Bulletin Boards and 75% off Valentine's day candy

If you look closely, my nails match.

                It has been a crazy month for me!  Ever since I started this endeavor a month ago, I have done nothing but write.  I'm not complaining, I've just been busy.  In addition to being faithful to my blog, I have written a letter of recommendation, an article for an artistic publication, an article for my school news letter, and a grant.  The grant was the big one.  Since my brain is a little fried, I decided to do a fun post full of color.  I want to show a few of the different bulletin boards I have completed during my nine and a half years of teaching art.  Feel free to borrow steal any of the ideas.  I hope they give you inspiration!  I know all of us could use a little inspiration right now. 

                To start this off on the right tone, I must make a crazy confession.  Bulletin boards are my jam!!!  As you can see, I've already posted about one I made here.  Right now, the educational environment is pushing to let students have more control.  We let students pick what they create (yup), we let students come up with their own rubrics (yup, do that too), and we have students assess their own progress (no matter how much they whine).  I let them put their own grades in the grade book until someone complained.  (Just kidding, but hmmmmm.....)  So I hold bulletin boards dear to my heart.  Whenever some well meaning teacher asks me, "Why don't you let the kids do this?"  I  smile that teachery fake smile that we all have and make up some polite answer.  Really, what I want to do is turn my head and hiss at them, a big angry cat hiss, a you-stepped-on-my-tail hiss.  I get control over one thing!  Mind your own business!  Geesh.

 

                Here is a board I created when I first started teaching.  It's super simple.  In fact, I kind of forgot about it until I was going through some old pictures last night.  It's just student art work with a matching border.  I know I'm not alone in studying Jim Dine in January/February.  I've seen the pictures from the internet.  We all do it!  Jim Dine hearts are always fun for Valentine's day.  Not as much fun as 75% off discount Valentine's day candy the day after the holiday, but close!

Van Gogh is the guy to go to if you need an artist quote.  With all those letters he wrote to his brother, you can pretty much get what you need.  Whether they are authentic or not, well, that's another story! 



                This was another Valentine's board I did.  My bulletin boards are a lot cooler with a few more years of teaching under my belt.  My inspiration for this board can be found here.  I decided to do a Van Gogh themed box of chocolates because I found a ton of those postcard books featuring Vincent in my classroom.  The box and all of the chocolates were 3D.  It was a huge pain.  Literally, I put it together with a glue gun.  I ended up having a student work on it after I finished about three of them.  That will teach them to rush through their projects. 

 

The secondary colors got the cool accessories. 

                I think everyone has seen the little complementary color poster that's been floating around on Pinterest.  I loved it, and I thought it would make a great bulletin board.  This is my interpretation of that poster.  When I was taking it down, a bunch of 7th grade girls scavenged the little Pac-Man color guys out of the trash.  As they were excitedly chatting about how cute they were and how they were going to hang them up in their bedroom, I was fuming.  WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT!!!  I still regret not pulling my teacher card and forcing them to give them back.  They would look cuter in the art room.

 

In reality, each kid wrote a message about what a dork Mrs. Dupree is. 

                This is a board I created for Music in our schools month, YAM, and any other "let's celebrate the arts" celebration.  I got the idea for the bubble letters in the FB group for Art teachers.  Students wrote in the letters little messages about what they loved most about music or art.  I wasn't totally in love with the finished product.  It came out dull, very white.  If I had to do it over, I would have splattered some paint drips on top of the sheet music.  The one thing I remember about this board is only reason I included Music in it was because I wanted to line the background with sheet music.  Sorry music class. 

 

Not my idea, yet still my FAVORITE!!!

                Here is a bulletin board I pretty much copied directly off the internet.  The original was found here.  Now, as you all know from my last blog post, I love art history.  When I saw this board, I absolutely had to create it.  I changed two of the five art history snowmen to my favorites--Klimt and Van Gogh.  I also added paintings to my board to make it easier to identify the artists.  I ended up making this board interactive and having students match the number of the snowman to the name of the artist.  They put their answers in an envelope next to the board.  Right before Winter break, I drew a winner and gave them a box of color pencils.  Also, side note, I learned my lesson from the complementary board and did not throw these guys out.  They hang in my classroom to this day. 

More ART HISTORY!!!

 

                This next board is something I created all on my own.  In fairness, I have to give credit to Katie Morris, the person who created the snowman board.  After it was time to change my snowmen out, I wanted to come up with another art history board.  I settled on this theme: artist who painted the person they loved.  I must have a thing for Valentine's day.  This is my third bulletin board with that holiday theme.

Ugly, stupid, colorful time vampire. 

                Now, I've been showing you a lot of boards that were inspired by stuff I found on the internet.  Most of the time, these have turned out pretty good.  Well, now I'm going to show you one of my failures.  I saw this board here, and I thought it was awesome.  Theirs was, but mine turned out like crap.  I didn't put the paint chips down in the correct order.  Or it looks better in pictures than it does in real life.  Or something.  The result was a sloppy looking rainbow board.  If I was going to do this over, I would plan out the placement of my paint chips with more care.  Or I just wouldn't do it again.  This took a stupid amount of time (hours!) for a crappy result. 

That middle guy got a 100 on his test.  Good for you, buddy!

 

                Although I didn't find this inspiration on the internet, I didn't come up with this idea on my own.  This premise came from a poster that hangs in the Spanish teacher's classroom in my school.  Of course it doesn't say art, it says Spanish, but I loved it and thought it would be perfect for art advocacy.  It came out great!  Also, I looked for an image of this poster, but couldn't find one on Pinterest or Google images.  But I also didn't look very hard. 

                If you've read to the end of this post, congratulations!  You've made it to my hidden message.  Yes, I wanted to show you bulletin boards, but this post had a deeper significance.  This week, a fellow blogger, Marcia Beckett, posted this article on a FB art teacher's blogging group.  I was 100% totally in love with the post.  I recommend reading it for yourself, but if you're tired from reading my post, here's the gist of it: If you take ideas from someone, give credit!  As the article says, "Spread credit around like confetti."  Which is a statement I totally love, and will find ways to sneak it into everyday conversation.            

                Now I'm sure there are people out there who will complain about this post or say I'm a crappy, Pinterest loving, BAD teacher.  You know what I say to that?  Whatever!  We've all needed some inspiration from time to time.  I've created dozens of bulletin boards in my career, and several of them have been ideas taken directly out of my head.  But that doesn't make me special, and if I searched "my" ideas on the internet, I'm sure a lot of them would pop up.  I picked these examples because I wanted to make a point.  We should all steal like an artist (awesome book!) and throw credit around like confetti (awesome idea!).

                Nothing you do will ever be original.  EVER.  And that's ok.  No one art teacher can constantly be creative and full of new ideas.  And even if you are a fountain of inspiration, you're probably not the first person to come up with that thought.  We are here to help each other out and to share.  And let's be honest, if you really want to keep that magical bulletin board idea to yourself, why are you even posting on the Internet?  So take ideas and mix them up.  Add your own spin.  Maybe, like my snowman bulletin board idea that I stole, it will turn into an entirely new idea, like my "artists in love" bulletin board.  The bottom line is, while you are working someone's ideas, please remember to give credit.  It's the best thing you can give. 

                Well, except for cheap chocolates on February 15th.  That's probably the best thing you can give.