literacy

Class is most certainly back in session.  I can tell by the constant foot-tall ebb of books that has become a semi-permanent fixture on the corner of my desk.  One of the things that really helps to settle my mind is clearing and arranging my spaces before bed.  Putting things back into their places helps to prepare for the coming day.  Accepting the pile is a very difficult thing.  I've managed to clear some space on my jam-packed too-small book shelf to stash things away.  It has helped.

 The multi-colored paper is my class schedule.  There is a separate color for every class.  

My MAT program is aimed to suit life for second-career and working students.  Classes are in evenings and in four hour chunks.  Generally, I have had one class for six or so weeks on one evening and a few Saturdays and then it switches to another class.  Each term then will be three classes.  Not this term.  This term I have two regular classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evening but every once in a while a Saturday class will pop up and/or an occasional workshop or another class that isn't one of the normal two.  To help figure it all out I took our schedule and used highlighter to clarify the dates. Yikes!  I also find it quite necessary to have a wall calendar.  

As chaotic as things have been, classes have been really great this term.  They are both, the two regular ones, pedagogy classes and are both really inspiring.  One is Teaching Language Arts and the other is Art Pedagogy.  Both have really made me consider my own practice in each and how I can inspire my [future] students' learning.

 This is a "concrete poem/writing" for class.  The acorn inspired me to recall my dear Professor Pamela and our journeys together in France.

 I set about revising my artist statement for the other class.  [You can read it via the link on the right.]

With all the reading and writing assignments, the public library app has become one of my favorites these days.  It is very convenient to search a book and request a hold to my local branch, all from my phone.  I've really been trying to find women in the arts to read/learn more about.  I've recently enjoyed learning about Beatrix Potter's gardening life and Georgia O'Keeffe's homes.  In class, in the text and from professors, there is a constant rhetoric about students reading lots of great text to build their skills and re-enforce learning.  It is easy to forget that I need to be consuming literature as well.  

One of the many great aspects of having a child in the house is reading children's books on a daily basis [the same one, at least twelve times].  What Eurydice finds interesting and how her tastes for literature is developing is so informative.  I see real-life correlation correlation to the texts I read.

Plus, this sight just kind of melts my heart.