School starts again! What's this blog all about?

Welcome to my new blog. I was so impressed and inspired by several other blogs that art teachers have posted, that I thought this would be a good way to record and share my past experiences and document my upcoming school year, as a volunteer art teacher.

Here are my inspiration blogs:

http://oodlesofart.blogspot.com/

http://www.mrsbrownart.com/

http://elementaryart.wordpress.com/

My background is in both fine art and graphic art. My degree is in Architecture, with a minor in Art History, but I got into computers and got a "part-time" job at the University of Oregon newspaper as a graphic artist. I did maps, illustrations, infographics and page design. I loved it so much that I went into newspapers, without any true formal education. That was in the late 1990s: the last gasp for newspaper print journalism. I left newspapers in 2008 and have been freelancing. You can see my website:

http://www.dennisbolt.com/

So I guess you can say I was an Accidental Journalist before I became an Accidental Art Teacher!

I volunteered to help with art during my oldest son's kindergarten year in 2006, then we homeschooled for first grade, and then I lead the art class in his second grade year. He is entering third grade and my middle son is starting kindergarten. The school is so small, they have combined classes, so this year I am doing art for K-2, and then 3-4. The hard part is finding the right seasonal crafty items that the younger kids will like and enough conceptual and thematic items for the older kids. There are so many good ideas out there, that it is a matter of culling hte lists! I am in the midst of brainstorming the calendar for Fall and Winter classes. I will post a list of sites that have been helpful as I run across them!