What's in a name?

When I switched from being a homeroom teacher to a specialist teacher for visual arts, I was a bit nervous about my abilities in all of the various visual art forms such as drawing, painting, weaving, knitting, sculpture, pottery...I could keep going!!! Nevertheless, I took the leap and am so pleased that I did. During my first week as a PYP Visual Arts teacher, I shared these concerns with some of my students. I told them that it was my belief that we are all artists and progressing through challenges and successes along the way. I shared that I was no expert and we would often times be learning together. After the children left, I found a yellow craft stick on the floor. I must admit that I was slightly irritated that it had not been tidied up with the rest of our materials. I bent down, picked it up, and luckily saw the message as I was about to pop it back into the container. It said 'Artist Angie' in light pencil with a little ball on top of the 'i' in Artist. This moved me. I put it on my laptop that day and it is still there three years later reminding me how wonderfully rewarding it is to co-create. When I first had the idea to track the artwork of grade levels over time, it was difficult to decide what to call the website. In the end, the name was staring at me every day. It came from one of my students, found in the remnants of our creating. Pretty perfect, right?!?