Woo-Hoo! The freedom that comes from a whole week off of school is now OURS!
Fall Break here we COME!!!
Tag: school (page 10 of 15)
I’m leaving for a few days on a little adventure. I am going to Madrid. A city I have never been to before. This year we are taking our annual department Art trip and myself, along with 5 other colleagues and 54 students are heading to the gorgeous city of Madrid.
It is a lot of preparation and planning, but it is all worth it. I am very excited! I will get to see Guernica in person and after studying it so many times in school in my Art History classes, this is a big deal, as well as Las Meninas and a personal favorite artist of mine, the dynamic Edward Hopper and his oil painting, Hotel Room.
Mr. Michie took me to see a Hopper exhibition at the Tate Modern a few years ago and it was wonderful. We got to view Nighthawks in person, we must have stood there staring at that for ages. I was amazed at the scale, it was bigger than I had imagined, even though I had read the measurements countless times before.
That is one of Mr. Michie’s favorite paintings and we have a copy of it in our house. We used to play a game with each other and pretend we were the people in the diner and if we had been there what would we have ordered. I usually wanted something from one of my favorite local haunts at home that I couldn’t get here; a girl can dream can’t she?
We are also going to an exhibition of Imogen Cunningham’s work. Her photographs are something I am truly looking forward to. She constantly experimented with her craft and getting to view her prints will be a absolute treat! She was also a contemporary of other photographers I like and have used to teach the students about photography in my pinhole camera class.
I hope to come back with lots of pictures for you guys and interesting stories. In the mean time I will leave you with pictures I took in London over the weekend. While Mr. Michie was presenting at a conference, I was out shopping, walking and breathing in the sights and sounds of my city! Take care my friends, I shall see you soon.
Finished! Today, I finished a project for work that has eaten up a lot of my free time at work and personally. It is for our upcoming Art trip. I normally create a giant map with a variety of information on it for the students to use when we are away.
This year, however, we decided to try something different, I created a booklet, that will outline our itinerary and the tasks that the students will have to complete when visiting exhibitions, museums and galleries.
That way, it is clearly written down, concise and no one has to try and tell 50+ students what they need to specifically be looking at when we enter a museum while the city is bustling all around us and you are trying to shout over the noise of traffic.
It is a big undertaking each year, but one that I enjoy. I get to be creative; creative in a school way, I mean. But, I am always glad when it is done, I get to breath again.
So, here’s to finished projects, to Tuesday being over, because that means tomorrow is Wednesday and we are that much closer to the weekend and here’s to the start of pumpkin season!
You should always eat your vegetables! I happen to love them, so that isn’t a problem for me. There are always fun ways to have them. For instance, it was a colleagues birthday today and I was asked to make the cake, so I made a carrot cake with orange cream cheese frosting! Now who says you can’t have veggies for dessert?
Have a wonderful weekend!
Is there a better way to celebrate the end of the week then with a chocolate coffee frosted chocolate cupcake?
I made these for Mr. Michie’s class this afternoon, as it was his Friday to make the cakes and I was even invited down for one and a cup of hot chocolate to boot.
Have a wonderful weekend!
I took a chance today. I rehung my sign and my older kids came through for me. They wanted to know what it meant, “take a chance on what?”, they asked. “On anything”, I replied, “on life, on school, on art, on love, a chance to be brave, a chance for a fresh start, whatever take a chance means to you!”
They took a tab. They wanted to figure out the meaning, they were questioning, they were thinking, they left with smiles and seemed inspired. And, that is all that matters to me. The boys came back again at lunch and ripped off the tabs that were left, but that’s okay, someone got it, someone understood, someone was put into a position where they had to think and that is what I was after.
Awhile ago, I saw a sign “pinned” on Pinterest and tucked it away in the back of my mind. This being the 2nd full week of school since our Summer Vacation, I thought I would try it out. I quickly whipped up a sign on Photoshop and printed it out when I got to work.
I liked it. I liked the idea of it. I tore one of the tabs off to get it going and then stuck it to my door. I had some things to do around school at lunch and after returning to my room, I saw a few boys hanging around. I realized later they were hanging around because they had ripped all but one little tab off of my sign.
I suppose, I should have known better, I should have known that the so-called “naughty” kids would do this. But, I refuse to give in to that mentality. I treat all the students the way I wish to be treated. I have made it clear, no matter what happens outside of my room, when you cross my threshold you have a a clean slate with me, until you do something to me.
These so-called “naughty” boys are students I have always treated with respect. I don’t know why it annoyed me so, but seeing all my little tabs torn away, because they were having a laugh, just deflated me. The days seem to be getting longer, so much happened yesterday that this morning it was hard to believe that it was only Tuesday today. ONLY TUESDAY!
It is silly I know to let something so trivial bother me, I think it is just my mood today. I took a chance, I hoped for better. If, one of them, just one of them, got the message, then that is all that really matters, isn’t it? I’ll just keep telling myself that for a little while longer.
I seem to be spinning in all directions at the moment as many of us are. There is always a point in my day when I long for solitude, for 5 minutes that I can call my own. Last night, that solitude came with Mr. Michie. We heated up some Mexican leftovers we had made at the weekend and he made a fresh batch of guacamole. It was the best guacamole I have ever eaten! I couldn’t stop eating it! I am looking forward to my evening, to cooking, to laughing, to recounting the day to one another and simply crashing onto the couch together to just be.
MMMM! Mr. Michie is a GREAT guacamole maker!
A toast to the weekend. My feet and I welcome you with open arms!
What a week! The first full week of school, has almost gotten the better of me. I hope that the next two days are the longest of my life, so that I can savor them before Monday morning rolls around again and we head back into the fray.
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Ready or not! Here we come! Today is the first day back of the new school year and I am already ready for the weekend to start!
School’s out for Summer! The sun just seems to be shining brighter because of this fact! Here is a clip from one of my favorite movies! More to come on that, so stay tuned until tomorrow, for now, just enjoy!