not on my list below, don't take it personally; I'm trying to spread around the good cheer a bit! So here are my choices:

 Jodi at The Small Art Teacher Blog - You won't often find complicated projects using fancy materials here, but instead, you'll frequently find incredibly charming drawings by children, with terrific captions by Jodi.  We should all spend more time doing what Jodi does with her students - giving them a simple prompt and encouraging them to think and express themselves creatively through drawing.  How empowering!!  Thank you Jodi for reminding me what is really important in art class!  Scroll through her older posts, and I guarantee you will find yourself smiling uncontrollably.

Cassie at Cassie Stephens - I have a girl-crush on Cassie.  She is the art teacher we should all aspire to be.  She dresses like Miss Frizzle (from the Magic Schoolbus books), which means that her fashion coordinates with artists and geographical locations being studied, with the holidays, the weather, etc.  You name it, she has an outfit for it, often thrifted and sewn or embellished by her.  Her students must look forward to seeing her outfits each day.  But it doesn't stop there.  She is incredibly knowledgeable, and her art lessons are fabulous, and her student work shines.  I would want to be a student in her class.  I can't imagine she'd ever have a discipline problem, because she is so incredibly engaging.  Who wouldn't want to participate?  If you haven't happened upon her blog yet, go there.  NOW.

Mrs. Impey at Art Room 104  is a newer blogger.  She has been working really hard to meet the demands of new regulations associated with NY's adaptation of the Common Core and new evaluation and assessments etc., and has shared much of her hard work on the blog.  Her posts are very thorough, thoughtful, and informative, and I was glad to have the opportunity to meet her in person at our state conference in November. 

Christie at Fine Lines - I feel a certain kinship with Christie.  I like the thought process that goes into the planning of her lessons.  Everything is done for a reason; no frivolous lessons here!  I seem to find myself frequently pinning her art lessons on my Pinterest boards.

Mr. R at My Messy Art Room  My bloggy friend Mr. R. doesn't write long complicated posts, but he's got charm and humor that shine through in a few brief words. When he posts student artwork, it is always exemplary.  Plus he likes to cook!  

My Fabulous Followers & some advice for newer bloggers

When I first started blogging, every time I got a new follower I clicked on that person to see who she or he is.  Did she have a blog?  Where is he from?  If I liked what I saw, I would start following.  As a result, I follow a lot of blogs.  Some of them post regularly, and some, not at all, so it really isn't as crazy as it sounds.

But as my number of followers grew exponentially, it became challenging to check out each and every new one of you.  But still I wanted you, my followers, to know I value you, so that's when I placed you at the top of my blog.  I wouldn't want to keep posting if nobody was reading. 

So today, I decided to take some computer time to see who my followers are.  I randomly started clicking on the little faces, and what a pleasant surprise it was!  There are old friends there, from my 2+ years blogging, who I feel like I've known forever.  And there are followers I've never 'met', many with blogs, from everywhere! The first one I tried was, I think, from Turkey (not really sure since I couldn't read the language), and another from, I assume maybe Denmark or Sweden (again, I'm guessing based on language). Wow.  

Then I saw one from "the Woodstock School" - hmmm - I've recently visited both Woodstock NY (home of the music festival) and Woodstock Vermont, both a reasonable distance from my home for a day trip, but I hadn't heard of the Woodstock School.  No wonder -  this Woodstock School is in India!!!!  http://artatwoodstock.blogspot.com/.  Check out their phenomenal high school age student artwork - it will blow you away!

Today, as a result of looking at my followers, I also visited a blogger from Texas: http://artistsaremagic.blogspot.com/; 
 from Pennsylvania: http://artipelagoteacher.blogspot.com/;
 from Brooklyn (also where my dad was from): http://artexplorium.blogspot.com/;
from Germany, I think (another one in a foreign language): http://klexbude.blogspot.com/;  
There were more - from Missouri, New Zealand, Nebraska, and Australia for example.  Some of these folks have been around for a while, but more seemed to be relatively new bloggers.

So I have a little advice.  If you have a newish blog, and want people to read it, and to follow it, you have to get them to find you somehow.  Being quiet and waiting for won't make it work.  Your blog is not a field of dreams, where if you build it, people will simply come.  You need to recruit.  You need to make people want to visit you.  Here's what will work:

• Leave comments frequently on the blogs you read and like.  I don't know about all of you, but when I read a comment from somebody new, who I don't know, I usually click on their profile to see if they have a blog too.  So commenting on a blog is a good way to get people to visit your blog.
• Post a lot.  You want readers to find something new when they come and visit.  Don't feed those same stale brownies leftover from a month ago!  I want something freshly baked!! ;-)
• Invite people to visit.  There it is again; you have to leave comments on other blogs and say "come visit my new blog!!!!".  It works.  That's how I got going.  And again, when they visit, they don't want those stale brownies... am I repeating myself?
• Fix the layout of your blog so that your followers are visible, and your archives are visible too.  My first stop, after I've looked at the current post on a new blog I'm reading, is to dig through their archives and find their FIRST EVER post.  It tells me a lot about you.  Also prominently place your list of labels.  More about that in a few more bullets.
• For goodness sakes, don't just say "I teach at the Bla-Bla School in Bla-Bla county"  Uh, what state is that in?  Or what country?  Where the heck ARE you???  It made the Woodstock School infinitely more intriguing to know it was in INDIA!  
• If you are from a place where you speak in a language not commonly used world-over, please put a translator button on your blog.  If I can't figure out what it says, I probably won't come back, and I'll bet I'm not the only one.  I doubt I'm the only blog reader who doesn't read Turkish. 
• Use labels (also called tags) wisely, for two reasons:
• You want people to find you using a search engine like Google and shrewd tagging will make all the difference.
• You want people to be able to find posts that interest them when they get to your blog.  For example, I'm a freak for papier-mache, and for dragons, and for Matisse.  If either of those three things show up in your labels, they will be my first stops.  Or maybe I want to find something I know you previously posted, but I don't know when.  If  there are no labels, it can get pretty painful searching your archives, scrolling through month after month, to find that one lesson you wanted to remember.
•  Don't be afraid to ask for help.  If you leave a comment on a blog saying "help, I don't know how to do this", readers will hop over and visit and help you out.  Guaranteed.  Art teacher bloggers are nice people!

I think that's more than enough for today, no?

New blogs & bloggers = new ideas!

(These 2 photos have nothing to do with this post. I just like starting a new post with a cool photo, and I'm sure you've never seen these from me. They were both taken by me, from a helicopter, during a family vacation in Alaska, in, I think, July 2005. It was a wonderful trip.)

Now onto the purpose of this post: I've been reading some new/different art teacher blogs recently, and have made some additions to my blogroll. Some are newish bloggers and don't have many followers yet, and I think they deserve your attention. So here's a few for you to check out, in time to gather new ideas for the start of the school year:

From Australia: Art With Mr. Hall - Joe has only been blogging since June, but there's some awesome student work posted and I think you'll be impressed! Plus it's nice to add another male blogger for a change. Welcome, Joe.

Mrs. Impey at Art Room 104 is another new blogger, just started in July, that is really worth checking out. Like me, she is from northern NY state, and in her posts she has presented a lot (really a LOT!) of information about what she is doing to deal with new regs - SLO's, assessment rubrics, APPR/Common Core Pre and Post-Assessments... you get the idea. Problem is, there isn't anyone commenting, and she only has 2 followers so far (one of them is me) so I'm thinking perhaps you don't know she's there yet. Which is a shame, because the info she has posted is SO valuable and timely. Definitely worth your time to stop and read.

Anther new blogger, from Ohio, is Paintbrush Rocket. She's gotten a little head start on followers due to a recent post by another blogger. The artwork posted is lovely and I can't wait to see what she'll be posting once school is back in session. Definitely check her out!!

Another blog you may have missed, though she's been around since I think January: Rainbow Skies and Dragonflies (a woman after my own heart, it seems). There's good stuff there; stop and visit!

Not a new blog, but like me, maybe you'll get a kick out of Cassie Stephens' blog. She is an art teacher, but you're not as likely to find lesson plans here. Instead, you'll find out how to dress like an art teacher! Cassie shops vintage and must be the "Miss Frizzle" of her school. Her "what I wore this week" blog posts really make me smile, even though I could never get it together to dress like she does.

I guess that's enough to keep you busy for a while! I'll close with another Alaska helicopter photo:

Blogger won't let you leave comments? Here's a solution!

A fellow blogger emailed me the other day, to say he had been having trouble leaving comments on my blog. This is not a new problem, and not confined to this blogger or my blog. I believe the main problem is this: Blogger and Microsoft Internet Explorer are like oil and water; they do not mix.

If you use a Mac, you don't use Internet Explorer and therefore have not encountered this problem. But if you use a PC, and Internet Explorer is your search engine of choice, then it's likely you've had some frustration with Blogger now and then and maybe couldn't figure out how to fix it.

A simple solution: if you use a PC, download, install, and use Mozilla Firefox as your search engine. Voila! The problems will disappear! Another blogger noted in a comment that using Google Chrome will solve the problem as well!

Using Firefox has slight differences than Internet Explorer. Instead of "favorites" you'll have "bookmarks". Inserting and moving stuff around is just a wee bit different. But there are no major differences and in the end I prefer using Firefox and hopefully so will you. My tech person at school actually suggested the move to Firefox when I was having problems on my computer at school (totally unrelated to blogging) because it is more trouble-free.

Obviously, it would be nice if Blogger didn't have all its quirks, but it's really hard to complain too much about something we use every day for free. In that respect, Blogger rocks!

Pet Peeves - an Opinionated Post

Let me start with a disclaimer. The pet peeves that will be mentioned in this post are mine, only mine. It's absolutely OK if you feel totally differently than me about the things that get me irked. We come from wildly different backgrounds and live and teach in very different locations and settings. So I don't expect you to agree with everything on this post.

I'm sure your own "pet peeve" list will be different than mine, and that's good. It won't make me like your blog any less, or make me stop reading your blog if you don't agree with me, and your opposing opinions won't hurt my feelings in the slightest. Actually I rather enjoy some good hearty dissent, which is good because I admit to being rather opinionated. So here goes:

MY PET PEEVES:

1. Blogs with automatically playing music, with no easy-to-find "off" button - I may like the music (or not) but the fact is, I'm often blogging at the same time as my hubby and I are watching TV (or listening to an interesting show on public radio) and I see that annoyed look on his face when suddenly music is blaring from my laptop during a favorite show. So I often close the post rather than finish reading, and I may not leave a comment even if I really wanted to, unless I can get back to it during a commercial or when the TV is not on.
2. Art education blogs where the photos show only teacher samples of lessons, and we never get to see the work that the kids create using these lessons.
3. Art teachers who are afraid to use some types of materials because they are "too messy" - an art teacher should NEVER be afraid of a mess! (except maybe on school picture day).
   
4. "Cookie cutter" art projects, where everyone's work comes out exactly the same, and there is not really any opportunity for creative expression within the parameters of the assignment, lesson, or project.
5. Classroom teachers who bring their kids to art 2 minutes early - I don't know about you, but those 2 minutes are precious to me, when it comes to re-supplying tables, and getting out the class's work. It makes me look unprepared.
   
6. Classroom teachers who show up 2 minutes late to pick their kids up from art - again it makes setting up for the next class difficult, and it also means I have the kids lined up at the door trying to be quiet for longer than necessary.
7. Lefty scissors - I am a lefty (are you?) and struggled as a kid learning to cut. My mom made me practice on paper dolls, and I loved designing their clothes, so it was fun practice. But I always have cut right-handed. I do not think lefty scissors cut as efficiently, mostly because we do not hold a scissors or cut the same way with our left hand. A lefty child will be more successful learning to cut right-handed. Besides, so much of our world is right-handed, from the shift on my car, to the mouse on most computers, to crazy things like rulers, and soup ladles, and my hand mixer, and my iron. It doesn't pay off not to be able to use them effectively.
8. New educational "initiatives" without adequate follow-up - As a 35 year veteran teacher, I can't even begin to tell you how many of these I've seen, from local initiatives, to statewide and national ones. I'm not saying that some aren't worthwhile (they definitely are), but nothing is effective without adequate time, training, and follow through, and it always seems we get going gangbusters and then fall short.
   
9. Professional development programs that don't have a component that addresses the arts or creativity at all - I've been through many such programs or models or initiatives and I feel we are often left out or ignored.
10. Posters, signs, handouts, and other printed information with spelling and/or grammatical errors or typos - especially when it comes from a teacher or administrator and is going home to parents. When you are sending info home, take the time to spell-check and proofread, especially if you KNOW this is not your strength. **Notice I DIDN'T include blogs in my list of posters, signs, and handouts, because, while I try to proofread mine, I realize how spontaneous blogging can be and how easy it is for there to be errors, especially when dealing with the quirks of Blogger.

OK, a list of 10 is certainly enough for now, so I guess I've reached the "tail end" of this post. (Or maybe this is the end of my tale?)

Some bloggy stuff

(These are not my legs; they are my son's. It was wonderful having him with us on vacation.) But this post is NOT about vacation; it is about blogging.

Recently a newer blogger, Sheena, who blogs at Midnight Mona Lisa, asked me a question. She noted that my readership has been growing steadily and asked for advice for both herself and other new bloggers, to help them get their blogs out there. She thought that perhaps answering this question would be a good idea for a future post. So first I commented on HER blog to respond, and now am putting my response out here for all of you, as per her request.

Keep in mind that I've been blogging less than a year and 1/2 now, and I didn't have a clue what to do when I started either, and I'm not particularly tech savvy which makes it even more challenging. Most of you are WAY more proficient than I am with the technical end of this stuff. For me it's all a bunch of guesswork and occasional panic. But when I started I knew I wanted readers, so I applied some logic and here's how I proceeded and what I suggest:

• I posted comments on LOTS of blogs, and each time I added my blog address in the comment and boldly invited (begged?) people to come visit. I think this helped to get visitors for the first time
  
• I try to always post a good pic at the top of each post as a "hook" to get people to want to look at it and also try to have an interesting post title. Lots of us who have been blogging a while follow dozens and dozens of blogs and can't always look at every post. But I know that if something hooks me,either by the pic or the post title, that's the first one I look at.
• Post a LOT. Readers will get to know you better and will come back to see what you are up to. You need to give readers a reason to want to keep checking in.
  
• Don't be afraid to express opinions and be quirky. After all, we are art teachers, and are therefore often a little odd, right? I've noticed that some of my more opinionated posts have gotten the most visits. People seem to enjoy posts where the blogger really speaks her (or his) mind (with a sense of humor).
  
• Continue to make comments on blogs, so bloggers will get to know you and will check into your blog to see what you have to say.
  
• I don't think there's anything wrong with asking bloggers to add you to their blogrolls, though I didn't do this. I'll be adding Sheena.
• I think how you arrange your blog can help. I try to use labels that will make it easy to find me on an internet search, and I put my labels and archives in a prominent place on the blog so it should (hopefully) be easy for a reader to hunt for something in my older post. Also make sure your readers can leave comments - set it up so that you get an email telling you whenever there is a comment, as sometimes someone will leave a comment or question on a post from a year ago and you want to make sure you see it! (and be sure to respond to those questions/comments).
  
• And finally, don't be afraid to ask for help. I find bloggers really come through when you post a technical question. I'll admit that sometimes I don't understand their advice, but there have been times that it really helped.
  

Don't get discouraged - your blog may sit sits quietly for a while before it takes off, but suddenly it will grow and grow. Good luck!

(This is me doing one of my favorite things on an overcast day on the Maine shore - slogging through tide-pools!)

A great idea shot down...

Every year I attend the annual conference of NYSATA, the New York Art Teachers Association. One thing I look forward to is presenting a workshop. I've been doing this for about 8 years, so I know what to expect. I know that when you present a workshop, it's pretty hard to get to a workshop either directly before or after it, unless there is something you want to attend in the same room where you will be presenting.

I'm presenting a 2 hour hands-on workshop (making flexagons & kaleidocycles, what fun!), hopefully on Saturday morning, so I thought "what if I presented ANOTHER workshop directly after it?" Then it would be time for lunch and I wouldn't have time with nothing to attend. So my plan was... (drum-roll please) to present a workshop about BLOGGING! Here's what I had written:

"Enter the world of art teacher blogs to expand your educational horizons. It's easy to share ideas and expertise, and before you know it you'll have a network of new colleagues and will be communicating with art teacher globally. The presenter is an experienced art ed blogger."

So before I submitted the proposal, I called the hotel. It turns out that the LOBBY has free WiFi, but the conference rooms do NOT. The organization would have to pay a fee to set up its availability when planning the conference. This isn't going to happen. :-(
I obviously cannot teach a workshop on blogging without the internet. So I'm bummed...

I guess instead I'll be spending more time at the distributor's booths. Darn. Here's my cat pretending to be grumpy:

I'm styling!! Thanks ladies!

I have received the Stylish Blogger Award! I got it from 2 terrific ladies, both with blogs that I love to read.
First, from Christie at http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/,
And then from Jacquelien at http://kidsartists.blogspot.com/!

So the first rule is to link back to the person who gave it to you (which I just did) and thank them. THANKS!

And then you're supposed to list 7 things about yourself. I've gotten one of these awards actually a couple of times before, and posted my list of 7 things each time. But I'll still try again and probably tell you the same stuff, since I don't think I've changed much since the last time I wrote.

1. I like words and word games. I like to play Scrabble, or Upwards, or Boggle, or my newest favorite, bought for me by my son this holiday time, Bananagrams. Oh how he knows me!
2. I watch trashy reality TV while blogging - Survivor, Project Runway, The Amazing Race, and even The Bachelor and American Idol. I suppose I should be embarrassed.
3. I stay up too late at night (like right now). I've been doing it all my life.
4. I was born in the Bronx, but I'm a small-town girl at heart. I don't like traffic.
5. I am basically a klutz, always tripping over things and falling off things (that I stand on because I'm only 5'tall) , but I'm comfortable and confident in the water. Oh how I love lakes and oceans!
6. I like to keep track of what my son is up to, even though he's sort of grown up. He's a senior in college plus he's in a band called The Radium Girls that will have a CD of original music out soon. He admits he's a disorganized mess and unfortunately I think he may have gotten it from me.
7. I'm a compulsive doodler. I doodle on everything, everywhere.

Then you're supposed to pass the award on to 5 favorite blogs, and since I read so many these days I thought I'd pick newer blogs, newer finds to honor. Here we go:

1. http://herdabbles.blogspot.com/ is one of my newer blog discoveries, and she's great. I especially loved her posts about James Rizzi and her brilliant idea to buy calendars 1/2 price for the art prints.
2. http://art-paper-scissors.blogspot.com/ is another newer blog friend, bursting with enthusiasm and great ideas. I'm going to make her lizards with all my new construction paper!
3. http://ms-artteacher.blogspot.com/ is Becca Ruth, "That Little Art Teacher". I love her terrific lessons that she posts.
4. http://stuckinthemudpottery.blogspot.com/ -this is yet another newish blog from a new teacher. Janelle, the blogger, is in my "neck of the woods" and even substituted for me last year! How cool is that?
5. http://faythelevine.blogspot.com/ Faythe is my niece and probably doesn't even know I follow her blog she's so busy, so I'm not going to bother to tell her about the award. But I want to tell YOU about HER. She is the gal behind the fabulous movie and book Handmade Nation, which details the resurgence of DIY (do it yourself) by indie crafters. She's now busy filming a movie about sign painters, but also spends her time traveling around the world promoting Handmade Nation and more, and she posts the most amazing photos of her travels. Such talent. For those of you who get into these things, her dad (my bro) is the well-known astrologer Rick Levine, who has assured me that I'm still a Libra and there is no new 13th sign.

And while I'm at it: a few special shout-outs - first to Erica (Art Project girl) who is probably a new mom today, since I haven't seen her commenting on any blogs. I'm not going to bother her with awards, since I can't top the arrival of her Stella.

And to Patty (Deep Space Sparkle) who I'm sure doesn't need any awards, but who is the real reason I started blogging.

And to Ted (Art w/Mr. E) who gave me some much needed technical advice when I was having trouble in my very 1st blog posts.

And to my blogger buddy Barb (Barbara's Thought of the Day) who I actually got to spend a day with this winter!

And to Dan the Monster Man, whose amazing work has stolen my heart. Here's a link to his blog: http://papermacheblog.com/.

.......................

Meanwhile... My blogger dashboard says that I'm not currently following any blogs. HUH? This has happened a couple of times before, so I'm trying not to panic; I hope they all come back. Because truly, I think I follow about a ZILLION of you , and it would be challenging to have to recapture them all somehow. Hopefully they will miraculously return!

I just checked - THEY ARE BACK!!! YIPPEEEEEE!! Has this happened to anyone else out there?

Book Winners! Ta Da !!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!
(I like to have a photo to go with my posts, and I couldn't easily locate a congratulatory type photo, so instead here's Sparkle, Lucy's "baby", emerging from her dragon-egg.)

Well, hubby just drew the names from a bucket, and we have two fine winners! The winner of the Keith Haring - I wish I didn't have to sleep book is Mrs. Picasso, at http://mrspicassosartroom.blogspot.com/ and the winner of the Blue Day Book is Kathy at http://gallery2404.blogspot.com/. They both have terrific blogs to read, too!

Congratulations, ladies!!

Random Stuff

These photos have nothing to do with this post. They're just here for fun. As you can see, I actually have TWO dragons living in my art room, a mother (Lucy) and child (Sparkle).


Anyhow...
I've come across a few really cool things lately that I'd like to share, in case you haven't seen them yet.

The first is the one I'm most excited about. I found the link on another blog, and I've searched EVERYWHERE to try to find the blog again that posted this. If it was you, let me know; I'd love to give you credit for this awesome discovery.

It is a sketchbook project - when you sign up (for $25) you choose a theme. Then you are mailed a Moleskine sketchbook, to create in, based on the theme you've selected. You can draw on the pages, or totally transform transform the sketchgook, as long as it folds back up into the original sketchbook dimensions. I'm signing up and selecting my theme tonight. **I just signed up!! My theme is "science project gone wrong"! Sounds like fun, doesn't it?** The completed sketchbooks are all sent back, and the project culminates with a traveling show, which goes around the country in galleries and museums. I'm excited because the show is scheduled to be in Brooklyn during February vacation. I love to go to NYC during my February vacation week, so that means I'd be able to actually see the show.

So, bloggers, if you sign up to participate, let me know and I'll look for your sketchbook when I'm there in February. Anyhow, here's the website so you can see all the details: http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject

This next website is really adorable: http://blabberize.com/. Check it out for a dose of silliness. It was previously shared in a post I encountered on this blog: http://artmuse67.blogspot.com/

Here's Ethel the sock monkey - - another photo just for fun...

Someone at my school shared this following website with me, which uses letters to create animals, and could be a good lesson motivator: http://www.bemboszoo.com/Bembo.swf

And finally - YIKES - I've been chosen again for:
The honor has come to me from Kathy at http://cottagegardenquilter.blogspot.com/. I think she was especially noticing my post about the crocheted coral reef, which didn't raise too much interest from readers otherwise. As a former SCUBA diver, I thought the crocheted coral formations looked so much like the real thing that I was blown away by it. But anyhow, I'm digressing... Kathy also has an art teacher blog, which you can find at: http://gallery2404.blogspot.com/ , and I'm honored that she picked me out. Thanks, Kathy.

Now, since I've gotten this award before, I hope Kathy doesn't mind that I'm not going to give it out again to a bunch of bloggers. I don't want to drive you all crazy. But I've been listing blogs I like alot anyhow, and you can see them on my sidebar as well.

But I will comply with the award requirement to list 7 things about myself, and I'll try to list 7 things I didn't say last time.

1. I'm barely 5 ' tall and I don't wear high heels, so I'm usually the shortest adult in the room. So I'm used to climbing and standing on top of things in order to reach what I want. Which is not such a good thing because I'm a real klutz.


2. I'm overly opinionated and I guess sometimes don't know when to shut up. It's a problem, I know, but I don't see it changing any time soon.


3. I love playing Scrabble, mostly with my son, but since he's in college and will graduate this spring, the opportunities are few and far between. :-( I like words.


4. I love to proofread (how weird is that?) and I find typos, spelling, and grammatical errors everywhere. I'm really embarrassed when I find them on my own blog.


5. My first 8 years of teaching were as a high school art and photgraphy (silver photo) teacher, and my 9th year was as a K-12 art teacher (a challenging job). I've been teaching elementary art ever since then (since 1985) and I love it.


6. If you read my prior post, you know I'm chocoholic. I have other vices too. I stay up too late at night and don't get enough sleep. EVER.


7. I believe you can never have too many pairs of earrings. I feel naked if I forget to put on a pair of earrings in the morning. Other jewelry is good too.
   

Thanks again Kathy for recognizing my blog, and I hope you'll understand why I didn't hand it out to other bloggers again this time. Here's the link to my previous response to this honor, if you want to see who I selected to pass it to: http://plbrown.blogspot.com/search/label/blog%20award

New blogs on my blog roll

*This photo has nothing to do with this post. I just like having a photo to start, and so I thought I'd share this picture of fence posts carved by my grandfather. Unfortunately the fence no longer exists, though we had a lot of fun searching for it. I'll write more about the fence and my grandfather's carvings some other time.

Here's what I really wanted to post about:
I want to point out some blogs I've recently added to my list of "Art Blogs I Like". Check them out! You can link to them by finding their most recent post on the blog roll to the the right, or from the links I'm adding in this post.

First, a brand new blog called "We Heart Art" that I discovered earlier today, with just one post so far, a really nice art project, and now with one follower (me!). http://taramarie88-we-heart-art.blogspot.com/.

* I received a comment at the bottom of this post, about ANOTHER blog also called "We Heart Art" (great minds think alike?). I just checked it out, and there's some awesome stuff there - don't know why I haven't caught up with it before - but anyhow, here's the link: http://www.ourartlately.blogspot.com/

And then there's the really fun-to-read "Art Teachers Hate Glitter" at http://misswebersroom.blogspot.com/. This may be my favorite reading recently, as she has me laughing out loud with every new post. The blog has been around since January, longer than mine, but I just discovered it and I love her take-no-prisoners attitude. The blogger, who goes by the name "One Blonde Girl" says the things that many of us think but don't have the guts to put in writing. Kudos to her!

Here's another new blog, just started in September: http://kids-finelines.blogspot.com/. So far it seems like a really intelligent blog, with a strong approach to teaching art. Or maybe I like the fact that the blogger, in her photo, seems to look a lot like me with short white hair. Yeah.

Maybe you've already been reading this blog that I recently added: http://vividlayers.blogspot.com/. I think everyone discovered it before me, perhaps?

And I'd like to share this blog by my niece, who is a mover and shaker in the alternative DIY community. She was the force behind the film Handmade Nation and the companion book, that chronicled the growing community of do-it-yourself crafters. She's now working on another film, this one about sign painters. Here's the link to her blog, which is always rich with images of the amazing places she's been, most recently Bali: http://faythelevine.blogspot.com/.

And finally, a while back I made a promise to pass on the website for an Etsy shop, that belongs to an art teacher who taught a fabulous workshop I attended a couple of years ago. It's taken me a long time, longer than it should have, for me to post this for you, but anyhow, here it is: http://www.etsy.com/shop/OrigamiGarden .