....on 6:30 to get here

I made it until 4:30 this morning. That's 2 hours longer than I've been averaging but 0% chance I'll actually fall back asleep. I'm utilizing this time to prepare for a meeting that I've got at 10am, finish planning my post TAKS lessons, do some light facebook stalking and a little online shopping.

Last year, after the TAKS test, I decided to reward my hard working kids with 3 weeks of art. No, no coloring pages. Not construction paper. Not printouts that you cut and glue together. Full blown ART (history, application, technique, etc.) and the kids LOVE it! We learned about Van Gogh and Monet last year and we incorporated 'hatching' (technique used by VG), photography with digital cameras, watercolors and history into it. Turns out, my kids are awesome. They enjoyed learning about both artists (and have even told me "I went somewhere this weekend and saw the Van Gogh picture with the stars"). Pretty impressive, if you ask me : )

This year, we are going to spend 3 weeks learning about Andy Warhol. I've been working on my lessons and activities and have kind of kept it a secret from the kids so far. This years lessons are going to be SO much cooler than last year (and yes, it IS possible)! They work so hard all year, especially this time of year (TAKS prep), and really do deserve something different. I might be more excited than them about this! This year, we are using photo editing, making stamps, using digital cameras (and learning basics of photography), learning about contrasting colors and visual appeal! It's going to be so cool! Plus, it should make May go by pretty fast...which is also very exciting!

That's all for now. I've had this window open for over an hour now as I type a little on here, flip back to work on my meeting. It's probably time to finish the meeting prep stuff and do be a little more productive : )