Too much cutesy

In Art, we had two more lesson plan presentations. In the first, we made paper models of the solar system. The planets were cut out of paper, decorated and then hung in a line off a wire coat hanger. I am not in favor of this kind of half-assed art project and think it's damaging to learning. First, the planets are nowhere near scale. I understand that true scale is impossible in a quick solo project, but at the least, Mercury should be tiny and Jupiter huge. Second, putting the planets in a row gives the student the erroneous idea that the planets are somehow linear; much better to think of some way to emphasize their rotation around the sun.

Also, Pluto was included in the planets. Personally, I wouldn't.

I am appalled at the number of prospective teachers who did not know the order of the planets' distance from the sun.

The second project was painting a paper plate like a bee (and decorating it with pipe cleaner legs and antennae and googly eyes). This is okay, although the cutesy googly eyes give kinds the impression that insects have pupils. I mean, how hard is it to give the kids representations of faceted eyes?

Maybe I'm just a nit-picky curmudgeon today.

Class ended early because Ms. M had to go somewhere. We worked on our posters, decorated an advertising flyer for a children's book 9good idea), then went our separate ways.

I spent my time in the library, studying for the Diagnostic Reading test. It was 40 multiple choice questions and then several definitions. As I feared, the multiple choice items were incomprehensible; Dr. C's bird brain can't focus long enough to write questions with definite answers. Still, though, I think I did fairly well.

***

After class, Friar and I went out to two clubs. At one, the drummer from Auric's band was playing with his own side project. Being just a lame-o drummer, of course, he goes completely unnoticed even in his hometown. After the show as we chatted with him, Friar said, "P here is one of the ten best drummers in the country, yet he just stands here alone like some nobody." I said, "Yet Auric is probably not even in the top hundred vocalists in the country, yet if he were here, he'd be smothered in groupies." Where's the justice? Though, I added, to be fair, Auric is one of the top five songwriters working today. I think so, anyway.