My Principal!

The illuminated letter thing meets my need for just the right combination of structure and room for creativity.

I made this one for my REALLY cool principal, who loves her students, teachers, and school. She is an amazing woman, who knows almost all our seven hundred students, and many, many of their parents, by name. She has played a really important role in my life, and I'm really thankful for all the insights and support she has given me during the five and a half years I've been teaching, including helping me to value specifically the ways I am different from most of the other teachers.

"Between Utopia and Escape"

The above is the title of an essay by Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann recently published in the journal Divine Ascent. Only ONE of the many reasons to read this short but profound article might be gleaned from the following quote from the article:

"EVERYTHING IS GOOD. The Greek fathers say, "Don't you ever dare to say the devil is bad. He is bad by behavior, but he is good by nature." Or else, you go back to the dualism of the extreme "goo god/bad god." The devil is the most perfect creation of God. That is why he became so bad, ontologically speaking."

Provocative, no? But the article provides a very strong conceptual basis for understanding what is REALLY good, and what is just pious pretending or on the other hand, blatant rejection of the truth.

Can You Say Crayola?

Gotta love crayons. That's the medium of choice in my classroom, and in general they aren't given their fair shake. Mostly they're given a crammed up space in a desk crammed even furthur with old assignments. Well...I love 'em. Mostly. Sometimes.
This assigment was to make an illuminated capital letter using one of your initials. I gave them some examples and did another on the whiteboard. The students' work turned out marveliscious.

I try to do some of the assignments I give my students. Partly to give them an example, and partly to put myself in their shoes. But, mostly, it's because I enjoy it. Lots of times, they turn out lousy, but this one I like. Mostly. Shoulda stopped sooner with the colors. They got too dark and then it went downhill from there. But, no going back with crayon. I'm thinking I'll do some more, but we'll see.