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: Record a Video of your Studio Demonstrations

I went to the FAEA conference in October (Florida Art Education Association) and there was an AWESOME ceramics teacher who video taped her demonstrations- genius!

Her reasoning was:

• #1 who has time to get out materials for demos when we art teachers usually have 3+ different preps
• #2 what happens when a student is absent...redo
• ...and #3 when you have 35+ kids in the class huddled around a small demo table how many of them actually see the demo?

So I tried it out....it went pretty well. The teacher at the conference used a tripod and an iphone, I just had one of my students record me on a digital camera. The other teacher was able to just record her hands so that when she replayed the video to the class the students would only focus on her hands and there was no audio (she would talk during the video and point out important aspects of the demo).

• Pros to video taping your demos: it can be replayed when students are absent, the video is only for what you expect the students to get done that day or within the next couple days so they do not forget the process, and all of the students are able to view the video without distractions. 
• Cons/Things I would do differently: I initially had one of my students record the video on my iphone and then I was going to upload it to Vimeo from there, problem...it took forever to upload (I am not that patient), so what I ended up doing on the second video is using a digital camera and uploading it to my computer. Videos also take up a lot of space and I don't have a ton of memory on my phone to begin with. The video camera worked fine, but what would be really great is a GoPro (the video camera that you strap to your head and you are able to record from your perspective), but I don't have one- future investment :) I think the GoPro would work better because in my video its a little hard to see what I am working on and you see some of my students in the background. 
• Uploading and showing the video: Here are a few things I learned: 1. I initially tried to transfer the iPhone video to Vimeo, but it took too long, so then I shot the video on a digital camera, plugged that into my computer and uploaded it to Vimeo that way. It worked, but then when I tried to upload a new video a few days later Vimeo said that I did not have enough space for that week, and that I could sign up for a small fee and have more space....no thanks. SO next time I am going to upload to YouTube.- let's see how this works. The big thing is that I want it online so that my students can view it from home if they are absent. Our district uses a program called Edline to post our grades. I tried to upload directly to that, but again there wasn't enough space, so in conclusion its better to upload it to another site such as YouTube so that it is storing out in the clouds.

Here is my video, I'm no pro by any means, just thought I would share.

I would love to hear your feedback! If you have recorded your demonstrations before share your experiences below and share what you learned :)

Until next time, keep it practical art teachers!