Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art and Writing

Idea Generator: Using your art and writing skills in the classroom.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I only taught in the public school system for one year, but there was one thing I quickly learned: even the best teachers get worn out and often struggle for new ideas to bring excitement to the classroom. For this post, I've pulled together a few ideas I've come up with for just such a reason, some of which I've used in the classroom both as a teacher and during the many times I taught as a substitute teacher.

As always, leave comments if you have some ideas or thoughts you'd like to share with other readers.

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Publish your students' work: There are many ways, with the self-publishing bonanza on the internet, that you can publish the work (both written and drawn) of your students at no cost to you until the final book is purchased.

Visit Cafepress.com to see a number of products, including three different kinds of paperback books, calendars, blank journals and posters that you could put your students' work on. Lulu.com is another site that provides a great selection of book options, from comic book formats to full-color options. Give your high-school students the chance to be published before graduating! The nice thing about these online services is that it allows parents, grandparents and the school to purchase the books online. Simply linking to the page where the book can be purchased from the school web site makes the whole transaction no-fuss.

What a great opportunity to create a book at the end of the year, letting the students select their favorite writing and art. They could buy their own copy, or, at the very least, you could purchase a copy at cost and put it in your classroom library. Calendars would be a great way to highlight the student art and be a great gift for the students to give to a parent for Christmas or other occasion (rather than another craft item). Let the students create the cover for blank journals that they will use to write in the rest of the year. You could also make a large poster, using a photo of the class, listing this year's rules or goals underneath. This poster would be special to just that class, and could be used as a prize at the end of the year. Hold your own art contests and shows, with winning art entries going onto a shirt or poster.

Class web site: Using free or low-cost web hosting services, you can make a web site for your class where art and other work that is appropriate can be published online. (Note of caution: as always, keep internet safety in mind and do not reveal too much about your students that could place them in danger.)

This is a great way for parents to see what is going on in school, and for students to get involved and learn what publishing online is all about. Also, it makes a great incentive to do good work, as the whole world can view it! Click here for an article that talks about publishing online. Click here for a good checklist and set of guidelines one school uses to see that the work is suitable for online publishing; here's another page that has similar content. There are even web sites that specialize in publishing student work online, a great motivator for those students who love to write! Click here for a list of these kind of sites.

If you have a class newspaper (see below), the current edition could be available online.

Classroom newspaper: Consider reading or assigning the book The Landry News by Andrew Clements, and then starting a class newspaper. Students could take turns each month being the journalists working on the paper.

This project would be a great way to teach various writing skills, highlight spectacular art, and would help students learn how to observe, ask questions, find out facts and take an interest in what is going on around them. It's also a good way to help the summarize what they are currently learning in their own words. With desktop publishing software, digital cameras, laser printers and copy machines...a class newspaper is a very do-able idea! There's even a book on how to go about doing it.

Here are some sites with ideas to help in the creation of your own newspaper:

And don't forget, I have a nice (and ever-growing) selection of printable art project ideas on this site.