raheem tech

There's nothing quite like finding a pile of clipped hair in the art room just as your email inbox pings with a not-very-happy message from a parent of a child with brand-spankin' new bangs. In a miserably short and asymmetrically style ("But I hear it's all the rage on the runways right now...?"). Who knew we were hosting Beauty School Dropouts up in the art room?! NOT ME! Look, I learned long ago that with kids, you gotta teach EVERYTHING. Like, EVERY-shouldn't-you-know-that-already-THING. And how to use scissors properly, safely and correctly in the art room is one of them. So, here's my scissor chat with my kindergarten as they prepared to cut out the clouds to add to their rainbow collages (lesson details to come!). Here are the three things we cover when it comes to Scissor Safety: 1. SCISSORS ARE ONLY FOR PAPER. Not people, hair, clothing, applesauce, pizza, eyelashes (yes, that's happened)...just for, REPEAT AFTER ME, paper! The end.  2. When s...

In light of yesterday's post , I thought I'd share a follow-up blog post. One reason I find most folks argue against guided drawing is the following: It is too restrictive. It leads kids to believe that there is only one way to draw. It puts too much pressure on the kids. AND I AGREE...if guided drawing is a tool used incorrectly in the art room, it can be all of those things. So I thought I'd share some tips and tricks that I use in my art room that eliminates the pressure, the restrictiveness and the notion that there is only one way to create. I tell the kids that we are all unique and our artwork should reflect that.  We have a little pep talk before drawing: each of us is unique and that's a wonderful thing. We are all going to hear the same directions...and each of our artist's brains are going to hear and translate those directions differently...and our artwork will reflect that.  I tell the kids that if I had wanted copies of artwork, I would have just MADE ...

  I often times feel like there are these notions in art education that you have to pick a side. TAB vs. not TAB. Project-Based vs. Non-Project Based. Guided Drawing vs. Guided-Drawing-is-the-Devil. Here's why I HATE when I'm forced to feel like I have to pick a side.  1. It pits art teachers against one another.   Look, everyone's end goal as an art teacher (at least I hope) is for our children to realize the power of their imagination and creativity. It can boost their self-confidence, give them mental strength and allow them to see all of their creative potential! How we, as teachers, get our students to that point, varies. We are all in different situations, with different schedules and different standards and curriculum. What might work swimmingly for me and my diverse students, may not work well for another in their setting. Does that make them wrong? Does that mean they are doing their students a disservice? Something tells me that if an art teacher is giving it th...

  This past week was our book fair and to celebrate, we had dress up days! The theme of the book fair was Enchanted Forrest and our first day was to dress in red and white for a mushroom theme. Y'all know I totally had a dress for that, right? I cannot believe I stitched it up way back in 2012! It was the one and only keyhole dress I've made. That Michael Miller gnome fabric is still my fave. Details here.  Just a little clip of me turning my kindergarten into color mixing wizards. No bid deal. Do y'all remember that PD I lead at the start of the school year for the faculty and staff at my school? We created a piece that stated our "why we are here".  Well, my FAVORITE FUNDRAISER Artome Art Shows  was kind enough to donate frames for each one of these WHY's. They now hang outside of each teacher's classroom and look simply stunning.    Aside from dress up days, we had a full week of art making AND open house. Which meant we had to make stuff and keep the a...

Well, better late than never ever, amirite? My students are just now getting rolling on their sketchbooks tho that's no fault of their own. I've been doing sketchbooks with my kids for years now ... and had a pretty fool proof way that worked for me and the kids. But there was always one thing kind of bothering me...that I never had a way for them to add informational pages to their sketchbooks. You know, like an Elements of Art reference sheet or, what I'm really excited about, some Art History Rocks sheets . So this year, instead of using manilla folders with pages stapled inside, my kids are using pronged folders that we can add pages to! Because my students are working on their weaving and sewing projects right now, they are all finishing their work at different speeds. While allowing time for the kids to finish AND providing my early finishers with a quality drawing lesson, I created this sheet. It worked GREAT! My students drew lightly with pencil first on their fold...

As y'all might recall from my last post, my kindergarten is in the middle of what I'm calling Rainbow Bootcamp . We've been learning the order of the colors in the rainbow in many ways...always kicking off our lesson with my very favorite They Might be Giants song Roy G. Biv .  Well, next week is Spirit Week for our Scholastic Book Fair at our school. What that means is each day this week, we are dressing up in accordance with the theme for the book fair. The theme is Enchanted Forest...which has made for some very interesting dress up days. One of them being "Dress like a Gnome or a Fairy Day". Now. At first I was like "wait, whut?! What in the world am I supposed to dress like on that day?!"  Oh. Duh. Making this costume was so easy that I thought I'd share the process. The supplies I picked up at the craft store where: Martha Stewart plates at Michaels! Those were used to create my prism wand. I sandwiched a dowel rod between two plates with some ...

This week, I took my lil kindergarten friends on a trip to Rainbow Bootcamp! We watched the Roy G. Biv video by They Might be Giants (on YouTube and every bit of awesome!) and then we dived in to painting our very own rainbows. Here's a clip of the lesson I shared with my students: I have 30 minute art classes with my little friends. This was how I introduced painting rainbows with tempera cakes on that very first day. My kindergarten friends have been painting up a storm with watercolor, tempera paint and now tempera cakes! I like to use Alphacolor's Biggie Cakes for tempera. They have all the colors EXCEPT purple...which I show the kids how to make by painting a second blue stripe and painting red on top. By the time our second 30 minute art class rolls around, we are ready to add our sky. We use chalk for this portion and learn how to blend the chalk in. So much fun! Next up, we'll create clouds and a sun to finish off these masterpieces.  We wouldn't be learning abo...

Teaching kindergarten is currently my most favorite thing. Maybe it's this particular group, maybe it's because I've finally caught up to being just as crazy as they are...I dunno but I do like it. I've been sharing a lot of videos of myself teaching kindergarten (as well as those older kiddos) on my Instagram  but I'm limited to only sharing one minute clips. I thought it would be fun to share the longer version here. I LOVE watching other teachers teach...and I have a feeling you might feel the same. I always learn SO MUCH! I also learn SO MUCH from recording and watching myself (1. I talk too much and 2. I talk too much). I totally recommend you give it a shot. Several of my classes were learning about Vincent this week and I thought I'd record my intro...so, here you go!  If you enjoy this video, you can find more like it on my YouTube channel . I'll keep you posted on how our lesson progresses!