Before school begins, B pulls me aside to ask a "huge, huge favor". Can she take 30 minutes to finish typing a paper that is due the following period, she asks. She was absent on Friday when we started this new unit on color theory and today is Monday. I tell her that I would like to help her but she has to be here for all of the work we are going to do today. Distressed, she says she will "just leave, then, because I have to do this". Why didn't she do it over the weekend, I ask? She says her computer wasn't working. I apologize, but tell her she needs to be here today - I don't want her to fall behind in my class (she is very often absent or late).
She walks out.
I write an administrative referral before the day has even begun.
During the next period, SH ignores the warm-up activity to methodically pick out her hair weaves, leaving them in a pile on the table in front of her. When I (politely) ask her to stop, she reminds me that "it's just hair" and that apparently I have hair, too. When I, in calm and friendly voice, tell her she has to stop grooming herself and instead do her work, she becomes indignant and defensive. "I'm not grooming myself, Mr W! God! Why do you gotta be like that??"
Why do I gotta be like that, I ask myself? For a moment, I try to think if it's alright that there is a pile of hair in front of my student, who is not doing any work. Ultimately, I resolve that it is still not OK, even if it means in deciding so that I'm going to have to continue this absurd conversation.
"This isn't Cosmetology class", I jab. "I know that! Duh!" she parries. After discussing the way she talks to teachers ("I've got to work on that, I know"), she sweeps the hair debris into the trash can and starts to draw.
This was only a quaint warm-up for what would happen in fourth period.
As students filed in after the late bell for fourth period, a crowd began to gather around perennially disengaged SP (an anecdotal aside: she is the only student I've ever had who has not turned in a single project). They were watching - loudly watching - the bootiest of booty-shaking rap videos on a video iPod. One of the more cavalier boys shows me the video on the iPod, certain I will get swept away in its charms. Without giving a customary and admittedly wimpy warning, I confiscate the iPod. Goes straight into a drawer in my locked office.
After getting the class settled, I begin to give a brief introduction to color theory when I am interrupted by JH, who is raising his hand. This class never raises hands, unless there is a joke or a bathroom request.
"What is it, JH?"
He farts.
The rest of the class reacts in the only natural way a room full of teenagers could react. And inside I am cracking up. But I've got to keep it together - I am supposed to be in charge. I stammer through some more requests for order while going over the quickest, most abbreviated intro to color theory ever performed.
JH farts again. SP says I am "boring". Other conversations continue, oblivious to the art class that has stalled out. If pairs of eyes looking at a teacher indicate the number of students paying attention, then I have zero students paying attention.
I conclude the color theory lesson (with a few token, reassuring "I was listening Mr. W"s) and move back to my desk. Out of the corner of my eye, I see an altercation in the corner. It is JH. He is wrestling... no, humping a girl in the corner. It is playful, I hope, and everyone seems to be laughing, but I have actually spoken to him about this at least a half-dozen times ("Sexual harassment, JH! You don't want to mess with that!"). I tell him to gather his things, he is going to CHOICES (a kind of separate setting time-out). He makes big stage tears and cries "boo hoo!" and preens his way to the door.
While I am filling in the CHOICES form, SP has discovered a passion for her confiscated iPod, and is demanding it back immediately. And in no uncertain terms (unless "motherf***in" is an uncertain term). She wants it back right now, and is not going to wait for me to finish what I'm doing.
"SP, you will get it back at the end of the period, now have a seat, please."
"No, this is bulls**t, I want my g**d*** iPod!". She is now opening the drawers of my desk.
"SP, you need to sit down!"
JH continues to mock me with big baby cries, rubbing his eyes that he has to go to CHOICES.
Meanwhile, a student is walking around the class with his pants around his ankles. It is KM. He wants to go to CHOICES, too, to be with JH. He is putting on an act. Other parts of this act will include incredible sailor-like profanity, dancing on the counter, and making himself gag in the sink. I make him suffer through having to stay in art class.
JH is on his way to CHOICES (I will later learn that he never made it there). SP is also out the door. She is cussing me out, saying I need to take control of my "motherf***in class", that my class is "bulls**t", and that she is not coming back. An assessment I understand, but can only feel is ironic coming from the most out-of-control element.
Later, it is revealed that the iPod did not even belong to her. It was borrowed from another student in the class. The day begins - and now ends - with an administrative referral.
"These Things Are Sent To Try Us"
This phrase often runs through my head on days like today. It is the title of a song by the band Clearlake, and actually it is the lilting chorus featuring the title that runs through my head. The song is about romantic dissolution: not my particular problem today, thank goodness, but after a day like today I can share the sentiment that the things we endure must be the product of a curious and mischievous higher power.
There are 27 days left until summer. I count them down now, but there will soon be 180 days until the next summer. And then another 180 days. And another. I must remind myself that the goal is not to get out of this, but to be in it in the best possible way. These things are sent to try us. And it can be won.
Right? ... Right??
Is Target still hiring?
Monday, April 30, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
The Wiz
My job-within-a-job at this school is one I did not see coming: set designer. A couple friendly conversations at the beginning of the year with my department head, the theater director, and I am asked to design the set for our fall musical, Dream Girls. Sure, sounds like fun, think I. Plus the design is to be a half-dozen abstract obelisks. Right up my constructivist alley, I beam. After trying to orchestrate the energetic and oh-so-untrained hands of student volunteer painters, I am smacked with the reality of just how much work I have signed up for. The "design" part only lasts a few hours in the quiet of home over a sketchbook. The sketches are consulted with a builder who constructs the pieces and returns them to me where the grunt work is done with drop cloths, paint rollers, ladders, fussy teenagers and lots of loud noise. And did anyone mention that it would take place every day after school for 2 weeks?
Reluctant to revisit the experience, I agree to help paint (but not design) the set for the Black History Month play, Joy's Story. An altogether different experience, this time I am working alone after rehearsals are done. Just an art teacher with a paint roller and some headphones. It is a completely different experience. How can it be possible that one person alone can do the work faster than 6 untrained teenagers? And does this confirm my growing suspicion that I am a sociopath?
The spring musical, The Wiz, was promised to be the biggest production yet (in celebration of our director's twentieth year and looming retirement). With complicated choreography and a raucous soul/funk score with full chorus, it was an ambitiously elaborate (by high school standards) production that required an equally ambitious set. My original design was much more ambitious than realistic, apparently. It was significantly scaled back by the budget-conscious builder and the director who was sensitive to elementary-school children who might possibly be scared off by the headless mannequin torsos on the evil witch's throne (oh, but it looked so cool in the drawings!)
So what you see below is a compromise, but that is all part of creation in collaboration, and it was an outstanding experience from start to finish. In my year at this school I have been fortunate to work closely with this team of talented professionals, and I am proud to represent the visual arts in a school with such a successful performing arts legacy. It is a kind of synergy and solidarity that may be a rare thing (my last school was quite the opposite), and it is one of the things I think of when I question why I teach where I teach.
And oh yes, the kids involved in this play were fantastic.
A special thank you belongs to H, whose invaluable assistance went largely unrecognized. Pictures and notes!:
The cornfield where Dorothy encounters the Scarecrow. (By the way - do you know what a "scary tree" looks like? In the background is my attempt to answer this request)
Kansas farm house, front.
Kansas farm house, back.
Munchkin dwellings
Emerald City gate
Emerald City gate
Emerald City (really just the back of The Wiz's throne. Original design prohibitively large)
The Wiz's throne. (Or is it Flash Gordon's throne?)
Evillene's throne. The pipes emit smoke, and the chair is a false chair that pulls back when the evil witch melts and disappears. Again: original design several times bigger and to incorporate mannequin parts and working televisions tuned to static.
Fairground columns for the good witch's appearance
Reluctant to revisit the experience, I agree to help paint (but not design) the set for the Black History Month play, Joy's Story. An altogether different experience, this time I am working alone after rehearsals are done. Just an art teacher with a paint roller and some headphones. It is a completely different experience. How can it be possible that one person alone can do the work faster than 6 untrained teenagers? And does this confirm my growing suspicion that I am a sociopath?
The spring musical, The Wiz, was promised to be the biggest production yet (in celebration of our director's twentieth year and looming retirement). With complicated choreography and a raucous soul/funk score with full chorus, it was an ambitiously elaborate (by high school standards) production that required an equally ambitious set. My original design was much more ambitious than realistic, apparently. It was significantly scaled back by the budget-conscious builder and the director who was sensitive to elementary-school children who might possibly be scared off by the headless mannequin torsos on the evil witch's throne (oh, but it looked so cool in the drawings!)
So what you see below is a compromise, but that is all part of creation in collaboration, and it was an outstanding experience from start to finish. In my year at this school I have been fortunate to work closely with this team of talented professionals, and I am proud to represent the visual arts in a school with such a successful performing arts legacy. It is a kind of synergy and solidarity that may be a rare thing (my last school was quite the opposite), and it is one of the things I think of when I question why I teach where I teach.
And oh yes, the kids involved in this play were fantastic.
A special thank you belongs to H, whose invaluable assistance went largely unrecognized. Pictures and notes!:
The cornfield where Dorothy encounters the Scarecrow. (By the way - do you know what a "scary tree" looks like? In the background is my attempt to answer this request)
Kansas farm house, front.
Kansas farm house, back.
Munchkin dwellings
Emerald City gate
Emerald City gate
Emerald City (really just the back of The Wiz's throne. Original design prohibitively large)
The Wiz's throne. (Or is it Flash Gordon's throne?)
Evillene's throne. The pipes emit smoke, and the chair is a false chair that pulls back when the evil witch melts and disappears. Again: original design several times bigger and to incorporate mannequin parts and working televisions tuned to static.
Fairground columns for the good witch's appearance
Saturday, April 7, 2007
A roomful of city planners, part 3
Like any Art I-level project, the final cityscape drawings submitted by students were a wildly mixed bag. There were a handful of architectural masterpieces, a broad mid-range of serviceable drawings, and the usual last-minute horrors: a tangle of unfinished lines, creases and rips. In addition to the finished drawing, I asked students to submit a written response in which they would reiterate the objectives of the project and identify various conflicts, analyze how another student resolved the conflicts, and then discuss their own choices. As noted in previous posts, resolutions of the social conflicts (scroll down for the 10 criteria) were based on assumptions made by students. Here are a few of examples [note: no spelling/grammar
corrections]:
1. The low-rent apartments were projects.
In AM's comment below, there is the assumption that the low-rent apartments are one of the "black things". This was not indicated in the criteria, but the assumption is a fair one: there are at least three housing projects zoned for our high school.
2. The white-owned chain restaurant was assumed to be upscale.
This opinion was only verbalized by a few students, but seemed to be assumed by many in the final cityscape drawings. For example, when dividing the city into rich and poor sides, the chain restaurant was often on the rich side as P.F. Chang's or Outback, when it could just as easily be on the other side as Biscuitville or Bojangles.
3.The sewage treatment plant is unsanitary or smelly.
One of the few areas where I guided discussions. The sewage treatment plant is an essential city service, but an unseemly one. How would a city cope with this potential menace, and who would have the power to decide, and where does this power come from? All agreed that the plant would be an olfactory nuisance, and that power is derived from wealth, so it would most
likely be placed near the poor side of town, where people are less inclined to protest. Some assumptions:
AB: "One big conflict would of happened if I would of put the sewage plant beside a restaurant because you would smell a bad smell when you eat so that was my conflict."
KB: "His sewage is right by a [clothing] store and the smell might leak into the clothes"
MH: "Conflicts that arose from these few items were that the hospital couldn't be by the sewage treatment plant because that's unsanitary."
4. The hospital is expensive.
For those without health insurance, the hospital is a forbidding place.
KB: "[I put] the hospital more over to the rich side b/c they can pay for it."
These assumptions led to the following compositional choices:
1. The restaurants could not be placed side by side, as they would be in competition.
MH: "The chain restaurant couldn't be by the 'mom & pop' restaurant because there would be too much competition."
DH: "One conflict I faced is to make sure I do not put the two restaurants by each other."
2. The low-rent apartments shouldn't be near the colleges.
Some students assumed that, since the low-rent apartments were housing projects, expensive colleges (such as our very elite one) would bristle at having them next door. In this case I helped to guide the choices, reminding them that college students live on a very low income and would need housing as well. This encouraged discussions about housing around nearby
NCCU.
3. The sewage treatment plant should be placed near the low-rent apartments, not near businesses.
Again, the sewage treatment plant is seen as an aggressively offensive necessity, but one that should be kept away from those with wealth.
KB: "[I put] the dump over by the cheap apartments because they can't afford to have complaints."
Anon: "I put all the white-owned businesses on one side and all the black owned store near the sewage company."
BA, referencing a student's work in which the sewage plant sidles up next to a Macy's: "I do not agree with the way he planned their city because he put a sewage next to a clothing store. Oh no."
4. Or, the sewage treatment plant should be placed as far away as possible.
AB: "I arranged my cityscape with my sewage plant looking like it was in a far distance and the rest of them was up close. I resolved my conflict by putting the sewage plant in a far distance away from all of the other buildings."
5. Buildings had to be grouped according to economic strata.
AA: "My city was arranged in a way were your lower class people lived on the side of town where there are lower class shops. I put the sewage behind everything because nobody wants to live by waste. I feel great about my work. I did a great job." And discussing another student's work: "Like myself, this artist put all the lower class together because that's the only way
business can survive.
6. And thus, wealth belongs to white people, poverty to black people.
The common thread throughout all of these works was the economic divide along racial lines. The criteria identified black- or white-owned businesses, and identified upscale and low-rent entities, but never combined the two. When creating an economically divided city, the upscale was grouped with the white, the downscale grouped with the black. This can be seen in
many of the comments throughout the project.
7. Equity and convenience, with sensitivity to business competition, were major issues for most of the city planners.
KB: "I arranged my city so that the urban could be with the urban and the rural could be with the rural. I put the bank right in the middle so both sides of the city could get to it and the hospital more over to the rich side b/c they can pay for it... I put my barber shop by the collage and hospital so they could donate hair to cancer patients and the students could get a haircut"
IK: "I arranged my cityscape very carefully. The mom + pop isn't too close to the chain restaurant. The apartments are close to the college for the convenience of students, the bank and hospital are also close by. The sewage plant is on the outer city limits so it doesn't cause problems."
AJM: "I drew the bank in the middle of the city so both sides [black and white] could have the opportunity to get there at the same time."
AP, who drew a complex, multi-block cityscape, first responded to student NM's drawing, highlighting the convenience and fairness of the city plan: "He arranged his cityscape with alot of place that are nicely grouped together. Everything is placed convenient for the 'people' of this city. I think the way that he solved the conflicts was by using an example of a real city and how its set up and just played off those factors. I do agree with his city plan because its very elaborate and well thought out. I think the only problem this city could face is that money (income) would be a major problem". Discussing her own choices, she says "I arranged my cityscape with all of the buildings that 'make sense' sitting side by side on the same blocks. I also put things together that that could benefit each other by the convenience of them being side by side. For example the mom & pop restaurant and barber shop combined bring in more business for each other and play off each others income."
IK: "Each building had to be placed carefully so not cause disturbance or competition between each business."
ED: "I gave the sewage plant some space. I put Durham Regional [Hospital] in the back b/c I know they need a lot of room. I put NCCU by apartments + condos b/c that would be like dorms for them."
KB: "This man has the hospital right in the middle of his town so both sides could get to it. But his bank is to far away from the shopping centers... But i like the fact that the mcdonalds is right by the collage because the studant can just walk to go get something to eat."
ED: "The problems will probably make someone go out of business."
I was deeply heartened by these responses, as they demonstrated true engagement beyond the simple mechanics of drawing in two-point perspective. I watched students make observations about their situation, and reflect these observations in their work. I overheard meaningful discussions about race and class, opportunity and equity. I witnessed students taking apart their city and putting it back together again. Even if it was the same as it was before, they did so with their own power.
If I had a disappointment, it was that students drew such a clear divide between white wealth and black poverty. I had hoped that, through this project, students could use their agency to design a city plan that is equitable for all citizens, or one that proposes opportunities for escaping poverty. If they identified racial, social or economic conflicts, this could be their opportunity to mend them.
This was perhaps a misguided goal, as it asked students to ignore reality. What the students gave me was a reflection of a very real city. The choices they made demonstrated what they believe to be true, and in many cases it was accurate to our city's unique situation. How could I fault them for being true to reality, for being cynical of wealth and power, for being defeatist in their own situation, for being frustrated with inequity, for simply being honest?
corrections]:
1. The low-rent apartments were projects.
In AM's comment below, there is the assumption that the low-rent apartments are one of the "black things". This was not indicated in the criteria, but the assumption is a fair one: there are at least three housing projects zoned for our high school.
2. The white-owned chain restaurant was assumed to be upscale.
This opinion was only verbalized by a few students, but seemed to be assumed by many in the final cityscape drawings. For example, when dividing the city into rich and poor sides, the chain restaurant was often on the rich side as P.F. Chang's or Outback, when it could just as easily be on the other side as Biscuitville or Bojangles.
3.The sewage treatment plant is unsanitary or smelly.
One of the few areas where I guided discussions. The sewage treatment plant is an essential city service, but an unseemly one. How would a city cope with this potential menace, and who would have the power to decide, and where does this power come from? All agreed that the plant would be an olfactory nuisance, and that power is derived from wealth, so it would most
likely be placed near the poor side of town, where people are less inclined to protest. Some assumptions:
AB: "One big conflict would of happened if I would of put the sewage plant beside a restaurant because you would smell a bad smell when you eat so that was my conflict."
KB: "His sewage is right by a [clothing] store and the smell might leak into the clothes"
MH: "Conflicts that arose from these few items were that the hospital couldn't be by the sewage treatment plant because that's unsanitary."
4. The hospital is expensive.
For those without health insurance, the hospital is a forbidding place.
KB: "[I put] the hospital more over to the rich side b/c they can pay for it."
These assumptions led to the following compositional choices:
1. The restaurants could not be placed side by side, as they would be in competition.
MH: "The chain restaurant couldn't be by the 'mom & pop' restaurant because there would be too much competition."
DH: "One conflict I faced is to make sure I do not put the two restaurants by each other."
2. The low-rent apartments shouldn't be near the colleges.
Some students assumed that, since the low-rent apartments were housing projects, expensive colleges (such as our very elite one) would bristle at having them next door. In this case I helped to guide the choices, reminding them that college students live on a very low income and would need housing as well. This encouraged discussions about housing around nearby
NCCU.
3. The sewage treatment plant should be placed near the low-rent apartments, not near businesses.
Again, the sewage treatment plant is seen as an aggressively offensive necessity, but one that should be kept away from those with wealth.
KB: "[I put] the dump over by the cheap apartments because they can't afford to have complaints."
Anon: "I put all the white-owned businesses on one side and all the black owned store near the sewage company."
BA, referencing a student's work in which the sewage plant sidles up next to a Macy's: "I do not agree with the way he planned their city because he put a sewage next to a clothing store. Oh no."
4. Or, the sewage treatment plant should be placed as far away as possible.
AB: "I arranged my cityscape with my sewage plant looking like it was in a far distance and the rest of them was up close. I resolved my conflict by putting the sewage plant in a far distance away from all of the other buildings."
5. Buildings had to be grouped according to economic strata.
AA: "My city was arranged in a way were your lower class people lived on the side of town where there are lower class shops. I put the sewage behind everything because nobody wants to live by waste. I feel great about my work. I did a great job." And discussing another student's work: "Like myself, this artist put all the lower class together because that's the only way
business can survive.
6. And thus, wealth belongs to white people, poverty to black people.
The common thread throughout all of these works was the economic divide along racial lines. The criteria identified black- or white-owned businesses, and identified upscale and low-rent entities, but never combined the two. When creating an economically divided city, the upscale was grouped with the white, the downscale grouped with the black. This can be seen in
many of the comments throughout the project.
7. Equity and convenience, with sensitivity to business competition, were major issues for most of the city planners.
KB: "I arranged my city so that the urban could be with the urban and the rural could be with the rural. I put the bank right in the middle so both sides of the city could get to it and the hospital more over to the rich side b/c they can pay for it... I put my barber shop by the collage and hospital so they could donate hair to cancer patients and the students could get a haircut"
IK: "I arranged my cityscape very carefully. The mom + pop isn't too close to the chain restaurant. The apartments are close to the college for the convenience of students, the bank and hospital are also close by. The sewage plant is on the outer city limits so it doesn't cause problems."
AJM: "I drew the bank in the middle of the city so both sides [black and white] could have the opportunity to get there at the same time."
AP, who drew a complex, multi-block cityscape, first responded to student NM's drawing, highlighting the convenience and fairness of the city plan: "He arranged his cityscape with alot of place that are nicely grouped together. Everything is placed convenient for the 'people' of this city. I think the way that he solved the conflicts was by using an example of a real city and how its set up and just played off those factors. I do agree with his city plan because its very elaborate and well thought out. I think the only problem this city could face is that money (income) would be a major problem". Discussing her own choices, she says "I arranged my cityscape with all of the buildings that 'make sense' sitting side by side on the same blocks. I also put things together that that could benefit each other by the convenience of them being side by side. For example the mom & pop restaurant and barber shop combined bring in more business for each other and play off each others income."
IK: "Each building had to be placed carefully so not cause disturbance or competition between each business."
ED: "I gave the sewage plant some space. I put Durham Regional [Hospital] in the back b/c I know they need a lot of room. I put NCCU by apartments + condos b/c that would be like dorms for them."
KB: "This man has the hospital right in the middle of his town so both sides could get to it. But his bank is to far away from the shopping centers... But i like the fact that the mcdonalds is right by the collage because the studant can just walk to go get something to eat."
ED: "The problems will probably make someone go out of business."
I was deeply heartened by these responses, as they demonstrated true engagement beyond the simple mechanics of drawing in two-point perspective. I watched students make observations about their situation, and reflect these observations in their work. I overheard meaningful discussions about race and class, opportunity and equity. I witnessed students taking apart their city and putting it back together again. Even if it was the same as it was before, they did so with their own power.
If I had a disappointment, it was that students drew such a clear divide between white wealth and black poverty. I had hoped that, through this project, students could use their agency to design a city plan that is equitable for all citizens, or one that proposes opportunities for escaping poverty. If they identified racial, social or economic conflicts, this could be their opportunity to mend them.
This was perhaps a misguided goal, as it asked students to ignore reality. What the students gave me was a reflection of a very real city. The choices they made demonstrated what they believe to be true, and in many cases it was accurate to our city's unique situation. How could I fault them for being true to reality, for being cynical of wealth and power, for being defeatist in their own situation, for being frustrated with inequity, for simply being honest?
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