Donors Choose, Budget Stretching, & Class Dojo

In December I had 2 Donors Choose projects funded.
The first was for a new collage center. I asked for a storage shelf and drawer organizer and have just gotten them all ready to go. We previously had an old art cart and portable sink there. They took up a lot of space and were not very functional. The shelves lower shelves on the art cart had narrow access and the upper shelf was hard for the littlest students to reach. It was not super functional. I used to have paper sorted into "warm, cool, and neutral" color baskets, but that didn't work very well. The 10 drawers have allowed me to sort the papers by color, pattern, and painted. I've only had a few students working on collage this month as everyone is doing the Jr. Duck Stamp or State Fish Art thing, but those that have used the center have very positive comments about it. Plus, the sorted papers are STILL SORTED! I know that this will help students find what they need faster and waste less time looking. Yeah for organization!
I was so happy with the storage shelf that I planned on trying to get another to hold painting supplies. It's all about getting the supplies where students can access them. I ended up having some extra money left in my budget so I was able to go ahead and get another shelf! Before you go thinking I have some HUGE budget, let me explain that I've just gotten pretty good at stretching and supplementing my budget. Some years I order extra paper or other staples and have a little "extra" the next year for other supplies. I also end up with money to spend from Artsonia without being pushy with parents and I keep entering challenges on the smARTteacher to get some Blick money. Those are some things I've been doing in the last couple of years to help my budget go further.

Just got this on Friday so it's not totally organized yet.

The second project was for a Samsung Galaxy tablet that students can use to photograph artwork and upload it on Artsonia. I've found that the Kindergarteners are too short to hold the tablet at the right angle to photograph their work on top of tables, so I'll work on trying to figure out a system there. Even if only some of the students are able to photograph their own work, it will still be a huge timesaver. It takes about 2 minutes (give or take) for a student to get their artwork totally published. I still have projects from November that I'm not caught up with publishing. Taking the pictures with my camera yields better quality photos, but the tablet makes things so much faster! It gives parents a better idea of what we're doing in "real time".

I've also recently discovered Class Dojo. Class Dojo is a classroom management tool that can show students their behavior. I decided to give it a try because I honestly think most of my classes that have problems with talking more than they should don't understand what the problem is. There is a handy Class Dojo app that makes the program a lot easier to use. I can just carry the tablet with me while I'm working with students and if I see some students doing an awesome job staying focused, I can put in positive Dojo points. If I see some kids who are off task, I can just as quickly tap their names and put in "needs work" points. I think I'll collect some photos to show how we're using it and share later this week.