A Farewell 3/31/2018

 

I can’t believe I made it. When I started this journey I didn’t think I was going to make it all 31 days (sans one day that we won’t talk about). I remember after five days it felt like I had been blogging for and entirety; 26 more days seemed impossible. Everyday I pushed myself to keep going and it became easier to do. In the end I made it to day 31 and I actually really enjoyed this experience.

I also thought after the 31 days that I would be done with blogging but now I don’t think that will be the case now. I am going to try to continue to blog even though this is the last day of the challenge. Maybe if I could post once a week that would be nice. I was thinking I could do blog posts reviewing children’s books and their use in the classroom for specificic lessons. I don’t know if anyone would like to read that but I think I will try.

Thank you for everyone who read my posts and encouraged me. Without the constant support of the community I never would have been able to do this.

Sisters 3/30/2018

Ever since I was a kid I always looked up to my sister. She is four and half years older than me and totally amazing. When I was in kindergarten and she was in fifth grade I thought she was so cool, she rode her bike to school and had lots of friends. Even when she was a teenage and didn’t want to talk to me much I still though she was so smart and pretty.

My sister was a double major in college and got an amazing job right after she graduated. She is extremely smart and driven. She never lets anyone or anything stand in the way of what she is determined to do. As she grew up she only turned into a more powerful and inspiring female.

My sister just another great opportunity today as a reward for all of her hard work she does for her company. I am so overwhelmed with pride for her accomplished and she reminds me everyday that I am capable of anything I set my mind too. She inspires me to be my best self everyday.

When I was young I wanted to be just like my sister and now I still want to be just like her.

 

What is Art? 3/29/2018

After a few hours of strolling through the Philadelphia Museum of Art we were getting to the end of our time there. It was my friends time in this art museum, her first time in any art museum actually, and she had been enjoying everything we had seen. Before we left, I begged her and my mom to go to the modern art section, even though most people don’t enjoy that section much.

My heart raced with excitement as we neared the piece I had been waiting to show my friend. As she stared at the piece with great disappointment, my face broke into a huge smile. She looked at me and said, “I just don’t understand how a toilet, not even made by the artist, can be considered art.”

Marcel Duchamp’s famous piece, The Fountain stared back at us.

No matter how many times I see this piece it always makes me laugh. So I laughed and smiled and told her, “it is art because Duchamp said it was and it is art because it is here in the museum.” Now this was a few months ago and me and my friend still argue over this piece.

Her argument is that the artist did not actually craft this piece so how can it be considered art. I like her argument because she is not stuck on the fact that it is a toilet. I appreciate that because she has accepted that art doesn’t have to be a beautiful landscape to be art, she is just upset that the piece wasn’t made by the hand of the artist.

I argue with her that the piece not being crafted by the artist is part of the whole point. Post-modernism took the notion of modernism and flipped it on its back. Modernism had a focus on the single, male- genius artist, who alone would create beautiful masterpieces. Post-modernism says there is no such thing as a single genius artist, that someone can just be an artist for having ideas and collaborating and creating ideas with others. Post-modernism also looks at anything that has a design as art. Due to the fact that someone designed that toilet makes it art.

Duchamp challenges people’s perception’s of art and no matter how many people come and scoff at his piece and say it is not art, at the end of the day Duchamp got his toilet into the Philadelphia Museum of Art and no one can take that away from him. I admire that. Who is to say what is art and what isn’t?

Time 3/28/2018

 

Time.

Time is illusion.

We make it up based on our activities.

Our ideas.

Our needs.

But what is time really?

Besides a social construct?

Besides something made up a long time ago?

It is a constraint.

It is stressful.

It is overwhelming.

It helps keep our lives in order.

It helps keep us organized.

Time may be fake but we gotta keep up with it even when we don’t want to.

Colors 3/127/2018

Pink makes me feel like I can run on clouds with wind blowing through my hair. Pink makes me feel fierce and ready to take on the world.

Red makes me feel like I want to curl myself up into a ball and shut out the world.

Orange makes me feel like I am laying on the warm sand with the sound of the waves and the sun shining on my face.

Yellow makes me feel like I want to jog in place as long as possible to make myself  push out all the frustration.

Green makes me feel like I am walking through the forest, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the sounds of nature.

Blue makes me feel like I am in my car with the windows down and the music loud, singing at the top of my lungs.

Purple makes me feel like I am in my most creative space, like I can create and imagine anything.

Black makes me feel like I am drifting off to sleep and falling into a wonderful dream.

The Right to Bear Arms 3/26/2018

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” -Albert Einstein

It is funny how some people are very defensive about their constitutional rights, but only when it is in their best interests. People want to be defensive of the right to bear arms, that no one should be able to take that away from them but when students start to protest and exercise their right to free speech, that is a whole different story.

I was scrolling on Facebook today when I came across a few of my great uncle’s posts. Now he shared many ridiculous things but the one that really struck me was an image of children at an anti-gun rally in comparison with the Hitler youth. I was dumbfounded when I saw this, at a loss for words. To compare people who are trying to make change to save lives to a man who devoted his reign to taking away lives is completely delusional.

In our country we seem to think that things are going to change magically because after countless numbers of mass shooting and death, little to nothing is being done. Every time I think about it I get angrier and Albert Einstein’s quote on insanity comes into my head. I don’t understand how anyone can believe that their right to own semi-automatic weapons is more important than another human beings right to live.

In light of this frustration I find immense pride in all of the young people who marched at the March for Our Lives this past weekend. It is so inspiring to see my generation standing up for everyone’s right to live and making their voices heard. It makes me feel hopeful for our future. Here are some protester signs from the march that I think are especially thought-provoking:

Disappointment 3/25/2018

When I first started this writing challenge I didn’t think I would be able to do it. I’m a procrastinator and I didn’t think I’d carve out the time to do it or have enough to write about. 23 days into it I had posted every single day, without fail. I even posted every day while I was on vacation because by that point I was dedicated.

Yesterday I didn’t post. At 11:58 a panic-stricken me realized I hadn’t posted yet and I felt crushed as the clock hit midnight. My friends tried to console me because they could see how torn up I was about something so silly. I had done 23 days of posting and I am not perfect so it happens.

It is not that this mistake is earth shattering but I was really proud of myself. I didn’t think I’d make a week in the challenge and I had made it 20 plus days. I really wanted to do it. I really wanted to make it all 31 days. To be able to say I had completed the challenge.

Alas mistakes happen. I can only pick up from here and finish the days left. I will still be proud of myself in the end.

Children’s Literature 3/23/2018

Continuing from yesterdays post, today I will be talking about some of my favorite children’s literature I have found over the last few months. These books don’t have any particular theme they are just some books that I think can really have an impact on students.
      

        

Since these book are all different I am going to give a small synapse of each book below.

She Persisted 13 American Women Who Changed the World By Chelsea Clinton: This highlights 13 women who have been very influential in american history. It has very beautiful and simplistic illustrations and quotes from the women on each page. It talks about the challenges these women faced and how they worked hard to make amazing achievements anyway.

Here We Are Notes for Living on Planet Earth By Oliver Jeffers: This is an amazing books that highlights tons of aspects of life that people experience everyday. The book talks about the solar system, land-forms, the ocean, the human body, different animals, different cultures and activities. It has cartoonish illustrations and very funny and engaging writing.

The Colors of Us By Karen Katz: This book explores that there aren’t only three types of colors that people are. People come in all types of beautiful and complex colors. The book follows a little girl describes everyone she sees and her friends in beautiful and complex descriptive words. In the end the main character paints all of her friends and all of the beautiful colors they come in.

We All Went on Safari A Counting Journey Through Tanzania By Laurie Krebs: This is a younger level book but I think it is really cool because it goes through counting one to ten in Swahili. It describes a families journey through a safari then the number symbol and Swahili name. There is back-matter gives information about Tanzania and Swahili.

Malala’s Magic Pencil By Malala Yousafzai: This book is a wonderful and kid-friendly way to tell Malala’s story. I think it is also so important for children to see that no matter your age you can make a difference in the world. The illustrations are simple and use muted colors which added to the beautiful story being told.

Love By Matt De La Pena: This is a brand new book by Matt De La Pena with stunning illustrations that tells the story of many different families and the many different ways that love can be expressed. I think this is a truly touching story that students from all different backgrounds and homes can relate to this story.

Children’s Art Books 3/22/2018

I love children’s books. I spend way to much money collecting more and more children’s books so I thought it would be cool to share some over the next two days. Today I would like to share some books that I think are good for art integration ideas of in the regular education classroom.

          

      

The first three books are more inspiring stories about art that you could use to talk about self-expression and creativity. The Dot and Ish by Peter H. Reynolds tell the story of a child who gets frustrated with art but then find their niche and realize the beauty in creating art that is specific to personal style and feelings. The Noisy Paint Box is the story of Kandinsky who was one of the first abstract artist. It also tells his struggle with art and how he finds his self-expression within art. All these stories are inspirational and show how art comes in all different forms.

The second row is more technique oriented books that can be used to connect to any general education content area. If Picasso Painted a Snowman is more of a story but it focuses on artist style and artist intention. Artist intention can be used in English content for reading and writing lessons. A Child’s Introduction to Art and 13 Artists Children Should Know are similar to encyclopedias. They are full of information about various artists. A Child’s Introduction to Art has 93 pages full of artists. This book also has suggestions for activities to do with kids relating to the work. It also has a timeline of all of art history in the back. 13 Artist S Children should Know just focuses on 13 artists and a timeline is provided at the top of each page as well as examples of their work. In either of these books you can pull examples and connect them to countless general education content areas.

 

Conspiracy Theories 3/21/2018

Conspiracy.

Conspiracy theories might seem ridiculous and that only crazy fanatics believe in. I love conspiracy theories and I have a theory for just about anyone. My friends always roll my eyes when I start talking about another conspiracy theory because I am always going on. Now, I don’t believe the majority of the theories I read and I think a lot of  them are just funny. Some theories are quite convincing but the reason I like conspiracy theories is because they make me think. I like the way conspiracy theories make me think differently about things.

Skepticism.

I think skepticism is so important and something that we try to take away from people in schools especially. We teach history that is wrong is school but children should be able to be think critically about things in our history and in our news. We don’t have take things as law just because someone else says it. I think our schools should be raising kids that are smarter and can question things than kids who just listen to everything.