School Daze

It is probably the most challenging thing I have ever done....this teaching in D.C. I knew going in, of course, that it would be difficult, that D.C. is the 2nd worst district in the US but somehow that did not percolate. Now, however, I am faced daily with groups of children who have been trained to 'get by' not to ' do their best', trained to believe ( 8th grade told me this straight out) that to get their respect I must shout at them like animals, trained to react in anger and violence and give in to fits of rage.

Daily, I hold myself together and ask for their attention, daily I wait and wait and wait until they begin to yell at eachother for quiet. It is progress but it is so slow that I fear the time I have with them will be over before we get any art done.

8th grade, however, has really produced some excellent examples of fine drawing. I am proud of them and the work they are begining to do. Once they realized that getting by isn't enough for me, they buckled down. Now, I sitll hear " this is too hard" at least 20-30 times a day but they are doing it and redoing it when I ask.

Progress.

Slow....slow progress.

Still A Beautiful Life

Art teacher?

I am cleaning and sorting and painting and trying not to lose my mind in the SEA of trash and plaster that is my classroom and a contractor pokes his head through my door shouting," Art Teacher?" I look up all blown out and say "yes??"
"yea, How do you make black?"


I smile.
" It's all colors"

He shakes his head." oh i thought it was purple and green."

So then i explain that that IS mixing all colors and he grins and runs out shouting like a ten year old, " I KNEW IT!"

Beautiful Life

Now...

My morning and day is this: cereal and coffee and endless lesson planning. I forgot all the BS that is involved in a lesson plan, you must justify everything you are doing in minutia. You must plan out your every minute of a class period and explain why you are using it that way. This is good for the students, it's just a total P.I.T.A. for me.

oh well, I wont' lie, i love it. I get a thrill out of imagining the kids doing these lessons.

AND, i reconnected with a dear friend from college and serendipitously she passed a neat website my way. This.It's a connection between two women who have never met and they post an image a day and the image blend together into this awesome record of their twin paths. I am SOO teaching that to my 7th graders. oh yea.

WOOOOO

An ARTICLE on me!!

Sunday Morning

It's sunday, we are laying about in a state of total lethargy, feeling as though this is our right after weeks of travel, work and other busy time away from each other. Yes, it may be one in the afternoon but damnit, if we want to be laying around naked reading Cat Fancy and Twilight....so be it.

Suddenly at the door comes knocking and doorbell ringing. Insistent doorbell ringing. I am scrambling around trying to find clothing as the bell rings and rings and rings, in my panic I start to run downstairs in a t shirt and underwear, to which ( over her laughter) HH hollers "NO! Keziah! you're still half naked!"

When I finally get to the door dressed, sweaty and fully blown out, who do I find but Mary. Now, Mary lives next door. She is an elderly lady and apparently the sister of the man next door, the mentally challenged with a very confusing lisp sister. I kid you not with the lisp, I thought her name was Millie. There she stands, in her house dress with her traditional vacant smile and earnest expression.
" HI!"

I am bedumbed, " Hi Mary....."

She has stopped by to inform me that there are deer in my back yard and I should go look at them BUT to be VERY VERY quiet. VEWY VEWY QUIET!

She repeats this at least 5 times.

The upside to it being Mary at the door is that she seems to have not noticed my bedraggled appearance, anyone else and they surely would have wondered why, at 1 pm, I am still looking this sad.


The deer were very cute. and I was vewy quiet.