Changes

The new principal has decided I should be a full time art teacher.  He saw me teaching a ninth grade boy how to sew a Christmas stocking on a sewing machine and was very impressed.  I turned around to see that he had brought the director to see what we were doing.  That combined with the holiday murals and art I've been pasting all over the walls was what pushed him, or me, over the edge.  I have mixed feelings because I was teaching kids how to pass the GED exam downstairs in the AM and teaching art in the PM.  I'm so attached to Robin, my AM aide, and will not be working with her at all now.  Teaching art is a joyful experience where GED can be heartbreaking when a student of mine does not pass the state exam despite both our efforts.  I'm worried about an art budget as money is real tight in schools right now.  I tend to spend my own money on fabric, thread, etc., and will do it even more so now that I can bring all my crap in without worrying about the nerdy morning teacher going balistic.  Now I can bring in a loom, a spinning wheel, and go crazy.  A little story about years ago when I was teaching knitting and quilting in an upscale summer school in Morristown, New Jersey.  I had a dozen or so incredibly talented and industrious kids.  Most of them were Asians who are hell-bent on working like demons on whatever I told them to do.  It was a fantastic experience.   We had a double classroom and it was wild with fabric everywhere in piles on tables and the floor.  Sometime the girls would lie down on the quilts they made and take a rest, or giggle, or each snacks.   The place was bedlam.  One day I turned around to see the Superintendent of the school district with the principal of the summer school standing in the door with guests they were taking around the place.  Their mouths were open in slack jawed amazement.  I was horrified.  They moved on to the next room.    Very soon after there were more guests in the door of my room.  I realized that my busy, chaotic art room was the picture of industry and creativity, unlike the quiet and calm rooms where they were teaching chess, foreign languages or reading novels.   The powers that be gave me an unlimited budget for fabric and yarn.  Those were Red Dot yarn days, pre-sheep.  The new principal wants me to take my art classes to the farm for a sheep experience.  I will be happy to comply.