Enchanted Forrest Prom

This year our school prom had an Enchanted Forrest theme, so the first thing I did was find last year's beach themed paintings to repurpose. I did a sketch on copy paper to trace onto plastic and then projected it onto the the old paintings for students to trace with chalk. I love the fact that a $5 roll of vynal wall paper could be used to decorate three proms. (If you were to flip it over, you'd see large black and white movie stars from our Hollywood prom.)

Next we did the underpainting. I have some students who can be trusted to paint large areas even with their visual impairments. And then came layers of bark, grass, and details like pink in the skies.

I freshened up the underside of the paper maché mushrooms from our Alice in Wonderland prom. The packing tape was hot glued along the stem and outter rim of the umbrella to look more fungal.

Our high school social studies teacher painted glasses and vases for stems, and hot glued class beads to bowls for mushroom tops.

And then I put battery operated candles inside the stems and viola! You have a mushroom lantern.

Woodland flower center pieces were made with details such as small animals, butterflies, pebble paths, and moss. When they were surrounded by tea lights, they felt even more enchanting.

Then came the big event, which for the first time in years, was off campus. The venue was beautiful and the senior lead out made me cry. Some of my students who are graduating high school have been my students since first grade. It is going to be extra hard to say goodbye to them.

 

Ceramic Carving Assignment

Making tactile images in my art class are a must. All of my students are visually impaired and half are totally blind. We draw with Wiki-stix, glue, string, puffy paint or by embossing foil. but clay tablets are another solution. This assignment worked really well for my students who normally don't like working with clay because they have tactile issues with anything gooey, slimy, or even sandy in texture. I used clay that was already starting to dry out a little before I cut off slices. Students ran the clay through the slab roller and then it felt more like a thick, heavy piece of fabric since it had the canvas texture pressed into it from the rolling process.

While the clay was still malable, students pressed the ends of pencils or paint brushes to make repeated patterns for boarders. Than they lightly drew an image into the center before carving away the background with ceramic tools. Some students used stencils to get the design that they wanted.

Once the clay was fired, Students were able to feel where to paint (acrylic) each color. Students who were totally blind usually opted to paint the entire thing one color before dry brushing across (perpendicularly) the surface of lines so that only the foreground would get the second color.

Many of these were made as trivets, to set hot pots on. Others had holes made before firing to string twine or ribbon through and make it into a wall hanging. They were the perfect gift for Mother's Day and 

 

Clay Balloon Bowl Assignment

Slab bowls are easy to make for beginning art students. For this assignment we used balloons (taped to cups for stability) as a structure. We rolled out slabs of clay on the slab roller, but a rolling pin works as well. Then we cut the clay in to circular or oval shapes and draped it over the balloons. Some students created texture by stamping or rolling wooden tools over the surface before forming it into a bowl.

 

Students decided if they wanted the form to be crinkled and organic, like draped fabric, or more smooth with the excess trimmed away. 

Then they added a foot using a score and slip technique. They had the choice of creating a coil to make a circular foot, or rolling three small balls to make legs, some of which were formed into pyramids or cylinders after attaching to the bottom of the bowl. The balloon doesn't create very much resistance so it was a challenge, but only one student ended up popping their balloon while scoring the clay with a ceramic needle.  Once the clay is leather hard, they can be set right-side up, and the balloon can be popped or just allowed to shrivel up, while the clay dries completely. We did a bisque firing in the kiln at cone 06, and then glazed the inside. Some students glazed the inside and the outside, but it's important to keep the glaze off the feet so the bowl doesn't glue itself to the kiln shelf. It is a simple project that yields great results when it comes to the basics of working with clay.

Tactile Screen Prints for the Visually Impaired

For years a partnership with Georgia College and State University has blessed the lives of my students at the Academy for the Blind. College students have learned service learning and community outreach skills, and my students have benefited from art workshops. This year, Matt Forrest, professor and friend, came to make some tactile prints with my students.

First they screen printed flowers onto good printmaking paper (BFK). While the ink was still wet, students sprinkled the image with a a dusting of plastic. The paper was shaken for an even coverage and excess flocking was funneled back into the jar for the next student's print.

A heat gun was used to melt the plastic, which made a raised surface wherever there was ink.

Making the image tactile, helped visually impaired students color in the lines. They used watercolor crayons and colored pencils, which allowed them to use several colors on a single flower before blending the colors with a paintbrush of water. Everyone was so excited about the outcome. 

Even students with no vision and little hand control could color the entire background with several colors and make washes from applying water. Many of these art pieces went home just in time for Mother's Day. 

 

State Teacher Advisory Council

We have about 120,000 teachers in 185 districts in the state of Georgia. About 40 teachers are invited to serve on the Teacher Advisory Council, meeting several times a year.  

We look at education legislature and discuss it with state congress members. We give feedback about teacher recruitment and retention, school climate surveys, websites. We learn about new Math and English standards, about challenges of rural and inner city schools, about what's happening in special education, transportation, and school nutrition.

It's been a treat to work in small groups to brainstorm ideas to improve teaching. It's important to know what is happening in other schools and learn from what is working and what isn't working from other teachers. I am inspired by their stories and amazed at the good that is happening in our state.

Superintendent Richard Woods May 2019

Georgia Superintendent Richard Woods March 2025

Truly, my favorite part of being a finalist for Georgia Teacher of the year has been getting to serve on the Teacher Advisory Council these last six years. I ended my term last month along with three people who served the normal four year term.  I almost started to cry when the supervisor used the phrase  "powerful voice for education" as she handed me a merit coin.

Flying Puppets

Paper, glue, wire, and a stick are all it takes to make puppets that move their wings up and down! My students loved making these magical moving animals in about an hour.  I found that a bamboo skewer and jewelry works best for an almost invisible results, but we also tried it with supplies that we had readily available such as straws and pipe cleaners. 

For a bird you need to cut out the shape of a bird body, a tale and wings from card stock. The til can slide into the back of the bird using a slit and the wings can either be added with a slit at an angle on the back of the bird, or folded and glued to the back of the bird. A small strip needs to be glued in a ring that fits snuggly around the straw (or dowel, or skewer). I found it works best if you glue two wires or piper cleaners to the strip before winding it up and gluing the end to the paper cylinder.

Then the other ends of the wire or pipe cleaners can be glued to the wings of the bird or butterfly with hot glue. This can also be done with a strip of cardstock that matches the wings and is glued on either end, so that wire can slide into it on the wing. That can be done with Elmer's so that each kid can make their own.

Most students chose to make butterflies. This only required 1/4 a piece of card stock, folded in half and then cut to make two butterfly wings (be sure to not cut on the fold side.) Some students added bodies to the center with wire antennae. At Jim Henson's funeral, there was a cathedral full of loved ones waving butterfly puppets in the air. He is the most famous puppeteer ever. We watched PBS's Jim Henson documentary that was part of the "In Their Own Words" series. This project was a perfect way to bridge our performing arts related projects and our paper toy projects for my Careers in Art Unit.

 

Folded Paper Slinky Snakes

As a kid I used to fold metallic gum wrappers into chains for fun, and it seemed like a perfect hour long activity to include in our toy making mini-unit for my Art class. These paper slinkies can be scrunched up to let boing along the table or straight up and down. Children may glue paper shake heads to wiggle around. Four of them can be used as arms and legs for a puppet or paper monster. They can be used to make bracelets, or decorations. Small versions make perfect mechanism in pop up cards. Kids can come with with more ideas, so it's good to leave the purpose of these paper slinkies opened ended. 

To make, cut long strips of paper. I cut 18" X 12" paper lengthwise into 12-one inch strips. I limited the colors to primary colors and each student chose two of those colors. The ends of two contrasting strips were glued together at a right angle. One color should face up and one to the left. If the blue is facing up and the yellow on the side start with the one on the bottom. If the yellow is on the bottom that you'd fold it over to the left like you're turning the pages of a book and crease lightly before turning the top strip down to cover that color. The pattern is: side-down-side-up-side-down-side, etc. When you get to the end of the strip glue another one of the same color to extend the length of each. You can make it as long or short as you'd like. 

All of my totally-blind students figured it out enough to work independently, which meant I could read my class a chapter or two from a fun book. One student said, "I finally found something I'm good at!"

 

Making Pinwheels

 I consider making pinwheels as a requirement for childhood, along with making paper snowflakes and cootie catchers/ fortune tellers. It only takes a couple minutes and makes such a spring decoration or springboard for discussions about wind and weather.

To make, you just start with a square piece of paper: five or six inches seems to be a good size. Origami paper works really well. You fold a corner to it's opposite corner to make a triangle and then open it to do the same with the remaining two corners, making a folded X. Cut along each fold towards the center, stopping half way. Than take every other point and glue it to the center. Once the glue dries, use a thumbtack or hat pin and push it through the center of the paper into the eraser of a pencil, or into the end of a plastic straw. It's that easy!

Paper Spinners

While studying Art related careers such as fashion, costume design, and set design, I decided that toy design would be something my students could actually use or give to a sibling or younger student to use for play. Toy making is much like learning to cook, you start with learning recipes that you can use as a springboard for creativity. You alter things until after time you come up with something totally unique. 

This spinning toy, I saw online and felt it was a perfect craft for my students who bring figits to class every day to deal with their stimming behavior. To make this, you will need: 16 strips of paper that were 8.5 inches by 1/4 inches. 4- 1 inch paper circles with a hole in the middle made with a hole punch, a bamboo skewer, a bead, and 1.5 inch piece of straw.  You'll also need liquid glue and maybe hot glue for the finishing touches. 

Start by putting glue on one of your donut shaped circles of paper and attaching the strips of 4 strips to make a plus sign, and then four more to make a multiplication sign. Then you can fill in every other space, to ensure that all 16 strips of paper are evenly distributed. Glue another "donut" to the top of the ends of the strips so that they are covered and more secure. Then put glue on a 3rd "donut" and turn the ends of each strip like the page of a book to glue it one by one to the top of  the "donut" near the hole. Top with the last paper donut shape.

Slide the skewer through the bottom and top holes like you are stringing a bead. Then glue a bead or two to the top with hot glue. Be sure it attaches to the paper "donut" and doesn't spin around.

The piece of plastic straw should have four slits made with a pair of scissors at the top and then spread out each prong like petals of a flower opening or a banana being pealed. Slide the straw, spread out but at the top, and glue each prong with hot glue to the bottom "donut" on the sphere. Careful! use the small glue gun with low heat so as not to melt the straw or burn yourself!

Once the glue is dry and cool you can spin the skewer between your fingers or hands. You can also spin the skewer between a finger and thumb of one hand while holing the straw with your other hand and twist the strips in both directions. Students found ways to play with these that I hadn't imagined, and loved hearing their laughter as they figured out new ideas.