Add Art When You Can.
Each morning, I sit outside my classroom, listening to music, greeting my students with a forehead temperature scan. While I’m hanging out, and my students are just in the room working on their morning work for the day, I draw pictures.
On our lunch sheets, there’s a great section of white paper at the bottom, and for the majority of this year, I’ve been drawing pictures for the lunch ladies. It started out cute and simple, but I’ve done it enough that I’ve been getting bolder, squeezing in more and more art in the 30 minutes I’m sat outside the room.
This isn’t anything academically earth shattering, but I really love doing this. The kids enjoy watching me draw as they’re checking in. Sometimes they ask to do their work outside with me to watch, and I like the idea of adding some art into our school ecosystem each day.
Do you have something that you can bring to school with you? Musicality? Art? A great sense of humor? Seth Godin describes art as making connection. Bring yourself to the table. You’ll make that connection with your coworkers, and even more with your students. That’s worth as much — or more — as the worky, work-type work that you do with them.
