Sunday Thoughts........

Some of you know I am a teacher (and for all of the others-now you know). Yup-long suffering, bladdity blah blah blah. Truth is, even though it is considered "stylish" to dis your job, I LOVE what I do. I have been doing it for 25 years, so I had better like the job. I have taught a real range of things. Kindergarten to Grade 8, Core French (I still have nightmares about some of that), a Grade 9 class (short while), OAC economics (partly in Europe) and university classes (at the Faculty of Education at Queen's University). And I have written a bunch of stuff (believe it or not- I actually AM quite literate!!!!)-like Family Math, and I co-wrote a unit in the Grade 7 science textbook. So I try to expand the job-making it different all the time so that I don't get bored. Now that I am at the end of my career (I still find that hard to swallow), I have decided there must be a way for me to actually make my mark in a physical way. And it all started thanks to my superintendent of education (think-BIG BOSS). Now to backtrack a bit-this superintendent and I were teachers together way back when. While we never taught in the same building together, she and I would get involved in projects together. She is musically gifted-can do amazing things with kids. And, she often needed backdrops and such for her musical presentations. That's where I came in. I used to paint them for her. (Most memorable-the three houses for the pigs-each one done in the style of a different master) Fast forward to the present-this superintendent spoke to my principal about the state of our school-as in "Why wasn't Deb allowed extra time and materials to paint murals to cover up the uglier parts of the building?" So-this has opened up doors for me. Because of this comment, I have been given pretty much free rein (reign?) on this mural. And also opened up the possibility of doing more murals in the school. With kids. I am beyond excited. This is a very cool thing for me to do. I am NOT doing the graffiti like murals that often show up with kids and tend to look pretty much the same as all the other ones. I can't bear those. So-as the job progresses, I will post a photo or two. But if you have any particular expertise in this area-let me know. The other result of all of this is an acknowledgement that I really do know what I am doing in the art area-and that I should be teaching more art classes. Love it.

PS- The mural that I am currently planning is a three panel piece-three monkeys (all dressed up in art deco style clothes)-the first "Hear no Evil"-and you can guess the other two!