(Originally posted July 14, 2011)
My summer’s been picking up speed lately. I’m teaching my annual summer art classes this week and next week. It’s where middle school and high school kids learn the joys of Photoshop and Flash animation. Also, I’m going on a camping trip this weekend, which will be a welcome break from all the computers. I’ve drawn a few comics ahead, so this won’t affect my website. Except that I’m writing shorter blogs, due to the time crunch.
The End.
-Marj
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This past week, I finally beat New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I've had that game knocking around for almost a year, but I had to keep picking it up and putting it down due to work and school. It makes me nostalgic for the days when I could devour a good console game in a few weeks.
Sometime last winter, when I was still teaching middle school art classes, one of my sixth graders stopped me in the cafeteria and told me that she had just beaten New Super Mario Bros. Wii. (My students had figured out long ago that I did some gaming.) I told her that I hadn't played any games since Christmas break and I was still hung up in World 2. She seemed disappointed that I didn't have more to say about her triumph.
Well, I finally got to the ending, and, yes, the final battle with Bowser is pretty tricky. Now I regret not telling that kid that it was an impressive victory and that I was proud of her.
Everyone, whoever you are, if you beat New Super Mario Bros. Wii, then I am proud of you.
-Marj
P.S. Tune in next week for my complete Halloween post-show review of "Evenings in Quarantine: The Zombie Opera."
This past week, we had Field Day at the school where I work. Interestingly enough, we teachers did not bother keeping score. You may think it would be difficult to motivate the students without some kind of point system, but when the kids are this young it take very little encouragement to make them run around and act goofy.
When I was in school, I remember that our teachers had a pretty careful formula for field day. Every year, they would divide the school into four teams: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue teams. These teams would be broken down into five groups. The groups would compete in five events, which usually included tug-of-war, an obstacle course, a relay race, and some random stuff that I don't remember. At the end of the day, all of the points earned by all of the groups would be counted and the teams with the most points would be announced over the PA system at dismissal time.
The strange thing is (as I recall it) that year after year, my group would win all of our events, but at the end of the day my team would always lose. Either my early memories are unreliable, or else each year my group was awesome and the other four groups weighed us down like an anchor made of anvils.
I'm gonna go ahead and keep on believing it was the second one.
-Marj
(Now go get some exercise.)
We celebrated Earth Day on Thursday (April 22). If I were a better planner, I probably would have tried to have the "Animal Shelter" story fall on Earth Day. Oh well.
Thursday was also my day to teach art classes at the elementary school. I thought it would be a treat for the students if my lovable pet and Lepus Studios mascot, Noko-Noko, came with me. As you know from reading the "About" page, Noko is my box turtle. I brought him to school so the kids could make turtle-themed art projects out of recycled materials. We also talked about how people protect endangered animals and how students could conserve materials in the classroom. I know, connectig the two ideas is a bit of a stretch, but conservation is an important lesson for young students and I wanted to present it in a memorable way.
Anyway, Noko was on his best behavior. He never escaped from his cage in front of anyone but me, and he only peed on one student (don't worry, I packed his disinfectant cleaner).
At the end of the day, I think everyone had fun, learned some things, and walked away with some lovely memories. In fact, as I was leaving the building, I could hear the students in the parking lot running to their parents and excitedly announcing, "Mom, Ms. Rishel had a turtle and it peed in class!"
I like to think I made a difference.
-Marj
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Education