Well I started a conversation about race all wrong. A teacher from a Northend school said something like “race is really just an issue of economics” and I came back with “that is total bullshit.” From there I had to step back and talk from my own experience, ask questions, and state facts. It is amazing to me how so many teachers think that getting black kids to achieve is so mysterious. If you are a white teacher, like me, it takes more work to reach out to black kids and make them feel at home in my classroom and it may take more effort on my part to encourage them to succeed. There may also be extra hurdles for me to cross to make connections with black student’s parents. It just amazes me how white people, like myself, have such a hard time with internalized racism and have a hard time committing to do extra work to make the world a better place for kids of color. On the other hand, I’m an experienced teacher who has been committed to teaching kids of color for a few years and I am still discovering ways that I can improve my teaching to reach different students.
Critical Thinking Workshop
I’m at a teacher workshop retreat around the concept of critical thinking. The idea is to get teachers together to make up curriculum to get students (and teachers) to think more critically. The group I am with has made up a structure to teach social skills to bring kids from an ego-centric attitude to a cooperative mindset. We are using drama to drive it home and make it fun. Enough for now, as I am at the sleeping lady resort in leavenworth and there are people waiting for this computer.
Yesterday Jennifer and I went and looked at art down at the Bemis Building. I saw only a few things that I liked. On the third floor a woman had made painting-type things using paint and thread and yarn. Her composition was nice and they were pretty. She wins the cult of beauty prize. Then upstairs was Jennifer McNeely’s pretty sculptures. On a large platform were hundreds of little sculptures that looked like shriveled penises just packed in plastic tubes. It’s hard to explain, but they moved me and made a deep impression. She wins the prize for creativity. Besides that there were a few paintings that were nice and some photos that were pretty. Jennifer declared that pretty photographs of nature were dead. At the back of the third floor was a group show of crap that connected photos of teenagers playing guitar with stencils surrounded by mirrors. Nothing caught my eye and it was all one-liner art that just states it’s image and lets it sit there like poo that really should have been flushed two days ago, but instead is just sitting there because the pooper wanted to show everyone how long of a poo they can poo. As we were walking out the artists made a snide comment pointing out that we hadn’t stayed very long in their studio. I though about launching into a lecture on poo, but instead I shrugged and moved on to find better stuff that would be pretty, find a way inside my armor, or incite a meaningful inquisition. Luckily we went upstairs and saw Jennifer something’s art and I felt relieved to see that all art is not dead.
We went to the G. Gibson Gallery and saw the Randy Hayes show. I love the G. Gibson Gallery? Gail Gibson puts up good shows, there is a nice atmosphere and I like it there. Randy’s work is fantastic. He makes big compositions out of small compositions and then paints on them with transparent paints to make another composition. I want one. One of the ways that I measure art is I ask myself, “could I live with this for many years and still explore it?” With Randy’s work, the answer is yes. There are many layers of color and composition. One of the things Randy’s work made me think about was my vision. I reckon that I am really only focused on a spot that is about the same size as my thumbnail if I hold it out at arms length. I move this focus spot around to look at things. A good art piece has room for my eye to move around it and explore it. Randy’s work has multiple layers that I can focus and let my eye wander around on. Then I can switch to another layer and wander more.
At 1506 projects we saw Diane’s work. It’s good. Diane takes snapshots and then elevates them to iconic status by making superbly detailed paintings from them. I’m not obsessed with realist art, but the two opposing paintings of a grassy hill and a man’s hairy chest merit appreciation for two pieces of art that should be a dyptic. If I could own them, I would, but I would have to own both. Neal, who was hanging the paintings and told us that “I used to hang art professionally and the company I worked for would bill my time at $65 and hour and they would pay us $11.” Neal expressed an interest in the Billy Name show and I didn’t do a very good job at hiding my distaste. Neal recommended I see some Andy Warhol films just to see how they had influenced film production. I’ll rent them and I hope I don’t barf at the sense of vague megalomania involved.
I talked with David about Andy Warhol and he said that he respected Warhol for removing the artist from actually making his own artwork.
The day actually started at Saigon Deli and ended at the Schezuan Noodle Bowl. Mmmm.
I taught myself how to knit yesterday and knit myself a little coaster! Now I’m working on a scarf using some Norwegian wool that is normally used to make socks. I am slow. I knit about an inch and a half an hour. The scarf is about a foot wide so I don’t feel too bad about that, but it is slow going.
Four more days of school and then summer. Actually, I signed up for a little retreat in Leavenworth to go and talk chalk, but I can handle that.
Jennifer is correcting papers all day long and then will have to plan for the next week all evening. I’m going to extract her from that for a quick adventure to the amazing Goodwill.
Well yesterday I went and saw the mondrian to Van Gogh thingy at SAM and even though I cried in front of the lilies at the Getty, I didn’t cry at SAM. I liked the painting of the post office guy and when I spaced out on him, I felt I had met him. The Vincent drawings were nice, but the lighting was bad and so the paintings just didn’t resonate with me. Who knows, maybe it was the fact that the building was being pounded by jackhammers? I did like a mondrian piece- a circle that was made up of repainted lines and little crosses in black and white.
Then I went to Roq La Rue and came to the realization that I think Andy Warhol is dumb. I’ve seen his work before and been able to enjoy the repetition of Mao faces in different colors, but seeing him in Billy Name’s amateurish snapshots of Andy’s factory made me realize that he was just trying something new out and brought together a click of people to worship him in his silver lined factory. I understand why Mapplethorpe moved to New York to be friends with him and I understand why he didn’t want to be part of his copy-catting click.
I really like Mapplethorpe’s work. It’s very 70’s and early 80’s, but it’s simple and strong.
I woke up and went and visited Daniel over in Medina today. He is the garden artist for a family over there. The garden is great with lots of flowers that look like fireworks. He has made a garden that has all these amazing plants in it that just say “ba-bam.” Then there are all these plants that look like they are made out of electricity. The family likes Chihuly and the garden reflects this taste for color and extravagance. Daniel said that they actually want to place some Chihuly glass art around his garden which will be neato.
Then I went to go visit my dad and he told me the update on the car accident that happened in his yard and I gabbed on and on about my life at school and my daydreams of having a gallery and how it feels to be moving into the realm of entrepreneurship.
Now I’m at the victrola and the art here is bad, but the people are pretty to look at.
I am finishing up my school year as a multi-arts teacher teaching music, drama, and dance.
This year I did some pretty amazing things. I started the year off and instituted some new routines for the students including singing routines, dancing routines, musical instrument playing routines, and most importantly, relaxation routines.
I put on a winter concert in which every student in kindergarten through 5th grade performed. The kindergarteners sang a song which I wrote entitled “penguins in the moonlight” while they wore construction paper penguin hats. Three older classes performed on the recorder and even though they had only had 5 weeks of practice, they played the very challenging piece “tis a gift to be simple.”
I have started developing a way to teach acting. I have grown as a director and I am starting to see students take risks to show emotion on stage in front of their peers. While this sounds simple, it is a monument to the trust I have built in my classroom and among the students here.
I put on a spring dance extravaganza in which every student danced a folk dance with their class. Cooperation and treating each other with respect were the keys to this successful dance. I am also proud to say that I put together a parent band that performed five tunes. Oh, and my after school guitar class played guitar for the kindergarten dance “heel and toe.”
Besides teaching guitar after school, I taught puppetry, architecture and story writing as after school programs.
Today I had a student get a bloody nose in class. He gets them all the time, so he knew where the paper towels were and he took care of it. He was sitting and then he pulled the paper towel away from his nose and a huge banana slug-shaped mass of semi-coagulated blood crawled out of his nose and onto the paper towel. He looked up at me with a look on his face of resignation and handed the paper towel with the still jiggling slug like bloody mass towards me. I took it, examined it, felt my stomach flip three times and disposed of the biohazard as the student went for more towels.
One of my fellow teachers told me a story today that is great. She was doing a lesson on probability and students made lists of things that they knew could not happen today, things that might happen today, and things that would definitely happen today. She gave a lot of examples and after students had turned them in, she chose random examples to discuss. Jesse (not the students real name) had put down that there was no way that he would go to the zoo today. The teacher challenged this saying that it was a possibility. Jesse has strong opinions and he crossed his arms and legs and prepared to dig his heels in on this issue. He said there is no way I am going to the zoo today and the teacher answered that it was in the realm of possibilities. The next morning (today) she asked Jessica mom if Jesse had asked about going to the zoo and Jessica mom told her that it was so strange because she had been given tickets to the zoo at work today and so when Jesse came home and asked if there was any possibility of going to the zoo to which he expected his mom to say no, she instead said yes! Anyhow, it was one of those rare twists of fate that deserved a good laugh.
I just spent the evening with Daniel going to first Thursday and seeing a lot of art. I liked the stuff at Greg Kucera. I liked the sunset best.
I went to a great meeting last night called “when things die” at conworks. I met a lot of people who have run arts organizations. I’m putting energy into starting a gallery. I can feel it coming.
School is wrapping up, I had my last afterschool guitar class today. I have brought them a long way in six months and it feels good to have my legion of guitarists sprouting out there in the world.
I get noticed out in the world by parents of students I know and they say “hey Mr. (insert my last name here)” I like it. People appreciate what I do and the enthusiasm and energy I bring to the arts at my school.
I had a great time today with my classes acting out fairy tales on my new stage. Scarves and hats and a stage make acting for real. I am feeling proud of my work as a teacher right now. I make a difference in 250 students lives.
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