Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Bulletin boards, not bulletin boreds.

I'm about to revamp my strangely-sized (something like 47x47" square?) bulletin boards and I thought this would be an appropriate place to document them before I bid them adieu. I'd like to change them once a month, but that might be an unrealistic goal. They gave me so much stress back in August, along with all the other elements of setting up the room. What to put up before you know exactly what you're teaching and you have no student work to show? Not only did I (and still do) feel the pressure to have an aesthetically pleasing and visually interesting room (the art room should be the most attractive room in the school, no?), but I am the first room one encounters when they enter the school. I'm right across from the office. And there is a big interior window so that you can look into my room from the hall. The visibility is nice, but at the same time, you can't hide!


Here's a portion of my collection of art verbs (above). I actually created this bulletin board before anyone told me that I was supposed to have a "word wall". Happy coincidence! This one is probably staying up for the year because of that requirement, but I might move its location. It's in the corner of the room, above my drying racks and I don't think the kids are aware of its existence. Also, I wish the words were bigger. I was thinking about making color-coded paper rings for each grade and when I intro a new unit, we can make predictions about what art verbs we might encounter and try out and "circle" those words.



My students were all kinds of intrigued by the famous National Geographic photo of the Afghan girl (Sharbat Gula, photographed by Steve McCurry in 1984). I collected their comments on sticky notes that I kept on the back of the photo. I'll dedicate a post to that alone, stay tuned.


The painting display didn't capture nearly as much attention as the photography one, which made me a little sad. Maybe I'll do a bulletin board that is titled "Photo or painting?" and put photorealistic paintings next to photos, or photos that mimic paintings (like Yasumasa Morimura's photos that look like Frida Kahlo's paintings, for example).


Teachers and students alike love the "Feelin' It" Levi's ad (on bottom). I would have pulled it from a magazine at some point in the '90s. And I got a few questions about the Eloise illustration... the kids know the live-action movie, but are surprised to find out from me that it was a book before it was ever a movie, as I pull it down from my bookshelf.

Also, I have one additional bulletin board, not pictured here. Unfortunately, I didn't photograph it before taking down the "Art is... drawing" concept. We were notified a few weeks into school that additional curriculum visuals need to be posted in every room ASAP, so that board now has required curricular posters on it. I put it up quickly to get it up... it's not my best work. Therefore, it's uh, mysteriously missing from this post. When I improve upon it, I'll share. Over and out!

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