Summer 2013

Summer as a teacher is consistently amazing.  This year a few summer highlights include:

Cincinnati: I started the summer off right with an extended visit to Cincinnati to spend quality time with friends and family.  It was awesome to exchange crazy stories (donkey baseball?), play new games (including one with diplomatic skeletons), and explore changing neighborhoods the city (OTR anyone?).

Me & Mom

And no trip to Cincinnati would be complete without at least one trip to the Cincinnati Art Museum.

CAM, special shout out to Jim Dine

Master Chef: Master chef may be a bit of an exaggeration, but after finding out I have fructose malabsorption, I spent much of the summer researching and relearning how to cook (and more importantly bake) from scratch.

Prepping for blueberry and rhubarb crisps

Mayan Riviera:  Este verano en Mexico, me gusto aprender sobre los sitios arquelogicos, ver las bonitas playas y practicar hablando español (I hope this is comprehensible). 

Gorgeous Tulum

As usual, it was all too short but fantastic nonetheless.  Here's hoping that the school year is just as great!

Inocente

This post is long overdue, but I was recently reminded of a great movie short I saw back in March.  Inocente tells the story of a brave teenage girl who struggles through difficult life circumstances by making art.  First, as an art educator with a foundation in social justice, I appreciate that this story illustrates the power of art.  Second, as an artist, I greatly admire her talent and work ethic.  She is an inspiration for her artistic vision as well as her strong will. I was not surprised to learn Inocente won the Oscar for best documentary short!

4 years down

Our Mural! The finished product- not too shabby!

The school year finally ended!  We wrapped up classes last week and prepped our rooms for the summer.  It was a great founding year at Capital City middle school and it is hard to summarize all my feelings about this past year.  I will be taking a break from the blog this summer but will leave you this lovely portrait my student drew on the last day of class.  It is me and him parting ways.  Happy Summer!

A pretty flattering portrait

"Oh my God, can you believe we made this?"

The 8th graders are amazed at how their hard work is paying off.  We still have a few final steps to go but they are certainly impressed with themselves. 

A meeting of two worlds

Free Minds came to Capital City for on On the Same Page event as part of the 7th grade humanities expedition.  It was amazing.

I am a huge Free Minds supporter but have never actually seen them in action during On the Same Page and it was pure magic.  Tara, the executive director, started by talking about "Glen" the founding Free Minds member.  Next were the guys sharing their stories mixed with poetry reading.  The guys were so engaging and open that they had every student staring and listening in amazement.  The students were encouraged to read along in their literary journals and I saw students who "don't read" with their eyes glued to the page.  Students opened their minds and shared some deep thoughts on poetry and meaning as well.  It was truly amazing to see the power of a positive male role model.

At the end of the session together, we shared a toast for change (from Freedom Writers Diary) where all of the students received a champagne glass with sparkling cider and made a toast saying what they would change about the world or themselves.  After hearing the guys tell them how important school is,  many students made a pledge to take school more seriously.  The students have been buzzing about the visit ever since and continually ask my about my experience working at the jail and beg me to ask the guys back.  It was an amazing experience.  I hope to have them come to school for PD next year to talk about the school and prison pipeline.

One Million Bones: TODAY!

One Million Bones public art exhibit opens TODAY!  Some CCPCS students and teachers are going down to the mall today to install the bones.  The exhibit will be up all weekend and you can find a schedule of events by going to the website.  Go down to the mall to support peace and celebrate the work of my students!

You can read by previous post about this project here.

Mural Progress

We are making some serious progress on the mural!!!  We are hoping to get it nearly finished today so on Monday we can stretch it and sign it and call it a day!  Looking good, no?