The December Mailbag: Organizing Crayons, Parent Concerns, and How to Say No (Ep. 446)

Welcome to Art Ed Radio, the podcast for art teachers. This show is produced by the Art of Education University, and I’m your host, Tim Bogatz. Welcome everyone to the month of December, and as it is the first episode we are doing in December, it is time for the mailbag. The always popular mailbag episode with the always popular Amanda Heyn, Amanda, how are you?

Oh my gosh. Always popular, thanks. Now I’m great.

Okay, good, good, that’s a pleasant way to start. And you really are very popular, more people listen to these episodes than anything else we do, so.

Oh my gosh. Thanks everybody. I feel like there’s a Wicked joke in here, but I’m not a theater kid, so I don’t know it, but make one up in your head.

That’s fair. That’s fair. For those of you that are just tuning into a first mailbag episode, I’m Tim Bogatz, and I host this Art Ed Radio podcast, I put on the Now conference for AOEU, taught a couple years of elementary art, a whole bunch of years of high school art, and now I’ve been working for AOEU for quite a while. So, Amanda, can you give us a quick introduction?

Yeah, I’m Amanda Heyn, I’m the director of community engagement here at AOEU, I’m a former elementary art teacher, and I have also been here for a long time, over a decade, which is wild.

It is, it is. It’s great, it’s been fun to grow with AOEU from starting off as a cute little blog that we both wrote for once upon a time, when you used to edit my articles back in the mid-2010s, and yeah, it’s been a while, but it’s been fun. So, okay, director of community engagement, can I just say I got a little sneak preview of the community 101 course, and I got to take the course… I got a new badge for it, which is wildly exciting, I don’t know why those badges are so exciting in the community.

Because they’re fun.

It’s really, really fun to see that on my profile now. So, I felt very special to not only access the quiz a little bit early, take the course a little bit early, but I got my badge early, and I love it. But can you talk a little bit about what that is and what we can do with it?

Yes. Sure. Okay. So, if you don’t know about the community yet, AOEU launched a community, I think we’re two months old now, and it is only the good parts of social media, and only for art teachers. So, if you want to come join us, it’s free to join, you can go to community.theartofeducation.edu. Come on in, come hang out, it’s very fun. And we just, or I guess I should say we are just about to launch a new community course, which opens, if you’re listening on the day this comes out, tomorrow, it’s on December 4th, and it takes less than half hour and it just shows you everything there is to know about the community so that you can make the most of your time there. So, it starts by asking you to identify why you joined us and what you hope to get out of it, and then it goes through everything you need to know.

How to find friends, how to find people near you, how to create posts, how to add images to your posts, how to attend events, and where to find what we’re doing there. We have a really fun monthly event called Art Club, and then we do pop-up studios where you can just come and hang out and make art with us, online, and so my hope is that it just shows you everything you can do in there because there’s actually quite a lot. On the surface it’s kind of like, oh, this is similar to Facebook or something, but there’s really so much more.

There’s so much more there.

Yeah. It’ll tell you also, teachers are busy and they have a lot flying at them, so how to set your notifications, and what do you want to be surfaced to you and what do you not, and how do you want everything organized. So, anyway, I’m biased because I made it, so I think it’s great, but I’m glad you thought it was great.

It was. It was super helpful, I even learned a couple things. I’ve been messing around in there since the beginning, but I even found a couple things that were helpful for me. So, yeah, if you have time to go through it, I definitely think it’s worthwhile.

Yeah. And huge shout out to Jen Leban, our online community manager, because she was an instrumental part in helping me create that, and you’ll see her face in the videos too.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. Anything else with the community that you want to share? Anything exciting coming up?

Yeah, we’re just giving away $5,000 in the community. So, we’re doing something fun and excited called the Winter Wishlist Giveaway, and we are giving $200 to 25 community members this holiday season.

Nice.

Which, when I got the approval to do that, I was like, hey guys, I have an idea, I think this would be really fun. And it got approved, and I’m so excited. So, it’s very easy to do this, can I tell people how to enter?

Well, I had a two-part question, if that’s okay.

Of course you had a two-part question. Yep.

Number one, do I qualify for this? Number two, if I don’t have a wish list already, can I just make one and post it?

Great question. Do you personally qualify? No.

Okay, fair. I didn’t expect to, but I was hoping maybe.

But if you don’t already have a wish list, yes, you can create one for this. And Jen is so good, she’s a former tech coach, so if you haven’t created a wish list and you don’t know how to do that, we have directions for you with neon pink boxes of exactly where to click and exactly what to do, which is wonderful.

So, it is three steps you need to join the Art of Ed community, which again is community.theartofeducation.edu, if you’re already a member, great, you have completed step one. When you come into the community, you’ll be prompted to complete the verification process. So, this is filling out a quick form, it helps us keep the community really safe, and we know that there are just art teachers in there based on that verification process. And then, fill out your community profile, which again is easy, you put up a picture, you write a sentence about yourself. And then you are going to drop your wish list in the winter wish list post, and that’s it. Now, we’re talking about this, it’s already launched, and it’s not, this is actually, you as a podcast listener are getting first knowledge of this. This is going to go up on December 5th. So, depending on, I’m sorry, that is incorrect, December 6th.

Okay. You’re trying to get people’s hopes up, and now it’s the wrong date.

Well, I know. Also, I’m really bad at calendars, so you can’t see this, but I pulled up my phone, confirming Friday, December 6th is when it’s going up. So, you can get in on that, we’ll leave it open I think for about a week and a half, so you have until December 18th to get your wish list in there, and then we will randomly draw 25 people, and that’s going to be really excited.

Perfect. So, everybody who’s listening can get a head start on their wish list, get that made, and then it’ll launch Friday, they’ll be ready to go.

Right. Also, I don’t think we said that it’s an Amazon wish list. So, it’s not just any wish list you want, you can just write a list to Santa and take a picture and post it, Amazon wish list and we’re giving away Amazon gift cards, just so that is clear.

Okay, sounds perfect. Okay. Now, I do need to ask you before we get into… Because we never can just dive into the questions, we have lots that we always need to talk about. We played this or that at the end of the episode last month, because it was November, we talked about Thanksgiving food, and so I just need to follow up on, A, how was your Thanksgiving? B, did you avoid the cranberry sauce? And C, I did not ask about gravy, and I wanted to know your thoughts on gravy, if you have a moment.

Okay, well this is a three-part question. How was my Thanksgiving? Good, great, we hosted a small Thanksgiving. Did I avoid the cranberry sauce? Yes, because as the host you get to dictate what people bring, and I’m not-

Did anybody miss the cranberry sauce, if you did not allow it into your home? Did anybody, oh, where’s-

I don’t care. I don’t know and I don’t care.

Fair.

I don’t know. Go to a different house if you want cranberry sauce, I think was the idea there.

And then gravy?

Did I want to say anything about gravy? Not really. It’s like meat jello. I don’t like anything about gravy, I don’t know why people eat gravy, it’s just thick meat sauce. I don’t know why it’s a food.

Okay, okay. That’s fine.

Do you want to say anything about gravy?

No, I have very similar thoughts, it’s like liquid meat, it’s very strange to me, and I don’t want any part of it. Everything is fine without it. If you need gravy to make your food better, maybe your food wasn’t that good to begin with.

Oh, burn, I love that take. That’s a hot take.

It probably is, but that’s legitimately how I feel, maybe just get better food and then you don’t need gravy at all.

You know what I do you like about gravy, though? The tiny little ladle. I kind of like the gravy vessel.

The gravy boat?

Yeah, the gravy boat. It’s like, what other food has its own… Do you know what I mean?

Yeah.

Singular purpose? You’re never putting anything else in a gravy boat.

That’s true. That’s true. I feel like you could put ranch in a gravy boat.

But you don’t.

No, you definitely don’t.

You don’t.

And also-

Sure, you could put a lot of things in a gravy boat, but-

Yeah, ranch boat just doesn’t have a ring to it, gravy boat really does.

No. It really does. So, anyway.

It’s good. We’ve derailed this podcast already though-

Yeah, let’s get back on track. Do you have a good story to tell because we announced our feature presenter?

Yeah. Well, I don’t know if I have a story yet, but Carrie Mae Weems is going to be our feature presenter for the Now Conference in February, I could not be more excited. And as this podcast releases, I am packing my bags and literally tomorrow headed to Syracuse, New York to interview Carrie Mae Weems. So, I’ve never been to Syracuse before, more importantly, never talked to Carrie Mae Weems before, but I have so many great questions that I want to ask her. I have been a fan of her photography and her work since I first saw it, god knows when, 30 years ago? So, yeah, I’m super excited to talk to her about her work, her career, her life, her experience with the arts.

She’s going to be an incredible featured presenter, and I cannot wait. So, anyway, yeah, you can check out everything about the conference. We talked to community already, but yeah, the ArtofEducation@edu/now, check out more about Carrie Mae Weems, and about all the other great stuff we’re having at the conference. Cannot wait to go talk to her, so that should be a fun one.

That is fun.

So, do you have anything exciting like that in your life?

Well, no, the most exciting thing is I blended cottage cheese into a soup recently.

Oh my god.

If we can go back to food for one second. Well, I just had a birthday, it’s the last of-

I have so many questions.

Okay, well, I’ll be very brief, because I know we’re very far into this and we haven’t even opened up the mailbag. Okay, just had a birthday, it’s the last year of my 30s. I’m 39. Which, if you’re the same age, you know that now you have a second full type job and that’s eating protein so you don’t wither away. And so, this bowl of soup I made had 20 grams of protein, and I will say, everybody on my team, I did this for you guys because I said I ran across this recipe, you said it was going to be horrible, credit to Jen Leban, she said it was going to be good, and I said, I will take one for the team. It was delicious.

Okay.

That’s a big sigh.

Okay, well, I’m just trying to filter my questions down into just a couple of them. I have 30. But question number one is why? But you kind of answered that, because we’re doing the protein. Question number two, what happens to the cottage cheese when you put it in soup? I find cottage cheese to be disgusting, up there on the level of grossness with gravy. Do the individual little curds just melt when they’re in soup? Is your soup chunky?

No.

What happens to it?

Okay, well, first I think it’s important that I say I use the Vitamix, so I use the most powerful blender known to man.

Okay.

And it was so creamy, it tasted like it was full of cream, but it was full of protein.

Okay. All right.

It was squash soup and it was great and everybody should do it.

Okay. Well, being lactose intolerant, that’s still disgusting to me, but not as bad as I originally thought. So, I think that’s good. Okay, can we go ahead and officially start with the questions? Amanda, can you do the honors?

Yes, I can. Let’s take a minute and open up the mailbag.

We have some great questions, I’m very excited about them. First one comes from Shania, via email, and Shania says, “I have a good handle on organization, my room looks pretty good, most of my supplies are organized, but I can’t figure out how to organize my crayons. Looking for advice on what you do to organize your crayons and make it easy for kids to keep them organized because I don’t do a very good job of it and I think a better system would help. Thank you in advance, and thank you for everything you do with the podcast, I love listening.” Thank you Shania, and my short answer might be just don’t organize your crayons. So, we can get into that, but Amanda, your thoughts?

Yeah, my initial thought was like throw your crayons in the trash, which, I understand, Shania we’re going to get to some helpful things, I promise.

This is the least helpful podcasts of all time.

If you’re tuning in for the first time, usually… Well, the beginning usually is like that. But okay. No, I’m kidding, I was more of an oil pastel fan, and I did use construction paper crayons quite a bit in my classroom, but I didn’t use crayon crayons a lot. However, I will say, I did have them in my room and I did have them organized. First thing I want to say, I know some people do color coding with drawing supplies, like they’ll have all the orange crayons and all the red crayons, and all the… And I personally found that unnecessary. I love organization, and my room was like a tight ship, I am the teacher who said, do you have a label maker? And they looked at me like, what are you talking about? No art teacher has ever asked for that before.

So, I had a very organized room, but to that level was just unnecessary to me, and to your point, Shania, it’s just hard to maintain something like that. It takes a lot more effort to maintain that. So, I just organized my crayons into shallow bowls or plastic containers that could nest inside of each other and kept those in a big tub. So, this is what I did for a lot of my drawing supplies, honestly, I would just pull the tub out, and then I had the right number of smaller containers in that tub that were for the tables, my kids shared. So, I think I had three buckets per table group, and I had four table groups, so I had 12 containers of crayons. And then, at the end of the class, the kids just put all the crayons back into the smaller containers, and then I assigned a student to pick up those smaller containers and put them back in the big container.

I feel like this is a lot of explanation for this very simple system. But really having a method where you can distribute and clean them up really easily I think is the biggest thing to think about. It’s just so easy when it’s like, this is how we do supplies, and this method carries through to all the dry media in the class. So, I might think about that too. Are there other supplies that you have organized in a way that’s working for you, and can you apply that to your crayons?

Yeah, I think that’s a decent approach. I would say just keep it as simple as possible with your crayons. When I did, I didn’t use crayons in secondary, but when I taught elementary, I was a traveling art teacher, and I just had Ziploc bags, the big gallon bags, and all of the crayons were in there. And I had a half dozen, you just toss one to each table, and let them do their thing, and when it is time to clean up, that’s super simple for them. Please put them back in the bag. And you save so much time not worrying about organizing those things. And I think that’s one of those, like you said, one of those tools that does not need to be color coded. And honestly, when kids have all of those colors available, when they have all of those colors right at their fingertips, they’re maybe using some colors that they wouldn’t otherwise, rather than having just like, oh, I need yellow for this, and that’s stuck in their head, they can look and see different shades, or maybe they’re going to mix a few yellowish colors together.

And it just gives them the opportunity to explore a little bit more, and not be focused on one thing, but maybe see what some of the other options are, and it can be good for them to try some different things that they maybe wouldn’t have thought about before. So, anyway, I don’t want to tell you to not organize things, but I think you should figure out whether it’s worth your time to organize them, because honestly, it works fine to have bowls, or bags, or just piles of crayons, and that’s one of the materials that lends itself to a little less organization, I would say.

Yep, totally.

All right. Okay, next question. This comes from Stephanie in Minnesota, and Stephanie says, “I’m in my second year of teaching, my principal has asked me to do lots of things for decorations, and bulletin boards, and other stuff around the school. I always said yes because it was my first year, and I’m a people pleaser, and I hate confrontation.” LOL. Familiar. “Now she wants me to do these welcome back bags for when kids come back in January. They’re super cute, and I love the idea, but it’s 300 bags, and I would’ve to work on them over break. I don’t want to do it, but also I don’t want to say no. So, I guess I have three questions, should I make the bags? If I say no, how do I say no? And if I say no, how do I not feel bad about it?” All right, Amanda, I feel like you are going to answer this with a lot more tact and a lot better advice than I would, so I would love for you to take this one, if you don’t mind.

I would not mind. Also, my eyes were just getting wider and wider as this question went on, because… Okay, so here’s what I would say, you should only make the bags if you want to make the bags, and I heard, Stephanie, very clearly you say, “I don’t want to do it.” I think that is a direct quote.

It is a direct quote from the email.

Also, you didn’t ask this, but I think this is an unreasonable request to put on a single teacher. If these welcome back bags are something the school wants to do, and yeah, sure, that’s a very cute idea, then at minimum that needs to be a shared responsibility, and honestly, that sounds like the literal perfect job for the PTO, like this is a PTO project.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, if I can just jump in real quick, I would love to second that idea that it is a very unreasonable request, just asking you to do 300 of anything is far too much.

Right. Yeah. Okay. So, onto question two, that does unfortunately mean you’re going to have to say no. I’m excited about this for you, this is a new era for you, Stephanie. Okay? This is good practice, and this is an easy one to say no to because it is unreasonable. So, I hope you get really good at this because as a second year teacher, people are going to keep asking you things, and you cannot do everything. And I will say, your principal might be disappointed that you say no, but those are her feelings and those are not your feelings, and that’s a really important distinction. And it’s okay for you to set a boundary that makes you feel good and is good for you, and it makes somebody else feel a different way. You don’t have to take on other people’s feelings. And thank you for coming to this armchair therapy session.

Okay, so how do you do that? Question three, how do you do it and how do you not feel bad about it? Personally, I’m a fan of no is a complete sentence, and I also understand that that doesn’t work in a professional setting, it doesn’t often work in a power dynamic situation like this. So, if it were me, and I was a second year art teacher, I might say something like, “Thanks so much for thinking of entrusting that important job to me, I’m not going to have time over break to devote to that project, perhaps the PTO or student council would be willing to help.” So, that’s one way to go about it.

If you feel really uncomfortable though about not helping, you could also offer an alternative solution that feels okay to you. So, you could maybe say something like, “I’d be happy to host a short after school session with other volunteers for 30 minutes in the art room on X date.” Time bounded, pick a date that works for you. And whatever you choose, I promise that when you say no, you’re going to feel so relieved and that is going to prompt you to do this over and over. You’ve got this, you can do it, and we are with you.

That’s great advice. I’m going to summarize and give my answer just really quickly, I agree with you on all those points, but I was just thinking, I’m a huge basketball fan, and I was just thinking about how players come back each season with something new in their game, like new skills or abilities. And I feel like for Stephanie here, in year two, she’s coming back with the ability to say no to things, and so Stephanie, good job upping your game here. But yeah, just short answer to each of the three questions. No, don’t make them, you don’t need to make them. Number two, the way you say no is just say, “That’s more than I can take on right now.”

I like that.

You can give an alternative solution if you need to, Amanda gave you some great suggestions. Just really say, “I don’t have time for that right now,” and that’s okay. And if you’re feeling bad about it, which I can empathize with, take just a minute to think about, or honestly even make a list of just all the great things that you have done over the past couple of years for your kids, and that you’re continuing to do for your kids, and that will tell you that you are doing enough and you don’t need to feel bad about not doing this extra work.

Yep.

All right, next question is from Tom. And Tom says, “I have a parent that is upset with my grading and I would like some advice. I teach elementary, about 400 kids, and we do report cards every quarter, where kids can be graded one through four. I gave one of my kids a two because honestly, they don’t even try that hard, and the parents were super upset. I’m going to have to give the kid another two for second quarter and they’re going to be upset again. I see a few phone calls in the future and maybe even another meeting with me and the parents and the principal. How do I get them to realize it’s third grade art and it’s not that big of a deal, or should I just give the kid a one and not even worry about dealing with the parents?” That’s a big one.

That’s a good question. Can I ask a clarifying question?

Yeah.

I’m assuming here one is the best, and two is worse than one. Yeah?

I assumed yes.

Context clues?

Tom, you’ll have to write back in and let us know if we were wrong about that. But in all the grading systems I have seen, yes, one is going to be the best there, two is just a small step down.

Right, okay. Okay. Can I take this one first?

Please.

Okay. First of all, Tom, I really empathize with you, because a eerily similar thing happened to me. I think it was my second or third year of teaching, and I gave a child an S for satisfactory in the behavior category on the report card I was asked to fill out, because his behavior was in fact satisfactory-

Satisfactory.

… not excellent. And the parent called me and proceeded to yell at me for 30 unhinged minutes. I would’ve handled that phone call much differently now, at my age, than when I was 23 years old.

Right, right.

Anyway. It honestly ended up being a really valuable learning experience for me-

Yeah. Well, I’m sorry to interrupt, but I think that can be a learning experience for a lot of people, for Tom and for the kid and for the parents. And I would say, if you’re just taking the easy way out and giving the one so you don’t have to deal with it, I don’t love that, I don’t think that is the way to go. I think you need to give your student the grade that they have earned.

Yes.

So, anyway, I am sorry to jump in, but I know, Amanda, I’ll let you get back to it, I know you have some thoughts on what grades are telling us here.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, I really love what you said, the grade that they’ve earned, and I think, Tom, I think this is the key to avoiding this issue in the future, is you have to figure out what the kids are earning grades for in your classroom. So, I’m going to assume a few things based on what you wrote in, so it seems like you’re giving one grade, it’s a 1, 2, 3, 4 for art class. And this is a way that it works in some elementary schools, I have worked in a school that worked this way. It’s one number, right?

Yeah. And I think it is obviously better practice to have multiple lines on there, or one for meeting standards and one for behavior and just knocking that out, but if you just have one grade, a lot of schools still do that. And so, that is the reality that a lot of people are working within.

Right. So, in your note, you said you gave the kiddo a two because they don’t try very hard. So, my question would be, do you want that one number to reflect if a student is meeting the art standards, or do you want it to reflect their behavior and effort? So, if it were me, I would use that number to reflect if they’re meeting the art standards, and then I would use the comment feature in the report card if you want to say something about behavior, because to me it’s really tricky and confusing for everybody, for you, the child, the parents, to wrap knowledge and skills and behavior and everything happening in the art room up into one number.

For example, if a student is producing stellar artwork, but they’re really chatty or tardy every day, is that a two or is that a one? Or if a student is behaving like a perfect angel but they don’t know the primary colors, what number is that? It’s very unclear. And so, I think this is a really good chance for you to think about what specific things factor into that number and how they factor into that number.

Yeah, I think so. I think both the what and the how, and just also think about why? Why are we grading things this way? And if you don’t have a ton of autonomy, maybe talk to your principal and just send them the situation, like what do you want this report card to communicate? And just ask them that question. And maybe that will give you the guidance you need because you need to think about what those grades are communicating to the student, to the parents, and if we put that question to you and you say to yourself, oh, I don’t know, or if you say, oh, it communicates all the things, I think it’s worth spending a little time to clarify exactly what you’re getting at with your grades, and exactly what you’re trying to communicate with that number that you put on the report card.

I think also if you have other art teachers in your district who are working under the same system as you, definitely ask them, and if you don’t, if you have other specials teachers, if music is also graded 1, 2, 3, 4 or PE or whatever, see what those teachers are doing too, because having consistency in that way can also help you out. My other piece of advice here is that a report card should never be the first time a parent is learning their child is not meeting expectations. This was my case, I hadn’t expressed to this parent that their child was not acting excellently, they were acting satisfactorily, and it was a surprise to them.

And I wasn’t a parent at that time, and I am now, and I really appreciate when my own children’s teachers communicate with me upfront, it’s a much more collaborative positive experience. And so, if a student is struggling, my suggestion is to communicate that before an official grade report. And having, like we said, a rubric, or a document to explain your grading practices also really helps with those conversations. So, something to think about for next year is, I like to determine whatever the system is and then send that out at the beginning of the year so the expectations are super clear to everybody.

Yeah, absolutely. And you talked about a lesson learned for you, that was one that I had to learn my first year of teaching high school, I had parents upset because they came to conferences and their kid’s halfway through first quarter and failing, and they’re like, “Why haven’t I heard about this?” And I was like, that’s an excellent point. That’s something that I didn’t even think about as a new teacher, and that was a learning experience for me. And like you said, Amanda, as a parent, you’d like to hear about those things because it can be a collaborative effort to get kids on track and get them doing what they need to be doing. And real talk, not every parent is going to be excited to hear from you about that, not every parent is going to be collaborative, and I think that’s more common, and probably a little bit worse than it has been in years past, but I think it’s still something you need to do is communicate home and just share with them what’s going on.

Most of the time, parents are going to be on the same side, they’re going to be wanting what’s best for the kids, but they will appreciate that communication and they will want to help you. And so, I would encourage you to get that communication going as quickly as possible. I know it’s tough to find time to do, but I think it is something that’s important enough that you do need to find time for it.

One other point is absolutely, some parents are just, they’re looking for a fight, or they’re not-

Their children can do no wrong, we’ve all dealt with that, we know.

Yeah. However, if you have things documented, then that helps you with your principal, and that helps your principal advocate to the parent. And so, it’s just covering your bases can be really helpful no matter if it goes well or poorly.

Yes, absolutely. Great point.

Okay, can I switch gears a little bit?

Yes. I know you had something you told me you wanted to add, so yeah, let’s go for it.

I do. So, I wanted to highlight a discussion going on in the community, which was kind of fun. So, recently we asked, every week there’s a big question of the week that people can pop in and answer throughout the week, and it was, do you have a morning routine? And tell us about it. And I loved reading the responses there because I feel like sometimes what we do outside of school can really make or break our day at school. So, I would love to bring the community’s thoughts forward here, and then, Tim, I want to know about your morning routine when you were teaching and what it looks like now.

I was going to say my lack of a morning routine, because I hate the morning.

As do I.

Yeah. All right. Yeah, do you want to go through those and then I can share mine at the end?

Yeah. I do. Okay. So, some of my favorite answers were about how everyone is incorporating AOEU into their morning routine. I don’t know, I just wasn’t expecting this, it was just so heartwarming. So, one person said, “Once I get to school, I like scrolling through my elementary art pages that I joined on Facebook for inspiration. Now, I can come here.”

Awww.

You can start your morning with us and the community. And then someone else said, “I drive to a store, get a big coffee, and I listen to Art Ed Radio.”

I’ve had people tell me that before, how Tuesday mornings are their favorite because Art Ed Radio comes out, they listen to it on their commute, and I just appreciate that so much. So, yes, heartwarming is the right word, so thank you.

That’s great. Yeah. Thanks to those of you who start the day with us. Okay, then another common theme was prepping the night before. So, one community member said, “I typically try to lay out student artwork the night before and set up for my class in case I’m running late, so at least I’m ready for that first class.” Someone else put it this way, “Morning routine? Definitely not. I get all of my prep done the night or day before so I can stumble through my morning like any true night owl.”

It’s me.

It’s me also. Yeah, I think this is so smart. I think sometimes those five minutes at the end of the school day, you are exhausted, you don’t want to do anything, you just want to leave, but if you can just rally yourself for those five minutes and do something to help set yourself up for success the next day, it just makes the start of that next day so much better.

Yeah, future you will thank you.

Yeah. Some people talked about their home and school routines, so coffee, dog out, breakfast, and then had a very repeatable way to start the day at school, like I always take my stools down, then check my email, then pull up slides. And I like this too because it takes the guesswork out, and you can come in on autopilot and know you’re going to be ready. Another person said they do a temperature check, of walking around the building, greeting students as they enter, which, as we see all the kids in the school, that’s a great way to gauge how students are doing. And then, of course, there was a lot of love for coffee, which, fun fact, I don’t drink coffee, you don’t drink coffee.

I do not drink coffee. Neither of us are coffee drinkers.

No, weird anomalies. And lots of parents of small kids in absolute chaos, scrambles, which I definitely remember the days of. And I think the one that made me laugh the most was someone said, “I’m not an early morning person, my bed likes me to stay as long as possible. Perhaps it has some separation anxiety.” Just really appreciated that. Okay. So, Tim, what did your morning routine look like when you were in the classroom, and what does it look like now?

Okay. So, pre-kids, pre me having my own children, it was me staying in bed as long as possible. Yeah, that was very much it. I would shower the night before, shave the night before, just everything ready the night before, sleep in as long as possible, put on my clothes and brush my teeth, and head out the door. And eat breakfast on the way to school. Yeah, sleep in as late as I possibly could. And then, after I had kids, I did not want to saddle them with my bad habits, and so I got up a little earlier, we got a little bit of the, what do they call it, the chaos routine down? And it’s busy in the mornings when kids are younger, but we’d get them up and off to school, and again, I still wouldn’t do much for myself, it was more about getting the kids ready and getting them out the door.

And now, it’s very much about, my kids are both in high school now, and so they take care of most of their stuff, and it’s just a matter of the dog and I will get up, and wake both of them up, and we just kind of say hi… Nobody’s a morning person around here. So, everybody just grabs their own section of the newspaper, and glances at it as they are eating breakfast, and then everybody’s up and out the door. So, I don’t know, I guess my lack of a morning routine is my morning routine. And so, I’ll just get them out the door and then I’ll pull out my laptop and start working. Yeah, the people who are like, oh, I take a nice stroll, and I have my coffee-

I do yoga.

… and do my breathing exercise… That is so foreign to me, just nothing in my life would make me want to go for a relaxing stroll in the morning. I could be sleeping during that time.

Right.

So, yeah, the lack of routine is probably my routine for the morning. So, what about you?

Yeah, when I taught, I was a big fan of prepping the night before because my bed also likes me to stay in it as long as possible. So, very similar. I would shower, I would do my hair, I would lay out my… I would do every possible thing at night, because I’m a night owl, that’s when I’m productive. So, I would do those things at 10:00 PM so that I could literally get up and be out the door in 20 minutes. And I had it timed perfectly, and I knew exactly, if I left it this time, I wouldn’t hit traffic. And the same goes for at school, I would prep everything the night before. I often had breakfast duties, so that was part of my morning routine. So, any supplies we needed. And I would, this is how neurotic my brain is, I wouldn’t just prep for the first class, I’d prep for every class. I was-

Oh, I did that too.

… prepped for every class before I walked in the door. And then, now, I do things out of order, I get up and I literally reach under my bed and grab my laptop, and I just start working before I even get out of bed.

Oh my.

And I get myself and my to-do list organized, and what do I have? What meetings do I have? And then, my husband takes on most of the morning stuff with our kids. My kids, they’re in elementary and early middle school, so they still need some prodding and some help in that way. But he takes most of that, so if I have time, I’ll help a little bit with getting them out the door, and then I get ready, and make breakfast, and then I go to my office down the hall. Or if we’re being real, go to a blanket nest on the couch because now it’s cold in winter, and sometimes I do my best work from there, so.

Okay. I can’t imagine pulling my laptop out first thing. I can’t believe-

I understand it’s psychotic.

… we’ve never talked about this before. Does that help your brain relax, when you make that to-do list?

No.

Because I feel like I would pull that out and it just be immediate stress. Also, I can’t imagine having my laptop in the bed… Do you just work until you go to bed? These seem like very bad habits.

They’re really not great habits. I don’t work until I go to bed, no, but I do put my laptop there so that-

You just go with your laptop?

… I’m prepping for the night before. I’m prepping for the day, the next day.

I see. I see.

So, I just slide it under. Okay, does it make me… Is that a good way to start the day? Objectively no. Do I wish I was a movement, foam roller… There’s some really healthy… Meditation. That’s not me. And actually getting up and understanding exactly what I have to do and getting organized does make me feel relaxed for the rest of the day.

Okay.

My brain does like that. So, we’re all about being vulnerable here, if anybody has ideas of how I could have a healthier morning routine, I’m all ears. But this is honestly not bad for me, it’s working.

Okay. Okay. Good, good. Glad to hear it. Okay. Real quickly, before we go, do you have 90 seconds to play one more round of this or that?

Yes.

Okay. Let’s do it. All right, thanksgiving was super fun, it’s December now, it’s snowing, so we’re going to go winter edition. Eventually we’re going to have to make these art teacher questions, but there’s just so much else going on with life that I feel like we’re going to do winter edition. So, are you ready?

Yes.

Okay. This or that, hot chocolate or apple cider?

Oh, hot chocolate. Apple cider is like dirty pie water. I don’t want it.

Dirty pie water, I really like that. Okay, sledding or ice skating?

Sledding. Sledding is big, and I would actually prefer a tube.

Okay. Okay. Yeah. Could have done sledding or tubing, but no, I like ice skating. Okay, snowball fight or building a snowman?

Snowman. I don’t like when the snow crystals get in my jacket. I don’t want to snowball-

Like going down the neck of your jacket?

Yeah.

Yeah, terrible, terrible feeling. Snowball fight, if it’s dependent on the type of snow, if it’s hard, icy chunks, let’s not fight with that. But yeah, you need the right type of snow for a good snowball fight. Probably for a good snowman too. But anyway, that’s a whole different discussion. Wool coat or puffy coat?

Oh, puffy coat. I have a coat that’s name is Papa Puff, because it’s so thick, and I love him.

All right, I love that. Peppermint or cinnamon?

Peppermint.

Okay. You look like you’re thinking very hard about that one.

Well, I think peppermint. Cinnamon’s fine.

Okay. Okay. And then, this is probably the biggest one for teachers, what’s better, winter break or unexpected snow day?

Ooh. Winter break because it’s so long. That’s the only… A snow day is… I live in Wisconsin, and a snow day is truly incredible.

It is the greatest feeling in the world.

It’s so great, but winter break is so nice. It’s so cozy and it’s so nice.

Yeah, I don’t even know if I can answer that one because they’re both so magical, so wonderful. So, that’s good. All right, well, Amanda, thank you so much for joining us, I appreciate the advice, appreciate the insights on the community, and I appreciate your thoughts on snowball fights, and peppermint, and snow days. So thank you.

You’re welcome. See you next month everybody.

Thanks to Amanda for coming on. We’ll have a lot of links in the show notes, and after last month, we all know where those show notes can be found, so please dive in. We also talked a lot today about the Art of Ed community, and honestly, if you’re not there yet, we would love to have you join us. It is an amazing online space just for art teachers, it is filled with positivity and professionalism, great conversation, great ideas, and I love signing on there, and always look forward to the discussions that are happening. So, if you have some time, please come check it out.

Art Ed Radio is produced by the Art of Education University, with audio engineering from Michael Crocker. Thank you for listening to this episode, and every episode, we hope you’ve enjoyed them. For a deeper dive into what we talked about today, again, find those links in the show notes, or you can check out theartofeducation.edu. Also, be sure to subscribe so we can join you again, you get the next mailbag at beginning of next month, and if you love the show, please jump over to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen, give us a five star rating, maybe even leave us a review. We’ll talk to you next week.