What I really need to do is get class sample pieces done; this coming Saturday I start Preschool printmaking and parent and tot classes. I have my class descriptions for summer camp sitting by ready for lesson plans and from there I'll be writing out supply lists and pricing out the supplies, adding a few dream items and paring the list down before heading out to the art supply stores to either bsut the budget and pare down or bulk up the budget. Thankfully printmaking requires lots of paper and adding extra can take care of the overage. My one issue is that I'm teaching the same class in two separate weeks and one week is shorter than the other. The lesson plan for each week needs to be different because certain lessons take longer (two days spread over the course of the week) so the first week will be much different from the second week. Lists upon lists upon lists.
My not so very small ones but smaller than some ones have finished their egg hunt and are currently engaged in a race to see who will be bouncing off the walls first and I'm gearing up to the cookery portion of the day and thinking about what I will do once all the things are sitting in ovens baking roasting and melting
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4/14/2019 0 Comments What duck?my favourite author has a minor character in a handful of his books called the Duck Man. He walks around with a duck on his head that no one talks about because when they do say something like "what is going on with the duck on your head?" he looks a them seriously and replies, "What duck?" The subject gets dropped and the characters move on to the matter at hand. my duck is called Down Time. Even when I have it, it's like it is really not there at all. They say that if you want something done you should ask a busy person to do it. I know I work best when I'm a busy person. It's the momentum; once the schedule is full there's no time to waste and adding one more extra little thing is easier to do. Then, before you know it the dryer has been the go to place to find non matching socks and the food shopping hasn't been done properly for weeks and you've got 8 packages of large shell pasta because the other grocery shopping person in the house keeps buying it but no other pasta types just shells.... the key is keeping up the momentum but balancing out the other stuff. The alternative for me is to lose the momentum entirely and be at a loss for what to do. I sometimes think that the secret to keeping the balance is to become so busy that even if you say no to one or two things the crest is still there and you can still be riding a wave. I'm at about that spot now but the laundry is still behind and we're going to be eating shell pasta in tomatoe sauce again this week for dinner one night. Half of my lesson plans and supply lists are done for Spring and Summer. All of my spring term classes programed with the Shadbolt Centre are done, Summer programing and workshops I'm being offered as we go are next up. The lastest addition which will be added to the lessons and workshops page as soon as I can get to it, is a pARTy@PdA event at Place des Art called Palette-eat,paint-create! on May 10th. for now you can lick this link to see details and buy tickets. Today is all about administrative catch up. I should really be more on top of it but the call of clean laundry, socks and underwear keeps getting inthe way until there's nothing for it but to hunkerdown between wash and drying cycles declaring folded clothes will have to wait. After that I really need to update the student gallery and then there's the....... After finishing Spring Break Camps and starting the planning sessions for spring term classes and summer camps (if you click the link back there you can see some behind the scenes details of my lesson plan method. I have my notebook and notations, my pages pinned with inspitarion, and the lessons I want to try teaching and the lessons I've taught before that I repeat, retweak and rebuild. I'm 2/3rds of hte way through my Shadbolt planning session and then it's on ot Summer camps. Summer camp planning also involves a massive art material purchase especially for weeks one and two when I'm teaching 50 minute printmaking lessons. Printmaking takes a lot of paper, a lot of tools, and materials and ink. I'm hoping to pick up a second press to help stream line the printing process. I'm also hoping to try out some kitchen lithography with the camps this summer. purchasing materials for these summer camps within my budget is daunting and sometimes frustrating; but not in the way you might think. I can put together a shopping list, calculate how much to spend on each item and then hit the store only to find that they don't have the item I put on my list but they do have something similar that is either a little less or a little more or sometimes even a lot less and I have to do maths in my head and on my phone's calculator and then I am often left with a surplus in my budget that I have to use up. Having bought all the tools you wanted to pick up for a class and then finding out you have $70 more to spend is a harrowing experience. Where do you splurge? what little extra do you go for? If you are a creative person, or a crafty person or someone with an exacting hobby with lots of components you know that part of the joy of the process is supply hunting. My co-parental unit, otherwise known as the spousal component to the family or husband is an electronics nerd. He builds guitar pedals as a hobby. His workspace has sprawled from one corner to more of an L shaped space that also fills some of our off site storage space. he has boxes, shelves and drawers and drawers of electronic bits and pieces, mother boards, wire, transisters.... he's got a lot of stuff. Artists and crafters have shelves, cupboards, bins, drawers boxes, files and closets filled with paints, brushes, papers, scraps, tools..... we all tend to collect a lot of stuff for the things we love to do. when you're buying not for yourself but for a class this process is done strategically. It's fun and nervwracking and coming from a recent penny pinching period stressfilled. My instinct is to cut costs and then I have to spend more. Like anything it's a process I'll get the hang of it, and will probably have a system in place by the time fall rolls around. |
Peanut
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