Retirement is wonderful but every once in a while I really ache for the days I spent with my precious students in the past.
So today lacking for a real thought to uplift you, I thought I would post this cute picture of Ambrose.
Over the summer before I taught Ambrose, I had an artist come in and paint a huge mural on one wall of my classroom. This room was a dungeon--no windows--! With a little help from my principal and a lot of help from the artist himself (well, actually he didn't donate himself but I did not want to go back and reword that sentence) as a donation, I asked for a wall mural of windows with outside scenes.
The artist had other ideas. He wanted to know about my curriculum that year. I built my curriculum around juvenile fiction, i.e., The Outsiders, Hatchet, The Diary of Ann Frank and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Most of our spelling, grammar, and creative writing ideas were intertwined with reading these books. He created an enormous mural that incorporated scenes from all of these.
When school resumed in August, I was shocked to get a student who resembled almost to a T, the girl pictured on the front of Roll of Thunder. In fact, the only way she could look any more like the character is if she had braids falling down on her forehead. Isn't she precious? I had a hard time getting her not to smile--I wanted a solemn look so the picture would show just how much they resembled.
I have also included the picture below so you can get a feel of just how large this mural really was. I am going to guess 40 feet and I think that is pretty close. The other scenes were two guys and a vintage car for the Outsiders, a huge moose for Hatchet (hopefully you are familiar with this book and if you're not, it is an awesome read, even for adults), and Anne Frank sitting at her desk with tablet and quill pen.
I am hoping in the days ahead to add an educational portion to this blog. I would love to review books and share some of the more successful ideas I used while teaching. These could be incorporated in homeschooling or in the classroom. But that is another day and another time.
I can't remember if I have ever posted about it, but one of our sons was also in the movie, The Outsiders and that is another five posts--quite an experience. They shot the movie in Tulsa because the author of the book, S.E. Hinton, is a native Tulsan.
Anyway, just thought you might enjoy seeing the picture of my precious Ambrose. My last class will be sophomores in college this year,
