Drawing My Costume

As a teacher or a substitute teacher you are sometimes called upon to demonstrate your artistic skills so that the students can follow your example or observe the process. This was the case when I substituted this week. The teacher wanted the students to draw a picture and write a story in their journals. It was to be about their Halloween costumes and what might happen on Halloween night. She/He was hopping they might make up a story using future tense verbs and draw a picture, starting with black crayon and then using at least 5 colors. Why five colors? Because some of them have no interest in drawing a picture and tend to rush through the whole process. By insisting on 5 colors and details, it requires at least at little more effort. Since most of them are at the very earliest stages of writing, each student dictates what they want to say and I write it on a Post-It Note that they then stick on their drawing.

For this lesson the teacher wanted me to demonstrate the process on a poster sized sheet of paper, "thinking outloud" as I went and asking questions as I drew my picture. Because some students are overly concerned about mistakes, I often make fun of my artistic abilities by declaring that I am a great artist and then drawing a stick figure, which makes them laugh. I also ask them if they are allowed to make mistakes and then reassure them that it is okay. I rarely have to purposely make a mistake because I nearly always make one by accident.

So, here I am in my costume. I purposely went with "funny" costume instead of a scarey one, thus the mismatched sleeve lengths (originally a mistake), pant lengths, high-heeled boot and sneaker, and droopy sword. Please note the effective use of color!