A friend recently asked me, “How
much time do you spend on plans to get these students (600 students) engaged in
learning?” I thought my mind would snap right there from the pressure as we
were filming. The real answer went through my head then I scrambled to think of
an appropriate response. The real answer is every waking moment. I spend lots
of time planning, creating and prepping fabulous art projects then I have to
write the lesson plan with every standard and strategy known to the human race.
I am creative and smart. I am not organized or polished. This plan is trapped
on my desk under physical heaps of inspiration and ideas. If you saw my intro
to me video, you are horror movie frightened of responding to my blog posts and
feeling pretty good about yourself right now. U R Welcome! So how does it feel to be creative, smart,
organized, polished and good looking? Yes, you!
My name is Valerie York. The best
miracle of my life is my son, Jack. One of my dreams was to be Jack’s art
teacher and he is now one of my Prek art students. I teach Art Prek-2nd
grade at Appomattox Primary School in Appomattox, VA. I grew up in Chester, VA
and went to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) graduating with a BFA in
Fashion Design. I went to NYC and worked for Tommy Hilfiger in design. I have moved
over 30 times in my life. The last time was from across the street 10 years ago
when I bought our house. We have our hounds, Skylar, 15 and Ted, 7. My sister
lives in San Diego with her family. My folks live 2 hours away and come to
every one of Jack’s soccer games. I am a romantic and idealist so of course I am
single. I watch Downton Abbey, read contemporary romance novels, and watch all
things Gerard Butler. If I am lucky I take a breath, sleep, eat healthy, and
exercise.
I find most of my ideas on
Pinterest and resources through my EDIM graduate courses at Wilkes University.
My classmates and instructors have awesome ideas and resources to share. I post
student work on Artsonia, the largest online student art museum. It is our
online portfolio. I have created resources through Wilkes like Weeblys, Google
Docs, Glogs, and digital stories I use in class for primarily units on shapes
and colors and the art class rules and using art materials. I have been
encouraged, inspired, and grateful for the help and support I have been given
by my Wilkes classmates and instructors when I have reached out to them. I can
usually figure out how to gear a resource in an artistic way for young
children. Wilkes people, the educationally elite, recognize and appreciate the
skills and expertise it takes to learn with young children in creative media
and environments. I am around children 24-7 so it is nice to have adults I can
connect with professionally and creatively.
The Goods
http://vvyork.weebly.com/ This one is on primary colors and has a link
to my Glog. I used this with Prek.
Here’s a Shapes and Lines Mobile
Lesson https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1JJ6FVGXnSy2Y2hTyGuZQeweQ4PGhrbbzf3Dot0jZDrE/edit#slide=id.g1ce2ed53c_0153
My challenges to incorporate new
ideas and resources are time, access to technology and collaboration and my
struggle with organization. I see my students weekly for either 30 or 45
minutes. Many children get pulled from my classes every week for remediation. I
am on lots of committees including Project Based Learning where I feel pressure
to create spectacles to be seen with hours of time and money I don’t have. I am
working on breaking things down to performance tasks but even that is difficult
because young children have so much to learn and explore before assessments. I
want learning to be fun and for the students to have the joy I have when I
create art. Art is a stress reliever, therapy, play, and innovation. Most of my time is used prepping for Art
Classes and photographing and uploading student work for Artsonia. I want to centralize and organize my resources
in a phenomenal online presentation. I want to create my own online portfolio
to show the value of my work, my creations, my ideas, and my accomplishments. I
want to collaborative with creative, smart, organized, polished, good looking,
and athletic people. See that, I just raised the bar, expectations and have
left out the objective- Make Art Fun! No pressure, you’ve got this. I am giving
you the wink, the smile, and the gotcha finger shake. I expect answers in the
comment section from the Wilkes educationally elite. Question #2 How do you
sanely organize your online resources and put on the polish? Question #3 Are
you appreciated for your efforts and asked to do more? Now
you can answer Question #1 So how does it feel to be creative, smart,
organized, polished and good looking? Yes, you! ( Athletic, too? My Goodness!) You are a rock star. Thank you
for helping the less fortunate.
