Woke up to a blessed 4-5 inches of PERFECT snow. A nice surprise snow day for Gabe and I
and we did not waste any time getting into the spirit of the day. We have made a snowman,
several snow angels, and had a good time throwing snowballs at each other! :) We went walking on the pristine sidewalks and left our mark all over before anyone else! Our yard is a mess and we like it that way! Let the neighbors have their picture perfect fresh snowfall yards... Gabe and I prefer a grungy-looking snowman and footprints all over!
We are in the house getting dry and warmed up to make our third trip out this morning (it is not quite 9:30) and hope to spend the majority of our day off reveling in the glory that is snow! I hope that everyone else has as much fun as we do!

A Long Time Ago, in a Blog Far, Far From Well-Maintained...

So, yeah... basically I am a bad blogger. I don't really care too much if my blog goes months and months without a post. But, now that I am signed-in I kinda feel guilty for the 3-month or so hiatus. Forgive me. I am negligent. But since this not a class or anything such as that, I suppose no harm has been done.

I have had a recurring nightmare where I realize that an entire semester has gone by and I have not attended my math course since the first day and find myself having to sit the exam. Oh... and I am naked. What do you think that means? I had that nightmare again not all that long ago, and the worst part is that when I awake I feel panicked, as if it is real and as if the exam is that very morning. For those of you out there in the blogosphere who know me you may realize that math is not my strong suit. I avoided college math until I absolutely had to take it in order to graduate after seven years of school! Yeah, math makes me nervous. In the fifth grade my teacher, Mr. Bigham, would constantly call on me to tell him the time when we were lined up for PE, music, or art. I hated that! I couldn't tell time on an analog clock until Mr. Bigham made me learn. For that, I thank him. But I hated him when he would ask!!

This blog entry is very random. It is my mood. I am feeling random and so you will either suffer along as you read, trying to find some connection within this rant, or you will stop reading and just click away, or you can merely enjoy the scenery; kinda like a Sunday drive in the fall scenery of the hills of Connecticut. Or, perhaps, the bland scenery of Eastern Arkansas... however you view it!

I don't think I could be a stay-at-home mom. We received a Christmas card from friends today and it was lovely. They always are. She is a stay-at-home mom and is really into crafting. Even if I had the time I don't think I would make my cards. Not that I couldn't do it. I mean, gee... I went to school to recieve my BFA and have a bit of talent, but crafty stuff just isn't my thing. I suck at scrapbooking. I am not into rubber stamps. I went out and stocked up on scrapbooking stuff after Gabe was born, full of good intentions. Then I realized something; I just don't like scrapbooking. I think other people are amazing at it and appreciate the talent and time that goes into it. It just isn't my thing. But I do love to take photos. Lots and lots of photos. Photos of places I have been, people I love, flowers and trees that I find pretty or otherwise interesting subject matter. These photos don't often make it farther than being uploaded to my computer, even though I have the full Photoshop 7. I need to take a class on how to work that program. It seems like it would be a lot of fun to get into.

School. Now there is something I love. I love being a teacher. I love working with kids. I love teaching art. But I want to do more. I want to get my masters in academic adminstration so I can be a Dean of Students in the future. I think I would be pretty good at that. I think that I work well with kids who have issues, and I think the role of Dean of Students would be a good fit for me. So, I hope to begin my masters in the fall. Yep. I thought about getting my MFA in sculpture/ceramics, but.... while I am a decent visual artist, I don't think that I am MFA material. Perhaps I am smply selling myself short. Who knows? Really it is not all that important, though.

Christmas was nice. Mike, while living in Memphis right at the moment, has spent the break with Gabe and I in Arkansas. We have watched a lot of movies, opened many presents, ate a lot of ham, and had a nice break. Gabe has really had a good Christmas and has been playing with his new pirate stuff since Christmas morning. He fell asleep Christmas Eve with his camera in his hands, hoping to catch Santa at work! It was cute as could be. He got a lot of pirate-themed stuff, some clothes (much needed as he is growing like a weed!), and a bunch of books. He also got a toy "Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" that he is enjoying a lot. We sing the song and stuff animals into the old woman's mouth. Fun for all!

New Year's Mike and I are going to a bar in Mid-Town to listen to a local band I enjoy. I have a student (who joined me on my last trip to Europe) coming to watch Gabe that night. I think that he will have a lot of fun with her; she is a great kid and a talented little artist, to boot (she is presently in my Art 1 class).

So.... what else? I dunno.... random, right? Hope so as then I have been successful!

Have a great New Year!

A New Friend

Gabe has a new friend. His name is "Mr. Sharkey Fish" and he is a red betta. Gabe chose him while we were at Petco buying Rosco's dogfood. He has been wanting fish for a long time, and I think that a betta is a good introduction to being a fish owner.
Gabe chose a betta tank from an endcap featuring betta products and betta fish. He took his time selecting the right betta, and found "Mr. Sharkey Fish" on a separate stack of fish a little way away from the endcap. Then he selected a little crocodile statue to be his new friend's buddy in the tank. We came directly home from Petco and I was instructed to get the new addition into his tank as soon as possible. Gabe helped rinse and set up the little plant, rocks, glass shells, and the crocodile. He then fed Mr. Sharkey Fish, watched him eat, and has been watching him swim around for more than an hour.
Gabe is really happy with his new little friend and I hope that Mr. Sharkey Fish will have a long, happy life here with us. I will post photos as soon as I get my camera back from Mike. He took it with him on his trip to Germany.

Photos... Phinally!

So, I promised to post some photos from my new art rooms, and now I am making good on that promise. Understand that we are under a lot of restrictions at the new school, so I cannot hang stuff on the walls. I have had to get kind of creative so I can still have posters and stuff, and that is taking more time than just hanging posters using tape, poster putty, or hot glue. I have adopted the practice of using paper clips to hang everything! That takes more time, especially since I have to hijack a ladder to do that, and that is not always easy to do!

Anyway, I will post more at a later date. I have finally unpacked my three Brent Model C wheels, but in the photos they are still in boxes. And I have arranged my tables in my second classroom, though I am waiting for three "extra" tables to go to their new homes (If you are a teacher, can you imagine that? EXTRA really nice tables? It sure beats my old recycled tables with holes or the old split cafeteria tables I had at my school in Rio Rico!).

The sinks and cabinets in the rear of my room. The door on the left leads to my outside patio space and the door in the center of the image leads to my second classroom!

One of my students put up the bulletin board to show off our fun trip to Italy and Spain this summer.

Taken from in front of my store room facing the front of my room. I have great tables!

You have to love the color scheme! It is so me!! The cabinets are all custom and hold so much stuff! It is such a change from my room at the old junior high!

Facing the front. You can see my SmartBoard front and center (yay!).

This is a (not very good) shot of my patio.

This is facing the area I designed for the wheels. I didn't really want cabinets back here, but I am not about to complain! They are really nice cabinets (all custom, again), and I think that they will be easy to clean.

My kiln. Oh how I love thee!

One of my two storage rooms. I have two 8-roll racks of butcher paper, but I don't have any bulletin boards... go figure.

A view of my kiln room. There are also shelves to the left that I couldn't get in the photo.

A Wonderful Video

If you are at all interested in education or creativity you might like this video. This gentleman speaks about the problem with modern education and how we approach creativity (and stifle creativity) in modern education.
Anyway... enjoy.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

Oh Happy Day

So, not only is my new art department awesome, structurally, what with the amazing space, great storage, SmartBoard in each room, two storage rooms, and a kiln room complete with a front-loading high-fire kiln, but...

Today I received three Brent Model B potter's wheels! YES! I am very excited about these wonderful little additions to my course, as now I can offer a more complete array of ceramics for my kids. Sure, I have three for classes with numbers upwards of 25, but... I have three! I have not had potter's wheels since I was in Vegas, and there I was not able to make decent use of them because I had two for classes of 30.

I know that I promised photos, and I will get some uploaded soon, but I am waiting until I have fewer boxes littering my rooms. I am still in the process of unpacking and organizing. I need hanging files so that I can empty out more than eight boxes of files and Scholastic Art Magazines, so that is a huge chunk of stuff on my beautiful floor. And I need to organize my paper storage and stuff. Soon.... soon. I also want to buy a few hanging plants, as I think that they are nice to have and dead useful in a pinch when a drawing subject is needed!

New School

Next month I will start teaching in the new Junior High building. Today I spent about four hours sorting through my 200-odd boxes, unpacking and trying to get a handle on how I want to organize my room.
First of all, my new rooms are amazing! (Not a typo... I have two rooms!) Well, technically I have one, but there is not another art teacher, so... I have two. In my room I have orange and red (kinda burgundy) custom cabinets that are really nice. They seem well-constructed and are able to withstand the hefty weight of my large paper storage. I have three really tall (probably 7-8') cabinets; two of which have doors. One is open, and that will be my paper storage because I am using the two with doors to store student work. Then there are six double door smaller cabinets (three of these are well over 2' deep), and 18 drawers! (this is all in one section of cabinets! I have another section...) There are two sections of counter here as well.
On the front wall I have a SmartBoard. (Yay!!!!!) I have been waiting for my SmartBoard for three years! Finally... and I am really looking forward to using the technology to maximize instruction. I can't wait to start designing lessons utilizing this new "toy"!
On the back wall I have two double door cabinets with a counter and four drawers. Then I have an island with 3 sinks, two double door cabinets, and, like, 12 drawers, or something!
AND I have a storage room AND a kiln room. Each room has separate storage, so I have TWO storage rooms.
Am I excited? You better believe it! Oh, and I have four big windows (so I pretty much can leave the lights off) and a patio off of my room!!
So, I am sorry if I bored you with this post. I am so excited that I want to tell everyone about it. I am so looking forward to teaching in my new space. The room I have had for three years was depressing at best. And the room I had before that had carpet and no sink. SO... Now I have a great space and I cannot wait to post photos! I will do that as soon as I have my boxes unpacked and the room looking sorta like I want it to. Until then... use your imagination.