A Couple Journal Pages

My granddaughter came up to visit on Wednesday and we had a blast drawing and playing on the swingset. She knows all six shapes on the right side of the page. I should have used a darker ink for the way she pronounces each one. Still experimenting. At least I remembered to save her artwork.

The last Moon ATC!

I wrote the poem in the fall about 2 months before Kylie was born and Erin was wearing a blue maternity top. The picture was taken at her baby shower when she was 81/2 months along. But they seemed to go together and I like how her belly looks like a full moon.

Almost the end of the moon ATCs

More ATCs

I decided to post all nine of these at the same time because it's just taking too long the other way. Starting with the fourteenth, the moon disappeared for over a week. I was running out of ideas for these. The one with the palm tree is because my husband bought a lighted palm tree from Christmas Tree Shops and put it on our front porch decorated with Christmas lights. It was the only bright thing I could see when I went out for my walk that night.

The cloud on "Cloud Blues" was just a clump of mixed gesso and black paint that had dried on a paper plate on my desk.

A School Story and another ATC

This one is made with some cotton batting that I inked to make it look more like the sky.

I started a visual journal this week but it's pretty rudimentary. Will post some pictures eventually. Still getting into it.

My school kids never fail to surprise me. In my British Lit class, they were improvising a scene from Hamlet. One group had to modernernize the part where Polonius is talking to Ophelia trying to find out the extent of her relationship with Hamlet. The girl playing Polonius had him say, "So, Ophelia, are you and Hamlet doing the no-pants dance?" I nearly fell out of my seat! The class roared and I had to give them a little reminder to keep things school appropriate. No matter how many years you've been teaching, there is always something new, that's for sure!

8th Moon ATC

There were many nights when we didn't see the moon at all and the kids got pretty discouraged. I tried to tell them that even though we were doing moon journals, they should think of them as night sky journals. It was disappointing, though, when the moon didn't show up.

7th Moon ATC

Another ATC

Got this ATC done on Sunday along with Sunday's ATC after my 15-month-old granddaughter went home. I was exhaused and not very creative, I'm afraid.

Made It Through the First Week! & 5th Moon ATC

It actually went very well. I think I got the cream of the crop for my British Literature students. They are bright and attentive and only two kids failed the first vocab quiz.

My tenth graders are a low level group but they make up for it with personality. This class is going to keep me on my toes but will also be loads of fun.

My third block class is called Fundamentals and it is composed of 8 juniors and seniors who are wonderful students; they are rarely absent, they never get in trouble, they do all their assignments, and they try very hard but English is not their forte so they struggle with it. I've taught this course for several years now and am always surprised and pleased with the results. On Thursday, all my classes did journal writing and I insisted that they write poems. Of course this freaked them out but since they had to do it they tried and were secretely pleased with the results. I asked if anyone wanted to share and no one in my Brit Lit. class was willing. A couple kids in the 10-2 class were brave and read theirs, but the Fundamental kids came through with about 5 kids willing to share. And their poems were rich in images and really good.

A teacher can't ask for more than that. I am very lucky! Now, if the next 35 weeks go as smoothly, I'll be happy.

4th Moon ATC

Labor Day and 3rd night of the Moon ATC's

Sitting here in our screen room early in the morning. The sun is shining through the trees leaving golden dubloons on the ground. It's that kind of rich morning.

We went for a motorcycle ride yesterday and visited several lighthouses along the Maine coast. Such perfect pictures with sailboats on the water. Of course, I didn't have my camera with me! Duh!

Back to school tomorrow with kids this week.

Labor Day Weekend and a new Moon ATC

Glorious weather this weekend! I biked to Ferry Beach with my son's girlfriend, Amie yesterday. We thought it was going to be chilly so took jackets with us, but it was nice and warm and we stayed a couple hours.

Watched Clay Buchholz pitch a no-hitter last night. We have a TV in our screen room so were able to see it as we sat around our fire pit.