There’s a reason I hurried home from school today and grabbed my Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook. I had to figure out How To Take A Punch. That’s because coming down from a 60-day vacation and being plunged back into the icy waters of 2nd grade is kind of similar. According to the handbook, I should not suck in my stomach if I expect a punch is imminent. I’m also supposed to shift slightly so that the blow hits my side, but I should not flinch or move away from the punch. If the blow is aimed at my head I’m supposed to move toward it, not away from it, tighten my neck muscles, and clench my jaw to avoid scraping my upper and lower palettes. Pretty much that’s what I did all day. Full-time employment is a ridiculously bad idea don’t you think?
Lots of sticky kid hands were tapping Ms. Moss today. Tap, tap, tap. Lots of very important things to tell me. I was all ears. I nearly bit my tongue off when Jose told me that his tia cooked Evelyn & Junior over Easter. Jose thought Evelyn & Junior were his pet chickens. I did too. I mean they kept them in their apartment’s living room and let them roam freely through the apartment. I was really sad to hear that, but I guess it was idealistic for me to think working class people living just barely above the poverty line can afford to have chickens as pets. Those chickens probably lived a better life than most of the chicken I buy at the market so I guess everything is relative. Even so, I was secretly proud of Jose when he told me he refused to eat them. Willie told me he saw an anaconda and a flying squirrel at McArthur Park over the vacation. As far as I know he did not eat them.
Today’s photos are of pages from my current visual journal and one of my kiddos working on an aboriginal inspired line drawing that she started before we went off-track. I think the dense busy pattern is beautiful.
As always your pages are so interesting and your student’s art is wonderful. I hope they were all inside or at least had read your Worst Case Scenerio book yesterday during the rally.
I love the journal pages!!!
The chicken story reminds me of when I was a kid our local petshop was selling cute fluffy chicks, I persuaded my mom to buy me two. I named them Thunderbolt and Lightning and they ran around our backyard until they got to a certain age and my mom gently persuaded me that they would have a better life with some friends she knew in the country….hmmmm.
you are so hilarious, loved your survival guide tips…and farewell and Godspeed to Evelyn & Junior…they lived a life of (apartment) freedom before going to that big fryer in the sky…