Family Art Night

On Thursday night, I attended a Family Art Night organized by one of my friends at my son's school. Over 100 people attended, and I was charged with taking a few photos here and there. It was an awesome event full of creativity and community building.

I loved these elephants painted and drawn by some of the children who attended the event. They make me smile.

Elephants are cool animals on their own. Elephants drawn by children are even cooler.

Happy weekend!

Documentation

I'll admit it--my blogging boundaries are confused. These photos should technically go on my Art Smart Parent blog because they were taken yesterday while I was doing "art smart parent" kinds of things all day. But, posting these photos on this "personal" blog is the perfect example of how documenting and reflecting upon the work of students spills over into other areas of my life.

In the last few months, I have discovered that I love photographing "education"-- especially good, exciting, innovative, and relevant education. With practice, I think I'm getting better at it, too. When I take photos, document, think about, and bear witness to what is good in education, it helps me hope for the future. It helps me see that change is happening every day-- even when it seems to move at a snail's pace and is surrounded by frustrating challenges. It helps me envision a day when the relentless, bubble tests of today will be replaced with creative assessments that take into account all kinds of learning, problem solving, and multiple intelligences. It helps share crucial stories-- through images and words-- about education with others.

Documentation is really just a fancy word for "recording a story." The story might be highly technical as in a computer manual or library catalog record. The story might be without words but rich with images as in a portfolio for an artist or a brochure for an exhibit. The story might be records for a state agency or it might be a wall of artwork and writing on display from a third grade class. The story might be a stunning picture book of poetry or an historical novel about slavery during the Revolutionary War. Whatever form it takes, documentation can be a tool for discovering our history, recording the present, and looking towards the future. At least, this is what it is for me, and it is integral to my joyful work as a parent, a teacher/learner, and a citizen who cares deeply about the education of all children.

Learning on the street

All of these photos were taken by my daughter on Monday while on a field trip to Farish Street in downtown Jackson. You can read more about the field trip here.

I let her take our old digital camera-- a Nikon Coolpix. While I was not able to go on the trip, I learned so much about it from her. She is so excited about the project that she wants to write her own book about Farish Street. Way to go arts education! This is what it is all about.

Blogging Self-Portrait

This is the third blog post I am writing this rainy Saturday morning. I have done nothing beside make two cups of tea, play with photo software to combine and upload images, reflect, and write. I am still in my pajamas.

The images above were taken yesterday at Casey Elementary. I had spent the morning with several other parents hanging up student work. When we were done, a couple of us walked around and really looked at what students from kindergarten through fifth grade had done. Because the cut-out collages above were framed, the sunshine from the courtyard windows reflected off of the glass. You can faintly see my shadow taking the photographs with my little digital camera. Taking photos is something I am often doing-- at home, at school, at work, at church, or walking the dog.

This week I have re-vamped what was my first attempt at blogging that never got off of the ground. So, yes, I now have three blogs! My Art Smart Parents blog will be used to document and reflect upon ways that parents of students at Casey Elementary support and enhance arts integration. Tiger Tales is where I document what happens in "my library" with students at St. Therese Catholic School. This blog is the catch-all for everything else, and it is my response to turning 40 and wanting to make sure that I live the next 40 to the fullest.

So, why am I doing all of this? It does take up a significant chunk of time, and I may not always be as disciplined as I have been lately. But, I have created a rhythm of taking photographs as I am inspired, reflecting upon what has happened in the many aspects of daily life, downloading and uploading photographs while I transition from community life to home, and using the activity of blogging to be more intentional about what it is that is important in this life. And, I am finding that it feeds my creativity, connects me to people who care about similar things, and makes my life richer in ways that I didn't expect.

Days Like This

The day started with making gingerbread cookies and reading stories about gingerbread run-aways in my son's 3-6-year-old class at school. The day ended with children's choir and bell choir rehearsal at the Cathedral. In the middle, I almost finished Christmas gift shopping (98.4% done), took a walk in the foggy air with my dog, and helped two third graders prepare for their semester math exams tomorrow. Days like this are such gifts, and I love them.

Book Project

Over the next few days (in between Thanksgiving cooking, visiting with my sister, brother-in-law, and adorable niece from Arkansas, and knitting or sewing) I will be creating an on-line "Who Am I" Book Exhibition. It will be cross-posted on both of my blogs because I did this project with my third through sixth grade students at St. Therese Catholic School. I have to figure out the best way to create it.

I've been thinking a lot about the "Who Am I" book project that I just completed. I was not prepared for the difficulty that some students had with just folding paper, measuring, and envisioning how it all fit together. When I talked with my principal and other teachers about this, we wondered together whether children today do not have enough opportunities to make things from scratch or whether they don't have many craft-like hobbies (beyond Foamie Kits from Michael's) because a lot of free time is spent at sports and/or technology pursuits. I'm sure that they have skills and talents far beyond mine in these areas, but I think some of these children may be forfeiting valuable experiences with problem solving and the creative process. It was obvious to me which students have opportunities at home to make things at the kitchen table. That said, some of the projects were amazing, and I can't wait to take a closer look at them all. I've got some more thinking to do about this. . .

I have been worried that the leaves on my tree might fall off before my company comes this afternoon. It could still happen during the day today, but I'm hopeful that we can all see the before and after process of the Japanese Maple in person. Just a few leaves have begun to decorate the brick sidewalk and grass. From two days ago:

Happy Thanksgiving Preparations!

Monoprints, Maple Leaves, and Mundane Chores

I am so fortunate to work at St. Therese Catholic School. How many school librarians are able to co-teach with the art and music teachers every week? On Tuesdays, I assist Mrs. Misenar, the art teacher, with Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 6th grades. Yesterday, the upper grades learned about the artist Robert Motherwell and made monoprints using two pieces of wax paper, acrylics, and construction paper. Mrs. Misenar used this technique with fabric to decorate pillows for her sofa.


On Thursdays, I co-teach 3rd through 6th grades with Lynn Tarleton, the music teacher. Mrs. T., as the children call her, has always used literature in her music teaching, and I have always used music in my story-times. The two of us are quite a pair as we both love integrating other art areas into our disciplines and using our disciplines to integrate into core curriculum areas such as math, language arts, social studies, and science. Last week, we pulled out hand drums, maracas and castanets, and xylophones to teach a song about Cherokee Indians and to discuss the Cherokee culture and learn some Cherokee words. This week, we plan to use the computer lab to research the first pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians.

I didn't get home until late on Monday night, so the photo of the Japanese maple looked like this:


Today's leaves are wet with rain.

Now, onto some mundane chores like menu planning for the week, laundry, housework, etc. I have a goal to try to throw away or give away 40 things every day from now until I feel like some of the clutter is gone. So, my "40 things per day" challenge starts today. And I also want to do some sewing before the children come home from school. I'm working on a banner for the door and on some bird ornaments. Sometimes, I amaze myself at my naive ambition for the day!

Turning Forty

On November 7th, I turn forty. It feels like the intersection of the first part of my life with the rest, and I'm very excited about the future. I love so many things about my life right now.

I love "log-cabin" knitting, from which this blog gets its name. The above blanket was made over the course of the summer-- on hot afternoons while listening to NPR, poolside, on vacation in Atlanta, at night while watching something on TV that didn't demand my full attention. It is based on the pattern from the Mason-Dixon team in their book Mason-Dixon Knitting: The Curious Knitters Guide (2006). I love the intersections of warm and cool colors as they spiral around the center rectangle in a labyrinth of yarn. My son, Hobson, claimed this blanket and named it his "Rainbow Blanket." The next project is a "Sunflower Blanket" for my daughter, Mary Emerson.

The name for this blog refers to more than my knitting. On this blog, I will start building the next 40 years-- strip by strip, log by log, day by day. Yes, it finally feels like I'm an adult! I'm past the point of saying "yes" to things to which I really want to say "no." I know what I like and what I don't like. I know how I want to spend my time what I would rather not do. It is liberating to be at this point in life. There are limitations, of course. But, a good chunk of time is within my power to design.

I had an amazing Thursday last week. It was a work day at St. Therese Catholic School. I taught 3rd through 6th graders in the morning using a wonderful book called Los Gatos Black on Halloween (2006) by Marisa Montes and illustrated wonderfully by Yuyi Morales. My students made paper-bag puppets for the characters in the story, and we discussed the Mexican celebrations of "Day of the Dead." Then we put on classroom productions of the story with our puppets, sound effects, and musical instruments.

In the afternoon, I made a ballot box for our book character elections for President to be held on November 4th. The entire school, pre-K through 6th grade, has been preparing for this day by holding primaries and caucuses in their classrooms to narrow down the candidate field. My daughter's school, Casey Elementary is also doing this, and her third classroom has chosen Nancy Drew for its nominee. I like Nancy, but I hope another class has chosen Hermione Granger!

That night, I went to see the fifth graders at Casey Elementary perform their version of Shakespeare's Macbeth. The joy on their faces told me that they will remember this experience for a long time-- much longer than any test score. This is the kind of education in which I believe and for which I advocate. I will write about arts integrated education a lot on this blog.

At the end of the day, I worked some on the Sunflower Blanket-- catching up on the election news and getting ready for the next day of Halloween and all of it's festivities. This log-cabin blanket will be completely different than the other. Like log-cabin quilting, there are many variations of how the strips can be put together. As in life, we have so many choices-- so many variations to how we can spend our days.

On that Thursday, at work, at home, with my students and family, I was doing what I wanted to do. I enjoyed the creativity of the day. I felt alive, and this is how it should be.