I finished "A Mercy". It's sad, but good. Now, I'm reading "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison as well. This copy belongs to Andrea, our other language arts teacher besides Carla. It has all her notes in the margins. I like reading these along with the story. "The Lacuna" arrived today, I'm looking forward to reading it over break.
We've been making Christmas cards in art class. Some of the kids make other types of cards. Birthday, Love, Baby, Thinking of You, I'm Sorry, etc. I also had them make some cards that we're sending to Walter Reed Hospital. I like making cards with them, it's always a successful project (success, measured by me in that environment, is enough interest generated that they don't get bored in the space of 50 minutes),but it's the one time I feel let down by my role as the facilitator. "Facilitator" is the big fancy educational word I like to use for what I do. I often feel like I don't really teach, I just create the space for the kids to learn. Split hairs? Could be. Anywho, 99% of the time, this role suits me just fine. When I'm making cards, I still do facilitate, but I feel SO FAR behind the scene...pay no attention to that woman behind the curtain...that I feel invisible. I feel invisible because the kids come to me, one after the other all day long, to help them make their cards for their family, their friends, their baby mama, their staff, their dog, their parole officer(just kidding, they all hate their parole officers "I wasn't doing nothing but hanging with my friends...in that stolen car....that no one was using...and my freekin' parole officer hooked me up!")and no one ever makes a card for me. So, while on one hand I enjoy the invisibility, on the other hand I'm a little bitter that I provide all this help in their card making and they never make me one. I'm petty and small and getting coal for Christmas. C'est la vie.
And speaking of cranky...
My brother Richard: "There's a 11:00 Christmas Eve service."
Me: "I don't know if I can stay up that late. I'm old. And cranky."
Richard: "There's a 5:00 service that the old people go to. You'll like it."
Me: "But I need a service for cranky people."
Richard: "There's a Lutheran church around the corner."
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2 comments:
I bet if they were in any other class and assigned to make cards for their favorite teacher then they would make one for you. But their brain just doesn't work that way - you're in art class to make something for people that exist outside of art class.
Or maybe you intimidate them and they know you've seen much better cards than they could make.
I remember I always made you things in art class saying you were the best mom in the whole world. You should go rustle some of those up to make you feel better. Or go gaze lovingly at my gold macaroni jewelry box.
So, did you like Lacuna? I read The Third Angel (Ice Queen chick) over the holidays. It was good - not great. Let me know how your winter reading went.
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