Summer Vacation!!! Usually those words evoke a picture of sun, fun, and relaxation. Well I have the sun and the fun, but relaxing? I would NOT call my summer this year relaxing. You see, I have 2 VERY active little boys at home and they are making me very tired! I spend my free time chasing them away from roads, retrieving balls thrown, running around to entertain them at the beach, zoo, pool, and other places. I am so tired! Teaching 450 kids is easier… seriously! At least they go home at the end of the day and I don’t have to feed them, change them, or put them to bed! It’s insanity how much I am longing for school to start up again… I know… the HORRORS! I do love to teach though and I get antsy without that particular schedule. So, while my little one is napping or the kids are occupied (which rarely happens without me), I am planning all my lessons, projects, and forms for next year! Which is only a month away!
Here is my scope and sequence or curriculum map for next school year. Just a little peek of things to come. I know there are many grad students or practicing teachers that have questions about this particular thing. Some principals want to see it, some do not require it but I always find it organizes me and lets me see the flow for the year in all 7 grade levels that I teach. I often overlap things on purpose and I rarely print this out as a final document. IT’s ever changing. Sometimes things change, projects get dropped, events require different topics. I can be flexible but at least I can be organized!
So as you can see, I have organized it into a table document. The top shows grade levels and there is some color coding for alike topics. The yellow is clay projects. It’s a rough draft of my year. I’m a visual person so I have to see what my curriculum looks like in order to rearrange and figure out the order of things. It just works for me. I also have lesson plans written up for each lesson but no set dates… that is for my plan book. I do that be week. Things change so rapidly in Elementary school that I have to plan weekly sometimes changing daily depending on who finished what and field trips, music performances, assemblies, snow days, sick days, testing, etc…
I’ll share my other organizational pieces later (I have to take pics of those). I think the most important thing about teaching Elementary Art besides the art part, is organization! If you a fly by the seat of your pants type… well, your job will be MORE chaotic than it needs to be! Unless you are a really organized – fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-kind of person! LOL!
Got Art? 
Thank you so much for posting this. I am definitely a visual learner, who also organizes information via basic color coded tables. It’s difficult for me to start ANYTHING unless I have a (flexible) idea of the whole or final product.
I am attending graduate classes in TN and will soon be licensed in K-12 Art Ed. Unlike science and mathematics, it’s rare to find a scope and sequence (or anything else) for visual arts classes…which has made it difficult to “picture and plan” lesson and so on.
I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it at that. I got very excited when I found your blog. Thank you very much for sharing your experiences.
Hi! I just found your blog, and it seems we have a lot in common. I also use a planning matrix somewhat like yours, check out my post on it right here:
http://theartofeducation.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/failure-to-planplan-to-fail/
Glad to learn from each other! Thanks!
-Jessica
The ART of Education
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I have enjoyed coming across your blog. I have been teaching art on and off for 9 years at different schools starting programs from scratch. This next year, I will be at a new school with a real classroom, a smartboard, a SINK, and people that want to make art a priority. The teacher I am replacing will be my supervisor as she is moving up to teach the jr/sr high. It is slightly uncomfortable being in what was her old room. 🙂
Yes I am babbling, but I am right-brained. I love your organization ideas for my first real classroom. I am excited and nervous all at the same time and am trying to soak up as many ideas as I can. Thank you for your helpful blog!
This is fabulous! I am just starting at an elementary school this year, and have previously taught on a high school level. I am looking for ideas and am very interested in how you did some of the projects you have on your sequence & scope. The ones I am curious about are: Cityscape Computer Project Grade 1, Clearly Me Computer Project Grade 2, and DISco/ Disintegration project Falling Back Drawings Grade 5. Thanks for sharing all of your wonderful ideas!!!
Hi! Thanks for the nice comments! I will try to post more step by steps for the projects you mentioned. I have a new curriculum scope and sequence to write about too this weekend! Hope it helps!
Thanks-just what I need right now!!!
I, too, just found your blog. I’ve taught 26 years, but mostly science with 1or 2 art classes thrown in. Next year, I will be teaching Art all day to all of the middle school [I might have a study skills class, too.] I’m glad to find your blog and hope to pick up some tips as I try to wrap my head around teaching art, but no science.