Extra! Extra! Read All About It!!

Editorial Cartoonist Visits Hershey Elementary School!

What a treat - Dave Sattler, local cartoonist and husband of my friend Nancy, the teacher in the classroom next to me, gave up his own time and paid my class a visit this afternoon!

Dave has been drawing the editorial cartoons for the Journal and Courier for 40+ years. Since we're studying Superheroes and how they reflect our history, past conflicts, and current culture, and because we are going to be designing our own Superheroes to solve modern conflicts and problems, I asked Dave if he could spend an afternoon teaching us about drawing and share his wealth of knowledge with us.

Did he ever! We learned:

~ how to draw an adult versus a child

~ how to give motion to a car coming at/going away from the viewer

~ about using text boxes effectively

~how to make "comic" letters as opposed to regular printing

and a host of other things. We got to see cartoons Dave has drawn over the years - the original and then a clipping as it appeared in the newspaper (along with any letters to the editor it may have prompted.) There was even a large selection of those which contain Boo, the Sattlers' cat who hangs out with Dave at the drawing board early Friday mornings when he is working to meet his deadline. (Boo was a HUGE hit with the kids.)

Dave generously created a cartoon just for us. Knowing we were studying conflict and that I was trying to bring it down from a global/national level to a local/individual one, he asked the kids what conflicts they faced. Naturally HOMEWORK came up. Dave then asked the kids what sort of symbol might work in a comic for homework. Suggestions included a backpack, a notebook stuffed with papers, and a happy teacher. (Ouch!! Surely not!)

Dave got to work with a pencil, sketching out the figures, and then using a marker to finish. The end result? A schoolgirl staggering under the weight of an enormous book labeled "Homework" with Boo the cat sitting on top! The kids and I were absolutely delighted, especially when he signed it and presented it to us!

I am afraid he opened a Pandora's box by inviting the kids to send him any drawings they made. (I can just see Nancy lugging them out to her car every evening - I know they are going to take him up on his invitation.) We will also send him our Superheroes and their stories. I have no doubt Boo will appear as a sidekick or a background addition in many of them. They'll "sattlerize" them, too (small dots that Dave puts on his cartoons.)

This was one of the most enjoyable school days I have ever had as a teacher. I am still smiling.

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

Happy Birthday to a wonderful daughter-in-love! Many happy more!

xoxoxox

Our Reaction Art Show

As part of our unit on conflict, we studied reaction art - works of literature, music and art that were responses to conflict. We examined how good things can come from bad (Picasso's Guernica, The Star Spangled Banner, The Wall/Vietnam Memorial) and others.

Included in the discussion was that the artist is expressing him- or herself and also hoping to make the audience "feel." I then challenged my class to do a piece of art of some sort that was in reaction to a conflict. Conflicts to react to could be anything from the wars we had studied to an argument with a friend. I offered any classroom materials they wanted to use and gave them a deadline. I also sent a note home to parents asking them to please allow their child to think of the idea and execute the piece with only minimal parental help. I wanted the students' reactions, not that of their parents.

I was STUNNED by what they brought in. Several pieces made me cry and/or gave me goosebumps. We held an art show on Tuesday and invited the entire school, parents, grandparents, and friends to come. Over 450 people showed up, and over and over I heard amazement in their voices as they looked at the artwork.

Here are a few pictures, including one of my mother (thanks, Mom!!) My favorite piece is the Korean peace dove flying in the flames. That girl's grandmother survived the bombing of her home during the Korean War, lost her parents, and lived on the streets while caring for a younger sister for years. Finally she married an American soldier and came to the US.

I love the way the kids dressed up for the affair. His back is to the camera, but in the last picture there is a boy in a black suit and tie!

White? White?!

Recess duty on a sunny day with temperatures in the 70s. You gotta love it. Because it is tough for me to stand for too long, I always bring my camp chair out on the playground, and usually I set up by the basketball courts. (My presence there keeps the games fair and tamps down any possibility of language that shouldn't be used.)

Yesterday I was sitting there enjoying the day, watching the kids, and just being happy to be alive. I was wearing my capris to get some sun and thankful that I had been putting some self-tanning lotion on them for a while so that they weren't STARK white but had a little "blush."

And then one of the basketball players came over. He's a bit socially awkward, and sometimes he likes to chat with me, show me how he can spin the ball on one finger, etc.

The conversation was not our usual kind.

"You must be glad to be getting some sun on those legs. They're awfully white," he blurted.

A pause while I register what he's said, how I feel about it, and then wonder what on earth to say in response. But he wasn't done.

"Maybe you should lie out or even go to a tanning salon," he continued helpfully. "Then your legs wouldn't be so white."

Oh. My. What to say?

I thanked him for his advice and turned the conversation another direction. But he came right back to my white legs. We then discussed his Native American "heritage" and why he is always tan because of it. (At least, according to him that's why!)

I know he honestly was trying to be helpful, but it sure took me down a peg to think that my "tanned" legs, of which I was so pleased and had worked on for weeks, still looked so pasty white to a child!

Okay, so at least they were clean shaven.

"I-Girls" - A Reunion

"I-Girls" ??

I first heard the term in January when I went to see two former students and two current students dance in The Nutcracker. One of their moms spotted me in the audience, came over, and said, "The I-Girls were so excited when they heard that you were coming to their performance."

I must have looked a bit confused because she looked a little sheepish and continued, "Oh, you didn't know that term? That's what we call the girls you have had in your class."

Hm! Kind of fun and made me smile. (Although I wondered but didn't ask if the boys are called "I-Guys".)

The term seems to have stuck, and last night I got to be with four "I-Girls" at a surprise birthday party for Yssa DeWoody, mom of a past and current I-Girl.

I see Audrey and Emily every day, but it was still fun to see them outside of class. But it was a big treat for me to see Caroboo (Caroline) and Taylor. When she was in my class, Taylor brought me flowers EVERY DAY after recess. Dandelions, clover chains, pine needles and dried grasses during winter.... She never missed. (She even gave me an etched glass flower when she finished 5th grade "so you will always have flowers from me." I keep that flower on my classroom bookshelf and do indeed have flowers from Taylor every day.)

Caroboo had joined in and gone to a pottery shop and made me a pretty vase to remember her by. That, too, is on my classroom bookshelf next to Taylor's flower.

Midway through dinner, Taylor and Caroboo suddenly appeared by my table. They'd slipped outside and picked some flowers for me! I looked at that sweet little bouquet and was so moved I did not know what to say. Talk about a touching moment.

I have said it before and I say it again.... I am blessed to teach these children!

(In the photo, Audrey, Taylor, Caroboo, and Emily. The dark haired girl, also named Emily, was not in my class but wanted to be in the picture, too.)

More Crane Pictures

Hey, a project of this magnitude deserves more than just a couple of pictures!!

The Crane Project

We have completed our 1000 cranes and, with the help of parent volunteers and Jackie Anderson (the paraprofessional in my room) we got 'em hung! Enjoy the pictures. I especially enjoy the one of the EMPTY crate (we had four overflowing crates when we began!) but I do love how colorful my classroom is now!

Only in My Room

Several times a week a "question of the day" is chosen by a student. It's a fun way to take attendance, and at the same time it often affords me insight into the lives of my students. Each student in the class has the opportunity to respond when we do this, and I learn all kinds of things about them.

Today's question gave me a more unusual insight into their minds. The question? An innocuous sounding (and rather disappointing choice in my initial opinion), "Do you like pie?"

The immediate response from one child was unexpected and changed my opinion on it being a blah/boring, one-word-response sort of question.

"Do you mean the mathematical pi or the kind of pie that you eat?"

Only in my classroom!!

Mission Accomplished

Curt borrowed James' van yesterday and met me at Hodgson's Bay on the levee to pick up Onyx, my new bike. I had them attach a kick stand, mirror, and ride computer so I could track my distance, speed, and total miles ridden.

Here's a picture of Onyx and me after Curt unloaded her from the van.