Innovation, like it used to be

Today was a huge day in 3^rd grade: our colonial Living Wax Museum. My students set up their exhibits, dressed in costume, and shared the knowledge they had gathered over the past few weeks. Their parents, fellow students, and teachers traveled through the museum for an hour, listening to the 5 cent facts, 25 cent stories, and $1.00 speeches they had prepared. The gunsmiths, blacksmiths, silversmiths, and glassblowers worked at their forges. The apothecaries offered to cure visitors with leeches and nostrums. The printer published news, the wheelwright built a wheel, the candlemakers dipped candles, and the weaver wove with wool. George and Martha Washington and a runaway slave told tales about their lives. The wigmakers and milliners sold their wares. Today was huge in 3^rd grade.

I chose to wear these

striking spiral earrings today. They are not like any other pair that I own. They are simple—probably like those worn by ancient people. But from my modern perspective, they offer a novel approach to a familiar aim. Pierced earrings made from a single wire? What an innovation!

That’s what I suggested to my students today. Think in new ways. Use your imagination. Make old ways seem like innovation!

Quick Fix

Ho Ho! The power of poetry!

Or maybe of the ABC's!

Here's yesterday's photo.

Oh, and thanks, Blogger, for the quick fix!

Blogger ABC's

Apparently Blogger is "doing maintenance, but things should be back to normal soon." Therefore, when I try to upload a photo, I get a message saying, "Server rejected."

Bother.

Can't say I have much to write about.

Dragonfly beads to match the brown cord of the necklace I wore yesterday.

Earrings made yesterday, with light blue beads above and below the dragonflies.

Free blog.

Guess I shouldn't complain.

Hate to miss a day, though.

I guess that's what they say about getting what you pay for.

Just a drag.

Lousy.

Maybe it's working now. I'll try to add a photo.

Nope.

Oh, well.

Picasa won't let me upload, either, since they too are doing maintenance.

Quick fix?

Recent experience says no.

So. "Server rejected."

Too bad.

Upside: My life has not been destroyed by a tornado, or a flood, or riots in the streets.

Very minor problem...

"We're doing maintenance, but things should be back to normal soon."

Xcept I've read similar statements before, and waited more than a week for a fix.

You should define "soon."

Zee. Zero? Zapped? Zip it and hope for the best!

A World of Color

Yesterday, when my daughters and I were browsing through a shop, we came upon this necklace among others like it, with light blue or white or reddish-orange beads. I bought this one as a model. This summer, I'm hoping to sit under the white pine tree with my daughters and knot leather cord around colors of our choosing, to make more.

This afternoon I made these earrings to match--a Sunday pair, to wear at home. I made some others, too, for a more public wearing on another day.

As I was thining about how to describe the bead colors, I happened upon the wikepedia page List of Colors which provides and alphabetical list of color names from Air Force Blue to Zinnwaldite Brown. I glanced through, looking at names for red-orange. Awesome, Folly, International Orange, Tangelo, Vermillion. Then names for light blue: Verdigris, Spiro Disco Blue, Robin-egg Blue. I was smiling when I discovered that my beads matched Light Blue and Orange-Red best. But my smile widened when I read this introductory disclaimer:

 Color naming is fuzzy and arbitrary, and varies among people and cultures, with no single swatch adequately representing any particular color name. Computer displays have a somewhat limited gamut, so many colorful pigments cannot be represented on a screen at all and computer simulation of the natural world is, at best, a rough approximation. (Wikepedia, List of colors)

Little Roo

Dangling from my ears today was this lovely silver and lavender pair of earrings that my daughter Kathe bought for me at an international festival in Lafayette, LA last year. I put them on to go shopping with my two daughters this morning. How I love spending time with my girls, watching them joke and laugh and share. Phoebe headed off to celebrate a friend's birthday, leaving me alone with Kathe for a few hours. I love one-on-one time with my kids, too.

When she was a baby, I nicknamed Kathe, "Kathe-roo." I carried her about in a pouch and called her "my little Roo." For a while, her favorite animal was the kangaroo and her favorite place was Australia. She loved Winnie-the-Pooh stories and movies and toys, all of which were associated with Kanga and Little Roo, and hence were hers.

Kathe is home visiting this weekend, having come to attend the local wedding reception of a highschool friend who was married in Utah recently. Since the couple is Mormon, the party will be quite different from the many wedding receptions that Kathe has attended in the past few years.

A little before 5 this evening, with two hours before the reception was to begin, I offered her a glass of wine: Little Roo Shiraz, product of Australia, purchased with thoughts of Kathe. We sipped our wine and chatted about teaching writing while I read some letters that her sixth grade students had written to her explaining their thoughts about themselves as writers. Many of them discovered that they like to write this year, because they were given freedom, time, and enough structure to get them started.

Kathe-roo: my colleague, my friend, my daughter.

Aventurine?

These polished stones sat in a box in a drawer for some 17 years, ever since they were given to me by my friend from Calcutta. I happened upon them a month or so ago and decided to twist wire around them. Presto: earrings.

As I twisted, I thought to myself, "Blue minerals. What could they be? Names like apatite and sodalite and malachite came to mind. I wished my dad were here--he would probably know. And if he didn't, he'd have gotten out his hand lens and maybe a field guide; after some study he'd announce a name, and I'd be happy.

I spent some time looking in a guide to rocks and minerals, and on the internet. Sodalite seems the most likely match. But I'm taken with the name of the mineral aventurine, a type of quartz, which comes in many hues including blue. Aventurine, a well-traveled mineral.

I took this photo of my earrings resting on a napkin that my grandmother, Mema, decorated with cross stitch at least 100 years ago. My mother used these napkins when she entertained, saying, "Mema always said, "If you don't use what you make, why bother making it?" My mother would add, "Mother would have hated to see me put these away in a chest, where no one would use them."

I got this one out to take to school for the weaver at our colonial wax museum. I have to confess, I store them in a plastic bin. They're more than 100 years old! And well-traveled.

Effort earns a reward

At the beginning of May, my class had read just over 11 million words during this school year. How do we know? We don't. They've actually read many more. But as they complete books, they have the opportunity to take a computerized comprehension test. The software tracks how many words were in the book, and keeps track of each child's word total.

We set a goal: if they read another 3 million words in the month of May, we would have a party to celebrate. Yesterday they reached their goal: 14,200,000 words. So today we piled into mini-buses and drove to a home with a pool, a slip-and-slide, a basketball hoop, and child-sized pony jumps. For an hour and a half, they splashed and slid and dribbled and jumped.

So today I wore crocs and these enameled silver earrings.

"What earrings are you wearing today? Oh, I see! They look like a splash in a pool!"

"Do you really have enough earrings to wear a different pair every day?"

"I hope so! I've worn 153 pairs to far this year. Only 212 to go!"

"What are those earrings for? Is it like water? Look! Those earrings look like water! Since we're going swimming!"

It's rewarding when my choice has popular appeal.