Fund for Teachers Webinar!

This afternoon after a good day at work I came home to participate in a Webinar for Fund for Teachers and the wonderful grant I have received to go to Istanbul. It was kind of a "goose bump" moment for me....connecting digitally with teachers from all over the United States.  Perrin Worrell of Fund For Teachers walked us through all the various financial reporting we need to do, media directions, various reports we have to file, social media sites and expectations, various communication, sharing our story, and so on.  Can I just say I am so excited? And so thankful for Fund For Teachers, such a wonderful organization that sends teachers on professional learning experiences all over the world each summer. I have a little bit of work to do...and I am really looking forward to it. Istanbul! Thanks Fund for Teachers! www.fundforteachers.org

Hokusai!

Some days we enjoy creativity in the art room in a more relaxed fashion. We just finished our huge unit on Art Inspired by China and Japan and soon I'll post many pictures and other information about that...but I had one class that didn't have time to finish one of their projects because other school activities had taken them from class. So, today we finished the project. But rather than paint it as I had originally planned, these 1st graders just simply colored it with good old fashioned crayons.  They worked so hard. I really couldn't believe how "into" the crayon project they got. They had previously drawn the wave with a guided drawing lesson and today we simply colored them...as I am placing an emphasis on wrapping up end of the school year types of things...you know...those very few random projects that just didn't get finished for one reason or another.  So, enjoy these beautiful crayon renderings of Hokusai's famous wave. You can see the wave in one of the photos on the white board behind the students and see the students working...and you can also see one of my favorites from the day. What a relaxing day of art making in the art room!

Midnight Skype Slumber Party

As I prepare to go to Istanbul this summer as a Fund for Teachers Fellow my mind is racing to think of ways to incorporate my own students into this experience.  One idea I've thought of is a midnight Skype session! The idea is that at 8:00am and 8:15am in the MORNING in Istanbul, from the 3rd floor rooftop restaurant of my hotel which has wifi, I would call 2 families each morning for a short Skype session.  It will be midnight or 12:15am when I call them.  I'm thinking of having a "drawing" for the six families that would commit to having the Skype slumber party in their home and invite several of their child's friends to spend the night.  In this way, I'll have maybe 5 or 6 or more of my students gathered in one place.  The parents will also have to commit to knowing how to use Skype and holding the date firm, save emergencies.  I think this would be a terrific way for me to include my students in the overall experience of going to Istanbul.  From the rooftop of the hotel I can show them the Sea of Marmara and the Hagia Sophia, as well as hopefully just pan my iPad around and show them the historical area of Istanbul.  Perhaps I can even get some of the hotel staff to say hello to my students! What a "cool" way to bring Istanbul alive to my students.  Then, next fall, these students could tell their art classes about the experience.  Of course, wifi isn't always dependable when you are in other countries so we'd have to keep our fingers crossed that technology would work for us. Pretty sure I'll be doing this. Now to think of something else to do! By the way, you can view the Skype badge which links to the Skype in the Classroom lesson I'll be creating for the trip on this blog. Just click on the badge and it will take you to the lesson. The lesson isn't developed yet, but at least you'll know where to find it.  When art transcends the four walls of the art room, students are learning so much more about the world around them and we, as art educators, are using art for its maximum potential to engage our students in a meaningful learning space.

"The world is a book and those who do not travel 

read only one page."  

-Augustine of Hippo

Strait Talking

The last few days I have been trying to discover why the Bosporus Strait in Istanbul is also called the Bosphorus.  So far I haven't found out the answer, but I think it must have something to do with the Greek (European) pronunciation of the word and the Asian pronunciation of the word. I'll keep searching until I find the answer, but in the meantime I've enjoyed reading and learning about the strait. What an amazing history it has. Most likely the Sea of Marmara was a fresh water lake at some point in history and something such as a storm or earthquake or giant flood broke through the land on the Black Sea side and washed through to the Sea of Marmara. It's the 2nd busiest strait in the world with something like 150 vessels a day passing through it. It has 7 blind twists and turns which can make steering its waters treacherous and occasionally accidental. There are two bridges that cross it. It was interesting to me that divers have seen remnants of an ancient city under the water along its shores. That is amazing! The word Bosphorus is said to be a combination of the word cow and the word crossing. While to this farm girl the name might have developed because some old farmer's cows crossed the water at it's narrowest parts, history and legend have gotten involved and suggested that Zeus had an affair with Io. When his wife, Hera, found out she turned Io into a cow and threw her across the water. I'm kind of leaning towards some smart cows, who always think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, swimming across at a couple of points along the shoreline.  This link is pretty interesting and gives a pretty good description of the strait:

http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/go/Istanbul/Sights/Bosphorus/

My hotel will be almost exactly where the black dot on the large map is,  on the Bosphorus Strait,
which is where the red arrow is pointing. 

The Road Not Taken, Way Leads to Way, and Seven Continents

Thinking tonight about how way leads onto way. Robert Frost had that right. The roads we travel on lead to other roads.  It's a journey called life. I have always been the most careful person you would ever meet....I won't ride roller coasters, I don't go to Halloween spook houses or scary movies, and am really not much of a risk taker. I'm just a pretty normal mom, wife, daughter, sister, and female.  But, for some reason, in recent years I have found myself traveling down the roads less traveled...working with children in the Andes Mountains in Ecuador at Quechua Villages, teaching school at an orphanage in Ecuador, walking down a red dirt road in Uganda and teaching art-music-drama at an orphanage there, touring schools in Cuba and delivering nearly 1,000 pieces of art from my students, and teaching an art workshop at a school in  Switzerland. The memories I have made are still so close to my thoughts.....children in all of these countries who are so loving, nearly going off a cliff in a huge bus, walking for hours and hours and hours down a red dirt road in the most remote and rural area imaginable with two young twenty-year-olds in Africa with no car or phone, the generosity of women everywhere.....cooking their finest for me...guinea pic in Ecuador...plantains every way possible in Uganda with a big tall glass of warm cow's milk....sharing their lives....their generosity....their love.  It's a big world out there full of people who really truly care about other people. I'm not much of a risk taker...but I care. I think that is more important.  So...way leads to way....one journey leads to another.....I think there are a few more to go on before someone forces me to sit in a rocking chair! One of my goals is to teach school, even short term, on each of the seven continents. So far that has happened on four of them:  North America, Africa, South America, Europe.  Asia, Antarctica, and Australia are left. I'm hoping to work out an opportunity to teach at a school in Istanbul this summer....on the Asian side! Not sure if that will happen but have a few good leads...so we shall see! Have to keep eARThshaking and making friends on this planet. You see....I believe it is what you give in life that matters the most, not what you get. But, the simple truth is that a teacher always gets more than they give. It's just that simple. Children just simply love. Wouldn't it be nice if the whole world was like that?

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better clam

Because it was grassy and wanted wear, 

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way

I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sign

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, 

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference. 

-Robert Frost