rivendell

i'm a hobbit, not an elf. having said that, we are putting rivendell up on the wall. the idea and look of rivendell is theoretically based on the swiss town of lauterbrunnen, which coincidentally we visited this summer.

when we talked about putting a mural on santino's bedroom wall, we threw around a lot of ideas. space. the death star. hogwarts. but as soon as we went into lord-of-the-rings land, we knew where we were going.

mount doom? too depressing. the shire? too green. loth lorien? too dark. rivendell seemed to be the logical choice--trees, mountains, waterfalls--it has everything. anyway, we've actually been there. i based the drawing on an original painting by ted nasmith. i added the balcony in the foreground because we like the balcony scene in the lotr films.

even though elves are arrogant, judgmental, and all-around high maintenance, i don't mind sharing living space with them. there are lots of trees and water.

the mural will take numerous stages to complete.

stage 1: preliminary drawings

stage 2: create several test paintings

stage 3: photoshop image to play with color

stage 4: sketch the drawing on the wall

this image is kind of dark, but do you get the picture?

stage 5: paint first layer of colors like paint by number

kids come in handy for this part.

stage 6: cover mistakes with a second layer of details

stage 7: contemplate life

stage 8: paint final touches, lighting, etc.

we're at stage 5. we might never get past stage 5, but that's okay.

i'll post updates of the mural as it moves along.

Hope for the Future of Education: 2 Million Words

I teach fourth grade, and I have a terrific group of kids. They LOVE to read!

We have a computerized reading program that enables us to count the number of words our students read. I challenged my class to read one million words by Halloween. It was such a group effort--many kids read one or two books each weekend to help reach the class goal, and others helped struggling students contribute to the effort. It was amazing, and they reached their goal of one million words on October 30. But that's not what gives me hope.

School got busy, and I forgot to give them a new class goal. Nevertheless, my students rallied to read as many books as possible. Around the first week in December, one of my students asked me, "By the way, how many words has the class read now?" I had completely forgotten about the class word count. I looked it up in our reading program's statistics, and the number was well over two million. "Hey everybody," my student shouted to the class, "we made two million words!" The whole class cheered. And I was blown away. They didn't need a reminder. They didn't need an incentive. They just love reading, and they love achieving goals--goals they set for themselves.

I have hope and confidence for the future of education because of my kids. They care about learning, they care about each other, and they care about the world. We are in good hands.

This post is part of the MAT@USC: Masters in Teaching Hope for the holidays event. Did you have an experience or witness something in 2009 which gave you hope for the future of American education? If so, please see this post for more information on how to share it.