My First Still Life!

As an elementary art teacher there wasn't much to a still life. In fact, as in depth as it got was setting real sunflowers on the table. Even then, most of the time I just had the students look at pictures. (so much easier when you have 2o+ classes all doing different projects.)

But in high school it is different. So here is my first attempt at putting together a still life for drawing 1. I have all the easels arranged around the still life so everyone gets a good view. Some of you may see things that used to belong to you.

We'll see how it goes. Some of the students were really concerned yesterday when they walked in, but then I informed them I don't want them to draw the WHOLE thing, but just a few items. This made them feel better until I pulled out the large paper and they realized this was going to be a big drawing. I think they'll get over it.

Maps

When visiting Victoria in DC I discovered the Map Man. You can find him at the Eastern Market Flea Market. He has maps from all over the world. I bought this map of Italy over a year ago and it has been waiting for a frame to be displayed. Thanks to my brother Nick I was able to take it to get some fancy mats made. I think it looks great in the living room!

Thanks Nick!

Interschool Mail

This envelope may not look like much to you, but I LOVE them! These are the interschool mail envelopes. That is free mail that is sent between schools. Because I switched schools this year I'm really going to need these since some of my best school friends work at other schools. But I have used the interschool mail system for a long time. There is nothing better than going to your mailbox in the middle of the day and getting something funny. I once was told that I am the only person who laughs when they check their mail. I hope I make some people laugh later this week because I just put some gems through the mail today!

Here are just a few funny/great things I have received through interschool mail; fake cheese, t-shirts, stuffed animal cat, and school pictures of teacher friends. I'm hoping to add to that list this year!

Still Life Items

Part of being an art teacher is collecting funny things. I'm getting ready to set up my first official still life as a high school teacher. Here are some things I pulled down to have students pick from when doing a preliminary drawings. Then I will hopefully put together a great still life for them to draw from. (If only my tables would show back up after they were hidden from the long term sub!)

As it is my first year in high school my shelves are not looking quite full of things to draw. So as you clean up around the house and get ready to send bags of stuff to charity, ask yourself, "Would Abbey's students enjoy drawing this?" If the answer is yes, I'd be happy to take those things off of your hands, if you live relatively close by.

Thanks Barbara for already giving me a box of great still life materials!

First Day Jitters!

The day started out with a pulled fire alarm. This took me back to my high school days when someone continually pulled the fire alarm for the whole semester. I think we had about 9 fire drills that semester. But that was before high schools had cameras everywhere. I'm sure my principal is already dealing with the culprit.

In other news, first hour could use a little work. Couldn't get my sounds on my computer to work! Bummer! Had the students fill out a survey about themselves and drawing. Some of them are really funny!

Writing reads, "I can draw better than this but it'll work for now:)"

(Independent study student)

This girl thought I was crazy for asking her to draw a self protrait without a mirror. I think she did just fine

And then...there is drawing I

I had this kid for almost two hours today because they extended lunch for the first day. Apparently I made an impression because I made it onto the drawing truck! Was a little worried about having the same class for this long, but they were my favorite part of the day!

A Must Read

Just finished this book today, Bliss, Remembered by Frank Deford. I even stayed late at the coffee shop to finish it. It is historical fiction about a back stroker who finds herself at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. I thought the writing was very clever and made me laugh many times. There is also quite a love story for those of you who are romantics. The author has made up the main character, Sydney, but has many real people surrounding her. I really loved this story and think you should read it to so we can talk about it! Anyone need to borrow my copy?

Books!

I've been reading but have neglected to tell you all about what's on my bedside table. My book club read John Shors' Beneath the Marble Sky last year and everyone loved it, including me! So I looked up Shors and saw that he has written several books. I purchased Dragon House.

This book was great! It is about a woman whose father was in the Vietnam War and wanted to give back to the country. He was attempting to start a center for street children when he passes away. His daughter goes to finish the project. It is a story about doing something out of obligation and getting more than you put in. A fast read of struggle and triumph. Two thumbs up! John Shors has a new book coming out in September called The Wishing Trees.

The book I read while camping was A Reliable Wife. This is a strange one! I don't really know what to say about this one. Looking forward to hearing what the rest of the book club thinks at our September book club.

Last of the Boundary Waters

I know you all can't believe I'm still talking about canoeing, but it's one of my favorite trips. I've been there five time now and plan on going back again if I get the chance. I love it there!

The whole group back safe and sound at the outfitters! Everyone had great stories to share. I declare this trip a success! See you again in two years Boundary Waters!

Mile Count: 5 (before lunch) Portage Count: 3 Rapids Count: 1

Boundary Waters Part 6

Last night campsite.

Here is the my group one last time. This was our last night camping. The next day we did several portages and our windiest lake yet before getting to the bus and most importantly, SHOWERS!

At lunch Jason somehow poked his eye. (Don't ask me how) and later that night he complained of blurry vision. So we convinced him that his eye needed time to rest and heal. It was decided, he NEEDED an eye patch. Above it Lauren's first attempt at making Jason and eye patch. But you all know I'm an art teacher so I thought it needed a little improvement.

This is what I can up with. I think Jason approves!

Our last full day we decided to change it up. Not only were we not on big lakes anymore but we were basically going up river. Instead of taking the portages we decided to take the rapids instead! Sometime we could paddle through, like above, but most of the time we had to get out and walk our canoes through the rapids. At one point Grace lost her footing and was clinging to our canoe so she didn't get swept down river. We got very wet, a little cut up, and had a great time!

Mile Count: 5 Portage Count: 0 Rapids Count: 6

Boundary Waters Part 5

Guttle Jumping!

Day 4

Six years when I lead a group with Kate Mac and MacGyver (AKA Cliff) he told us all about guttle jumping. Cliff used to do guttle jumping races. This is when you stand on the edges of the canoe and jump up and down and then the canoe will move forward through the water. So here we are practicing. Grace and I later tried teter totter guttle jumping where we were standing on the same canoe and alternated who was jumping up and down.

Then we played a little Canoe Frisbee. What, you've never heard of it? Well, that's because we just came us with it. We were out in the canoes and tried passing the Frisbee around. This was really the only way to play Frisbee because of Chloe, the dog, who is a little obsessed with fetch. You can see this enthusiasm below as Grace throws the stick for Chloe.

After we finished playing it prompting poured, but this time we were prepared and already had camp set up.

Portage Count: 0! Mile Count: 6

Boundary Waters Part 4

Day 3 Proved to me a much dryer day! Thank goodness! Actually, all around day 3 proved to be a better day. We didn't have any portages! It didn't rain! We saw one of the other groups and stopped to say hello! We didn't have any wind on the biggest lake we would canoe on all week!

So besides Stacy and I getting a little burnt we are a much happier group!

Dinner time! Fresh carrots, soup and rice...let's mix it all together!

We even had time to nap, read our books, and do a little swimming for fun!

How pretty!

(actually this might be a preview of night 4)

Boundary Waters Part 3

On our second day on the water was another long one. After doing three small portages we had another portage, but this one had a waterfall. So after carrying all of our stuff we went to play in the water! So much fun! All of us climbed to the top of the waterfall. (Even Chloe, the dog)

Here's the whole group!

Stacy found this awesome part of the waterfall where you could sit in the water and it was like sitting in a cold whirlpool. We all took a turn. And below you can see Lauren showing off her cool plaid sunglasses!

After the waterfall we could have camped pretty soon. But our group wanted to be superstars. So we did! We kept going through three more LONG portages! As we got through the second one it started raining. It wasn't raining very hard and I was due for a new set of clothes so I didn't bother putting on my rain jacket. Half way through the last long portage I started to regret this decision because it started to POUR!! We had one small little portage yet before there was a campsite and it was raining so hard that the water was getting in my eyes and moving my contacts around. It was raining so hard that it looked like I jumped into the lake in all of my clothes! We were soaked! Luckily the campsite we wanted was available. The unlucky part was there was no shelter at our campsite because we haven't set it up yet. So we huddled under the rain tarp killing mosquitoes and watching the steam from our wet bodies rise. Luckily Matt had a plan. Some of us held the tarp while others set up a tent. Then the rain started to let up. Some of our group was a little crabby and who can blame them because we are REAL wet!

Thanks Lauren for always making dinner for us! And way to be super stars! That night, night two, we camped at our previous night four campsite! Awesome!

Mile count: 12 miles! Portage count: 8!