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Lesson Plans


End of the year

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
EVasso (EVasso)
Fri, 17 Apr 1998 18:46:30 EDT

Gail writes:
<<As I face the end of the year with huge art show, supplies to
order, grades to do, clean up and organize the art room, I begin to wonder if
I can ever get it all done and still teach. What have you all learned to get
through this time period and do you have a tips to make it easier? Thanks for
your help ! >>

Dear Gail,
I have learned that it doesn't all get done. But look, last night was open
house/artshow. 550 kids and everyone of 'em had at least one piece on display.
Every year I stand in the middle of the first floor hallway, parents,
grandparents and kids, former students, present students and future sudents
rushing past, stopping, looking, pointing, talking, enjoying the hell out of
what my students and I have done this year together. Portraits, houses,
dragons, kites, prints, monoprints, paintings, drawings, architecture,
baroque, Africa, Asia, Latin America, 14th century, 20th century, papier
mache Greek vases, in the style of Picasso, O'Keefe, Matisse, Kahlo, Bearden,
Mona Lisas and gargoyles and oil pastels and masks and...a years worth of art
and work and what the hell, later for the ordering of materials, grades, IEPs,
wants lists, supply inventories, improvement plans, next years "goals," blah,
blah, blah. We talk about how its not the product, but the process. But come
open house and the art show, I LOVE THE PRODUCT!!!!! and so do my students and
so do their parents. And for at least through this weekend, the rest of school
silliness doesn't matter.
-Fred
Chicago