Happy Valentine's Day, Unless You're a Jerk

As soon as students started to arrive with balloons, flowers, and arm-fulls of candy I quickly decided to scrap my lesson plans in favor of making Valentines. I'm glad I did because spending 60 seconds explaining what I wanted them to do with the Valentines was almost too long for their sugar and lust-addled attention spans. While I saw many beautiful and creative Valentines throughout the day, as usual, the most entertaining were also some of the worst. Below is the oh-so charming Valentine that I received from one of my fabulous 9th graders:

In case you don't recognize the image, it's a muscular, veiny, flexing arm- eww.

There's really no response to that other than "is it Friday yet?".

Happy Valentines Day Print

Cara made up a bunch of cards with linocut printmaking to give out as Aven's Valentines day cards.

Visual Texture

I just got my 7th graders started on this project- everyone is doing a different animal. I'm not sure if it's going to be too difficult for them, I guess we'll see. I got the idea from a fellow middle school teacher who teaches at another school in my district (yay for district collaboration!). It was a really fun project to do. I don't always have time to completely finish examples for new projects but like a good book I couldn't put this one down.

Fun with Safety

This year I decided to participate in a workplace safety poster contest which is done annually by The Utah Labor Commission. Just for participating I will be receiving $300.00 for my art program which is sorely needed thanks to the administration cutting my entire budget last year and leaving my program to survive on student fee money. The top twelve winners in the state will have their drawings published in a calendar that is sent to workplaces throughout the state and they also win a cash prize. Another really cool bonus: If any of my students win I get matching prize money for my art program. Out of 67 kids who completed the assignment there were 8 that I felt were good enough to submit to the contest. Just sharing the top eight would be kind of boring, so instead I'm sharing my favorites:


Category #1- Tell it like it is. These kids don't waste any time telling you that death is just around the corner:



Category #2- Language barriers. Learning English is hard and I have a huge amount of respect for kids who are trying to learn a new language while earning good grades in classes taught exclusively in that language:

The above poster was done by a girl who moved here from Thailand less than a year ago. I smiled with giddy delight when I saw her awkward translation; unfortunately I didn't see it soon enough to help her correct it.


Category #3- Off the mark. These kids could not be deterred from their unorthodox take on safety:

What?! Why is the hot dog vendor reminding the monkey keeper how to do his job? And why is that monkey loose? So many unanswered questions! This one seriously made me laugh out loud.

The hard-to-read text at the top says "shoot him before he shoots you". The kid who made this one was utterly convinced that this poster would be helpful to cops. I also love the weird mix of Kenny and Cartman from south park, an AK-47, and a pac-man game gone wrong.


Category #4- Close, but no cigar:

This one made me laugh and I thought it was a clever connection to the Geico ads, but I can't send in something with a copyrighted slogan.


Category #5- Possible winners. These kids turned in some high quality, smart posters. I really hope that at least one of them wins:

Very cute and well done. The fact that she folded it to take it home might work against her.

The big lettering looks a little clumsy because it was done with a Sharpie that bled, but the million dollar bill is amazing and has lots of fun details.


If this kid doesn't get at least an honorable mention I'll assume the contest is rigged because this is amazing and is as good or better than any of the posters that made this year's calendar.

If any of my kids win I will post an update!