The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Between work and Himself's birthday I wasn't able to make the weekly play date last week with Teague. We video called, the next best thing.

2. I had a Skype date with the Young One.

3. I was able to connect my iPad to the monitor in my classroom studio. Surprisingly easy to connect especially when the Head of IT loans you the correct adapter 

4. Teague and I went headstoning. Then we stopped for lunch and ice cream

5. I made pork chops with cinnamon apples like the ones at Cracker Barrel.

How was your week?

Whatcha Doin?

 

To night is the last class for this term and the lesson is on layout and design. I also got a commision so I thought I would show my students how I plan the project.

Whatcha doin?

T Stands For Teaching Assistants' Luncheon

Himself chose last Saturday to be the day he takes his teaching assistants out to lunch to thank them for all the work they do helping him in the chemistry lab.

Our friend, Elaine, owner of the UxLocale started a lunch service so that's where we decided to go. Elaine never disappoints.

We ordered some homemade potato chips with an onion dip as an appetizer. I ordered meatball sliders, and I had a glass of unsweetened ice tea with lemon.

Himself ordered The Mac Daddy: shredded mozzarella, ground beef, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed pizza. Did you sing the jingle? I did.

Usually at the lunches some of the students are shy and there are lots of awkward silences. I understand it's hard to talk to strangers who are old enough to be your grandparents. Not this time around.

The two students were bright and funny. We had lots of laughs and lively conversation besides a great lunch.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

WAM Professional Development Day

Last Saturday, the Education Department at the Worcester Art Museum where I teach held a professional development day. The day began with coffee, pastries, and a goodie bag. The museum is celebrating its 125th anniversary.

We lined up to pick up a bag and fill it with some goodies. A new lanyard for the employee ID, The sand dollar looking thing fits inside a water cup and is a brush cleaner. The boss made each of us a little sketchbook that had our name on it,  There was also a pencil with a white eraser, and a stubby watercolor pencil. I chose a blue one.

There were several new faculty members so we played an ice-breaker. Everyone was given a puzzle piece. You had to go around to find your partner. Introduce yourself, tell what you teach, and add a fun fact. Then each pair was called to introduce each other and tell what we talked about. My partner's fun fact was she has a horse named Ace who is retired from riding. My fun fact was I'm a hooker (left-handed 😉) and proud of it.

We had a meeting to discuss up coming events, schedules for the year, and important dates like the faculty art show and open house in January 2024.

After the meeting, we got to play and make art. There was a station for bubble printing, a large canvas for a group painting , and paper for individual expression.

It was messy play and I got a dot of blue paint on my blue shoes. I thought the paint was tempera mixed with soap bubbles. My shoes are washable, but the paint didn't come out. I think it might have been acrylic. Oh, well!

After playtime, we broke into groups depending on whether we taught adults or children, and discussed teaching challenges and swapped ideas while we waited for lunch.

Lunch was an assortment of pizza, bruschetta, salad, soda, and water. We were going to have lunch outside in the courtyard, but it began to rain so we moved inside. Just as the buffet was set up, the rain stopped!

It was a fun day hearing what was going on in the museum, catching up with colleagues, and meeting new ones. Oh, and the eats were good, too.

T Stands For A Well-Deserved Prosecco

Thursday last, I taught two classes at WAM to 5 to 7 year olds, a group of 16 children. In the morning, we made A Book of Beasts with a variation of Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord's Stick and Elastic Book. 

Before going into the studio to work, we went to the gallery to see the painting, The Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks (ca. 1838)

I took pictures of a sampling of the books the children made. The children were loud and spirited, but were engaged in making their books. Below some of the books the children made.

I don't know what the children were fed a lunch time, but when they came back to the studio for the second class Crowns, Scepters, and Capes, they were hopping off the walls. They were so loud, my ears were bleeding from the cacophony. They did seem to enjoy making and decorating paper crowns. We were so busy measuring and fitting crowns, there wasn't any time to take photos of the children's creations.

After Himself was finished teaching his class at WPI, he picked me up at the museum and we went out to dinner at Mare E Monti

After dealing with the children all day, I started with a well-deserved glass of Prosecco.

We ordered antipasto as our appetizer

I had my favorite linguini alle vongola (whole clams in a white wine sauce.) Beautifully plated.

Himself had Veal Marsala. I had a taste, too.

For dessert, I had an Almond Torte with a cup of tea. Himself had a brownie with ice cream. We also brought home leftovers so no cooking the following day!

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. We celebrated Calli and Quill's 2nd birthday. We all had treats. Theirs were chicken flavored hairball control treats. We had brownies with Cherry Almond ice cream.

2.  A hawk spent the afternoon hanging out on a low branch of an the oak tree in the backyard.

3. Got all the materials  for the kid classes cut and packed up.

4. Fun teaching the energy vampires (5-7 yr olds) a stick book and making a crown

5. Dinner at Mare E Monti with a glass of prosecco.

How was your week?

Whatcha Doin?

 

I was asked to teach two classes to 5 - 7 years olds at WAM this coming Thursday. A morning class making a bestiary, a Book of Beasts and an afternoon class called Crowns, Sceptres, and Capes. Against my better judgement, I said yes. (The last time I taught children's classes in December, I was sick for two months 😺)

So I am printing, cutting, punching, and assembling materials to make the books and crowns. Fortunately, the lesson plan is only a guideline, and I don't have to teach/make/do everything. I think this age group will have enough to do drawing and coloring 6 pages, the cover, and making the book as well as cutting out crowns, gems, and decorating the crowns.

Children who finish the projects quickly will free draw castles or free draw.

Also a shout out to people who upload free craft activities for children so I don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Whatcha doin?

T Stands for Illuminated Initial Bookmarks with Middle Schoolers, Again.

I had the pleasure of teaching illuminated initial bookmarks to two more classes of 9 and 10 year olds from the same school as last time. Talking with other teachers, this age group is supposed to be the most difficult to teach. If you're teaching children, or thinking about teaching children, my friend, Andy Fish broke down the age groups and wrote about the pros and cons of teaching babies to adults. Andy also labeled the pre-teens as "children born of hell."

I had two, one hour classes with the 9 and 10 year olds to teach.. I don't know whether it was a combination of the school and parenting, or the kids being on their best behavior because they wanted to make sure they were on Santa's nice list. These kids were well behaved, excited to be at the museum, and engaged.

The class was only an hour long so I find it helpful to have a small project and to break the project down into steps and show examples of what they can do. 

We talk about decisions artist need to make. Whether to hold the paper in landscape or 

or portrait. Whether to use only one initial

or to use all three.

We talk about some of the things they like such as pets

or things they like to do like playing soccer and basketball.

I talk about how medieval artists used real gold or silver to add bling to their work. We can't use real gold or silver in these classes, but we have gold and silver markers. Boy howdy, are those gold and silver markers a big hit. If you're teaching kids, make sure you're supplied with metallic markers.

I tell them that medieval artist pretty much worked in traditional colors of red, green, and blue, but that we aren't limited to that color palette. They can use any colors they like

I tell them how they can put the initials in a box, if they want.

This little girl was making a bookmark for her mom and included things her mother loved. Coffee (which is my drink reference), ramen noodles, hearts, and stars.

This little dude was a medieval artist in a former life with his fancy initials.

The gold and silver markers are a godsend

I try to keep the class so we all work on the same step at the same time. I think it helps them to have a road map to follow. Not just the kids, but I do this for my adult classes, too. 

When the Eldest was in grammar school, she would race through the project before the teacher had finished giving directions. There will always be a couple of kids like that.

Make sure you have another project or two for them to work on while their classmates finish the project. Fortunately for me the coordinator for this class, had several sheets of coloring book pages of medieval initials, knights, and ladies available to color.

My fallback plan is having a stack of larger drawing paper so they can draw whatever their hearts desire.

Sometimes the class gets too noisy. I find Gentlemen! Ladies! May I have your attention, please. Usually works. Sometimes I have an assistant who claps and chants things like One, two, three, eyes on me! And can instantly bring silence to the room. Be sure to thank your assistant for helping you to keep order and to keep kids on task. 

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1.  Enjoyed a nice lunch with Himself's teaching assistant and her husband.

2. The Littles were excited to see Santa zoom by in the fire truck

3. Fingers crossed we found someone to plow the driveway

4. I taught two lively classes of 4th graders illuminated initials.

5. Himself did take-out for dinner.

How was your week?

T Stands for Illuminated Initials with Middle Schoolers

Another call from WAM  to teach middle schoolers (4th grade, 9 - 10 yrs old) illuminated initials this month. It is my subject so I raised my hand. We'll start with my ticket to the T party, my water bottle.

Before class, I hastily drew some examples to illustrate the steps to creating an illuminated initial. The project was to make a bookmark. We talked about letters having decorations or telling a story. And all this time of drawing Ink on the letter C, I just realized I have a new monogram, but I digress.

The kids were having a field trip day and had spent the morning in the Medieval galleries looking at the art and trying on piece of armor.

They were energetic, enthusiastic, listened to directions, and asked questions. I had brought in the House Blessing to show how real gold was used. They were very excited about the gold and disappointed to learn they had to pretend the gold and silver markers were real gold and silver.

"How come we can't use real gold?"

I thought of answering like Ms. Trumball from Matilda, "It's too good for children", but settled with "It's too expensive."

There were a dozen kids in the class and some of them gave me permission to show their work.

Some of their designs were very detailed

This little dude was all about the bling

This little dude decided to make 3 D letters and he asked for help to make the vine. I showed him on scrap paper how to make the vine go under, around, and over the letter. He did a great job.

This little dudette worked on both sides of her bookmark.

One class down and four more classes to go next week.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.