Yesterday

We had art day in my class yesterday.  My students came in and saw ART was mostly listed on the schedule and they of course freaked out.  What does that mean?  They act like I am withholding information from them and only through interrogation will they get to the bottom of it all.

We studied four artists.  I wrote their names on the board and they told me the two solitary facts they knew about the artists.

Then I had them research and write things they learned on sticky notes.

I loved it!  They learned so much and were excited.

I showed them a little clip of Coco, the part with Frida Kahlo in it.  They all love Coco and they were thrilled.  In the video clip, one of them excitedly said, "She had a pet monkey! I read that!" Another one said, "And a black dog!"

Children excited about new things they've learned is my love language!

We talked about MC Escher too and I taught them how to draw some optical illusions.  I read them Christina Katerina and the Box and Magic Trash and then they created art out of magazine clippings and paper scraps.

I played songs by Lin Manuel Miranda while they worked.

I loved their creativity.

 

We talked about Vincent Van Gogh and I showed them some of his art.

I had a Starry Night coloring sheet and some of them tried to imitate the original and some of them didn't and I think Van Gogh would have been happy either way.  I know I was.

It was an exhausting day.  There were paper scraps, broken crayons and markers all over the floor.  There were missing glue lids and experimentation with centrifugal force.  (They kept swinging the buckets of colored pencils to see if they would fall out.)

Any angst I felt about the day evaporated when I got home and read the news.

In another school, in Texas, it was a very different day.  It probably started about the same.  There were students coming to school with packed lunches and soccer balls.  The teachers likely greeted them with smiles and lesson plans.  There were probably reminders about missing library books.  There may have been unusual end of the school year plans.  There may have been a sixth grade graduation in the works.  

What happened though, was a school shooting.  It is senseless and tragic and heartbreaking.  I cried when I read the news.  When is enough going to finally be enough?  When will thoughts and prayers and fiercely held gun rights give way to doing a better job of protecting innocent people?  I am guessing that legislators who are refusing to budge on gun control are also pro life.  Can protecting the sanctity of life  extend at least into elementary school?

I said goodbye to all 23 of my students yesterday when they walked out the door.  We called, "See you tomorrow!" like we do every day.

That feels like such a luxury now.