Dove - Evolution Commercial

Dove came out with a new "real beauty" commercial, but I still like the old one better.

Pep Talk

What Teachers Make, or
Objection Overruled, or
If things don't work out, you can always go to law school

By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

He says the problem with teachers is, "What's a kid going to learn
from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"
He reminds the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about
teachers:
Those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

I decide to bite my tongue instead of his
and resist the temptation to remind the other dinner guests
that it's also true what they say about lawyers.

Because we're eating, after all, and this is polite company.

"I mean, you¹re a teacher, Taylor," he says.
"Be honest. What do you make?"

And I wish he hadn't done that
(asked me to be honest)
because, you see, I have a policy
about honesty and ass-kicking:
if you ask for it, I have to let you have it.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I can make a C+ feel like a Congressional medal of honor
and an A- feel like a slap in the face.
How dare you waste my time with anything less than your very best.

I make kids sit through 40 minutes of study hall
in absolute silence. No, you may not work in groups.
No, you may not ask a question.
Why won't I let you get a drink of water?
Because you're not thirsty, you're bored, that's why.

I make parents tremble in fear when I call home:
I hope I haven't called at a bad time,
I just wanted to talk to you about something Billy said today.
Billy said, "Leave the kid alone. I still cry sometimes, don't you?"
And it was the noblest act of courage I have ever seen.

I make parents see their children for who they are
and what they can be.

You want to know what I make?

I make kids wonder,
I make them question.
I make them criticize.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them write, write, write.
And then I make them read.
I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, definitely
beautiful
over and over and over again until they will never misspell
either one of those words again.
I make them show all their work in math.
And hide it on their final drafts in English.
I make them understand that if you got this (brains)
then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you
by what you make, you give them this (the finger).

Let me break it down for you, so you know what I say is true:
I make a goddamn difference! What about you?

New Year's Resolution: Just Breathe

Sometime soon I will upload photos of my new classroom, which is huge: 32'x27', with a well-stocked supply room that runs the length of one of the 32' walls. I'm feeling pretty spoiled. We'll see how long that lasts.

To counter that feeling, I spent 4 hours in a scheduling meeting today. This is where we specialists decide which teacher has what special on which day at what time. It's just as much of a pain in the tookas as you might think.

I currently have 22 40-minute classes and 5 30-minute ones for a total of about 600 students, but I spend one morning a week at another school, and I don't know anything about how many class periods or students I will have there. I'm figuring on 4 classes of about 25 for a ballpark, so another 100 kids. I don't know if that's in a classroom or on the cart or what. Planning to call the principal tomorrow.

Fortunately, I got along just fine with the other specialists, especially the music teacher (this is terrific because his classroom is next to mine). I met a bunch of the regular teachers too, and I may even remember a few of them by the time they start bringing me kids in 10 days. That is yet to be seen.

I only spent 7 hours at school today, but that's because they kicked us all out at 4pm. Will spend a few hours there on Tuesday, then have New Teacher Orientation on Weds, Thurs & Fri. I'll have time to work on my room those 3 afternoons, but I'm nowhere near done, and there's no way in hell my classroom will be as ready as I want it to be for the 28th. I just have to breathe and remember that it doesn't need to be perfect.

New Job!

After searching for a full-time teaching job since spring of 2004, I have finally been offered a position. Honestly, I've never been employed full-time, permanently. Ever. I've always had part-time jobs in school, and when I wasn't in school I usually cobbled together 2 jobs: one which paid decently, and one that was art-related. I've had a few full-time summer jobs, or subbing positions, but nothing that lasted for more than a couple of months. It's a little scary.

I'm also scared to death because the last job I was offered was retracted a few days later. And I got replaced at my first substitute teaching job. And leaving my last job was worse than anything before. I have not yet signed my contract, and I live in fear that they'll change their minds and offer the job to someone else. Silly, I know, but still I fear it. Or that I'll be terrible and they'll fire me. Or I'll be so unhappy in a few months that I'll wonder why I ever chose a career in teaching. Or some other horrible fate akin to the misery I've experienced in the last 3+ years.

In part, I'm nervous because the job seems too good to be true. Aside from a fairly long commute, it's a dream job for me. The building itself is terrific, with artistic touches to the architecture that won it a national award when it was built 12 years ago. For example, the stairway in the main lobby has a railing made of what looks like 2" diameter rebar, sculpted into dramatic curves and swirls and painted bright, primary colors. The principal (who is the founding principal of the school) is very proud of her school. She says that she really focuses on "whole child" education, equally emphasizing the arts with the core subjects and seems to actually follow through on this breakthrough notion! One of her motivating factors is that her father was a concert pianist. They have had an "artist in residence" every year. The artwork created by each artist in conjunction with the students is on prominent display in the main lobby of the building. The principal pointed out and described each one as she showed me around the building. The artwork was terrific.

The district is equally lovely. I interviewed with the assistant superintendent, who had Dr. Seuss sprinkled in with her books on curriculum and discipline in her office library, and a framed, matted Maurice Sendak print hanging on the wall. She told me it was her second copy, the original was hanging on her classroom wall for years, only to be annexed by her daughter when she went off to college. The school department offices were covered in framed, matted student artwork, and the assistant superintendent told me that the superintendent himself is married to an art teacher. The pay is even decent. Certainly better than I've ever been paid before.

I honestly think the job is a terrific fit for me. I'll be teaching K-5, which is a welcome change from the jaded urban teens I've been bullied by for the past 3 years. I spent a couple of weeks in July working with the K-5 range in a nearby town, and I loved every minute of it. So I'm excited. Really. I just won't be able to really relax until I've signed a contract. And started working. And have worked past the 90-day "we can fire you for any reason" clause. And make it through the school year. And get re-hired for the next year...

Connections: Art and Math

"The Great Wave of Kanagawa" from 36 Views of Mount Fugi, 1832, compared to a fractal wave.

When I first saw an image similar to this one, I was blown away. Katsushika Hokusai created this amazing woodcut over 150 years ago:

Did he know about fractals? Did he use math to create the image? It is hard to say, although it would not be the first place where art and math collide in Japan. Origami, the Japanese art of paper folding, is extremely geometric, and relies strongly on the principle of symmetry.

And fractals are artful in and of themselves:


You can read more about how fractals are made at The Fractory.

Fine Art Friday

Last Friday was my grandfather's memorial service, so my apologies not posting. The memorial featured Wampanoag tribal drumming, which was incredible. While I usually focus on visual arts, today I present a photo of my cousins drumming and singing. This performance is an art form that is slowly dying, but The photo (Mary Muckenhoupt) and full article (Gail McCarthy) were featured in the Gloucester Daily Times last weekend.

Oh yeah, and that's me in the white dress with my husband in the background.

Small things help make changes!

Save Arts Education in Massachusetts TAKE ACTION TODAY

The Massachusetts Department of Education is proposing to drop arts education from its recommended curriculum for high school students. Eliminating a graduation requirement robs students of the opportunity to engage in creative work--skills that are critical to succeed in today's global economy.

Please write a letter in your own words asking the Department of Education to include an arts education requirement in the recommended core curriculum, also known as MassCore. Short thoughtful letters are the most effective. Until May 24, you can write your letter through the MAASH web site. MAASH will then print all the letters and deliver them to the Commissioner. All letters must be received by the Department of Education by next Friday, May 25.

http://capwiz.com/artsusa/ma/issues/alert/?alertid=9770396&type=CU&azip=02140&bzip=1301&show_alert=1

Writing a letter is the most important. You can also urge the Department to save arts education by completing the following web survey. Be sure to write in your support for arts education on questions 11,12, and 13.

http://vessunapp3.doe.mass.edu/surveys/take.do?n=141640359

Thank you for your support on this critical issue.

Dan Hunter
Executive Director
Massachusetts Advocates for the Arts, Sciences, & Humanities
14 Beacon Street, Suite 103
Boston, MA 02108
617-725-0455
dhunter@maash.org

In Memoriam

Las Meninas, by Diego Velázquez, 1656

On Saturday, my grandfather died. He was a great lover of all things Spanish, from Dom Quixote to Flamenco Dancing. He'd been to both Spain and Mexico, and even attempted to buy condos in Cancun. This was one of his favorite paintings. He set it as the desktop on his computer. Some of the things he liked about it: Velazquez painted himself into the picture. He is the figure on the far right, and in the scene he is actually painting a portrait of a couple. You can see them reflected in the mirror to the rear of the room. He liked the dwarf handmaiden that appears second from the left, and the figure of the girls' father silhouetted in the doorway. My grandfather had great attention to detail, and this painting had enough detail to keep him amused and entertained. I like it too, and therefore I share it with you today.

Fine Art Friday

On Wednesday my husband, in-laws and I were lucky enough to get a private tour of the MFA with curator Deanna Griffin. She took us into the basement to see the collection of European art that was not currently on display. One of the paintings I got to examine at length was
Flower Beds at Vétheuil
1881
Claude Monet, French, 1840–1926
Oil on canvas
This image, from the MFA's website, cannot even remotely do it justice. The reds are so rich, the colors so varied, and the paint is so textured...it was amazing. You can use the MFA's zoom tool on it here.

Fine Art Friday

Thinking of illustrators like M. C. Escher, Wayne Anderson, and Daniel Merriam always makes me think of H. R. Giger. Giger is most famous for his design of the evil extra-terrestrial and its' environs in the Alien films.
Note: please follow links with caution, as some of his artwork contains graphics of a violent or sexual nature.

Tyger

Labyrinth

Here is a clip from Labyrinth in the Escher set.

Fine Art Friday

Continuing with the theme of illustrators. One of my students asked me about M. C. Escher the other day. Most people don't know that his images are not actually drawings, but lithographs, mezzotints, linocuts, woodcuts and etchings. You'll find more info, including film clips of interviews and Escher at work, at this website. One of my favorites inspired the set design in the 1986 film Labryinth:

Fine Art Friday

I forgot to post one last week, so I'll post two today. Both are fantasty illustrators. Daniel Merriam:


And the second is an illustrator that I have admired since I was a small child and owned the book Ratsmagic. Wayne Anderson's images have stayed with me for good reason:

more on racism and segregation

A friend of mine just posted the following to her blog. I am reposting the whole thing with her permission but without credit as she wishes to remain anonymous. I pretty much agree with her analysis completely, even at the high school level in the same district. My school is primarily students of color, but even the few white kids are almost entirely from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds. Her examples could be mine, just change the grade levels, and not even that when it comes to reading levels in a few cases.

This is my fourth year in an urban school. I am one of the few white faces in the building (the others are largely other teachers...I think there are less than 20 white kids in the whole school) and this is certainly nothing new in the land of urban education. I teach in schools that have reason to worry about government takeover, AYP (annual yearly progress) and state administered tests. We are the schools they point at when they talk about a racial gap in test scores and success.

However, the longer I spend in urban schools the less comfortable I am with calling it a racial gap. If you go into a middle class/upper middle class school and look at the students of color and their grades and scores, you don't really see a gap. The same holds true of white kids in the urban schools (exceptions-gifted and talented program-usually all white kids of middle class parents who don't want to pay for private school).

The true markers of success in school have to do with income and education level of the PARENTS and really have nothing to do with race. However, the upper strata of the American Caste system is white, and while we don't like acknowledging our issues surrounding race, it seems downright un-American to talk about the class disparities.

The differences are astounding. My fifth graders are reading books I left behind in 2nd grade and that most kids would read in 3rd or early 4th. They have no interest in school as opposed to basketball. They don't care about grades. They don't do their homework more than 1/2 the time. And talking to the parents changes exactly...none...of these issues.

The parents range from girls my age-sometimes a bit younger (with ten year olds) to moms maybe 6 years older than me (and a good 5 years younger than I'll be when I have a fifth grader) who have between 1 and six kids total. The younger the mom, the more kids she seems to have. Sometimes they've gotten through college--but work so many hours that they don't feel as though it's their problem how their kid is doing. They have no discipline at home and no routines (my students mostly go to bed whenever they want-usually after I've gone to sleep).

By contrast, the parents in suburban districts are older, more educated, and more routines focused. They read to their kids, talk to them at dinner about more than tv, and generally try to expand their horizons further than the playground.

Race? It's a nice excuse, but the real issue at hand is class, age, and education level of the parents.

Mentor

My school district took 3 years to find a mentor for me. Though it took a while, I did end up with a good one. Al taught art at the high school in my district for 30 years, then worked at a local elementary school for a few years before retiring a couple of years ago. He has been nothing but supportive of me in the short time that I have known him. He drives more than an hour to come watch me teach and give me advice. Mentoring doesn't pay well enough that he'd do it for the money alone. I'm very lucky to know him.

Today I found out that he has been in the hospital since Sunday, and they don't know what's wrong with him. I'm worried because he was having an asthma attack when he observed me on Friday. I know how scary it is to feel like you can't breathe. I hope they diagnose him quickly, treat him well, and send him home soon.

Fine Art Friday

Why is the Mona Lisa Famous?


According to Wikipedia:

The painting was not well-known until the mid-19th century, when artists of the emerging Symbolist movement began to appreciate it, and associated it with their ideas about feminine mystique. Critic Walter Pater, in his 1867 essay on Leonardo, expressed this view by describing the figure in the painting as a kind of mythic embodiment of eternal femininity, who is "older than the rocks among which she sits" and who "has been dead many times and learned the secrets of the grave".

The painting's increasing fame was further emphasized when it was stolen on August 21, 1911. The next day, Louis Béroud, a painter, walked into the Louvre and went to the Salon Carré where the Mona Lisa had been on display for five years. However, where the Mona Lisa should have stood, he found four iron pegs.

Béroud contacted the section head of the guards, who thought the painting was being photographed. A few hours later, Béroud checked back with the section head of the museum, and it was confirmed that the Mona Lisa was not with the photographers. The Louvre was closed for an entire week to aid in the investigation of the theft.

On September 6, avant-garde French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who had once called for the Louvre to be "burnt down", was arrested and put in jail on suspicion of the theft. His friend Pablo Picasso was brought in for questioning, but both were later released.[5] At the time, the painting was believed to be lost forever. It turned out that Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia stole it by entering the building during regular hours, hiding in a broom closet and walking out with it hidden under his coat after the museum had closed. Con-man Eduardo de Valfierno master-minded the theft, and had commissioned the French art forger Yves Chaudron to make copies of the painting so he could sell them as the missing original. Because he did not need the original for his con, he never contacted Peruggia again after the crime. After keeping the painting in his apartment for two years, Peruggia grew impatient and was caught when he attempted to sell it to a Florence art dealer; it was exhibited all over Italy and returned to the Louvre in 1913...

...Prior to the 1962-63 tour, the painting was assessed for insurance purposes at $100 million. According to the Guinness Book of Records, this makes the Mona Lisa the most valuable painting ever insured. As an expensive painting, it has only recently been surpassed (in terms of actual dollar price) by Gustav Klimt's Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which was sold for $135 Million on 19 June 2006. Although this figure is greater than that which the Mona Lisa was insured for, the comparison does not account for the change in prices due to inflation -- $100 million in 1962 is approximately $670 million in 2006 when adjusted for inflation.

Useful website

This website has a list of interview questions for teachers, but it doesn't specify for art. I would add a few to the list of questions:

How will you support the local standardized test preparation?
How would you manage on a cart/in a shared classroom/in a non-art room (without sinks, etc.)?

and for the questions for the interviewee to ask:

Does the local community support the arts?
Has the art department changed in the last few years?

Fine Art Friday

Fine Art Friday is a blogging trend right up my alley.

Dave McKean is one of my favorite artists. He gained popularity with his covers for Neil Gaiman's comic The Sandman. In addition to being a terrific illustrator, he writes, has produced films, and creates incredible tarot decks. The first image that ever got my attention was the cover for "The Sound of Her Wings," the first Sandman comic to feature Death. I was at the Words and Pictures comic book museum in Northampton, MA. The cover is actually painting/sculpture about 36"x48" with artificial ivy tacked around the edges. It took my breath away. This reproduction does not do it justice:

Quiz Time

One of the school districts I'm applying to asks 3 questions on the job application:

1. Please describe your understanding of or background in the development of a standards - based classroom environment?

Visual art is such a broad field that it is often difficult for teachers to know where to begin. Massachusetts statewide art frameworks help to give specific goals and focus. They target areas of student learning such as: “Standard 2: … Students will demonstrate knowledge of the elements and principles of design,” but allow for teachers to decide how to creatively apply those elements and principles. I use the standards in conjunction with "Teaching for Understanding" to develop essential questions: "How do artists show emotion in their artwork?" or, "What makes great art great?"

In each of my lessons I also use the standards to assess students objectively. For example, I can look for how they use line as a design element in a drawing or the principle of balance in a painting. These objectives are posted daily for students to see. They help me to effectively create assessment rubrics, and the standards addressed in each project are displayed in the classroom or the hallway with the finished work.

2. Please describe your skills and experience in the integration of technology into the school curriculum?

Technology is an essential tool that allows students and teachers to explore the world without ever leaving the classroom. I carry my laptop with me daily to facilitate lesson planning, grading, and communication with staff, parents, and art teachers around the globe. My students use the internet to gather images for classroom use as well as to research art and artists. An LCD projector is frequently in use to display images of artwork and share web resources. One such site is The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s that allows students to zoom in on artwork as though you were in the galleries. Other technology, such as image-making software, digital cameras and video recorders, allow students who may otherwise not connect with art to gain access. In the art classroom, I use technology to open as many doors as possible.

3. What values and experiences would you bring to support the Nxxxxx Public Schools in becoming an active anti-racist school system?

My students are often surprised when, on their first day in my classroom, I tell them I’m not white. To them, my fair skin is a clear indicator of my race. “In the art room,” I explain, “there are no such categories. Not only is my skin a multitude of shades and hues ranging from pink to brown, but my ancestry is just as mixed.” I tell them that my grandfather is Native American: a Wampanoag tribal elder, as is my mother, and I too will be one in time. I have a mixture of German, Jewish, Irish, Portugese, Cape Verdean, and Wampanoag, among other things running through my veins. Then I tell them that I have something in common with all of them as well, and I stick out my tongue at them. “We’re all pink on the inside,” I say, “and we all treat each other as equals in this classroom."

another cool site

Alliance for Excellent Education

Cool Blog

This blog is a pretty neat resource for art ed lesson plans.

Attendance

How do you make kids come to school and then stay there? This is one of the big questions we ask at my school.

One of my biggest challenges with urban high schooler is attendance. Today I had 5 students in my 3rd period class. The class officially has 10 students enrolled (since we work with at-risk kids, our cap is technically 15, though some classes are over-enrolled), and 50% attendance is typical.

The problem has many layers:

Why aren't they coming in?
What are they up to when they are not here?
How do they keep up with classes that they miss?
How do we instruct a group of students that changes from day to day? (This brings a whole new meaning to differentiated instruction!)
How do we deal with students who go over on their absences without throwing them out of school and losing half of our population?

So far, we haven't found a foolproof solution. Right now it's just getting worse and worse.

The dark side of standardized testing

One of my favorite webcomics is "Irregular Webcomic" by David Morgan-Mar. Today's comic struck my teacher's funny bone:



In his notes he says, "If you ever wonder about the eventual outcome of the modern trend of making sure children don't fail high school by making the passing grades low enough that they can all manage to scrape through, now you know. Someone, somewhere, decided that having kids fail looked bad, so to boost the statistics they lowered the standard rather than giving the teachers the resources and remuneration they deserve."

The full post is here:
http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1512.html

I have to praise you like I should...

My husband and I both have personal journals at livejournal.com. Today he posted a link to this article in New York Magazine which discusses the merits of praising children. In short, it says praising children for their effort is much more effective than lauding them for being smart.

The principal at my school is constantly telling us to "flood the students with praise," but has never been this specific about what kind of praise. However, I always tell my students that I grade them based on effort rather than how attractive their artwork is. I'm much more impressed by a student who works hard than one who has "natural talent."

NAEA conference, day 2

Between packing and dragging my luggage across Manhattan, I didn’t make it to see Daniel Pink at 9am, which was my intention. I’ll have to pick up his book and read it. I arrived at the conference at 9:45, dropped off my bags and got swept into the exhibit halls with the crowd of freebie-crazed art teachers. I spent an hour wandering around and getting seconds of my favorite freebies from yesterday. I couldn’t find the rolling suitcase vendor I was looking for, but I did run into the MassArt rep that I know. I chatted with her for a while because I wanted to find out what I could do to help one of my students get in. (He’s really terrific: does graffiti, tattoos, and wonderful drawings with a very distinct style. He takes any material I throw at him and makes something gorgeous and distinctive.)

While we were chatting, another MA teacher wandered up and made some inquiries about her son’s prospects. She mentioned that he was also looking at Hampshire and Bard Colleges, and my friend said “I went to Hampshire!” I chimed in that I had been there too (though it was 20 years later) and the three of us spent a while talking about colleges. The teacher/mother and I ended up wandering off to the Edible Art presentation together, chatting about local art schools on our way.

The presentation was given by two MA teachers, both of whom I know well. It was a very useful set of instructions on how to set up your own Edible Art Contest. It contained some of the most useful content I’d seen at the conference, and I made sure to tell them that. I think it would be fun to do, but I’m not sure it would work at my school. Only a few kids would participate, and the others would just want to eat the art. I once held a pumpkin contest with K-8 students, and a lot of the techniques they suggested, like giving superlatives (“most creative”) instead of 1st place, etc, are things that I did. It made me feel like I’m using good teaching practices, especially since one presenter was the former MAEA president, and the other was the current one!

Unfortunately, it was the last session I attended. The next batch wasn’t until 2pm, and I wanted to be on a 2:20 bus. I hugged my friends, packed up my stuff, and headed for Port Authority…and my 8-hour trip home is a tale for another blog, another time.

Segregation?

I got an alumni update email from Tufts, and was disappointed to find that I had missed a lecture by the educator and social activist Jonathan Kozol. I read my first book of his, There are no Children Here when I was taking a class entitled "The Child and the City" back at Hampshire in about 1994. The class was about the plight of the urban children, and was one of my first education classes.

Kozol's lecture at Tufts addressed the topic “Still Separate, Still Unequal: The Continuing Decapitation of Potential in America’s Apartheid Schools.” He makes a strong case for calling out US schools for continuing to segregate.

As a public school teacher in an urban district, working primarily with "at-risk" students, I have to say I agree that there still is segregation, though it is not solely based on race. It is, however very clearly socioeconomic. My school is not the "dumping grounds for poor black boys" that the district fears it is or will be, but it is almost entirely non-white, and almost entirely poor students. And our faculty is mostly educated, white women. It does make you think.

The article about Kozol's talk is here: Public shame:The way America pays for education puts a price tag on our kids’ heads.

NAEA Conference

I am attending the National Art Education Association conference in New York. Today I spent the morning in the exhibition halls, being plied with free goodies from vendors in the hopes that I will order their products for my classroom. In the afternoon I attended some presentations.

The first was a session on teaching 3D arts at the elementary level. All of the lessons were designed to be completed in 1-2 45-minute sessions. This is ideal for schools where you meet with your students once a week for 12 weeks, or if you are "art on the cart." I wish this presentation had been longer, because I would have liked to see their k-5 lessons in more detail. Fortunately, I have an email address to request a copy of the powerpoint presentation.

The next was, in theory, a presentation on "discussing controversial issues/art with children" but was a poorly organized lecture at best. The presenters were university instructors. They showed a bunch of controversial images out of context, discussed how their art ed students had come up with a list of potential lessons and hypothetical tactics for dealing with reluctant parents and administrators, and then focused on a single anecdotal experience when supporting the display of a college student's painting of a nude woman with her hand over her genitals (entitled "Women Have Balls, Too) against complaints from other college students. I know college students are young, but they are NOT children, and this presentation was not at all useful.

Finally, there was a presentation by two MAEA people that I know: the former MAEA president, and one of my cooperating teachers from my student teaching in Winthrop. They spent 1/2 an hour talking about how they put together a display of postcards from students across Massachusetts, using clear pocketed shower curtains that hold 4x6 index cards. The display method really is cool, but didn't need to be discussed for 30 minutes. It was a tad overkill. The best piece of info I got was where to obtain those shower curtains.

The biggest problem I had all day was the same as last year in Chicago: the conference rooms are too small. I couldn't get into some rooms, and the one room I did get into I never left because it took me an hour to get in and finally get a seat. So I just stayed put and waited to see what presenter would show up next. All in all, I didn't do too badly with that method: 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

After the presentations, I stopped at a social gathering and joined a tableful of teachers from all over the country. We chatted for a while and I got some advice on my job search, some much needed moral support, and a little bit of teachertalk. With some refreshments to sustain me, I felt ready to hit a few more presentations. By happy accident, I ended up in a Museum Educators' session about summer camp programs at the Taft Museum in Cincinatti, which has an interesting way of including collections acquisition for their elementary art camp attendees. One of their lessons asked the question "What objects define your culture, family, etc." The idea was to have a collection of items, like urns represent a period Greek history. They expected the kids to bring in iPods and cell phones, but instead got photos of family and friends. It was an unexpected surprise.

Then I went to another presentation by a teacher who works with middle school students to create "collaborative collage mandalas" that are influenced by 9/11. That was really interesting, and I think I'd like to try his lesson: What do you want the world to look like by 2020? Start with yourself and work outward to family, community, etc. He also said he has 90 minute blocks with his middle schoolers, which really surprised me.

All in all, my one full day at the conference was pretty productive. Tomorrow I get to spend a few more hours, and then I must go home. But already it was worth the bus ride here and back.