It's a bit crazy how we can jam-pack the fall season with so much busy-ness! This is the first weekend where I've been able to relax (a little), although there's still a ton on my plate - soccer season is in full swing with end-of-season parties & all-star tryouts on the horizon, the Horizons Family CoOp that I coordinate meets this Tuesday along with one of my art classes, and so on...
 |
| Students busy in the California History class! |
I've slooowwwlly been painting layers of exterior varnish sealer on all sides of the mural. I did the backs and now I've been laying them out, one at a time, on sawhorses in order to do the fronts and all 4 edges (that way I don't have to keep turning them - they're a bear to move). I'm doing 3 thin coats on each and I'm close to being done with all 5 panels.
 |
| Panel laid out on sawhorses in order to seal all edges. |
Part of the reason that this is taking a lot longer than I thought is because of the fall craziness mentioned above. But, another reason is that the city is changing its plans on where it will ultimately go. Looks like the Gottchalk's corner is out, but I have not yet heard what plan B (or C or D...) is. I know my contact has been busy with the recent Grapes and Grains event, as well as other fall festivities, and I've been grateful to have the time to get my homeschooling and art classes off to a solid start.
 |
Studio "corner" - the garage is too cold in winter and there are too many
spiders! I have plans for some bulletin boards and wall-hanging holders for
pencils and stuff...I'll get there eventually. |
I know that the mural project is at an end as my mind has been buzzing with thoughts of other art and writing projects. It's time to transition backin to new creative work - not sure what exactly, though. I still don't have a lot of free time, but I did clean off the old drawing table corner of my room in preparation. Now, joining my drawing space is a caricature portrait that I recently acquired of my Granddad who passed away about 20 years ago - I think it was given to him as a retirement gift (or something like that). It's a nice addition to my workspace.
 |
| Granddad watching over my work :) |
...screamed my daughter.
 |
| Now you see it - now you don't! |
No, I've turned all of the panels around and I am currently painting a couple coats of clear varnish on the backsides. I wanted to do the backs first because I wasn't sure how tacky it would be for and for how long. The primer we used seemed to always have a certain degree of tackiness - even at this point. If that was to be the case with the varnish, then I wanted to do the fronts last and make sure they didn't lean up against anything while they awaited transportation.
I've now discovered that the varnish dries quickly and the finish isn't tacky at all. Good! Now, I plan to put the panels one at a time on sawhorses and paint a couple coats on the fronts and all edges.
 |
| In Loving Memory... |
 |
| Past Horizons Group During Some Outdoor Activities |
I had really hoped to be done by now - I feel like things have been moving at a snails pace. Of course, we have since had the memorial for my father-in-law,
Robert Smith, and will soon be doing much to care for my mother-in-law as we are the only relatives in the area. We're also 2 1/2 weeks into our school year, now - so far so good! I have an 8th grader, a 5th grader, and a preschooler this year. Also, we'll be starting our multi-family, multi-subject co-op called
Horizons on Tuesday. I've had A LOT of communication, organization, supplies, and general loose-ends to tie up. So, I will be "laboring" on that this Labor Day Weekend.
Still, God is great and life is good! Just keep plugging away...
I’m quite fond of fall in New York, and as luck would have it, today is a lovely election day here in Manhattan. To be honest though, I’m finding it rather difficult to think about any map that isn’t a patchwork of red, blue, and maybe a splash of purple. So instead, I thought I’d write something about a visit I made to a sixth grade classroom last week.
At the end of the summer I was approached by a teacher in Brooklyn who was looking for someone to give a presentation about maps to her students. Curious to find out what these kids knew already and excited by the challenge of trying to teach them a little more about geography, I agreed to visit her school during my lunch hour. I discovered a few things while I was there: first (and I suppose this wasn’t really a surprise), our teachers have their work cut out for them. I did not have the full attention of her class much beyond the first 10-15 minutes, and the wide range of ability that I saw in just one period was daunting. I was both over-prepared (in terms of the amount of information I was ready to cover), and under-prepared (with respect to the difficulty some student had in grasping basic concepts). I talked about my job a bit, showed them six different types of maps, and encouraged them to ask lots of questions. Then, with about 30 minutes remaining, we attempted to walk them through the basic steps of creating a map of their own neighborhood.
I’m glad that I had an opportunity to visit New Horizons Middle School, and now that my feet are wet, I would actually like to talk to more kids about maps and geography. Because what I learned that afternoon is that our educational system has some room for improvement in this realm, and our children can’t afford to enter the adult world without some basic knowledge on the subject. As a colleague of mine likes to say: Without geography, you’re nowhere!
Ben Keene is the editor of
Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his
previous places of the week.
ShareThis
.jpg?picon=1621)
