What I Did at School Today

I had the wonderful experience of cutting into a tomato from the farmer’s market the other day that had a worm living in it. He had apparently eaten into the tomato much earlier; the fruit had then healed around him, and he dined to his hearts content one of summer’s greatest blessings. He’s quite possibly [...]

I’ve always enjoyed teaching, but for one reason or another every other school year has been very stressful for me. For six years I taught for probably the most mis-managed school district in the area. When I finally left, I moved to a district whose art department was making a huge transition. My first year [...]

I’ve given all of my students the same self portrait assignment this week. We’ve spent time looking at a couple of Vincent van Gogh’s self portraits and discussing them. Then they are each given an 8″ by 11″ paper on which to draw their own self portrait. They are also told that they will complete [...]

We all remember them; there were seven of them with names like Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, and Lazy.
I’ve been doing the boring, uninspring task of going over rules and procedures with all of my classes this week. My speech involves talking with my students about things that have not changed from last year, and then going [...]

School has officially started. I have had two days of classes. I am trying to be short, sweet and too the point when it comes to going over procedures. You can always tell when your classroom full of first graders is getting bored with directions; they get squirmy and start talking!
I too wish that my [...]

One of the bittersweet things about being a teacher is the ability to start over at the beginning of each new year. It’s nice to get a fresh start with new classes, new ideas, and new energy, but I always feel like I’m reinventing the wheel.
Today I sat in a meeting where we went over [...]

Most of you are probably wondering what happened to me. I know I haven’t posted in a while; it’s because I’ve been really busy.
Last week I worked on “Extreme Makeover: Church Edition” at our church. We remodeled four rooms for children’s ministry in only seven days. It was absolutely crazy and really fun! Kind of [...]