This is the one I am going to try this year. I think that it combines the pros of each of the previous designs. Give me a few months and I will tell you what I think after the kids have had a chance to try them out.
(And by that I mean shove them into lockers, kick them across the floor, forget them on the school bus, or whatever else happens to anything that has touched a high schooler’s hands.)
This method is also very simple, but it requires the use of a binding machine. If you have access to one, this one looks a bit more professional than the previous Rubber Band Spine Cardboard one. Plus, you can get several fun colors for the spine!
Again, you can do any size you like. I just like to do it larger so that students can add paper without difficulty.
This is a very simple method for a classroom sketchbook. It can be any size you want, but I always made mine about the size of a regular sheet of paper because this makes it easy for students to tuck extra worksheets inside the cover.
However, a caution on that, sometimes, they find this to be a handy place to keep…everything! Math assignments, permission slips from two weeks ago, gum wrappers…you name it!
I have never required my students to buy sketchbooks for my class. It is not that I have anything against purchased sketchbooks, on the contrary, one of my favorite smells is a freshly cracked spine of a new sketchbook.
Every teacher and their dog has their “expectations” for the classroom, but there are a few things that I like to do on the first day of school to get the kids oriented to my art classroom.
These tips are geared toward high school students, but some of these could be implemented for younger kids as well.
Creativity. It is to art (and life) as chocolate is to milk. If art lacks creativity, it's only a pretty picture to hang on the refrigerator. Pretty pictures are nice, but a creative artwork is worth so much more.
Don’t make Adobe Illustrator this big ugly hard thing that you can’t do because you don’t understand it. Like all things worth learning, it is going to take some time to learn all the nuances of the program.
But here is a quick introduction to help you on your way that may make the learning curve shorten a bit:
The menu bar is like the nuts and bolts for the Illustrator program. You can find some of the same functions in the menu bar as well as you can in the option bar and the floating palette.
However, the menu bar is the only place that you can save, save as, open, create a new document, and all the document set up that you may need.
When you get more comfortable with illustrator, you may not even need to use the menu bar. If you look to the right of many of the menu items, you will find a keyboard shortcut. This can be really helpful when you are doing repetitive tasks.
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