Smiley Babies make you melt: Navab (we’ve decided on “Nava” for short which means aptly: beautiful), is finally showing a larger palette of human emotion. IE… she is smiling now… On purpose! We have numerous photos to prove this (which will be in circulation soon).
in other news:
“School is out for summer!”
to quote the sage Alice Cooper Meaning, It’s over, done, finished! Whooohoooo!!!!!!!!!!
In other words, I get to prepare for next year’s classes all summer and not get paid for it.. lol.. But.., yeah, if you think you are glad it’s over as a student… I don’t think you can compare it to the relief you get as a teacher!
Here is a sampling of what I will be doing as far as professional development goes:
-Getting Certified as a bus driver (for the swim team)
-Getting Certified as a Journalism teacher (to teach yearbook next year)
-Getting Certified as a Lifeguard Instructordone
-Getting Certified as a Water Safety Instructor
-Taking a class at Rice University to teach pre-AP art doing now!
-Going to a Yearbook workshop in Orlando Florida
-Doing a workshop at the Glassell School of Art (Houston Museum of Fine Arts) for Art Teachersdone
Additionally, I’m looking into possibly taking some sort of ceramics workshop at some point in the summer. I’ll have two kilns and a potters wheel (are you hearing unchained melody?) set up in my art room next year. Most of my work in ceramics has been figurative (that’s really my biggest love), so I really want to get good at pottery so I can teach it well. I have very little experience with pottery, and I must change that if I am going to be helping students to try it. A lot of teachers would completely shy away from a subject they do not have a lot of experience with. “This is not my forte,” they would think avoiding it altogether.
One thing I took away from my experience working for Billy Roberts at the BNC was that I can really learn and do anything if I desire so, and I am no longer afraid to try. Billy really pushed me. As my boss, he would ask me to do or create something that to my knowledge at the time was completely beyond my capabilities. Then sure enough, time after time I’d pull through and perform the task well. I’m a very competent problem solver, but those experiences in particular have taught me not to fear trying do do something new and difficult in my field of work.
Much of my projects this past year were the result of this sort of thinking. I had my classes make clay-animations, wire sculpture, and other things that many art teachers would have avoided merely because it would be difficult to attempt as a teacher. I don’t ever want to short change my students merely to make things easier for myself!
My philosophy for teaching art is that I should as an art teacher be able to give students a diverse and full experience as far as trying out different materials mediums and techniques as possible. I also am very adamant in being able to not only have them “play” with the mediums but to be able to really teach them to do well if they want that. I think so many art teachers just go through the motions, and give the students the materials and say “play” but don’t really teach them and help them to improve. I think that is sad. My vision has always included that I would learn and do whatever it takes to give my students the fullest experience as artists possible.
It really bothered me when I first came to my school and they did not have a kiln or the capability to have any ceramics (read clay) work in their art classes. A kiln is a ceramic oven that bakes the clay to a hardness. They can reach thousands of degrees, and are quite necessary for a ceramic program. To me ceramics are a staple of art, and a necessary part of any successful high school art program. Sure, it’s hard as a teacher to pull it off (clay is very labor intensive), but teaching is not about the teacher. I spoke to the principal right away and she was very supportive. She had my school purchased two kilns. Then there was the question “where are we going to put the kilns”. I am switching rooms over the summer, to another art room. The new room has an office. At first I was really excited about having an office, but as I discovered the need to have a place for the kilns I proposed the idea to the principal that we convert that office into a kiln room. It made much more sense to me. I’m very grateful that my principal is very much into the arts. She is very supportive.
Actually, I’m really looking forward to the entire summer because I will be not only busy and productive but I will have some R&R time. I’m ultra excited about July particularly because I’m going to be spending a lot of time with my daughter bonding because that is when Lacey goes back to work so it will be just me and Navab. I’m hoping to get back to animating this summer. I’m going to do some small animation exercises in June to get my chops up, and I’d like to do a short animation in July-August. Hopefully I’ll have the time to create something, otherwise I’m going to stop calling myself an animator.
Training for a triathlon kicks your ass When you run, swim, and bike numerous miles in one day you tend to be able to sleep really soundly. I’m usually a very light sleeper waking up up to 5 times in one night even without a baby around. My Mother would keep me up till midnight as a child because I had a hard time sleeping more than 6 hours in a row. As an adult I still experience this phenomenon. Additionally working midnights for numerous years as a hotel night manager conditioned me to be able to be up all night at the drop of a hat, but This training I’m doing definitely helps me sleep longer.
My Triathlon is in one week. I’m glad I have a few bikes, because I’ve been in and out of the bike shop tweaking my roadbike, and I still have to train obviously. Last night I ran 3 miles on the bayou then jumped on my hybrid and rode a few miles to the 24 Hour Fitness where I swam about a half mile. The running part was the most difficult for a few reasons. Most of my running training has been inside (read: air conditioning) on a treadmill, and I decided that if I’m going to race outside (in Texas) I have to start training outside (in Texas), plus a treadmill will work your muscles but its not exactly the same thing as running on pavement. Sure enough, it was brutal yesterday, also I have been biking first before running before yesterday so it was hard to start out with the run. So… yeah, this will be an intese week… Whats funny was yesterday when I rode the bike to the gym I decided to take a quick diversion over to JCPenney to purchase some much needed new running shoes. Buying a size 14 shoe is not easy, you have about 1/10 the selection to work with (ie., whatever they have in your size), but I got a pair of satisfactory shoes and made it off to the gym to swim.
One thing that has made training much easier has been MP3’s. First of all, try swimming an hour straight without stopping. It can get a little mind numbing. I have an underwater mp3 player that I use. It’s great for keeping me from going out of my mind with boredom. I have a playlist I use with really pump you up energizing music that keeps me going as well.
For the running and biking portions I have my Blackberry. Yep… My good friend Greg got me a used Blackberry, and it’s been a great help. After a few days of trying to figure out how to update the operating system on it, I was able to use a 4 GB micro SD card with it. This allows me to use it very effectively not only as a phone but as a sort of IPOD.
I’ve ripped the audio version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to MP3, and put it on the device. I’m half-way through this book. I’m going to have to get a lot of other stuff on Audio. I feel so productive!
