International Peace Day and Pinwheels for Peace

Pinwheels for Peace was a success! Seventeen classes took part. Over the course of the day we approximately 360 pinwheels in the garden at De Zavala Elementary. A little inadvertent watering and a tiny touch of rain left some of our pinwheels the worse for wear, but otherwise all went well.

In addition to the Pinwheels for Peace, we hung a small portion of our wishes for peace from several small trees.


Adding wishes for peace to one of our Wish Trees.


Taking a break from planting our Pinwheels for Peace


Planting Pinwheels for Peace


Pinwheels in class bouquets before planting.

Here's to wishing for a peaceful future for all of us.

Let me introduce myself

My name is Jean King. I am the art teacher at De Zavala Elementary School. I have taught here since 1998. This is my twelfth year at De Zavala. For the first five years, I taught Multicultual Art to the Vanguard students only. Since 2003 I have been the art teacher for the entire school.

From 1992 until 1998 I was the art teacher at W. C. Cunningham Middle School in Galena Park Independent School District.

I started my career as a visual artist/instructor in 1978 and have taught for a wide variety of organizations, including: Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, Creative Alternatives (now City Artworks), the Children's Museum, and St. Joseph MECA (now MECA).

I am a working artist. I don't limit myself to one medium, rather I switch from drawing to painting to sculpture and back again. This means that I can share my art experience more fully with my students.

When I am not teaching, making, or reading about art, I enjoy traveling. I have been very fortunate over the past few years and have been able to spend time in Europe and Japan. Everywhere I go, I try to bring my experience back to my classroom.

I am passionate about both art and teaching. I look forward to another enjoyable year of art with your children.

Welcome to the new school year

Welcome back to the art room. School has begun again. It seems such a short time ago that we were saying goodbye for the summer.

I'm sure that this is going to be a wonderful year.

I spent my summer doing a variety of things, but all of them relate to my teaching. I traveled with my husband in Europe. He had to teach. I just traveled. We went to Milan and Venice in Italy, Stavanger, Norway and London, England. I wandered around wondering what I would find that I could use for my classes this year.

While I was in Europe I got the news that my principal, Mr. Javier Villarreal, had been moved to Edison Middle School. This is a promotion for him and he will be able to keep up with our former De Zavalans as they travel on in their education.

Once we returned home I spent a great deal of time online researching and trying out new technology for my art room. There is so much out there it is overwhelming. I'm still processing all that I learned. I'll be filling you in on more of that later. My favorite new social media is Twitter. You can find me there communicating with my PLN (Professional Learning Network).

My new principal was selected towards the end of the summer break. Ms. Lisa Rios is on the ball and definitely going to lead our school in an exciting new year.