This was a summer of change. I got back from a long trip and immediately found out my parents had sold their home of 30 years. I traveled down to Virginia to help them pack up, while meanwhile, I continued to search for a new apartment in New York. Long story short... I was not able to find one, after three months of searching, (literally) hundreds of e-mails, and phone calls and about a dozen in-person interviews. I managed to get a sublet for September, but at the end of the month, I was forced to make a tough decision - to resign from my job (it's harder to teach when you're homeless) and leave New York.
I was especially sad to leave my job, as I really wanted to finish at least another year at Saint Ann School. I know most of the students pretty well by this point, and was looking forward to all the new projects we were going to do together! Along with my job, my island of normalcy was Creative Classrooms, the association that helped place me at Saint Ann's. Creative Classrooms has monthly meetings with other art teachers, a great time to share ideas and concerns. They also host a three-day workshop right before school begins, and the project I'll be sharing in this post was a revamped version of a lesson plan that I worked on with art teacher Melanie Ende.
Back at school, I was thrown off balance again when I found out that, due to a staff change, I was needed to sub for Kindergarten the first full week of school! Honestly, it was fun and getting to know the students really helped when we went back to our regular art schedule. I have Kindergarten twice a week, as opposed to once a week with the other grades, so we get a lot done in class. I knew we could handle a serious collage project, just a few weeks into the school year.
We started by talking about our neighborhoods. Are they big? Little? Are there lots of houses or apartment buildings? Shops? Playgrounds? Next, we brainstormed about people we see in our neighborhoods. We came up with tons of great ideas, including friends and family, dog walkers, ice cream ladies, and crossing guards. We drew at least three of these people, colored them in, cut them out, and put them in plastic baggies with our names on them, to save for the next step.
Next, we started our collage. Every student got a 12"x18" piece of construction paper, along with a skinny strip of black paper to place at the bottom to make a road. Not all students decided to use their road the same way, but I showed them how those who did could connect their neighborhoods together by placing them side by side.
Students started with the largest shapes - buildings. They cut and tore paper to create those buildings, and glued them down. (We all learned how to use Elmer's white liquid glue - draw lines, no puddles!) Once our buildings were in place, students started to add details - windows, cars, airplanes, and eventually, our neighbors!
As sad as I am to leave Saint Ann School, my plan is to continue teaching art, either by finding a job in my home state of Virginia and pursuing my license while I teach, or by going to grad school for Art Ed next fall. While I'm glad to be working toward a goal, I will miss my New York neighborhoods, and even more so, the people in them!
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