Have you ever just wanted to tape a student to a chair. . .

I had the opportunity to do that today!. Using a measly 6 rolls of packing tape, I created a packing tape sculpture in the classroom. The students were amazed, and we had people in and out of the classroom over the 2 class periods that it took to make the creation . For the most part the project went as planned. I did find it more difficult to get them out of the casting that I had thought. There was only minor bloodshed in the removal process and over all the project was a success. I am hoping that the judges art art fair appreciate it. . .The sculpture wasn't done in the bottom picture, it still needed re constructed along the seams, to bring the sculpture back into shape. . .

Hello everyone! I apologize for not keeping up on this. . .It is my goal to do better. Life is going good at the Hoffmann House. Ian is really talking. . . and talking. . . and talking. . .Maren is doing the same (talking that is) she still is working on the language. She has the Kitty, baby, momma, dadda, uh huh, no, yes. . . and various other words that just pop out of her little mouth. . .nothing bad, yet, at least not that I know of. She is working on her last tooth, the upper left "I" tooth.

Last weekend, Eric had cousins weekend over in Omaha, so the kids and I took off to grandma and grandpa Jordison's house. . .the kids spend less time over at this house than the Hoffmann grandparents house, so there was a lot of exploring to do. . .it was quite nerve racking! The backyard was a welcome change for the kids. They could run and run, and I didn't have to worry about traffic. . . it was nice. Saturday evening, we went to Walnut, where Eric joined his family. We spent Saturday night and Sunday with Eric's parents. Sunday was Eric's 29th Birthday. He got a Star Wars Transformer ( I think it was really for Ian) and enjoyed Angel Food Cake with strawberries! Mmmm

We are now into the 4th quarter of school. Only about 38 days remain in the 2008-2009 School Year. . .The seniors are restless, the teachers are restless. . . summer can't come fast enough! Art Fair is in 2 weeks. Ankeny Christian Academy on April 14th and 15th. . .

This weekend we are heading back to Walnut for the Dale Lynch Tourney. Eric is kind of dreading it I think. He hasn't played basketball for 2 years. . . It could be an interesting weekend. . .

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It has been a while since writing on here. . . I have been busy. It seems like the older I get, the faster time flies. . .The kids are doing good. Ian is finally going to bed without someone laying with him and we are doing pretty well with the Potty Training. . .he is going to get "Tex", one of the cars from "Cars". He had a little accident with peeing on Friday night at the school carnival. As he was going 100 mph, he forgot to go potty, and wet himself. My poor mother was watching them while I ran a face painting booth, and the next thing we know, he has lost the pants ( and underwear) and is streaking the carnival. . .he was very upset that he wet. . .Other than that small incident, the kids enjoyed the carnival. They won cupcakes at the cakewalk. Ian threw rings on bottles, pennies in bowls, and toilet paper in toilets. . .They (meaning mom and the kids) lasted longer than I had guessed they would. . .
Maren is working on cutting her "I" teeth. . .what a drama! she has been a crabby baby for the last week. I am hoping they cut through soon. She is really getting big, she has taken to climbing objects. Anything she can. High Chairs, Regular Chairs. . . she is even pushing around furniture to get what she wants from a higher surface. . .Yesterday we watched as she pushed a dining room chair into the living room and got up on her tip toes to push buttons on the receiver. . .This should be an interesting summer!

Frusterated!!!!!!!!!

As another quarter of school comes to a close. I am asking myself if I am happy where I am at. . .The answer is kind of!?! I am very frustrated with my students at the moment! Particularly the ones that don't care about anything. They are in my class because there is nothing else to take. They don't listen to instruction and whip out a half assed attempt at a project. . .This angers me in 2 ways. #1 : It makes me look bad, but more importantly #2 they hurry through, or in some cases, sit and do nothing until they HAVE to have the project done. . .In doing this they are disrupting class AND using up the resources that the other students don't have enough of in the first place. I obviously need to get a new job (our school is slowly but surely going down in flames) the question is what I want to do. I don't want to have to look for a new job. I love where my kids have daycare, I love being in the small school, and having kids k-12, but the downside to that is that I am the dumping grounds for the high school kids that have nothing to do. I have looked in the papers with no luck, and by word of mouth, found out that Urbandale has a HS opening. After looking at this job, and I guess what the others are teaching, I feel completely overwhelmed. I think that teaching just HS in a larger school would be great! Especially if I could teach what I teach now. Primarily the Fine Arts. I think that Urbandale is a big large. There are 3 art teachers. I am the ONLY art teacher at Orient, which means that there is no one for them to compare me to. I get my job done. In come cases it is better than in others.
Spring break is just around the corner and the teachers and students really need a break from each other. I am hoping to come back to students that want to finish off the year with a strong showing. No kindergarten inspired paintings and crappy little pots. . . I want something worthy of art fair. Something that will actually look good. Get Noticed. And more importantly make our school look good. . . There are about 4-6 students out of my 38 that are actually wanting to be here. . .put forth the effort, and actually care about the insight I offer into their artwork. . .
The second that thing that goes through my head, should I go back to school? I had thought about looking into a graphic design program, maybe trying that route, but with the economy I am wondering if that would be a bad decision. . .I am already going to be paying my loans off until Ian goes to college. . .