The Lost Sock : Artlab Wall of Wisdom

It's taken YEARS to get my wall of wisdom.

When I teach, I learn.

I learn that kids are visual creatures. Stuff just sticks better if you show it with a picture. So, all the wise things I have learned over the 15 plus years of teaching I have put into a poster form.

There's still a lot of ideas floating around in my brain, but it takes time to get them all out. I know not all art teachers have time to make their own posters. So i decided a few years back that very time I make a poster, I scan it and put it on TPT (Teacher Pay Teacher) to share the opportunity for other teachers to use it in their classrooms as well. Please visit my store. Here you will download the image of the poster only.

You take that download and print it from your printer, send it to an online photo center and get it shipped to your house, or take you download to a photo store to have printed in house.

My secret? I sign up for CVS and Walgreen photo coupons and wait for a 50% off everything sale. Then I print me some poster. That is how I get all mine down. People always ask me how they print out, are they pix led or high quality? I scan them at home on the highest digital capability on my scanner. so, when you print them big, it looks great too.

Visit Store Here...

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Lost-Sock-Art-Teacher

I have included a lot of pictures below of how they turn out in real life.

Tired of saying the same thing OVER AND OVER to your students!

JUST A DOT, NOT A LOT!!

I was.

That's why I started making posters in the first place, just for me and my classroom.

But things are so much more peaceful now when I have

posters that say it.

A poster speaks a thousand words, you know.

Go see what I have I store for you and your classroom walls..

Oh, if only walls could speak..

WAIT, they can!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Lost-Sock-Art-Teacher

My Newest Poster

Get it here...

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Creativity-Takes-Courage-Poster-3413925

Visit my TeacherPayTeacher store here.

Got lots of colorful designs to give your classroom "class" and brighten up your walls.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Lost-Sock-Art-Teacher

Check it out Yall'.

All of these poster ideas come from 14 years of teaching! I repeat the same phrases, rules or rhymes to my students and it just didn't seem to stick. Then I just started making illustrations of those things and there I was... with a big WALL OF WISDOM! I just keep adding and adding. Now I'm addicted to making POSTERS! I love lettering and illustrating. I love color and details. I love ART!

If you have an idea for a design, something that you have learned or teach your kids, let me know.

It may be my next poster!

Please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store where you can get your own posters for your classroom!
Yay, you might just find a free one there...
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Lost-Sock-Art-Teacher

As an art teacher, there are things that I am continually telling my students. Things like...

"You are responsible for your own mess", or "Art requires patience above talent!", "There's no excuse for messiness!", "Don't use a waste a new piece of paper when you can use an eraser!".

Instead of repeating myself, I decided years ago to make a "Wall of Wisdom".

It is full of ideas to make your art better or my philosophy of a good art attitude.

This was my old wall of poster...

New wall at new school...

I've went Art Elementary in 2014 ;)

after 10 years of MIddle School

Elementary boys = PAPER AIRPLANES!!!

WHat's the deal? And they are not even CREATIVE!

Maybe if they drew windows with passengers peeking through... or something, but NO!

SO, I have decided to BAN THEM FROM MY ROOM!

"Let your Imagination fly...

NOT YOUR PAPER!" T. Morgan

Kill the dead space!

Fill it up with life, learn to turn!

Dear art student,

I am not impressed by your speed. It's slow and steady that won.

Love,

Mrs. Morgan

Improved version

Purchase this Poster here...

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Slow-and-Steady-Wins-the-A-2710822

I have some kids that get super excited when they are the first ones done with their work.

Being quick is not always a good thing.

Remember the tortoise and the hare?

Sometimes that means they did not take the time to be neat or to complete the work.

So, slow and STEADY wins the race.

Some kids work hard at first, then get tired, then quit doing their best.

If you start neat, finished neat.

Be consistent with your work.

I let kids know on the first day of school,

that I do not grade them based on talent. Nobody can pick their talents when they are born.

I am sure if they had a choice, all students would choose to be artistically inclined.

So, I grade on their "ARTtitude". Do they try, do the fix mistakes, do they improve, do they listen to advice?

Or do they give up, give half effort, or turn work in knowing it could be better?

It takes blood, sweat, and tears. It's about distance vs. speed.

My pet peeve is when kids waste paper!

They put one measly mark down and then throw it away! UGHHHHH!

I want to just throw erasers at those wasters!

So, I made this sarcastic ad for the

NEWEST INVENTION...

THE ERASER!

You don't have to be talented to be neat.

It just takes special care and patience.

All you have to do is a back and forth motion with your hand while holding a crayon...

it's not that hard.

So, I do grade hard on kids who are sloppy. It is just them telling me they don't care.

It's a bad "art"titiude.

In most cases, it is best to color dark. It shows up better, it pops out, and it reveals the true color.

At least if you don't color the inside dark, then emphasize it by outlining dark on the outside.

Plus, coloring darker is harder and more time consuming, which in the end shows more care.

I tell the kids that if the paper is big, draw big.

Fill the space up. The picture is more important than the emptiness behind it.

Drawing bigger allows the artist to include more detail as well.

If you have the room, use it!

Otherwise, you are wasting.

Patience is a virtue...

You have to practice patience while you create art.

When my students work hard by showing patience,

I like to post their work online.

The great educational philosopher Harry Wong said something like this when I saw him speak. I just took what he said and make a poster for it.

I let the kids talk while they work.

As long as they do this responsibly,

But, if they talk more than they work, inhibit others from working because of their talking, or they fail because of their mouth, then they have a problem that needs to be fixed.

Art, the most important meal of the day.

Shhhhhhh!.... Draw secret, soft & light lines if you're not sure in the beginning stages. If you draw hard, yiu make it harder on yourself to fix.

I try to teach kids to avoid putting the too much pressure on their pencils in the beginning stages of drawing.

So many times, they mess up, try to erase, but can't get rid of their original drawing lines.

Then I make them use the back of the paper. If they already did, then I make them erase the lightest side.

I do this to teach them to draw light till they KNOW they have it right.

Kids beat, bang, and drop colored pencils.

This tears them apart!

Then they try to sharpen them and the lead falls out.

It is a horrible result of an abused supply.

I have this to encourage them to treat the pencils like glass.

I keep the markers in a vertical storage tip down.

This allows the flow of the ink to travel to the tip.

It increases the life of the markers.

Some kids do not close the glue. This open hole lets air in and that air hardens the remaining glue under the cap. Then kids think that jabbing a larger hole in a clogged up glue bottle will make it work better.

It will temporarily make it work better for them right then, but in the long run, this massive hole they poked just makes the tip get clogged even more from the extra air that gets in it.

This is a never ending cycle!

Since this annoys me, I made a poster to try to get my point across.

I also get tired of kids not cleaning brushes out. Then the paint dries on the brush, hardens the tip and it is never able to be used again. Or, they do clean it, but leave it with the bristles down. Then it dries bent and is permanently bent.

My are teacher from High School, Mrs. Liddell, had a poster like this one. I liked it, so I made one for my classroom. "Your mamma doesn't live here, so clean up your own mess".