Until Next Year

The school year has come to an end. The art room is clean, right down to the paintbrushes (which are now organized!)
It has been an eventful last week with tournaments, a field day, campus clean up day, class parties… our seniors have walked across the stage, now graduates. Awards have been given and goodbyes said

…. until next year

I have been so blessed this year to be a part of what God is doing here in Turkey. I am amazed that with His help, I have survived my first year teaching- the time gone by so fast! I am blessed to get to know some amazing kids and watch them grow. I am blessed to get to know some wonderful new friends from all walks of life. I am blessed to be part of a family at an international church, to be able to worship freely with the body of believers here. The graduation speaker this year spoke about how following God’s plans takes you to places you never would have dreamed. This also rang true for me. To have followed His plans- as crazy as they might have been- and flown across the world to a first teaching job in a new culture… wow. I am still trying to figure out what God wants for my life, I know that He has brought me here, and this is just the beginning of what He has planned. As I allow him to take control, I sit back in amazement and awe over the past year.

As the summer is upon us, goodbyes are imminent. Many are going, some are returning, some we say goodbye to and hope to see again one day. Thus is the transient nature of the community here. I am looking forward to the summer as a time to visit home, relax, plan for next year (I now know a bit better what I will be getting myself into!), study Turkish, travel a bit, and paint!

Colour Scheme Paintings, Part 2

As a final artwork post of the year, here are a few of the eighth grade’s finished colour scheme paintings.

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Series II

Final projects were due today and I spent the day marking! Here are a selection of my favourites (these are each part of a series of fifteen drawings. For a further project description, see here).

Last Day Ladybugs

I am cleaning up from a VERY long week… and a year that seemed to pass by so quickly. It will be much easier to clean once there are no kids underfoot! Today I taught my last elementary classes of the year. I am saddened a bit, realizing some of these kids I will likely not be teaching next year. I remember all the amazing things we accomplished, and am so thankful to have had the opportunity. I now have one week+1 day to get this classroom straightened out and ready for summer.

For today’s last lesson in kindergarten, we painted our clay dough ladybugs and made a little box for transporting them. It was a bit of a mess, but nothing I cannot handle at this point. I am very curious to see what this group will be like after the summer!

We Love Dads

In a scramble for last-week activities, I remembered that this Sunday is Father’s Day! So today was declared card making day, my last class with first grade. We used oil pastels for the block lettering and patterns, and brushed tempera paint overtop to create our masterpieces- so colourful and bright!

 

Art Room Discoveries of the Week

I am cleaning up the art room, organizing and handing back work… and grading. Here are some new (and some old) discoveries I found lying around.

…and a thought provoking sketch- Is this what I sound like to students???

BUGS!

Are these not the cutest? Today, as a final touch, we added insects to our fruit collages!

Eric Carle Week-of-Crazy

There is a little over a week of normal classes left, and my days are only getting busier with end of year responsibilities:
finishing projects, marking, handing back artwork, deciding on recipients for fine arts awards… all this while trying to keep my desk clean and the constant pile of papers under control. This is the week I had allocated as Eric Carle week. I have looked forward to it all term. The students had fun creating textures for painted paper, which were later used for beautiful collage pieces. This was a great project for exploring complementary colours!

In kindergarten, we also explored collage, making our own hungry caterpillars with scraps of painted paper. This little one amazed me, he has come so far since the beginning of the year!

Look closely at the intricately drawn detail on the body of the caterpillar- I was told this is all the food he has eaten which is in his tummy!