School got out on the 20th.  BUT wouldn’t you know I got sick right after wrapping up my classroom.  AND last week was a week long Picture Writing class I took to help me teach writing to my kids next year.  It is a passionate topic of mine, but I have struggling students in this area.  SO I’ve been searching to find the perfect solution to get my kids engaged and involved in writing (in the hopes that they might be as passionate about it as I am).  I believe this class is the key. 

It was a wonderful week.  Considering the cold and the burnout and the week-long learning, it was the perfect class for me to take.  I was creatively engaged and I learned some painting techniques (simple things I can teach my kiddos next year) that helped to broaden my own artistic abilities (which thrilled me to no end!).  I loved that class and it was the perfect starter to my summer (as well as the perfect end to the school year–it was Professional Development, after all).

At some point (I think Wednesday), we had to pick an animal that we would learn about and focus on for the remaining projects in the class.  Naturally, I picked a sea creature: a seahorse.  I painted pictures of sea horses over and over.  I learned so much from one little book in the classroom and that was simply not enough.  I went home and did more research on the internet (looking up the Seahorse Project and the danger to coral ecosystems that still exist even now).  I have become obsessed yet again with these peaceful creatures and have begun telling others all about them.

I told a friend Wednesday night about something I’d learned that bothered me.  She wasn’t as bothered and it turned into my story for my project the next day in class.  My story “problem” was probably the most dramatic in class, but I wanted to make a point and teach others some of the things I’d learned.  I told another friend Friday night other information I learned.  I told my brother about my passion for conservation yesterday.

I don’t know if my story will ever be anything more than a project for that class, and an example I can share with my students (as a model for how they can do their own stories in a similar fashion), but the seahorse has yet to let go of my heart and mind.  Perhaps it is the mermaid in me that is so obsessed right now.  I don’t know.  But I do sense the spark of something here.  Especially after the fun I had creating the art work.  (See pictures below.)  Who knows what will come of it?