Happy St. Pat's

I celebrated by wearing the only two ceramics-room-appropriate (ie, school appropriate and they can get messy) green things I own: a jade green sweater vest and socks with little green dinosaurs all over them (plus jeans and an art apron). The teacher next door had a great idea - she was handing out green yarn to any kid who forgot it was St Patrick's Day for the price of a pinch!

Back to Work!

Great vacation.

Anyhow, back at the salt mine:

Ms. GT: "Okay, let's work on that still life drawing!"

Cranky Student (C.S.) : "I don't wanna draw! This is hard!"

Ms. GT: "Well, yes, but this will make you a better artist if you try something new and challenging."

C.S.: "It doesn't matter for my art! I only draw manga."

Ms. GT: "Even manga artists need to know about shading, proportion, and drawing realistic objects that might be near the characters."

C.S.: "It makes my brain hurt!"

Ms. GT: "Good. It's supposed to."

At this point other students at the table start to snicker a bit.

Ms. GT: "If you told the PE teacher that benching made your arms hurt he would say the exact same thing. Exercise all your muscles."

C.S.: "But I don't wanna."

Ms. GT: "If there was a class in complaining you would have a 4.0."

C.S. "I wish there were. But I'm stuck here drawing."

Back at NHS

Hooray! After 2 call-free days, I got a day doing art at NHS! The best part was seeing students from last year's subbing and remembering their names - and that they remembered me and were excited to see me! I had a good time circulating and seeing work-in-progress, and taking some time to do my own sketching and drawing, especially during the mellow classes.

Weekend - sushi, brunch, and BBQ all planned!

A list ...

... of things my high school students lost in the classroom today.

- A brown notebook

-Car keys

-a green and white iPhone

-A bag of Legos

-A book and book on tape

No. No, I have not seen them.

Miss Popular

Well, it looks like I'm booked solid for the next two weeks, including a 4-day-long gig at the ever-lovely NHS and several at my old stomping grounds OHS. Today was middle school math ... kids that really should be well-behaved (upper class neighborhood, etc) but are actually kinda loud and obnoxious. Luckily the days are getting longer so I can unwind with a trip to the bank and library, outside reading time with the newspaper and pet chickens, and now a glass of wine as I blog and listen to the neighbors playing outside. It's amazing what a few hours of light can do for your mood!

Trouble Maker

Today in 2nd period ...
"Hi, I'm Cody, and I'm the worst troublemaker in the class."

"Hi Cody, nice to meet you."

"No, seriously, I'm the worst troublemaker here. Ms. W throws me out like 10 times a month."

"OK, then."

"Don't you believe I'm the worst troublemaker?"

"I can believe you are the worst troublemaker in the class. Heck, I'll even believe you are the worst troublemaker in the school. But I highly doubt you are the worst troublemaker I've ever met, and I bet we can just have a nice, relaxing, productive class period."

"Oh."

Later on I saw li'l Cody at lunch with his buddies. "Hey Cody, you didn't even crack the top 10. You'll have to try harder next time!" I got a huge smile in response.