My first field trip

Yesterday I took my first group of students to the Renaissance Art Center in Dickson, TN for a field trip. We viewed the high school student exhibit and participated in an Op Art workshop held by one of the instructors. This was actually my first time every coming to the center and it was SO much more enjoyable than I was anticipating. Being in a small rural area, you don't really know what you're gonna get or expect when you come to one of these small art centers especially being used to living in Nashville area and seeing all these grand museums. I was incredibly pleased with this place, the people were fabulous to work with, the price was very reasonable and I had BLAST with my group of kids.
I took a total amount of 19 students and they were angels. Everywhere I looked, people were complimenting me on how wonderful their behavior was, how intelligent they were and how pleasing it was to see them get excited about art. It made my day! Afterwards, we drove down the road and ate at Cracker Barrel. Here's just a few snapshots of the trip:



Freaking loved the christmas tree!




James, Christian and RJ looking very enlightened.


Lauren, Farrah and I were converse triplets :)


Sweet Courtney and myself!


At our workshop...


James and Christian kickin' some checkers tail.


Lauren and Farrah's yum-o dessert.

The journey towards fitness

So I've started a vigorous workout routine to get myself in shape. I honestly think I will be able to stick with this because Matt is doing the Insanity workout program (God bless him!). Since he will be busy with a program, I will be able to keep myself accountable on doing my own. He was sweet enough to lend me his P90X workout DVDs which I've started already.

My plan is to do a P90X Workout on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I'm being a cheater and not doing ALL the work outs. Hate to say it but I'm not a fan of the weight lifting. It's never really been my thing and plus I'm not looking to get ripped. I'm just looking to slim down and tone up. So that being said the workouts I will be doing are Kenpo X (which is a WHOLE lot of fun!), Cardio X, Ab Ripper X. I will also be doing Jillian Michaels Burn Fat Boost Metabolism since it's really similar to the cardio circuits of P90X, and also Yoga Meltdown. Those days will be focused obviously on fat shedding and cardio. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I'm going to be doing pilates. I LOVE pilates. It's a good thing to do if you feel you're incredibly sore to jump around but it's very challenging and helps tone you up :)

I'm on day 3 of my work out plan!! Can't wait to see results!

Origami in Art 2

I've decided to begin an origami unit with my Art 2 kids. I dearly wish someone told me this one thing before I started....

Teaching origami is HARD WORK. And it is quite exhausting. However, the kids really enjoy it and I love teaching things that they have enjoyed :) So far we have learned how to make:

Water Balloon Boxes (they LOVED these)
Flapping Birds
Cranes (though I accidentally taught them how to do it the wrong way-- they turned out upside down)
Samurai Hats
Jumping Frogs
Penguins
Exploding Envelopes
Blinking eyes

I've noticed that any model that "moves" is what interests them the most. And I'm still coming up with a fun independent project for them to do... we shall see what I can come up with. :)

In the end.. this is what teaching is all about :)

Tim for a very...very....long update.

As you can probably gather to yourself, life has kept me very busy.. A lot has been happening! Perry County decided to give me a new class to teach this semester- Art 2. I was incredibly excited to start I did not even fathom just how much WORK it would be to teach a whole new class. The good thing about Art 1 is that I've already taught it to 6 different classes last year, so I already know each project I will do, what worksheet I will assign, what the quizzes look like, etc. I had to completely start from scratch with Art 2. Sad to say, I didn't put as much thought into it as I would have liked. Bad teacher. The Lord has blessed me with OUTSTANDING students in Art 2. I have zero discipline problems, each student is incredibly creative and smart and my favorite of all- they've been very patient with me. I enjoy teaching but it's always great when I learn from my students.

Here's just a collection of art work they've done. I wanted to focus mostly on different mediums since we mostly stick with drawing and collages in Art 1. We started off with learning about the grid technique (which they mumbled and grumbled about for days-- however, it is quite boring), then we jumped into drawing with drawing still lives with graphite and oil pastels. AND THEN we drew out advertisement posters in the style of Art Nouveau. Now this project I loved----


Speaking of school, I'm finally getting the kick of of my two clubs- Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Art Club. I'm praying deeply everyday for FCA. We've been running through a lot of problems with the administration not letting us meet ever week causing us to have a lot of date conflicts with our members. However, I know that God is bigger than any problems my administration can give us. I'm believing our group will prosper no matter if we have 30 members or 3. It's about not counting the numbers but making the numbers count. As far as my art club goes, I have never seen a group of kids so excited and enthusiastic about art. They're hearts are so big. We will be taking a field trip next Friday to Dickson, TN for a painting workshop. Many pictures to come. :)

My sister got married on September 18, 2010. It was such a tiring and OVERWHELMING day. But I will always remember it! She was a gorgeous bride and it was nice to see everyone get together for our family's first wedding!

One amazing thing, Matt and I have found Love and Truth Church in Jackson, TN. I absolutely love it there and have just completed the membership classes to be involved in the ministry. God has something big planned here for us and I can not wait to spend more time here. Every time I walk through the doors on Sunday, Pastor Eddie speaks encouraging and truthful words that are ALWAYS aligned with the season I'm in. I will definitely be getting more involved. Can't wait to come back and tell more about life. So far... it's been pretty phenomenal.