Mural #2 - 2009 to 2010

We have a design.  I talked to Mr. Principal and told him what wall I wanted, and why.  He talked to the department chairperson in that area.  We're good to go.  We have a small grant from the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands, since we'll need more materials and supplies.  We are set!

September 2009 - Summary

It’s time for another mural.  We haven’t grouted mural #1, and the ceramics teacher at the high school suggested we use bullnose tile across the top – so we have that yet to do.  I’d also like to re-do the mirror – if anyone is planning on creating a mosaic mural, let me suggest you DO NOT use mirror unless you can find thick mirror tile.  Most mirrors are thin glass, too thin to cut with a tile cutter.  Plus the cut is difficult to control.  Plus the mirror sinks into the thin-set.  Plus you need to build up the concrete on the wall so that the mirror is flush with the rest of the tile.  Plus since the glass of the mirror is so thin, there’s no edge to hold onto – thus the front ends up covered in little concretey fingerprints from the students.  Just a mess.

Reason #2 that we haven’t grouted mural #1 over the summer, as I had planned – I went to Washington DC for a class in July; I got off the plane, found a taxi, headed to my hotel; my taxi was rear-ended by another taxi, and my driver and I were transported to the ER via ambulance; I spent much of the summer in and out of doctors’ offices, in chiropractic treatment or therapeutic massage or just resting, since I couldn’t move my neck.  (There were days when my head felt too heavy for my neck to hold up, so I just leaned back on pillows for support.)  By the time school began, I was more mobile but still seeing the chiropractor twice a week for adjustments, to keep my neck vertebrae in place.  Plus my left shoulder, already inflamed after the accident, froze up and I couldn’t raise that arm.  Can you imagine tiling and grouting while NOT looking or reaching up?  No, I couldn’t imagine that either.  So we worked inside.  On a number of projects.

Begin at the Beginning

 

We began the school year by making tiles.  After all, if we were going to create another mural, students should know how tiles are made, right?  So I had some of my big students haul out my nice white clay, and I demonstrated tile making – take a piece of clay, put it on a cloth, take tiles and put them around the side, roll the clay to a smooth slab the same thickness as the tiles on the sides.  Unfold a large paperclip and use that as a tool to cut the tiles – squares, rectangles, triangles, etc.  Press a shoe sole or another tile onto the wet clay tile to add a little texture.  Separate the tiles, let them dry to bone dry.  Bisque fire.  Glaze, then glaze fire.  Easy peasy.  

My advanced class also made molds for the bullnose tiles, so that we could make our own.  Thick brick of clay, put down a plastic bag, press a bullnose tile down into the brick to make the mold.  Let it dry over a month before bisque firing.  Do not glaze. 

We had a mural design, a composite of several of last year’s entries, re-drawn into a composite design by last year’s mural design winner – that way, both murals would be in the same style, so that we’d have visual continuity.  I discussed this with my students, as well as the mural location (the wall by the entrance to the auditorium, at the front of the school).  We agreed that this was a great place for the mural, and that the design was good too.

This meant we needed a few specific colors – maroon for the graduating people in the mural, orange for the center person, bright green for part of the globe so it had a topographic quality.  We used words like topographic, composite, visual continuity, visual style, so the students became conversant in these terms.  And we glazed primarily in these colors, adding a few different reds and pinks for some variety.

The Thug Crew

I had one class that had problems. Not the whole class, just a few students, but a class tends to develop a personality based on the behavior levels of the worst-behaved students, so that they become the lowest common denominator.

This class, my last class of the day, had four thugs – truly thugs, kids involved in last year’s gang fight on campus, when one student was hit in the head with a huge rock and had to be airlifted off island for neurosurgery. Not just misbehaving students, but seriously problem students.

Thug #4 transferred to another class. I still had Thugs #1, #2, and #3 – ranked in order of how badly they misbehaved in my classroom. I also had Thug Wannabe, and Junior Thug.

My policy with student who don’t behave is that I usually make them responsible for some aspect of classroom life – given responsibility, delinquent students usually rise to the challenge, become responsible, and start behaving – to the point that they then persuade other students to also behave.

I tried. Oh my, how I tried. But my Thugs were incorrigible. Thug #1 was suspended as often as he was in school. Thug #2 was often suspended; when he was in class, he was great at tiling, but belligerent, rude, and eventually beat up a male teacher and was sent to the alternative academy. Thug #3 was also suspended about a quarter of the school year (he broke his own hand in a fight, and in another incident lit a joint in a classroom, teacher present), but he settled down somewhat. Thug Wannabe was rude and obnoxious most of the time, but he finished most of his work.

Junior Thug. Junior Thug bought into the system. I put him in charge of the kiln – along with the rest of the thug crew – but only Junior Thug really enjoyed loading and unloading the kiln, placing the cone, turning the kiln on or off – he was great! And after we finished firing, he remained great – he was a model student! I still see Junior Thug at school, he always greets me with a big smile. I feel like I made a difference with him; I don’t know if it extended to the rest of his school life, but he was definitely great in my class.

“I Ate Cornflakes Out of My Bowl”

In November, we switched to making objects out of clay. I demonstrated hand-building techniques – pinch, coil, and slab construction. Students had ten days to make objects – no guns, but bowls, cups, banks, ornaments, plaques, and such. I helped with handles, which are difficult – but just about every student wanted to make holiday gifts for their families. And, between making objects, students made additional tiles.

 Junior Thug again took over loading and unloading the kiln, in addition to completing at least one clay item a day. Items dried, he loaded, we bisque fired, he unloaded, we glazed, he loaded, we glaze fired, he unloaded. Students wrapped their objects in paper and plastic bags, and took them home.

A few days after we finished all the clay work, Thug #2 came to class. Sat down, ready to work, chip still on his shoulder, face set in his permanent scowl. He looked at me and announced, “Ms. Schwartz, this morning I ate cornflakes out of my bowl.” I smiled, congratulated him on making such a nice bowl. Other students piped up that they had drunk juice or milk or tea out of their cups. Someone else had eaten breakfast using their bowl.

It was one of those successful moments, when the students show that they’ve achieved something, when the teacher feels she has achieved something – even though it was as simple as cornflakes in a blue bowl.

Enlarging

Once again, students needed to learn how to enlarge using a grid. Once again, we worked on enlarging drawings by Keith Haring, covered with a one inch grid; once again, we enlarged to a three inch grid. Students proudly hung their enlarged drawing all over the room, or took them home where their families praised them.

Now, instead of drawing and tiling directly onto the wall, we needed to enlarge our drawing onto paper. I took sheets of easel paper and had students draw 12” squares, four squares per sheet. I then assigned students four adjacent squares from the mural design – outlining the assigned squares for the students, and also outlining them on my master copy, so I wouldn’t re-assign squares later. Every square – all 243 squares – had to be drawn on paper. Working from a grid of 2/3 inch squares to 12” squares, enlarging the entire mural.

Eventually the squares were completed. Students worked in teams and were responsible for different parts of the mural – four students might work on the two graduates, for example. The squares they had just drawn had to be put together and checked that the entire picture was there, that lines crossing from square to square lined up, that body parts didn’t come together in Picasso-esque fashion. We paperclipped, checked, erased and re-drew, re-checked, moved things around, erased, re-drew, on and on.

When this process was finished, when each figure or element of the mural lined up correctly, we then used marker – green or black, no gang colors here – and drew over the pencil lines. Labelled colors. And, most importantly, we labeled the coordinates for each and every square. B3. H26. I5. F17. Whatever. Every single square had to have a coordinate for the rest of the process.

Thug Crew – Again

My thug crew said this enlarging was too hard, they couldn’t do it. They refused to do it. So, for the second time in 24 years of teaching, I handed out coloring books. Really. I had never seen 14 and 15 year olds who were willing to just color in a book on Egyptian art. They were perfectly content to just color inside the lines, nice and neatly. So while I worked with the rest of the class, my thug crew colored. And stopped me periodically to show me how nicely they had colored.

At least they were working. They weren’t disrupting, they weren’t fighting, they weren’t threatening other students. It was a start. At this point, I would take what I could get.

Tiling on Mesh

My classes began tiling – I wrote the steps of the procedure on the board. #1, select a mural square drawn on paper. (Easy squares were reserved for my Basic Art classes; my Advanced students had tiled with me the previous year.) #2, take a square of tile mesh. #3, use marker to write the square coordinates on the mesh. #4, flip the mesh over. #5, put the mesh on the paper mural square and copy the design.









#6, cut tile to appropriate size and shape, using appropriate colors, to fill the design. #7, glue (using glue sparingly) the tiles in place.

#8, slide paper and mesh and tile onto cardboard, flip over so the tile is face down.

#9, peel off paper and let dry.


My room, already messy, took on a new level of disorder. Cardboard trays of completed tile squares, sorted by letter (row), were stacked in the storeroom. Boxes of tile lined two walls.

To write on the whiteboard, I literally had to climb onto boxes and stand in boxes of broken tile.  Apparently this became normal enough that the students ignored me.

Desks and countertops held stacks of cardboard separating mural squares not yet finished. The floor was littered with bits of tile, and no matter how frequently we swept, the floor still seemed littered with bits of tile.

But we worked and worked and tiled and tiled, and slowly slowly it came together.

Thug Crew – For the Third Time

My thug class was probably my most uncooperative class of my career. Students definitely had descended to the behavior level of the lowest common denominator. If someone was hit by a bit of tile after someone trimmed a shape, the student felt justified in throwing tile. Pretty soon, bits of tile were flying through the air. I eventually called a halt to tiling, and the class moved onto other art projects.

Except bits of colored pencil and crayon would find their way into the air. Students didn’t care if they received a zero when I caught them throwing objects. Students didn’t care if they were sent to the principal, or if their parents were called in. Some of the parents didn’t seem to care what their child was doing in school.

So I moved the class to paper. Cut paper projects for the bulletin board. Pre-printed paper to color. Stickers in folded books, and the students would write or draw. I have never in my life had such a class, where I couldn’t trust them with anything sharper than a pencil. But if education is to be student-centered and teacher-led, then I had to go with what I had. And what I had were a bunch of students influenced by the thug crew, and unwilling to function as 7th and 8th graders. So I gave them kindergarten work, and they were happy. I was frustrated, but at least I was again in control.

Finally, in January, the class ended – the students moved on to other electives, I received a new class of students – Thugs #1 and #2 were sent to the alternative education program at another school for a variety of reasons. I still see Thug #3 around; Junior Thug is happy to see we’re working outside on the mural; Wannabe Thug and his friend, Mr. Obnoxious, periodically drop by my class to say hi.

Tiling Competition

As we tiled and tiled and tiled, my students in the other two classes grew restless. I could understand – we were at that point of the project when the daily work seems endless, one day blurs into another, the process is the same even if the tile square is not. We had one day each week when we did something different: viewing slides of murals and mosaics in different parts of the world; reading about murals, mosaics, artists; drawing borders for certificates for our donors; even viewing slides of my travels, when we talked about art and architecture and murals I had seen.

But I decided a little competition would spice up the last month or two of tiling. I talked to Mr. Principal, who agreed that we could hold a competition, that the school could provide pizza for the winners, and then he said “But everyone will win, right?” I said that students would be competing both for time and quality, so that I thought one class would average better quality, while the other class would “probably” take fewer days on the average. He laughed and said that was the way to encourage students – everyone is a winner!

So I set up a spreadsheet rubric, where I could track each student in my two morning classes. I would write in the day they began a new mural square; I would then write in the day their square was completed, and calculate how many days they worked on this square. Then I’d grade the square, based on accuracy, technique, quality of work, etc. At the end, I would average days per square for a class average, as well as average the grading of the quality of the mural square.

Students worked with renew vigor and interest. Okay, MOST students were rejuvenated and motivated by the competition. Most students only took two or three days to complete a square. Students worked hard to produce their best squares, and I graded them.

Other students – middle school is a talkative age. A social age. A few students spent most of their time talking. (My jaw would get tired if I talked that much.) No matter what I said or did, they’d talk nonstop. Other students would shake their heads and tell the talking students to work – to no avail. The students would continue to talk, despite saying how much fun this competition was. And take 14 workdays to complete one square. So that number would be averaged in. And, well, both classes had students who took forever. They are well-matched that way. The second class, however, had two perfectionists, who would cut a tile to fit, not be satisfied, remove the tile, cut a new tile – and take as long as my talkers. Time and quality, I’m grading for time and quality – and I think the perfectionists, despite their slowness, produce better quality.

Finally, all the squares are in. One class averaged 5.3 days per square, the other class averaged 6.95 days. However, the slightly slower class averaged a grade of 94.17, while the slightly faster class averaged 94.05.

So yes, both classes win - one for speed, the other for quality.

Isn't it nice when things work out like that?

Fits and Starts and Interruptions

There are the inevitable time interruptions – assemblies honoring students who did well the previous marking period; meetings with students prior to Carnival, talking about safety issues; classes where we work on something else because the power is out and we can’t see well enough to tile.

My favorite “interruption” was the ketchup contest. A major manufacturer of ketchup holds a yearly design competition, where students draw designs for the ketchup packets. One winner for each grade is selected, and that winner wins $1,000 cash; the teacher gets $1,000 for art supplies; and the school cafeteria gets $1,000 worth of ketchup products (which just cracked me up).

My students enjoyed this break, where we spent several weeks designing and coloring ketchup packets on the contest entry forms. We had Romeo offering Juliet a ketchup bottle. Scuba divers with ketchup bottle tanks. Ketchup bottles relaxing in hammocks on the beach. Ketchup slices sliding into ketchup bottles. On and on. The designs were amusing and clever and well rendered, and we had fun.

Alas, we didn’t win. Anything. Not even “Honorable Mention.” My students were very disappointed, but it was a good opportunity to talk about art for arts sake, not for winning; that I had never won an art contest, but I usually sold my artwork (for more than the winner’s prize); that being “bought” can be more rewarding than winning; and that our mural was going to make them famous as student artists.

And then we went back to working on the mural.

Mural Mishap #1

We finished 95% of the mosaic tiles in April. I took my students up to our mural wall, by the auditorium, and we began measuring. I had hoped to center the mural on the wall, as we had with the first mural. We began measuring and realized that the fire hose connection would end up right in the mural! OH NO!!!!!! Students suggested we tile the hose connection (an ambitious process). Other students said maybe we could create a hole around the connector (also ambitious). I kept thinking, no matter how we did this, we’d still have a hose connection coming out of one of the people in the mural, and it would look, well, to speak frankly, rather phallic! NOT what one wants at a middle school!!!!!!!!

We looked for a way around the hose outlet. The best we could do was to measure from the edge of the wall – 27 feet down, we stopped about 3” short of the hose connector. YAY, success! We could do this. So we measured 27 feet long, 9 feet high, and drew the outline in marker. I wrote in the name of our maintenance superman, gave him a phone call, bought cans of the super duper paint remover, and went off to my art education conference.

Presenting at the National Art Education Association National Convention

I had submitted a proposal to the NAEA convention committee, and it was accepted. I spent a week in Baltimore in April, attending conference sessions, meeting colleagues, gathering new ideas for lessons and projects and ways to run my classroom. I went to the vendor exhibits and collected samples and gathered product information. And then, on Saturday afternoon, I gave my presentation. I had put together a computer “slideshow” with photos of my students working on the first and second murals. I had burned CDs with all of my lesson plans, grant proposals, directions, etc., so that someone wanting to replicate this project would have the information to do so. As attendees entered (about 20 people), I started the slideshow. And talked, describing what we did, how the students responded, etc.

My presentation went well. Time flew. Six o’clock came and went. People left with the CDs, but half the group lingered, with questions and ideas and wondering if they could do a similar project. It was so gratifying!!!!! YAY!!

Mural Mishap #2

After the NAEA conference, I returned and found that Mr. Maintenance Superman had begun removing the paint. It appeared that he started at one end, went partway down, and was working his way across. Just prior to Carnival break, the upper half of our mural area was completely stripped. And off we went to Carnival activities.

When we returned after the week, I saw that we still had only the upper six feet of our wall stripped. I talked to Mr. Principal, who wasn’t sure what was going on. Mr. Music Teacher came by and said he had worked with Mr. Maintenance Superman, and that there was a line at the bottom of the section they stripped – so they thought we were creating a smaller mural this year.

Oooops. My students had misunderstood the directions, and they drew a line at three feet, instead of just dots. I could see how Mr. Maintenance Superman had taken that to be the bottom of the mural. So I gave him another call, explained our mistake, bought more super duper paint stripper, and a week later we had a bare wall.

Interdisciplinary Studies

I’ve always been a fan of interdisciplinary studies. I mean, in real life we rarely use one subject area in isolation – when I do math, it’s to figure out measurements or distribution of something for an art project, or calculating student grades, or maintaining a budget – it isn’t math for math’s sake. When researching information for a lesson or unit plan, I read and write, incorporate history, math is usually in there, often something scientific. So WHY do we teach subjects in isolation? And why do so many teachers act as if their subject area is the end-all and be-all of existence?

Part of the mural project was to include as many subject areas as possible. The math is inherent in the project, given all the measuring and working to scale and enlarging with a grid. I’ve had reading and writing projects, both to expand the students’ knowledge as well as to incorporate those skills. Social studies – we have art history (basically, “ancient” history is all based on art and architecture of the times), we had elections to learn about democracy in action, the grid work incorporates mapping skills.

And science. What do we do with science? How does science fit into a mural?

My students and I have become expert meteorologists. Also known as weather guessers. Every morning, even before my shower, I check the weather report online. I look at the weather maps, the radar and Doppler and satellite images. I turn on the TV and watch the local weather report (on the 8s!). I get to school and go online and double-check the weather reports.

Yesterday, we didn’t work on the wall. Students asked why, since it was so nice and sunny outside. I showed them the computer image, showing rain approaching. We talked about the key showing rain intensity, and looked at the approaching blobs of yellow and red. So we worked inside, and by the end of class, it was dark outside. About five minutes after the class left for the buses, the skies opened up and we had torrential rain. And yes, we could have worked outside and stayed dry. But all the blue bonding agent that we’d have painted on would have washed off in that rain, or all the rain throughout the night.

As I said, we’ve become expert weather guessers. So yes, science. And technology.

And did I mention physical education? Painting blue bond on the wall burns about 300 calories an hour. Tiling burns about 250-300 calories an hour. Walking up to the wall, carrying our equipment and supplies, and walking back, burns about 250 calories an hour.

Mmmm hmmmm, we’ve got phys ed covered too.

A Thank You to Parents Who Teach Their Children Well

Some students are the kind of kids you wish you could keep forever. Or that every student was like that child. These are the students who are funny, inquisitive, helpful, caring, do their work without fuss, get quiet when they need to and participate in discussions when that is the activity of the day. They’re willing to carry buckets outside, without arguing. They don’t do anything wrong, they don’t need to be disciplined. They want to learn, they want to work, they enjoy school, they work hard. I love them! And there aren’t enough of these students.

There are also the students who work with parents or family members on various projects, students who come to school knowing how to use a trowel and spread cement, how to tile. These students become my assistant supervisors, and they’re willing to teach other students these skills. I love these students too.

So parents who have wonderful students, who never hear from teachers because your children aren’t problems – thank you thank you thank you! We teachers don’t always take time to thank you for the great job you’ve done with your children – but trust me, we know what a wonderful job you’ve done raising these kids. And we appreciate what you’ve done!

Rigor, Relevance, Relationships in Action

The new buzzwords in our Dept of Ed are Rigor, Relevance, Relationships – meaning you can teach RIGOROUS material if it is RELEVANT to student’s lives and RELATES to other subjects as well as you having a good RELATIONSHIP with the students.

I think the mural project fits. We’re working on very abstract concepts – enlarging, mapping, gridding, working on one square with a somewhat abstract design without knowing how the next square will look, working on elements and principles of design in a meaningful way, working sequentially. The fact that we’re working on a project that produces a product, visible throughout the school, makes it relevant to the students – and our mural design is based on success and achievement at school. The students are working on a real-life product that brings up various problems, and produces variable results. Nothing is predictable. There is more than one solution to each problem. We figure it out as we go.

And when I can trust students to go in and out of the storeroom, getting what we need – well, I think we have a trusting relationship.

Plus I love seeing students working together, helping each other - students who normally wouldn't work together are willing to cooperate to achieve a greater good.

So I think I’m covered.

Mosaic Mishap #3

Stardate May 19, 2010 – We’re busily cementing mesh squares of tile onto the wall. We find we have two versions of I14, and no I11. I realize that one of 14s is really 11 – but the student re-did the square to fit square I14. This means the orange foot is on the wrong side of the square. This means that his original was correct, he just mis-labelled the square. This means not only did he spend a LOT of time doing work he didn’t have to do, to correct a mistake that really wasn’t a mistake – NOW it means that I have to re-do the square. Peel off the orange and yellow tile, and re-position them on the opposite end of the square. Fill in the background with beige, cut to fit. (Because if I peel off the glued down beige tile, it will have lumps of glue on the back, making it an uneven surface to glue, plus leaving less bare tile on which the cement will adhere.)

So I spend the hour after class revising the tile. Cutting, peeling, fitting, re-gluing.

And I missed my departmental meeting on scheduling. On the other hand, no one called me to say “Why aren’t you at the meeting right now?” So we both have some responsibility in the matter.

Another mishap averted.

Mural Mishap #4

I need to go pick up another bag or two of thin-set. But, being an art teacher who has learned to be thrifty, I’ve been saving leftover thin-set each day – I just add more water and blue bond, so it’s a thin mixture, put it in a plastic bucket with a cover, and then the following day dump it back in our mixing bucket and add more powdered thin-set.

Now, the mixture does settle a bit, and the liquid does rise to the top a little. And I’m aware of that, so I pour slowly. But the stuff on the bottom takes a while to come out, and today, when it came out, the thick mixture plopped into the mixing bucket with enough force that the liquid splashed out. All over the table. And floor. And me. So I was covered with a liquidy version of thin-set cement, blue bond, and water.

Fortunately, I had changed into my grubby mural clothes. And this was before students arrived. So I managed to clean myself, the table, and the floor, before anyone could see what a mess I’d made.

Sometimes I forget about gravity.

What’s That Spell????

We’ve worked hard, and in 2.5 days we finished row I, our bottom row. We could only have one or two people tiling at a time, since we needed to start at the left end of the mural (the corner of the building) and then work to the right, finishing wherever we finished (which was about 1.5” beyond our line, but still well short of the fire hose connector).

I told my husband I wanted to finish row I. He looked at me blankly and said, “What are you spelling out?” I had to laugh – he writes for a living (former journalist, published author, current attorney), so of course he thinks in words. I’m an artist with a mathematical bent, and I think in pictures and images, so to me row I is definitely part of a grid.

I hope we can start completing one row a day! I want to be finished prior to graduation!

Rained Out

I wish I could figure out how to save the image from the Doppler weather map – it’s quite impressive today. There’s a band of heavy rain (yellow-orange-red) stretching from Central America across the Caribbean and over the Virgin Islands. We started with a 60% chance of rain today, moving to 90% chance of rain tomorrow.

It wasn’t bad when we started this morning – the class voted to mix cement and tile for a while. My first two classes finished row H, and we even did four squares on row G.

But the rain came by the second class, so most of the students worked in the storeroom, organizing row F and putting the squares in numerical order. A few diehard students worked outside with me. Then class was over, and I finished the last two squares by myself, in the light rain. I’ve always felt that rain is the same water you bathe in, it’s just colder. But I did manage to get soaked to the skin. Fortunately, I had my nice clothes in my office, dry and warm. After I cleaned up, I took off the soaking wet shirt and overalls and changed into dry clothes.

The rain has grown steadily heavier – my afternoon class will NOT be on the wall today, we’re rained out. Just like a ball game. Not even a rain delay – tomorrow is due to be rainier. We’re rained out until next week.

Pizza Party - June 1

We had our pizza party for the tiling competition winners (two classes, each of which won in one area of the competition).

One boy was eating his fourth slice of pizza, taking huge bites and chewing with his mouth open. I leaned over and said quietly, "Sweetheart, try to chew with your mouth closed. Pretend you're eating pizza with the president."

Without missing a beat, he looked at me and said, "Do you have a knife and fork?"

I nearly fell over laughing!!!!!!

Iguana Intermezzo

I suppose this could be a mosaic mishap, except it really was just a lizard delay. Reptilian recess. Whatever you want to call it. We saved an iguana, but spent so much time doing so that we didn’t have time to work on the wall. 

NOTE:  No, we did not stop and take these photos.  These are photos I found online.  I just like having photos in my blog.  We saved the iguana, rather than took his photos.  Just wanted to let you know.

Basically, St. Thomians, perhaps most West Indians, are afraid of iguanas. Not everyone, just most people. I can understand that – they look like little dinosaurs. They snap at people who approach too closely, and they will whip their tails in defense. I had a student years ago who was chasing an iguana off his porch, and was whipped across the face – it was a long cut, more than just a scratch. So I understand the apprehension, even if not the fear.

What I don’t understand are the boys at school who throw rocks at the unfortunate iguana who wanders onto the campus. I absolutely do not understand injuring or abusing an animal. And I think it’s important to teach our students that acts like that are not right, and are, in fact, illegal as well as immoral.


So when my student told me there was an iguana by the steps and that’s why he wasn’t walking upstairs to get an excused pass, I went outside to save the iguana. Sent one of my students for a broom, another to get a garbage can from a teacher right there. She sent out a shallow plastic bin with a lid, and said you have to get the lid on quickly or the iguana will jump out. We managed to get Mr. Iggie into the bin, he jumped out – and ran down the walkway, with students screaming and scattering in his wake. I sent someone downstairs for my big, deep garbage can. And followed the iguana, trying to corral him with my broom. Garbage can arrived. Iggie did not cooperate, we couldn’t get him to jump into the can, he kept jumping down the levels of the ramp, we’d all go chasing after him.

Finally, one of the other teachers trying to help grabbed the can, turned it upside down, and on the third try managed to get it on top of Iggie. I sent another student back for one of the large cardboard bread boxes we’ve been using to hold our mosaic squares. She brought one, plus a smaller cut piece of cardboard – I opened up the box, one student held it in place while we put the smaller piece of cardboard at the back – and slowly and gently, we pushed the can and the recalcitrant iguana onto the large opened-out box.



Whew! NOW we needed to flip the can over, with the cardboard in place. Two of us tried, but the weight of the iguana made the cardboard bend and I was afraid he’d slip out. So it took FOUR of us to hold the cardboard and can, lift it up, and slowly flip it over (I told the students we had to do it slowly so we wouldn’t hurt the iguana). Then put the can on the ground. Students wanted to see the iguana again, now that he was safely ensconced in the can – one girl even waved and said hi.

So she and a fairly big boy carried the can, still covered, out to the field in back of the school and tipped Mr Ig out, and watched him run away. And brought back the can to my room.

By then, we were 25 minutes into the class. My students were still stirring the cement. I looked at them, looked at the clock (15 minutes left in class), and said okay, we’re thinning the cement down and putting it away til Monday. They happily helped, and cooperated in cleaning up. My following class helped me sort squares and put row G in order, to make it easy to put up next week. (Half the class was already in the auditorium, practicing with the steel pan band for tomorrow night’s concert.)

My last class of the day will work in the classroom – we’re making books. The day may be cut short – a very sad incident, the son of one of the teachers was killed by someone shooting at his friend. The funeral is today, late morning – many teachers and administrators are going, so those of us still at school will pick up the slack. Also, buses may come early – the repast after the funeral will be here in our cafeteria, and we’re trying to get the students off campus before all the mourners come.

So – that was my morning. Saving an iguana, sorting tile, finding five squares are missing. I’m sure they’re just in the wrong boxes, and we’ll find them.

I lead such an exciting life, LOL!

The Elements Are Conspiring Against Us

This has been the rainiest month of May I’ve ever seen. It has rained every single day, at least briefly. Some days, it has rained all day long. There have been strong winds, drizzle, fog, flood watches, torrential rain, thunderstorms.

And all of this has slowed down the progress of our mural.

To top it off, today the lights weren’t working in the music building, so we couldn’t even work in the storeroom. I had planned to take classes up there to sort the squares and put them in numeric order, which makes it much easier when we’re tiling the wall. No, we couldn’t even do that.

It’s as if the elements are in a conspiracy to prevent the completion of this mural.

Chocolate Tile

Sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate between shades and tones of color – what’s the difference between dark brown and very dark brown? Or even medium brown and medium dark brown? Cream and eggshell and off-white? Sky blue and light blue?

With my students, I often give colors names that they understand, names that they’ve seen.

So our two graduating figures in the mural, both of whom are brown, are described as chocolate brown and caramel brown. The colors really do look like those two descriptions, the students understand (and have seen) the difference between the two browns, and it just makes life easier. And, in the real world, paint and carpet and fashion items have names like that, so I hope I’m giving the students skills to understand color in real-life situations.

As we were putting up the heads of the graduates, I asked two students to run inside and look for some of the tiles that had fallen out. “We need maroon for the hat, yellow for the tassel, purple for the lines, and brown for the face,” I said.

Little cutie guy (the one who tells me he believes in magic) asks which brown – I say the chocolate brown – he bops off happily, knowing exactly which color to find. As I cut the tile, bits fall, and I can ask him to hand me the chocolate triangle on the ground, and he knows which one I mean.

Next day, he sees me on the way to the office. “Ms. Schwartz, I ate some of the tile. It didn’t taste very good. Even the chocolate tile.” He grimaces and rubs his stomach, as if it hurts.

He cracks me up, he’s so adorable!

Not Quite Finished, But……

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We aren’t quite finished with the mural.  The school year is over, student attendance is sporadic, eighth graders are practicing for marching in their promotional exercise, many of my seventh grade students are staying with their music teachers for rehearsals.  I’ve tried being on the wall by myself, but it moves slowly, and I have other things that need to be completed.  Not to mention that I’m tired of nicked and blue-cemented hands, and I think I need to let them heal.


However, we’ve finished a LOT!!!!!!!  Some photos to show what we’ve accomplished thus far:

Far left, the music students:   

        

Next, the trophy winners  


















 
And the graduating students


I love the tile tassels!!


 


































 













To the far right, the art students



















Middle person holding up the globe (to be completed)
 

And then a view of the same figure, finished 








 Overview from across campus - finishing bullnose tile at top edge, and prior to grouting