Five Minute Museum: Blue Boy

Thomas Gainsborough, self portrait

My visual art lessons are taught in 5 minute chunks at the beginning of the lesson period. Those lessons that focus on an artist or a particular masterwork are labeled "Five Minute Museum." (This is a term used in the TAB program to remind teachers that the bulk of the art period is reserved for student led art creation.) Five Minute Museums give students exposure to the elements of art as used by great artists but the lessons take only a few minutes. The art remains available for student reference after the lesson as part of the classroom art library.

The curriculum sets this lesson as one of the masterworks studied in third grade but the plan is useable at any grade level.

LINK TO THE LESSON PLAN

All of the paintings in the lesson plan are in the public domain and can be downloaded in various sizes from Wikimedia Commons.

The Blue Boy, 1770

Pinkie, 1794 (Thomas Lawrence)

Running Records Database

Running records are an important part of an effective literacy program. They give written documentation of the types of reading errors an individual child makes and provide a quick but accurate estimate of a child's reading level. I use running records during Independent Reading Conferences (and occasionally during Guided Reading). I periodically share the results with both parents and students.

Since preparing running records can initially be time consuming, I have prepared running records for popular picture books from guided reading levels and I am sharing them with you.

Please feel free to download and use these running records for use with your students or children. They can be printed out and filled in by hand or downloaded and typed into directly using a pdf viewer such as Foxit Reader.

I'll be adding more to the database as time and space permit.

School Uniforms

In the past, I'd never been too keen on school uniforms but when I founded the charter school where my children currently attend, I agreed with the other founding members and parents that it was the right choice. My children did their fair share of complaining, of course, but now, a year later, I must admit that I LOVE school uniforms.

To be fair, our school's uniform policy is pretty relaxed compared to other local charter schools. There are specified colors to enforce uniformity and dress pants and collared shirts are required but there are no nit picky restrictions on style details. Some schools around here have weird rules about pleats, pockets, belts, specific collar styles on girl's blouses, only certain styles of jumpers allowed, no mock turtlenecks, no jackets, ties required, dark blazers with logos every Monday, just black socks, dress shoes only, jewelry restrictions for boys, haircuts for boys must leave the ears showing, limited sleeve styles, which days you can wear which styles and colors, etc.

Basically at Quail Run, you just have to show up in the right color of clothes, they have to be clean and mended and you can't wearing anything that draws attention to yourself (like wearing a green mowhawk or red tennis shoes). No jeans and T-shirts, though. It is also nice that we can choose any uniform vendor we want. This means that I can embroider or screen print them myself.

Our mornings are so smooth because there is no fighting over what to wear to school. My second grader just grabs a shirt from the closet and a pair of pants from the drawer. He pretty much chooses navy blue pants, a navy polo shirt and his blue zipper hoodie every day. (We did start the year with a slew of white polos and khaki pants but my second grader does his own laundry and one trip through the dryer with an orange crayon put all of those clothing items out of commission.)

I now officially take back anything negative I may have previously said about school uniforms possibly limiting children's creativity and freedom of expression. As a mom, I absolutely love them and they are worth the trade off. I'm glad I changed my mind. My kids can express themselves on Saturdays.

What blackboard?

It's required in Utah to conduct vision screenings for all second graders but it's also required to obtain parental permission first. Well, the State approved permission form came home last night loaded with information on how important good vision is to a child's success in school. The message was punctuated by a bolded message right in the middle of the page that read:

"If a student cannot see the blackboard then they cannot learn."

Apart from any qualms I have with teachers who rely on lecturing at the board as their primary mode of instruction, I was struck by the fact that the form fails to recognize that no schools in our district even use blackboards. White boards replaced chalk boards at our local schools twenty-five years ago.

Granted, my logo on this blog pays homage to the old chalk boards that many of us grew up with and most of us will understand the intent of the message but perhaps it's time to acknowledge that in at least in this small respect, education has been modernized.