Proud to Be UMD

I woke up this morning feeling like yesterday was a bizarre but lovely dream. 

My university's homecoming events were announced over a month or so ago and I decided that for the first time ever, I would attend. I was enticed by the promise of a Resident Assistant Reunion AND Orientation Leader Reunion.
I know, I am a huge dork.
But it was because of my experiences with these two programs that I am the person that I am today.

At the Resident Assistant Reunion there were groups of these canvas prints with photos of RAs throughout the years. The one above has a bunch of folks I was on staff with. (Thankfully?) I am not in any of these photos. I spent two years as an RA and it was probably the hardest I have ever worked in my life. I am so thankful that senior year I was able to live in the brand new apartments and focus on my studies, particularly student teaching. I lived with three other women who were "retired" RAs and I have to say, we had a blast, amongst the trials and tribulations of college life.

My junior year of college I was an Orientation Coordinator for Family Orientation. The other OCs and I called ourselves the "Party of Six" that year. Above is the party of four who could represent. The other two are working in upstate New York and could not join us for the weekend.

I had a fantastic day between the reunions, the beer tent with a bunch of (650!) alum, dinner with friends and an evening, self guided tour of campus.
I look back and realize how much I really did grow up in four years. Others may argue that high school was the best four years of their lives, but for me, college was it. The people I can call my friends know just how shy I was as an eighteen year old AND  how by twenty one, I could confidently address a group of parents or a class of high school students.

I may have never, ever wanted to go to UMD with its ugly buildings and not quite far enough away location, but it was the best decision of my life.
Rolling Stones and newspapers across the country may have dragged UMD's name through the mud in recent months, but I could not be more proud of from where I have come.

Maybe one day I will be so lucky to return as a Professor of Art Education.

Proud Teacher Moment

The weather has been absolutely spectacular lately. I don't know if learning to paint has made me hyper vigilant about light and color, but I can't help but smile, as I am seeing my city in a different way. Today I took the photo above after venturing down a path I had never taken before at a local park. My boyfriend's family home is on the other side of those green trees. Sometimes I wonder what my childhood would have been like if I had grown up here. But then I don't think I'd be as excited about the landscapes (and everything else I love about it here) as I am now, in adulthood.

I will try to use these when the weather gets cold and I am forced to paint indoors.

I was at this local park because it was the annual Art Festival, hosted by the Art Association. I met the president last spring at a luncheon honoring students for their Lion's Club Peace Posters. We exchanged info and I promised that I would pass along entry forms to my high school students, as the association wanted to increase their student submissions. One of my super talented students submitted a work, but I didn't know what it was until today when I went to the show.

That's my assignment! Well, I am sure that by no means is the lesson original, but I was so excited to see that he submitted a piece from my class. The assignment was to create a portrait without drawing a traditional portrait. His image is an amalgamation of album covers of his favorite band. He completed it with Prisma Color pencils and Sharpie. I am thrilled for him. Best in Show- Young Artist!

High School Week One

Open House is this evening, so while I am chilling at home before heading back, I figured I'd keep my head in the game and blog about our first few weeks.

I have to admit, I wasn't super jazzed about starting school this year. I don't know why. Maybe because summer was so short and we did a lot of traveling? Not enough beach time? Either way, it was very out of character.
A week or so before classes started though, I was on Pinterest, per usual, scanning for ideas, and came across a book recommendation. A Retired Art Teacher Tells All. I have purchased other books about teaching art before, so I was a little skeptical, but this one was specifically about teaching high school and the Kindle edition price was right! Now having read most of it, I wish I had had a hard copy to mark up, but I have my little composition book of notes, and a couple weeks' worth of experience to prove it was worth the $7! 

I followed the author's suggestions about the first few days of classes, within my comfort level. I would have loved to do alphabetical seating assignments, but with students adding and dropping the class like its going out of style, I couldn't commit. (Although after one class in particular, which is bursting with 27 students, I had to assign seats. It worked to my benefit to wait, if only to see who could handle sharing a desk, since I only have 24.)

There is still however no great way to go over the nitty gritty of expectations, guidelines, and grading. But I think that by keeping it simple and asking students to sign the course overview, like a contract, we started off the year with a great mutual respect.

My course goals were straight from the book:

COURSE GOALS

By the end of the school year, every student will:

1) Improve his or her artistic abilities

2) Improve in his or her ability to express ideas and feelings through art

3) Expand his or her appreciation for all forms of art

I tried to stress that we are all coming to the art room with varying abilities and that the end goal is not to compare ourselves to the person next to us, but to where we started out. And to find out where we started out, we drew. And drew and drew. For the first four or five days, without much instruction from me at all. More on that later...

 

GUIDELINES FOR THE ART ROOM

·      Keep a positive ATTITUDE.

·      Be RESPECTFUL of yourself, including your own work, of others and their work plus Ms. Art Teacher, and of the environment, which includes the art materials and classroom.

·      TRY your best. Effort counts.

I am a pretty firm believer in these classroom guidelines. I also enjoy that they spell out ART!
By drawing on the very first day, after signing the course overview, students realized (I hope) that this is a serious class. From day one, they heard me cheering for them to think positively and to try their best. Now at the end of week three, I am still impressed with their focus and drive and could not be more excited to keep teaching.

THIS is what I have been working for

I have been a little absent from blogging since school started. While I have a general idea of topics I want to write about, its hard to sit down and type sometimes. Some of it is because writing is a slow process for me. (grad. school was not pretty at times!) But mostly it is because, for the first time in my life, I have free time!

There is prep time built into my schedule at the high school, so for the most part, I don't have to put in hours after school. I will be hosting Art Club once a week, but I decided not to start until October. Between PD sessions about the new teacher evaluations, open houses and the what not, I felt it was better to ease into  it.  I have also been pretty good about walking after school, at least a half hour, every other day. It doesn't sound like much, but I have never had a fitness routine, ever, so this feels great and I want to keep it up.

the view from my walk today.

That's actually why I wanted to blog today. I feel so stinkin' lucky! My school year is off to a great start. While it is my first year full time at the high school, I feel very comfortable. My class sizes are just a little smaller than last year, 28 tops instead of 30, and the activities I planned for the first few weeks have really set the tone for the year. I plan to write about them more in depth, perhaps even later tonight, but for now, I am totally excited about where this year will go.

I feel like I worked so hard for years, between my undergraduate degree, working as an RA, then student teaching, to working at an after school program and parochial school, to working on my Master's and getting my foot in the door in a public school system. Everything feels like it is finally paying off and I am so lucky and excited.

DIY back patch

Aside from painting, I haven't been that creative this summer. The idea of sitting in the backyard, reading a book in the sun has been much more appealing to me that dragging out all my supplies. However, I had a request!
As I mentioned before, my boyfriend gets a bunch of band t-shirts. Sometimes they don't fit and I get them, but last summer between the two of us, we figured out that we could keep the shirts and turn them into patches. So I was asked if I could put this t-shirt on this sweatshirt. It was pretty easy, and the extent of my sewing skills, but enjoyable to sit and watch Project Runway and sew!

I had my self healing, green cutting mat. A rotary cutter- if you don't have one, get one! I love it! I also had a t-square and your usually sewing notions- needle, thread and pins.

First I squared off the logo, keeping even on all sides. This is where the combo of a rotary cutter, t-square and mat make things super easy!

Next, I centered the logo.
I am a sloppy seamstress so I then pinned the logo before baste stitching all around.
Since the edges of the t-shirt are unfinished, I whip stitched all the way around. That was the tedious step, but once this is washed again, you don't want it to fray.
I have used iron adhesive before, but for pieces this big, it is really uncomfortable. There's not a lot of give.
This was a simple solution, but I get great pleasure knowing that it is pretty unique. I am even more thrilled when my boyfriend comes home from shows and tells me he got complimented on his sweatshirt. I know, I am a dork and I own it!

New Room

It seems like school is back in session for most of my blogger buddies. I've been jealous looking at photos of cute elementary and middle school art rooms, knowing there is not much I can do with my room(s) at the high school. I think my teens are beyond color coded table buckets, but you betcha I will be labeling supplies!

Above is a photo of what will be my homeroom and where I will teach two classes. My other three classes will be taught in the room in the back. For some reason, that room is bigger by about three feet and actually a rectangle. My homeroom is this weird, uneven quadrangle so no matter how I have tried to arrange the desks so that I am not bumping into them, its going to be squishy somewhere.

I am sure you are wondering what that big, green head is. This room is used as a changing room for drama performances, and is a bit of a hang out spot after school. Our photo teacher also does set design and this year will be the jack of all auditorium needs. The green head is the all powerful Oz from last year's drama production. A part of me wishes I could hang it from the ceiling with the lights still in the eyes. 

I love the high ceilings and the natural sunlight. There is even a skylight (which I am sure will prove to be annoying once we start observational drawing!) This year the art department, if you can call us that, since we don't have a department head, is two full time teachers and one part time. This is the space I set up for the part time and I.

And this is our big project this week as we prepare for school to start after labor day. Remember how I said this room was a hang out spot after school? Yea, kids destroyed the supply closet. That is paint on the floor...
Last year, I left this building at eleven in the morning to go teach at another school. All my classes were in the other room, so while I put my two cents in, there was nothing I could do. I  have my "do not enter" sign from my last supply closet, laminated and ready to go.

Mom's Visit Continued

The rest of the week we took a little easier than Day 1. There were lots of people to visit!
On that Tuesday, I unfortunately had a dentist appointment that I had already rescheduled due to my Nantucket adventures, so I had to go. Trying to kill some time in the morning, I brought Mom to one my of favorite spots along the water. That's Mom's photo above. She also caught me, below.

Afterwards, I took this as an opportunity to go look at some of the real estate on that little peninsula to my right. Mom was an agent when we were kids and I grew up enjoying scoping out new listings and beautiful properties. Who better to go snooping with than my Mom?

After the ever exciting dentist visit, we drove to Plymouth to meet my Mom's oldest friend from high school. She lives on the Cape, so while we didn't visit the pilgrims or the disappointingly tiny rock, the Cabby Shack where we had lunch, was a nice half way point. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be by the water with clear skies and no humidity. We all caught up over fried seafood, clam chowder and drinks. On the way home, Mom and I did some shopping at our favorite, Christmas Tree Shoppe. We love a bargain!

Wednesday we slept in, grabbed some Dunkin Donuts and went back to the beach for some sunshine. Later in the day we had lunch with my boyfriend's parents and then hopped back on the train for free admission to the Museum of Fine Arts. (I hope to do a stand alone museum post at a later time, since I have visited a couple this summer. Stay tuned!)

When we returned from the museum, my brother had arrived at my apartment a day early to surprise my mom. It was awesome! We sat around my kitchen table, just like we would have at our old house, chatting until we were all too tired to talk anymore.

Thursday morning I brought my mom and brother to a breakfast spot I could walk to from my old apartment. It's across the street from the birth houses of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. Next time we will have to get a tour there, but a cheap, greasy breakfast was more important this time around! Check out all that bacon!
Instead, Mom and I were educated in the afternoon when we went to the John F. Kennedy Library.

 Not much had changed since I was there in middle school. I found it to be really well done and from a student's point of view, the exhibits peaked my interest just enough to want to know a little more.
When we were outside the building, we were back on the Harborwalk I mentioned in the previous post. Only this time we were on a different side.

 Afterwards we drove over to that sandy patch straight ahead, called Castle Island. It doesn't have a castle, nor is it an island anymore, but there is a cool fort and the parks department has done a nice job keeping up the walkways and playground. Lots of people were out and about, enjoying the weather and a nice, open place to play. Mom and I enjoyed some soft serve from Sully's. You know it is officially summer when this place opens, it's usually a story on the local news!

For dinner we went to Patriot's Place in Foxborough where the Patriot's play. Over the last few years stores and restaurants, even a hotel, have opened next to the stadium, right there in suburbia. We met Mom's girlfriend's from the church we grew up in, and caught up over bowls of pasta, salads and glasses of wine. It really felt like home being with those wonderful women, even though we were in the middle of the Olive Garden!

Friday was the big day! I had scoured the internet for weeks trying to find just the right Red Sox tickets. I had looked forward to this game before school was even out!

We headed into the city early, boarding a train for Harvard Square. Walking around Harvard on one of the first sunny days of spring is up there with showing off my city. We went to Charlie's Kitchen for lunch and sat in the beer garden. Its definitely a dive compared to other places in the area, but the prices are right and there is nothing better than drinking a beer outside and enjoying your company. I then successfully navigated the bus system, a first for me, over to Kenmore where the fun began.

We lost in the end. But what was more important is that we went to the game as a family. Each of us has had opportunities to go on our own over the years, but never together. We had some great fun!

I honestly do not remember what we did Saturday, other than sleep in! We must have gone souvenir shopping, we most likely got Dunkin Donuts and probably relaxed. It was Mom's birthday after all!

For dinner, my boyfriend graciously borrowed his parents mini van and chauffeured my aunt and uncle and the rest of us to one of my Mom's new favorite restaurants in the city, the Sunset Bar and Grill. Parking can usually be a pain, but the gods shone upon us with a spot right out front.
This is probably one of my most favorite photos from the whole week.

It was so nice to have a week full of family time. I was exhausted in the end, but as Nana always says, its important to make memories.