The language of clay.

We did Inuit Igloo scenes with grade one and twos at Rio Terrace yesterday. It is a great school that offers both French Immersion and a German Bilingual program.There was an Asian boy in the last class of grade two that did not speak English, French, or German, but he speak "Clay".....fluently. All I had to do was take a little extra time to show him what to do, not on his work but with another piece of clay, and he took off on his own to make a very good project. He understood exactly what he was to do and he did that and more. By the end of the class he not only had the igloo, sun and person, but he had an Inukshuk and the Inuit person was making a snowman. He also understood the big smiles he got and the pat on the back. It must be so scary to come to a country where you don't speak the language. This little guy will do fine. He a bright boy and easy going.

Did I bring the camera like I said I was going to do??........ NO....... They were an air dry project and did not come home with us. Yesterday I don't know where my head was. Not only did I not bring the camera, but I didn't bring Jim's apron or the paper bags we provide to take the projects home in.

People have been using clay since we have been people. Every culture, I think with the exception of the Inuit, have clay in their history and clay in their daily lives. Almost everyone likes to make things out of clay. You hand someone a lump of clay and they will make a.......something. With this boy yesterday, clay and the love of working with it was the common language that we all could speak. It was a good day.

Until next time.

Cindy

Winding down...

We had a couple of days off this week. I made a mistake way back in October when someone booked Monday and later changed that booking to another day. I forgot to unbook Monday and realized Friday that it was open. We had a last minute cancellation for Thursday, so it was left open as well. It was kinda nice to have some time. I did get the basement tidied up Monday, but Thursday was just a decadent day off. I did very little and took the whole day to finish. It was nice.

We had some intense workshops this week... what a rush...a real hoot. I really do love my job. With the two days off this week, we still worked with about 225 students. We worked with a scout troop Tuesday night. We were a little late because we were given the wrong address. It sounds odd to say, but we googled the scout troop on the blackberry, got the correct address, put it in the GPS and were there just in the nick to time. How did we ever get anywhere without technology. We were making snowman winter scenes. Getting 35 children from the ages six to sixteen to focus on the project and finish it in only an hour has a certain amount of intensity. Wednesday was fun as well, we had walked 93 students through a fairly detailed angel. Three workshops of 30 ish students. We met some great kids and they did some wonderful work. I wish we had the camera. We, meaning Jim, will have to start bringing it and taking more pictures.

It always feels so good to give the students the freedom to do what they like with their work. I tell them they can put anything on the work that they think that I would like to see. They have some great ideas. I get a lot of "my" ideas from them.

Tomorrow we have about 45 grade one and two doing Inuit igloo dioramas. We will be done by noon. When we get home we will load the last of the pottery for Christmas orders. We have fired and returned all The Clay Teacher projects. I sure do like the air dry method! Monday all the Christmas stuff will be shipped .... whaa whoooo....

Until the next time.

Cindy