Sorry it has taken me so long to blog out this week! It was especially busy filled with studying and work because it is midterms in our program. On Monday, after my usual run, I made a delicious lunch with colorful vegetables, lentils (my new favorite legume of choice), and parmesan cheese (I now cannot eat anything without parmesan cheese. I eat it with EVERYTHING!) Then in painting, I painted another figural pepper in an interesting new color palette. The rest of the day was filled with studying for our upcoming art history exam.
Tuesday was our second day of teaching in the elementary school in Cortona. I definitely think this day was far more successful than our first day. Today with the third graders, the students were making themselves into super heroes who have a super power of doing a good deed within the community using paper collage. This time I was prepared with questions to ask them while they were working to get them to talk about their art project. Even though I did not necessarily know what they were talking about the entire time, it was nice to be more interactive with them during their art making. They asked me quite a few questions during class, which my bilingual students helped translate: Did I have a boyfriend? (They were very upset when I said no). Why was I always running? (Apparently several of them see me run by in the morning). Where did I buy all my pink and purple clothes? The more time I spend with these kids, the more I fall in love with them. I am also constantly impressed by their amazing work ethic, especially for such young kids. They create art for practically a full hour and take their time. I have never had art students so patient with art; it is quite refreshing to have students who truly love their imaginations. Nonetheless, they are putting art education in perspective for me: I now appreciate how nice it is when your students speak the same language as you. After teaching that morning, we had a busy day in book making creating an acordian book with a hard cover and spine. Once again, it is a long, tedious process, and the annoying part is that one little mistake in the beginning can affect your entire book. I now truly admire anyone who can make an attractive homemade book because I am quickly learning that it is not easy at all.
Wednesday was devoted to studying art history all day until our exam that evening at five p,m. This was made difficult because it was a completely gorgeous day; it was very evident that spring was near. I decided to take the flash cards I made and review them while wondering around the streets of Cortona. During my study walk, I ended up discovering the most adorable little park in a residential part of Cortona that I had never explored before on the other side of our mountain. I was so excited that there was an entire beautiful part of Cortona that I had not even seen yet (so excited that I almost forgot I had a test I had to get to…) The art history exam did not end up being so bad, although I have yet to discover my grade. It consisted of standard slide identification questions and essays and resulted in severe writing cramps.
Thursday and Friday, after my wonderful morning mountain side runs, I had a lot of catching up to do with painting, book making, and art ed lesson planning, considering that I spent the last few days focused on art history. Thursday during my run, I also explored a really interesting flea market in the larger town down our mountain. It was filled with the most random assortment of clothes, lots of underwear, rugs, lace, and various toiletry items. I actually liked it better for its excellent people watching opportunity. I find everyone around me fascinating to watch. Thursday was filled with lots of painting and Friday was filled with serious lesson planning, teacher exemplar making, and more tedious assembling of the accordian book.
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