Practical Teaching Tip: Organizing Materials into Plastic Storage Boxes

Hello, it has been a long time since I have posted here! The end of the school year is always tough for me between trying to get all of the AP Portfolios submitted, navigating the end of the year to-do's, trying to accommodate mixed classes with the interruption of standardized testing, the list goes on, BUT the good news is I'm back!

So here is a new Practical Teaching Tip that I discovered this semester, plastic storage boxes. Typically I put out the art materials at the students' tables in a white container which is at each table and then change them out for each project. The issue with this is that it took time for me to sort through the materials and put them out each time we started a new project. The *NEW* solution I came up with, is to buy the cheapy plastic pencil boxes and put specific materials in them. For example, I have a box of just markers for each table and another one for just colored pencils. When the kids need to use them, I just put them out. Normally I have a drawer of colored pencils or markers and pulled some out and bundled them for that week, but that takes time and I typically didn't have enough of each color for each table. This makes it easier because the boxes already have all of the colors that they need in them and then I just switch out the boxes for the projects. I think I paid about 88 cents for each box, but for me it has been worth it. I also believe that in the summer as school approaches office supply stores such as Office Depot and Staples have great teacher discounts. Also, I don't let my students sharpen their colored pencils in the electric pencil sharpener (due to the pencil sharpener eating the pencils up and the wax from the colored pencils getting into the pencil sharpener), I normally have a few hand held pencil sharpeners on the white board for students to use, but next year I am going to have a hand held pencil sharpeners in their box with their colored pencils.

Next year I am going to create boxes for each table with clay tools (saw this at another school in our county where the teacher used plastic utensil organizers to store the clay tools) and a system for paint. I bought some plastic soufflé cups from Dick Blick to store glaze in, but never used them. So next year I am going to use these to put some acrylic paint of each color in the cup and then put them in a larger storage box that I can easily place at each table when needed.

Pros to Organizing Materials into Plastic Storage Boxes:
1. The boxes are clear so it is easy for me to see as I check the tables for clean up if all of the materials are there or if there is junk in there (like pencil shavings or paper- high schoolers are notorious for being lazzzyyyy in this aspect).
2. It is easy for me to get the materials out because they are already in the boxes I just need to pop them on the table or have a student do it.
3. I am a BIG fan of having the materials at their table and easily accessible. I typically have anywhere from 25-36 students in a class, and the less they have to move around the less disruptions there are.

Cons:
1. The plastic containers cost money, but I believe they are a good one or two time investment.
2. When you buy el cheapo sometimes they break, which I am noticing I will have to replace a few of them for next year- bummer.
3. Sometimes the boxes become a dumping ground for trash, which I have to kindly remind them to clean up.
4. Sometimes the students trade or borrow colors from another table, and forget to give it back to the original table, so then the colors are mixed up. I haven't come up with a good solution to this one yet, I may just have to let this OCD part go :)

What are some practical ways that you organize materials for your classroom? I would love to hear your ideas!

Practical Teaching Tip: Another way to label ceramic glazes

Back in January I created a post called "Practical Teaching Tip: Classroom Organization"  in this post I talked about a way that I have been making sample tiles of the glaze and then gluing them to the top of the jar of glaze. One of the issues I faced with this was that the tiles would fall off (and then I am constantly re-gluing them on the top of the jar).

New Solution: This past week I got a few new underglazes and didn't have time to make sample tiles. What I ended up doing was printing off color pictures of the underglaze from the website and then taping them to the top of the jar. WOW how did I not think of that before? The only issue is that the samples listed on the website for underglaze show the tile with a clear coat on top, so unless the students have seen a piece come out of the kiln without the clear coat they wouldn't know that you have to put a clear coat to make the glaze food safe. However, since I have other sample tiles without the clear coat and the students know about underglaze and its properties, this isn't an issue in my class.

In conclusion, this is definitely an easier way to show the students what the glaze should turn out like, rather than making a sample tile that will probably need to be re-glued a couple times. There is a photo below of my *NEW and UPDATED* Practical Teaching Tip on labeling glazes. Enjoy :)

You can see above the underglazes that have my sample tile (not glossy) and the image printed from the website which shows the underglaze with a clear coat

Practical Teaching Tip: Rolling out Ceramic Slabs

This year I applied for a grant to have a visiting artist come into my class and work with my students to create a community service project. The artist specializes in ceramic tile and murals. The location my students selected to install the mural is a child care center in our community that focuses on students with special needs. After many sketches and visits to the school, we devised a plan. Each student is going to create a ceramic tile to boarder a window. In the community room of their building there are 3 large windows. One is shaped like a triangle, one is the shape of a semi-circle and the other is a square. Each window is going to have a different theme (outer space, our world, and locally our state Florida).

Practical Tip: I don't have a slab roller. Usually my students just roll out their slabs with dowel rods and a rolling pin. The artist brought a little contraption that I would like to share. Her husband used some scrap materials from his wood shop, but of course you could use other wood materials. Basically, there is a bottom piece with slats stapled to the sides. Then she used canvas to cover the wood so that the clay would not stick. She also used foam shelf liner.

The board with slats stapled to the sides

The set up: board, canvas, foam shelf liner, rolling pin and wooden stencils

Students Rolling out their Slabs

Step 1: Get your piece of clay, wedge it and then begin to flatten it out with your hand.
Step 2: Next, put the clay on the canvas inbetween the slate, and roll the slab out with a rolling pin (you should flip the clay to stretch it and change the direction of the particles so that it does not warp).
Step 3: Finally, gently roll the foam shelf liner on the back (you do this so that it creates a texture on the back of the tile. This helps to aid in drying, helps to prevent warping of the tile, and gives it grooves so that when you attach it to a wall it has grip.
Step 4: Use a stencil to cut out your tile. We used  a piece of wood the size of the tile, so that they would be consistent throughout all of their tiles.

Special Note: at first I had my students put the foam shelf liner under the clay and then roll their clay out. Since our clay was fresh it was really wet and was getting stuck to the foam shelf liner, so that it why in Step 3 I say to make the texture after.

Practical Teaching Tip: How to make Slip and other Slip Tidbits

Ceramics teachers have many methods to slipping and scoring 2 pieces of clay together. I have heard of teachers just using vinegar as a binder or teachers mixing their own slip. My preference is to mix my own slip. The important aspect of making slip is to make sure that you are using your clay body to create the slip.

Materials to make slip:

• Bone Dry pieces of clay (make sure it is completely dry and smashed up)
• Water container
• Water
• Vinegar
• Food Processor or Blender
• Squeeze bottler
• Spoon

Step 1: Gather pieces of bone dry clay and smash it into smaller pieces. I used to keep a 5 gallon paint bucket in the front of the classroom for dried out pieces of clay, but then the students started putting pieces of clay that were not bone dry (just dry enough that they didn't want to use it). SO I now keep that bucket hidden from the students and do my own collecting.

Bone Dry Clay before it has been smashed

Step 2: Once you have a pieces of bone dry clay smashed up, put them in some type of container. Fill the container up with water so that it covers the clay completely. Let sit over night

Step 3: Dump out or scoop off the top layer of excess water.

This is how the clay should look, completely soaked and settled to the bottom. The excess water will be on top.

Step 4: Begin scooping the clay into the food processor or blender. I used to use a blender, but it died and the food process works much better at chopping up the clay to a nice consistency. I mix 75% water and 25% watered down clay mixture. At this point I also add a couple cap fulls of vinegar. I don't have a specific amount of vinegar that I use, a little goes a long way. The vinegar acts as a bonding agent/glue for the slip. You do not have to add the vinegar, but I find that it holds the slip together better.

Step 5: Run the blender or food processor until the slip is the consistency of runny yogurt. You may need to add more water along the way.

Storage of the Slip: The slip with vinegar is only good for a couple weeks. After that it can start to grow mold and smell (more than it does already). I don't make a lot at a time for this reason. Take out containers are great to store the slip (i.e. clear wonton soup containers).

Additional Tip: I used to pour out the slip for each table in my classroom to share and cover the containers at the end of the night with saran wrap. The issue I faced with this is the slip drying out after a few days. My new trick is one that I found on Pinterest where you put the slip into squeeze bottle containers- this works great!!!! (I had some left over from tie dying) The squeeze bottles are less messy and all the students have to do is squeeze the slip out to the area that they need to attach. Just make sure if you use squeeze bottles that the opening is cut enough so that the slip can come out easy and make sure that the slip is a little more watered down than yogurt. One other (funny) issue is that if there are air bubble built up in the clay or if there is a chunk of clay that tries to come out, when the student squeezes the bottle the slip kind of flies out and my kids say that it "poops" out- high schoolers for ya!

Hope these tips were helpful!

How do you make your slip? 

Do you even use slip or just vinegar? I love to learn about new ideas in your room!

Practical Teaching Tip: Keeping Expensive or Dangerous Materials Organized

Happy Friday! I found this idea on Pinterest, so I am by no means taking credit for this idea. I've just used it and it has worked, so I thought I would share. When I first began teaching, the thought of letting teenagers use X-acto knives kinda freaked me out, so I wanted to allow them to use X-acto knives, but also be safe and organized with them.

This is what I did:

1. I found some foam that was in my classroom and taped 2 blocks together. 
2. Then I used the handle of the knife to push holes into the blocks. 
3. Next I covered the entire block with masking tape and packing tape.
4. Finally I cut slits in the tape where my holes in the foam were and labeled each hole with a number.
5. I correlated this number to the number on the blade and a sign out sheet for the students.

Now, with a quick glace it is easy for me to distribute the knives and check if there are any missing. I also do this with my thin Sharpie markers as well because for some reason they started to grow legs and walk. :)