HB 2719- An Open Letter

To the House Taxation Committee:

I am writing today in opposition to HB 2719. I was shocked to read that the bill’s expressed goal is to “empower citizens of Kansas” with legislation that could threaten access to libraries and library materials. Libraries are a wonderful way to empower Kansans by helping enrich our lives, give access to information, and save us money.

I use the shared catalog multiple times a month. It is very convenient!

As a parent, a teacher, and an educated adult, I understand the importance of reading and try to model being a joyful reader to my children and my students. My family and I, as well as many others our community, have greatly benefited from the NExpress shared catalog as well as the state library system. I use the shared catalog multiple times a month to request books that my library does not carry. The beautiful thing about the shared catalog is that it makes our libraries, and our worlds, bigger. It is many libraries banding together to share their materials with patrons. Libraries aren’t just about books, they are about making connections. Yes, part of my taxes go to fund our local library and the library system, but that is a good thing. I get access to just about any material- book, audio book, movie- that I could want without having to purchase the materials myself. Even if I did buy every book I wanted to read, I would still want to support the library system because I believe everybody should have access to books and information regardless of their income.

I have been told that 48 Kansas communities could lose their libraries and that 58 more would be at risk. How can we stand for this possibility? It seems so wrong to me to take away opportunities to access library materials from people who may not have other means.

I urge you to please vote no on HB 2719. Please don’t take away our access to the NExpress shared catalog and other shared systems around the state. Please don’t threaten the future of our libraries.

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Katie Morris  

Holton, KS

Everything is Awesome- Lego YAM Bulletin Board

 The Youth Art Month bulletin board at my primary school is Lego themed. Ever since I watched the Lego Movie, I've been wanting to use the "Everything is Awesome" theme for art. This was a good chance!

I downloaded a free Lego font to print off the phrase. Big time saver.

To create the Lego mini figures, I posed an actual figure, photographed it in three positions, projected it onto big construction paper, and traced. My student teacher and I added color with color sticks and cut them out. I made a Lego brick template to trace for the top row and cut rectangles in different lengths to create the rest of the wall. I let early finishers choose a brick on which to write why they like art or why it's important before I stapled them onto the bulletin board.

Here are a few of the students' bricks.

"I care about art because it is fun and you get to paint. It is real fun. Everyone has good art. No one draws bad and draws good. It really means a lot to me and everyone come in peace. It is a lot of fun. It is full of fun."

There's No Place Like the Art Room

Here's my Youth Art Month bulletin board... only 2 months late! I saw a "There's no place like..." bulletin board on Pinterest and though I didn't immediately plan to make my own version, it popped into my head when I was trying to plan for YAM. I figured since we're in Kansas it was a good idea! Some Kinders helped me paint a giant rainbow (and only a few argued with the order I wanted the colors to go in) which I cut out for the biggest element on the bulletin board. 

I used a projected picture of Judy Garland's Dorothy onto some poster board to save some time painting  her and finally found a use for some of the TONS of glitter that found their way to my room over the summer. I always save my bulletin board elements so that I can reuse them in the future.

I also used the bulletin board as a place to display the student artwork I selected for the Kansas Youth Art Month show. Each art teacher in the state can show one student work per school in which they teach. I was really proud of this 2nd grader and her artwork. She created a collage background with magazine papers and worked for several weeks on her self portrait drawn with colored pencils. She got a pretty good likeness! I feel like her artwork held up nicely to the traditional projects selected by the other KAEA members.

After a lot of trouble switching my blog over to the new domain, all caused by a silly mistake that took about 5 minutes to correct after I finally got someone to help me, my blog is back up and running. I have TONS to post about in coming months. 

Also, there's only 2 weeks of school left so while I'm excited to be wrapping up another year, I'm feeling the time crunch of wrapping up another year! How long do you have left?

YAM- Art is Important Because...

 For the YAM bulletin board at my 4th-6th grade school, I cut out giant letters (from 24x36 inch paper), painted a black border for definition, then invited the students to use multicolored markers to write a sentence about why they think Art is important. I filled in the negative space with some photos of student work, a "March is Youth Art Month" sign, and a couple advocacy signs from NAEA.

This bulletin board is best appreciated when you take the time to read what the students wrote. Most were really excited and thought about what they wanted to write. I did find a few silly comments like "chicks dig art"and "everyday I'm shufflin'"but nothing inappropriate, which is always  relief! Check out the photos below to see some of the students' thoughts.

Apparently I use the words "texture" and "details" a lot.

Youth Art Month

These are the two student works that I selected to be displayed in the YAM exhibit, one from each school. 

 My YAM bulletin board at school.  I may have gone a little overboard but the students think it looks cool!  It has photos of student work, the winning entry from my YAM contest, and some advocacy materials.

I had fun blowing paint around!

My YAM Writing Contest Winner

I made cards with student artwork on them to send to my principals, the other art teachers, the superintendent, the board of education members, and pretty much everybody at the district office.  The inside says "Happy Youth Art Month!  Thank you for supporting Art Education.  Please enjoy the artwork by _________.  Sincerely, Katie Morris and Pauline Central and South students."  I also put in a lesson description to show them what we teach, that it's more than making something "pretty."  Here are some of the cards:

 The Kansas YAM Exhibit was today.  We had a great turnout!  Lots of students and families showed up, even a state senator talked about the importance of Art Education.  You may or may not have heard that we are in danger of losing the Kansas Arts Commission... hoping that doesn't happen!  http://imaginekansaswithoutart.blogspot.com/

Sargent Art partnered with us this year and one student, a parent, and her Art teacher won a trip to New York!

It's a Mr.YAM head, get it?

Youth Art Month

I am a board member of Kansas Art Education Association so I got to spend most of my Saturday at the State Capital Building helping set up for and photographing our Youth Art Month celebration.  There has been quite a lot of renovating going on in the building so we were only able to have the student artwork up for a day.  We hung artwork from 8-10, had a board meeting from 10-2, and while the reception was scheduled to start at 2:00, I started hearing families in the lobby as early as 12:30!  It really was a great day.

Photos of the building

Creation Station for the kiddos to make creative name tags

Some of the Senior Scholarship entries

For the fist time ever, both of our Senior scholarships went to three dimensional pieces.

Bob Cross, KAEA President Elect giving the welcome speech