Confession time

I need to start writing this blog again. It has been almost two weeks since I came back from vacation, and this is the first chance I've had to sit down and gather my thoughts. Report cards were due at the end of last week...true to form, I did not have them ready then. I could complain about the fact that I had 500 or so to write, but the fact of the matter is, I knew that I needed to start before I left for India. We've had the templates since November. I actually sent myself a whole year group of RC's to work on during the week that Jane was still at work, but I started sewing and who am I to pick work over the creation of a belly dance cossie?

Why do I actually have to start this thing again? Well, you may have heard me address a mysterious personage called "Stephanie" from time to time in here...well, she is the head of lower primary, and she had us set goals for ourselves this year, and this is me, working on my goal of being a more reflective practitioner. And so far, I've done pretty good, but let's face it, my work ethic sucks and I've put off returning to it because of the craziness of wrapping up a semester. Go me.

I'm really excited about the summative project for year 1 - I've got them making self-portraits on shrinky-dink film, which will turn them into miniatures! We looked at different portraits and tied into some that they'd studied during the unit with their classroom teachers (notably Picasso), and I finished by teaching them what miniatures are, and explaining that we would be making miniatures. I basically knew I was doing portraits on shrinky-dinks, and the whole miniature concept was something I stumbled into while I was deciding what portraits to use to introduce the lesson. I'm hoping I can find some gold paper to back them on to give them a little more pop and authenticity.

In year 2 we're finishing up our clay projects - FINALLY!!! I've been wishing I'd found a different kind of string to run through the "base" (for lack of a better word), because the nylon is really slick and my assistant and I are having to tie all the pieces on for the kids (which is why my mentor warned me off of mobiles back in the day). However, they DO have a nice sound and the kids are really excited about wrapping them up. After we get them painted we'll finish our sculpture unit by making sock snakes.

KG1 and 2 lessons are finished this week - next week I start feeding projects to the teachers. Stephanie has emphasized that this work should be process rather than product oriented, and although I get it, I really do, it sort of takes the fun out of it for me...although it also, I guess, makes these lessons simpler to hand off. I guess we'll see how it all works out.