There is an art club that comes in once a week in the mornings. They came in today. I gave Mary Lynn a copy of Fagbug and also a copy of Florence and the Machine for her older daughter who sings. I thought she'd like to hear it and try to sing like her. She's got an amazing voice. Mary Lynn said she wanted to see him film so I brought her a copy. The kids came in from 8th grade for art club and all of them saw the DVD cover on the tables and were all saying how they loved the car and took pictures with it, etc. One girl's mom even saw it and had her watch the film with her afterwards. Mary Lynn told them there was a story behind and it asked them if they'd like to hear it. They all said yes and sat down right away to hear it. I told them what happened and how I drove with the graffiti for a year and interviewed people about it and made a movie about it and transformed the car after I did that for a year. They were all impressed. Mary Lynn told them I'm married to a woman and they asked where I got married and were all really cool with it. Mary Lynn said were treading on shallow waters but seemed fine with it and I think was glad to see how it went. It wasn't a huge conversation but Mary Lynn told them they could maybe see a part of the film and in general was just open and comfortable about it which was nice. The kids had to do an assignment on bullying and the girl who watched my film wrote a song with another girl on bullying and it was an Adele song they changed the words for. She had it on video on her phone and everyone was listening. It was really good. They all had to do something in their other class on bullying. I think just the older kids did the bullying curriculum. There are posters all around school from when they began doing it. One girl said that no one in the school gets bullied. I told her I'm sure they do. Mary Lynn also told a basketball player that I played D1 basketball on full scholarship and was kind of bragging to her. I asked the girl if she played down low and was a forward, and Mary Lynn was like I play down low and I'm a forward. She doesn't know basketball lingo so was playing around. I had a few of the kids help me roll 30 balls of clay for the 1st graders and toward the end of class I was cutting backings for the 3rd grade lesson matching the papers to the 6 colors the scratch paper is. Two girls asked what I was doing so I showed them the lesson and asked if they wanted to do it and in a few minutes they did it and had the backing on it. I told them I'd laminate it for them and they could keep the magnet. One said they wanted to put it in their locker. Mary Lynn invited us all to her daughter's opening. She's the lead act for Legally Blonde. The kids asked if I'd be going and I said yes.
Mary Lynn invited me to an art opening for SU and Fowler High School that was at the space downtown across from Redhouse. I rearranged plans to go. I told her Sonya and I would be coming and she said she'd love to meet her. We came and her and her husband and daughters were so inviting. They showed us all around and seemed really happy to see us there. Kevin Mixon was there talking to Mary Lynn when we walked in. He left right away otherwise I would've said hello. She told me she was telling him all about me and how well it was working out. We brought some cookies from Corsos Cookies where Sonya works and they seemed happy with that!
3rd grade lesson today was my second time with them. I thought they'd get done with the scratch paper but the pacing of things and everyone getting through the packet with proper understanding took longer than I initially planned. I wasn't sure if we should skip ahead to get there but Mary Lynn told me to wait so they understand and complete all the steps so that felt nice to have them spend quality time on the lesson and really work at it and make it so they couldn't get the black paper until they earned it. I think that was a good tactic.
My first grade class - we did a lesson on Rhyming Dust Bunnies. Mary Lynn told me about pinch pots. I really have no experience with clay or ceramics. She asked if I wanted to take on one more class while I was there and told me first grade was opening up and I said sure. She had the idea of doing a pinch pot. For my K class I got the Rhyming Dust Bunnies book from the library. We asked the librarian if she had the book Frog on a Log when I was going to maybe do the frog on the log rhyming illustrations. She didn't have that but told me about the Dust Bunny book and went and got it from whoever rented it out. I took it home and didn't think much of it. After school Mary Lynn's daughter saw it on her own and started reading it with excitement and you could see how much she loved it. I said well how about we do pinch pots that are dust bunnies. Sadie said that everyone in her class knew and loved the book and that morning we were making them I guess she told Mary Lynn, "Today were making dust bunnies!" right when she woke up.
I read the book and introduced the lesson and Mary Lynn helped explain the pinch pot part after I said what we were going to be making out of clay since I don't have that much experience. I'll lead it the next time. She said it would be good to have them split up and do the clay part with small groups to control it a little more. I made a handout that allowed the kids to draw their own dust bunny and name it and color it. They got to work on that while we had the small groups. It was fun to show the kids how to make the dust bunnies and see how they came out. They were super cute. We are going to be glazing them blue, green and or purple. 3 of 4 colors in the book. The red glaze is too expensive so we aren't using that color. The TA said she thought it was a great lesson and I guess the other TAs have complimented my lessons to Mary Lynn. One in particular said that the K lesson I did put the kids into a new light she hadn't seen them in before. I'm glad its going so well at this placement.
Here are some pictures.
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