Bouquets of Sharpened Colored Pencils

To quote one of my favorite movies, You've Got Mail, Tom Hanks mentions bouquets of sharpened pencils and New York in the Fall.  The beginning of a new school year does make me think of bouquets of sharpened, well, colored pencils and brand new glue and beautiful paint brushes that haven't seen a drip of paint anxiously waiting for just a little dip.

My goals for this year have me re-thinking my "big picture."  They include a much bigger focus on the essential questions of our curricula and an emphasis on the experience that it involved with each and every project we do.  The need for thinking strategies and authentic writing has me excited about what we may uncover as artists this year.  Yep, we're going deep!  Head first.

Here is my plan.

Each quarter I plan on doing an assessment that is not only a check for understanding, but an experience that the artist can use to learn more about his/her artwork, themselves as artists, as well as how they can use what they have learned somewhere else in their lives, and hopefully explore!

Stay tuned for examples of my sketchbooks for this year as well as my lesson plans.  I am going to try to use the layout from the template and post each lesson for not only sharing, but for record keeping and reflection.  We will see...

Heres to an amazing year!!