I have a nice life. So not perfect, but obviously I have the obvious things to be thankful for. Here is my Less Obvious Gratitude List :

• Youngest child is currently sitting on the potty, singing the memorized words to a picture book. We may be a long way off from no more diapers, but this is still good.
  
• Last night Oldest had to be told to stop with the flute practice already, it's bedtime.
• Middle wants to learn Spanish. She's starting with the happy birthday/ feliz cumpleanos song. In fourth grade she'll be able to study it in school like Oldest does.
  
• Husband has joined a book club. And something online has tickled him: I keep hearing laughter coming from his office. That is good.
• I have a like-minded cooperating teacher for my student teaching assignment, and I've been able to lead art lessons; who says that bachelor's degree is being wasted?
• One day of cleaning should be all it takes to be ready for Thanksgiving. And since my stamina and motivation are low, by "one day" I mean about "one hour, mostly spent nagging the kids". That is good.
• A lighter than usual schedule this week means I can get ahead on coursework! So good!
  
• We're having friends over for Thanksgiving, so Husband can have a turkey and won't have to do the vegetarian type we usually have; it's not worth cooking a bird when he's the only meat eater in the house. And even though I'm not interested in eating the thing, it is kind of appealing to be all traditional and stuff.
  
• Neither we, nor anyone we know, is in danger of foreclosure. At least not this month. And that too is good.
• Even though our furnace is still not working and has boggled the minds of both Husband and three different Repair People, we have plenty of fire wood for the time being. Good.
  

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

The teaching has begun: I love these kids!

I have now taught an art unit to the sixth graders, and it was a great experience. I was able to employ some principles from my Special Methods in Art course, it was integrated with math and science, and though parts were direct instruction, the nature of the unit (abstract painting) was very student centered. First, for a math problem solving lesson, the students made scale drawings of how their lumber would be cut to construct the stretcher bars (wooden framework); adults cut the wood, and students then hammered their pieces together and stretched the canvas on them. A color wheel lesson followed, stressing that it was design and not art, with a discussion of the difference. The kids did well on the assignment, but my classroom management was mediocre: some kids decided to get really messy, and overall cleanup took so long we couldn't go to the computer lab for our scheduled time! My cooperating teacher gave me some hugely helpful hints on tightening that up, and the next lesson went smoother. For the first painting lesson, I modeled mixing the paint (acrylic) with a gloss medium to create glazes and instructed the students to use at least two colors that day, at least one of which they needed to mix themselves. The results were remarkable! Their behavior was much improved too, and I had a strict plan and schedule for cleanup, so the whole thing was a dream. The second session of painting began with a review of vocabulary (such as abstract and nonrepresentational) and a color theory lesson with examples of analogous and complimentary color schemes, and of how colors change in relation to each other. The kids then continued painting with these ideas in mind. For this second session, my cooperating teacher stepped out and my faculty advisor from the university sat in and did a formal observation. All in all it seemed like things went smoothly, the kids behaved themselves, and I was able to deliver the content in a coherent way while managing the class. Now I can't wait for some math!

Quote of the day: "Liberalism is trust of the people tempered by prudence. Conservatism is distrust of the people tempered by fear.”-- William Gladstone

thanks to Ms. Cornelius, a favorite of mine in the blogosphere.

What a wonderful morning!

Yesterday morning, my seven year old popped up before the alarm clock and announced from the top of the stairs, "It's election day!". Like it was maybe that much awaited holiday in December or something!

By the time we were all home and able to turn on NPR, it was already being projected that Obama would carry Ohio, which would pretty much seal the deal. I began making dinner with a ridiculous amount of tears of joy interfering with my work. Later on, my husband and I watched Obama's acceptance speech, and I was again awed by his articulate delivery and inclusive, hopeful, organized message. What a refreshing change from the insulting and damaging idiocy and inadequacy of the Bush administration.

So I'm starting off this morning with, frankly, renewed faith in my fellow Americans. 2000 was an offensive coup, but 2004 just made me feel like I was living in some sort of twisted parallel reality where common sense was out the window and the worst available option had actually been chosen by our citizenry. No landslide, at least, but Bush was actually elected '04, not just appointed. But now, we've pulled our heads out of wherever they were lodged, declared that we no longer want to be the ridiculous yet dangerous nation we'd become. Obama has proven he can engage and inspire on the international stage, and at home he's offering us all the dignity and tools for betterment we desperately need.

In addition to economic revitalization, I look forward to changes in education policy under President Obama. Let's stay tuned to see how our nation can fulfill our obligation to our young people with extensive and authentic educations, instead of inch deep, memorized, discrete facts that are inapplicable to students' lives. Let's have vitalized educations for our children that truly prepare them to think critically and to become involved citizens of our United States, a nation that is flawed but full of promise.