What do you do when your school or classroom lacks technology resources? Students use their cell phones to Google ideas for their art projects. What do you do when the school decides they no longer want to allow cell phone use at the teacher’s discretion? You find someone that wants to get rid of a large screen television, connect it to your school computer and voilà, you now have a resource for creative research, and one large enough to share ideas with your entire class.
 
Google searches were great, but were unorganized and sometimes had items that I did not want to see in a classroom studio. While using my personal Pinterest, I thought, why not create a Pinterest account just for school? I think I’ve seen people mention this in online groups. I could sort ideas by project. Guess what? It has been a really great way for me to save ideas for my students. Anytime I see something that might interest a student, I just pin it. Because I created the account just for our studio, students can search and add pins too. They are getting more comfortable using it every day. I love watching them gather around the computer to search ideas, and then I notice all of the other students in the room looking at the screen too. I almost wish our school banned cell phones sooner. NOT. It is; however, one of the best decisions I ever made for my studio. Happy pinning!

I am pretty picky about glaze organization. I want to go grab the glaze I need and continue working without loss of time or idea. I want that for my students too. I finally have a system that has really cut down on time spent finding the glazes we want on the shelves.

1. What does this color look like?

Test tiles are great, but if you have been the yearbook advisor for several years, you never had time to make test tiles. Catalog pages from the glaze manufacturer are the way to go. The glazes we have in stock have a red sticker next to the name of the glaze. Amaco's photos are really accurate and my students can choose colors quickly when the samples are all in one area.

2. Where is that glaze on the shelf?

The blue line of text at the top of each glaze chart shows students what type of glaze they should look for. Those letters like "LG", "F" and "CTL" get the students to the correct shelf. Our glazes are organized by type and color. Each bottle is color coded. All bottles have colored stickers on them which makes getting them back to the correct shelf after use very easy. Match the sticker color to find the shelf, match the name on the bottle to the name tag on the shelf to get it back to the correct row. And yes, this is also a special education modification.

Our glaze selection is currently a bit low due to lack of funds, but this system has kept our glazes organized even when we were at full capacity.