Texas elementary school art teacher makes dress featuring her students' drawings
A Texas art teacher's inspirational project is warming the hearts of her community and the internet after she donned a dress with drawings created by hundreds of her students.
The project went viral after her daughter posted it on Twitter, where it quickly garnered over 100,000 likes.
"I got fabric markers and sharpies," Rebecca Bonner told "Good Morning America." "I laid out my dress for two weeks and just let them doodle on it."
Bonner, a teacher at Mcauliffe Elementary School in Highland Village, Texas, said she got the inspiration for the dress from a private Facebook group of fellow elementary school art teachers where they all "share ideas, inspire each other and try to lift each other up."
She said it was a great way to get her 580 students, who range in age from 3 to 11, "excited about art."
"Being their teacher dressed up in their doodles is always fun," she added.
Bonner said she was shocked when she found out photos of her project went viral, after her daughter, Charlece Lake, posted them.
"I’m not worried about being famous or anything like that but I do think it's great to promote the arts, because elementary art is not everywhere," she said.
"I think it's really important for kids to have that outlet, to have that place to create, and that freedom to create," she added.
The art educator said that her catchphrase is "turn your mess up into a dress up."
Bonner's daughter, Charlece Lake, 20, who posted the photos on Twitter, described her mom as "really passionate about showing how important teaching is, and the arts are in school."
She said she just thought it was "the cutest picture" of her mom, and "had no idea it was going to blow up like this."
Lake said watching her mom spark confidence through art in children is what inspired her to want to become a teacher as well, and she is currently pursuing her teaching degree in college.
"I think she just inspires students to be creative and just make their mistakes into something beautiful," Lake said.
