Friday, June 22, 2012

The End of School

Art 3 & 4 Last Lunch Birthday Party
Senior Going Away Party Celebration
It's been awhile since I posted last! The end of the school year is always busy, but this year was especially busy! After the District Art School, there were papers to send home, Seniors to get wrapped up (they finish a couple of weeks earlier than the rest of the 'underclassmen').  So, the usual end of school activities is very hectic...but a week before school was out, I made the decision to retire from teaching!  So 'The End of School' really means the end of school for me.  I had a lot of packing and cleaning out to do...especially after 25 years in the same room!  I feel like I was moving out of my home away from home, but that I was finally graduating to the next part of my career.  I taught Art for 29 years and it was time for me to retire.  I have been thinking about it all year, but I was afraid to make that change!  But because of a lot of changes going on around me at school, I just decided that it was time for me to move on too.  I am excited about the future.  I plan to be the full time artist that I have been trying to be while teaching, but that just doesn't work very well.  So, although this is a new path for me, it is an exciting one.  I am already busy at work creating new art and learning about the business side of art.

In this photo are the students that I had in Art 3 and 4 this year.  This was a great group of students to work with! All girls except for one boy! Javon enjoyed being the only boy in a class room full of girls, but he did get kidded a lot and had to listen to some really 'interesting' conversations! But he was a very good sport about it all! All but 2 of the students in this group graduated this year and I will miss seeing the other two in class next year. I loved this class because they were all eager to come in and create every day! They loved being in the Art room!  We also enjoyed the birthday parties. Periodically we would celebrate the birthdays and bring food items for lunch to the art room and celebrate the birthdays! This photo was from our last party of the year. I think they had a great time!

As for this blog, I will post more project ideas from this year and some from in the past. In the future, I may be teaching some other art classes privately, so I plan to use this blog for that. This blog is not going to go away. I may eventually change directions, but for now, I hope to continue to get and to give advice and ideas to/from other art teachers.

Mrs. Macre♥Art