Middle of the week. State testing. Pro: some time when I’m not teaching. Con: state testing. Not a fan of the testing, y’all. Not a fan of the long sitting (or standing for me) and trying to keep kids on task/awake/quiet. Don’t understand the purpose of it all. And although we have short days for the kids, and we get to have a lunch for once (which is nice), I’m then pretty much useless for schoolwork for the afternoon. Which sucks. I did get some grading done, which is good. I have a plan for Friday, when I have to be out in the afternoon for literacy. Also good. I’m completely NOT planned for next week or anything after. Well. I know basically what I’m doing. I just don’t know what it looks like. Stressful. I’ll get my head around it eventually; just probably not today. Today is the second day of English testing, then lunch with friends, then union meeting and a late pilates class. It’s a lot. Tomorrow is a new sex-ed curriculum meeting because ugh.

Monday was yucky. Mostly because of the stuff after school. I’m not a fan of all of us reading and listening and taking tests in the library as a staff. People are noisy, my brain is overwhelmed, and I can’t think straight. They give us stuff and expect us to be able to process it immediately, but this is not how I learn. It’s frustrating. And the ‘homework’ they give us…it’s concerning. I know kids need to learn to read. I’m completely pro. I’m concerned though when they talk about using my (shitty) curriculum to set up supports for all the different levels of literacy. Because I would have to create all that. It doesn’t exist. And I’ve spent four exhausting years creating things and I don’t think I can do a fifth. Not the way it’s being presented right now. The amount of thought and insight that goes into considering that for two whole kids? Now multiple that by 130 kids. Or more. Hurts my head.

So my solution to that crazy was to go do ceramics. I added things in the bottom.

I guess I was feeling whimsical? It happens. I spent about an hour building things. I’m still waiting to get the tools to finish the sgraffito planter. Maybe Saturday?

Then I came home and worked for a bit, then traced for a while. I forgot to take a picture, which is OK, because they all look similar. I traced again last night after going to the gym and reading my book for a really long time and booking a place to stay when I visit the girlchild in July in San Francisco. I’m excited about that. We didn’t get our Spring Break trip due to money issues mostly. Summer is looking equally bleak. Lots of painting and furniture moving and handing money over to contractors to fix the flooding issues from January. Not fun. So having a short trip in there IS fun. Here’s three of the five yards that are now traced after last night…

Twelve and a half hours into the tracing, at about 1075 pieces so far, 600 to go, probably at least another 6 hours. Fun times. It is actually very meditative. Just long. Big complicated piece.

I graded through most of testing. These strata things were fun.

For some, I guess. Some kids were just confused by it, even though I did a sample with them the day before to show them how. Hopefully I’ll be able to do more with it next year. We ran out of time. We always run out of time.

Anyway. Today. Kinda long, but punctuated by good things. Hopefully chill.