Day 29: Thing-a-Day Mission Complete

My goal for the thing-a-day project was to create something every day of the month, or to spend 20-30 minutes a day working on something creative. Some of my projects were familiar things (cooking, writing, taking pictures to illustrate my blog); some were not daily events (making cards, other things with paper, and my bulletin board at school). Some days, it was hard to get in a creative place and some days it was easy. I liked the challenge of getting myself to think in a new way, though sometimes the daily requirement created anxiety.....not exactly conducive to creativity. But, as I predicted when I started out on the 1st of the month, being mindful of creativity is a very good thing for me and even without the thing-a-day element, well worth holding on to.

Check out the work of other participants in thing-a-day at http://www.thing-a-day.com/ And, if you're so inclined, leave a comment for one of the participants.

Day 28: Spring Break Plans

JT and I sat down for supper tonight with a sheet of paper and we made a list of the things we'd like to do for spring break. Last year, we spent a week at Disneyworld and that's hard to top. But the beauty of being 8 is well, that you are 8 and so he was full of ideas. So far, we've agreed to go see a movie at the theater in town (the one that serves pizza for the kids and beer for the mamas); invite a friend for a sleepover; spend a day playing games on the Wii (read: Mama takes a drubbing); rent a Davy Crocket movie; and a visit to the Natural History museum in New York.

It's nice to have a plan.......now I just hope we can score some warm weather so I can wear my bunny t-shirt.

Days 26 & 27: Ribbons & Such

I've been thinking about some ways to creatively wrap packages, using some of the charming tags I scored from etsy. I like the slightly old-fashioned and simple look of brown paper very much. Yesterday, when I had some free time to think, I settled on what I wanted to do. After school today JT and I stopped by Michaels's to see if they had what I was looking for. Bingo.

I am a sucker for stripes and polka dots. Put them on $1 ribbon and I'm in. So tonight I made a card and wrapped up a package with my new supplies. The picture doesn't really do the package justice; I think it turned out very nicely. And everyone loves to receive a package in the mail, so I've got that in my corner.

Day 25: Get Well Soon Card

I had a crummy day today, but one of my students had a worse day because she slipped on the ice in the morning and fractured her ankle. Just writing it makes me wince.

Lately, my student K has been showing me some terrific color collage art work she's been making. So it seemed fitting that I share something I made with her. I laid out my supplies and got to work.

To combat the icy cold, I picked out some spring paper for her get-well-soon card. I went with a yellow gingham background and a second layer with a green floral print.

Then some white daisies added good cheer. Clearly, I wasn't looking to be subtle.

It's out in the mailbox waiting for the postman to deliver it to her.

Day 24: Bunny T-Shirt

There is a back story to today's project. I found this brown bunny appliqué on etsy, and I had to have it. When I asked JT if he wanted me to make him a t-shirt with the bunny on it, his response was immediate. "I will not wear it to school," he said.

As I know no boundaries of good taste, I made myself a bunny t. And I plan to wear my bunny t-shirt to school. So there.

Snow Day (a report in words and pictures)

Here in central New Jersey, we got our first decent snow of the season and JT was delighted. He'd been waiting all winter for a day such as this and he was determined to enjoy it in full. Snow boy was out the door at 9:30 for his first tour of snow play. Bad guys were slain, snowballs were made (and eaten!), and then he sledded down the hill in the front yard.

It is a universal law of winter that there are never enough dry mittens, no matter how many your Mama has washed and has at the ready.

By 12:15, with all of his mittens sopping wet, the boy was ready for a break. He brought his pink cheeks into the house and shed his snowy clothes.

While the snow gear dried and warmed in the dryer, lunch was devoured and the boy warmed up under the fuzzy blanket.

Round II found Mama joining the fun. While I shoveled the walk and the driveway, JT made snowballs for throwing. Uh oh.

The snow ball arsenal was unloaded on Mama, who reports that JT's aim is getting better.

Neighbor Tom got to work with his snow blower, helping all of us to clear the snow from our driveways.

We made a snow monster with his very own snowy mountain.

JT ate more snow.

And there was more sledding.

After hot baths and supper, cookies were made (peanut butter and snickerdoodles).

Finally, after it got dark, we had a walk in the snowy night. We call it creeping and for me it's the best part of a snowy day. I always hope that it will be a quiet stroll but JT entertained himself by throwing his body in every snowdrift along the way.

Not surprisingly after all this fun, the boy was sleepy.
It was a very good day.

All You Can Play Snow Buffet

We awakened this morning to a good 3 inches of snow, with more coming down at a steady pace. We expect a final total of 5-7 inches. It's our first major snow of the school year and therefore its bounty included a snow day. After a leisurely breakfast in his pajamas, JT took a look outdoors, exchanged the jammies for snow pants and announced, "It's an all you can play snow buffet."


Indeed.

Let's Just Call it Creative Teaching

Without a doubt, the best part of teaching American Government to high school students is the three weeks we spend studying the evolution of civil rights and civil liberties. Walking our way through the incorporation of the Bill of Rights to the states is, I hope, enlightening for the students. I know that it is amusing for me.

I always find that the first amendment is chock full-o-fun for kids and grown-ups alike. I explain that students may wear black arm bands at school to protest the Vietnam War (Tinker v. Des Moines) but may not carry posters that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" (Morse v. Frederick) as it contravenes the school 's anti-drug policy in Juneau, Alaska. I threaten to line them all up for a mandatory urine drug test a la the ruling in Hazelton v. Kuhlmeier.

Then we move on to freedom of religion and I get to tell the story of the woman who founded a religion whereby she was a goddess and worshippers ---- all men ---- were required to pay her to have sex with her. She called it a spiritual odyssey. The state called it prostitution. High school eyes widen and then they laugh.

The prep school kids always get a great big laugh out of the idea of student-led prayer before football games in Sante Fe, Texas. The Supreme Court was not nearly as amused when they ruled against that practice in Santa Fe v. Doe.

Soon after that, I spend nearly an entire day defining obscenity as did the Supreme Court in their ruling in Miller v. California. Yesterday, one of my students announced that conversations with his little brother ALWAYS lack spiritual, literary, scientific and political value. He wondered if that made them obscene.

And today, I patiently explained to dogmatic E that cross-burning didn't qualify as symbolic speech, while the rest of the class just begged me to suspend E's 1st amendment rights. They'd read the precedent, you see, and were eager to give it a try.

Chalk Design

Today's creativity was a little chalkboard fun that JT and I designed in my classroom after school. It's a lot of color swirled together to make a wavy design that runs all the way across the chalkboard in the back of my class.

JT celebrated the creation with a lollipop while I made his picture. Day 20 is complete.

Day 19

I re-arranged my bulletin board today. It's nice to have some new things to look at. I've gotten to the point that I'm now looking at things and thinking, "hmmmmm, this will look good on my bulletin board," and then setting aside the item. I've enjoyed it so much that I think that I will continue to change-up the display even when my one month creativity experiment is over.

Update: Here is a photo of the view from my desk.