Wait! I'm more than just a teacher!

I know it sounds like crazy talk, but most teachers do actually have a life and interests that aren't school related. Summer is a great time to indulge those interests. Over two years ago, I designed a dining room table with the intent of building it that summer. My daughter was an infant that summer. Needless to say, I didn't have time to build a table. Last summer, time again slipped away from me and my plans gathered more dust. This summer was do or die. I did!

From a design standpoint, I like to combine clean, modern lines with older elements. This is how my finished table came out! 

The table top is made of 8/4 ash. I designed the base and had it fabricated by a local iron working company. The top has old letterpress typography inset and covered with glass. My wife is a graphic designer is a slight obsession with typography. I love the history behind it and being able to think about what the letters have been used to print throughout the decades. 

I'm really happy with how the whole project came out. I'm even happier that I found time to build it. 

Close-up of the type inset. It was slightly terrifying taking a router
to a perfectly good tabletop. Everything wound up fitting perfectly.

Detail of the base. Much of the type is lead,
so the top needed a good amount of support.

4th Grade Comic Book Covers

Never fear. 4th Grade superheroes are here! I hosted a student teacher earlier this school year and he was really into comics. He invested a lot of himself in this lesson and it was the best lesson he wrote. 

Students started by brainstorming ideas for their superheroes (or villains). They then got to practice some heroic figure drawing using their classmates as models. This really helped students understand proportions better. They then went on to create their final comic book cover using a title and logo for the character. The final work was painted with watercolor. These turned out very nice. 

Spring Header Cleaning and Blog Design Tips

Every once in a while I get a hankerin' to change the design of the blog a bit. The header is the perfect place. So, without further ado, say hello to the new Thomas Elementary Art header. Hello! (That's the blog header responding. No, it's not weird for a blog header to be talking back.) Other than having an underlying art theme, I really don't design my headers to have too much relevance to my school or what is going on in my room. I'll create something simply because I think it's amusing. I don't think I'm completely satisfied with it yet, but it's close enough to post. 

My Thoughts on Classroom Blog Design:
I like to keep the basic design of the blog pretty clean and as easy to read as possible. I regularly see blogs that are poorly designed and difficult to read. Here are a few tips from me to keep your blog lookin' spiffy! Feel free to print them out and tape them to your favorite shirt. 

•  Your student's artwork should be the star of the show.
• A blog is meant to convey information to the viewer. It should be easy to read.
• Try to avoid busy or overly chromatic backgrounds that distract from your content. 
• Use value to your advantage. If you put red type on a blue background, your viewers may go cross-eyed. Scintillation should remain on black light posters. 
• Use a legible typeface. Don't ever use Comic Sans. It won't ever be cute. 
• Customize! I hate pulling work off the internet to use as a header. Show off your mad skills (skillz?) and create your own. I use one of the provided blogger templates as a general starting place for this blog, then I customize the wheels off of it using some easily available HTML. A custom header can give your blog an entirely different feel. I make my blog headers in Photoshop.
• Make navigation easy.
• Animated GIFs stopped being cool in 1997.

Here is what the old header looked like. That beady eye was starting to creep me out.