Christmas Pics at HHS!

Me an a few of my CRAZY art students...we were taking photos for a project!

Summer School Tie Dye Event...June 15th, 2011

I'm always in search of fun cross-curricular hands-on activities to do during summer school because four straight hours of English and Math paper and pencil assignments would bore me to death as fast as it would the students!!!  So this summer we took art to a permanent level!!!  Kim Smith promised that if we did a tie dying day that she'd come to help out and of-course participate!  Luckily I'm blessed to have an aide of my choosing to help out during summer school, but I definitely wouldn't turn away an extra set of hands on a day I'm dabbling in permanent dye and

teenagers!  Kacey McNew has been my summer aide for years now and we work rather well together!  She is fabulous at helping the students without giving answers or doing projects for them--a necessity in truly learning if you ask me!!!  During the year Kacey works as an interpreter but in the summer she assists me in the classroom and helps to keep me sane during our non-stop 4-hour block schedule in a classroom FULL of students (at least double the size of any class I have during the year)!   So once we set a date I then discussed it with the custodians because we needed to borrow a hose and bib

connection to rinse out the dye (and any other messes that could arise).  They are awesome and had everything set up for us before school even started that day, which is a bright and early 7:30 am!!!  Over the course of the first week of summer school we had the students bring in 1-2 items that they wished to dye and

if they did not already have a white t-shirt or socks their parents would allow them to alter I told them to bring me $3.00 and I'd buy them a shirt and socks (thank goodness or multi-packs at Wal-Mart!) .  All the students had been awaiting this day in utter anticipation and I'd threatened them

with plenty of homework if they goofed off too much around the dye because I didn't want parent calls yelling at me for sending their students home multi-colored!  Luckily when the time came everyone was rather well behaved and no casualties occurred , although we did create quite a spectacle with our clothing line of colorful items strung from one side of the building to the other!!!  At the end of the day (give or take noon) Kacey and I had the job of bringing in all the clothes.  We strung up new lines across my classroom so they could finish drying overnight without being stolen.  The next day we had a life skills lesson in ironing (that's how you set the dye before washing) and then washing and drying in the machines located in the room next to mine (normally utilized by the Severely Developmentally Delayed (SDD) class during the year).  So from art to life skills it was an enjoyable couple of days!!!    :-)

Even Carter got a shirt!!!  :-)

HHS Graduation...June 2nd, 2011...Year 7 Done!!!

Thursday June 2nd, 2011.  YEAR #7 DONE! I/we made it!!!  Oh how the years fly by, I started this job in 2004 and 7 years later here we are at yet another graduation...sending a few more seniors out into the world to begin to fending for themselves--fingers crossed they survive!  It is not exactly mandatory that teachers attend the graduation ceremonies but it is HIGHLY encouraged!  Thus far I haven't missed one and this year we had a few students that I was going to truly miss and that always makes the graduation a bit more special.  Kim Smith and I decided to go shopping the day before for a new outfit with the

full intention of going out after the ceremony...which we did but it didn't last too long.  Everyone was drinking and I'd come in the same car as Kim so I didn't really have a way leave at my leisure and I just never really feel comfortable drinking in a mixed crowd and tonight was the epitome of mixed with coworkers and administrators--simply not my scene!  I was kind of hoping that Kim, me Linda and some of "our" crowd would find something to do together and not stay at Goose Loonies with the whole Highland Staff.  Ultimately an hour or two into the so called after party, I bummed a

ride home from Rob Long (friend, drama teacher, and co-worker).  After that I only had Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to rest and recuperate before Summer School started on Monday the 6th of June!!!   

Sending home some prized artwork...June 1st 2011

Each year as my seniors are about to graduate I always give them the option to take home some of the prize pieces of artwork that they've created throughout the year that I'd kept on display in the classroom.  I did however take photos of them before I had to part with them because they should be remembered.  I've also uploaded photos of the artwork along with other fun school related events on my recently created faux "teacher" Facebook page where I have befriended any student that requests me.  I haven't been on Facebook all that long but I've always struggled with the idea of accepting students who request me onto my personal Facebook page (especially those under 18) because of the potential implications and overall conflict of interest it poses.  Instead, I decided to create a separate page for students only, where all of my information links to school--address, phone number, email, etc. all relate directly to those of Highland High School rather than my true personal info.  I even used the artwork created by one of my graduating seniors of a bouquet of flowers as my profile picture for my teacher page!    

**The Pitbull and Tinkerbell Line drawings were created on special black scratch off paper with

colored construction paper taped behind for pop! 

** The  three drawings are from the food challenge!  Students were allowed to choose what food item they wanted to draw and the only "rules" were that they couldn't trace and it must show both the outside of the package and the food item that is inside.  These were a few of the best! 

**The shoe assignment...the students either brought in a shoe or took off the one they were wearing and had to draw it twice, once with charcoal and once with colored pencil...this was one of the most accurate!  

**The gothic piece is from the assignment where the students had to modernize and recreate a rendition of a classic work of art--this one is modeled after the painting "American Gothic" by Grant Wood.  The student had to use the house, the man, and the woman so that the art was recognizable but everything else could change!

**The last four examples are from the cool and warm geometric project...the students chose a picture and placed it amid the triangle patterns.  They then chose either the inside image or background space to be colored in cool colors (blue, green, or purple) or warm colors (red, yellow, or orange).  

Senior activities as the school year winds down...May 2011

It's May 2011 and it's crunch time...were quickly approaching finals, graduation, and summer school.  Often times it doesn't feel like you even have time to breathe!  Even with all the work related craziness, I think the thing that saved me was my commitment to bootcamp...at this point I was attending the 5-6am class five days a week at Bakersfield Fit and then I also tried to make it to Calvin's cross training class from 5:30-6:30ish a few nights a week.  As much as I hated waking up at 4:30 in the morning or arriving home at 7pm starving, they were a great stress release and ultimately made me feel better!  Back at school, we were planning end of the year celebrations and making constant calls home to remind parents of mandatory graduation events where they will be responsible to transport their students to and from.  Then the rush of having all final exams typed up at least a week early

because seniors take their tests early so that we teachers can get grades into the computer systems in time for the final clearance for the grad ceremony.  Amid all of that chaos, Kim Smith (my co-Deaf Ed. teacher in crime) decided that she wanted the seniors to paint the platform her dad recently built for her. 

You see, Kim is all of five foot and some change and often gets frustrated because in some of her larger classes the students in the back of the room have trouble seeing her.  In a standard classroom this wouldn't be such a big problem because the students can still hear the teacher but in our rooms this is not the case!  Our students are either Deaf or hard of hearing and actually do have to SEE us in order to "hear" us.  The signing space is primarily located in the torso area which for someone Kim's height puts her hands between 4 and 5 feet which isn't much above the head of a seated student.  So her father built her

about a 1 foot by 6 foot stage to put under her white board to teach from which she wanted brightened up!  This was a job for my 4th period art class...so we got to sketching.  Her rules were that it must be bright, must incorporate the school colors of green and blue, and because she is a girly girl it MUST have pink!!!  You be the judge, but I think we mastered it!  :)

Leann Lopez's (Former Student) Baby Shower...

After home schooling Leann for nearly 3 years she graduated and then invited me to her baby shower.  It was jungle themed and decorated really cute.  I gotta say this was the first all Hispanic baby shower I'd ever been to and it was the loooongest event EVER!  I figured 2-3 hours, but after the 3rd hour they had barley gotten to games and presents...cutting the cake wasn't even in sight yet!  I was very honored to have been invited but I deceded to leave after presents (before cake) because I just couldn't handle any more!   

The gift I made for Leann...diaper cake and wipee cases.

Leann and her "baby daddy" (Junior Garcia)

Leann and baby Raileen (A few months later)

We got it approved for Leann to take my DHH summer school class to earn units enough units to graduate.

Leann's arm...this is how I met her...I was her home school teacher due to mental health issues for nearly 3 years....we bonded well enough that she invited me to her baby shower...very honored!