PS 1 Cotemporary Arts Center

Last weekend I had the fortunate pleasure of taking a trip to PS 1 in Long Island City. I was initially aiming for the Brooklyn Museum, but didn't make it quite that far, which was just as well, because I LOVED it there. Upon entering and walking around I was a bit disconcerted, The way the sound from some various installations interacted as you walked through the dimly lit and somewhat dingy hallways gave the center a bit of a fun house feel. And after passing by the elevators open doors and seeing the neon light tubes lining the ceiling I really felt like I was in a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I have to admit, for the first hour of the three I was there I didn't really care for the place, the ultra different elements of each artwork interspersed within a relatively small space and the way certain parts of the 'unfinished' decor competed many times with the artwork, really put me off. But by the end of my visit there, I was, really into it.

A few things I particularly liked:

Leandro Erlich's 'Swimming Pool' installation, complete with wooden deck. - I love the idea of weightlessness and movement especially in an installation, so when I was able to walk under the water and look up at it, I was tickled pink. It's a great experiences for the viewer.

Gino De Dominicis ethereal and otherworldy 'alien' people. At first simply neat and shiny, after walking through the exhibit you start to get a sense that Dominicis didn't merely 'depict' aspects taht harken to otherworldiness, but that he seemlessly creates an otherworld all his own, and you can't help but get enraptured by it.

Olafur Eliasson's rotating mirror is great. After finding a comfortable position on the floor I laid myself down and staired up, watching as the giant rotating mirror changed the form and size of my body. Very cool stuff.

Borre Seathre' Again, at first, the white light bars, lazer gun sounds, and mini digital tv sets act like a repellent more than a magnet. Further into the installation the gold reflective wall tilies and phallic representations make you ask yourself why you didn't just follow your initial impulses and leave the installation in the first place. But if you can stomach the disjointed installations that precede it, the final room makes the journey all worth it. I don't want to give it away, but it's seriously one of the most awe inspiring single peices of an installation I've ever seen. If you like fantasy and Damian Hirst 'esqe' types of things. This piece alone is worth the trip.

The only three things I didn't really care for were the Minus Space exhibit and Yael Bartana's work and the James Turrell peice.
The 'minus space' exhibit is a snooze, unless your into vivid minimalist inspired works, chances are your going to find the rusty pipes, intricately cracked floors, and dust covered grates and vents of the room more interesting to look at than the works contained within it. Yael Bartana's work reads more interesting on the introductory information sheet before you see it, than when you acutally watch or listen to it. And don't wait for the James Turrell showing unless you have a lot of time to kill...and a jacket. :-)

Two tidbits of interest from the Getty listserv

The first is a link to Principles Magazine, the entire January/February issue is dedicated to arts education. Not just every principle, but everyone period, should check these articles out, they make a poignant argument for the arts in education.

http://www.naesp.org/Principal_Magazine.aspx


Also, but completely unrelated, are two great links to a fellow blogger who discusses her various travels in and around Eastern Europe. She has some phenomenal pictures of Kolams in India. Seeing as how I"m putting together a unit on India these were a great surprise to see, and they're so beautiful. Her blog is pretty good too, it has some inspiring images. It makes me want to go to India (right now!) Lol.

http://melissaenderle.blogspot.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissaenderle//sets/72157612790928608

Chinese New Year (one of these days)

Happy Year of the Ox! (For all you oxen out there!) I did a great lesson with our ESL teacher, making Chinese New Year Lion and Dragon Masks using paper plates, markers, and various embellishments. For our 5 and 6 year old's we provided a face template to color in. I very rarely support the use of coloring handouts in any art lesson I do, but since I wasn't doing this one alone, and the ESL teacher bought the supplies (and the handouts) I went along with it. For pre-k the templates are a great way to make pretty impressive looking masks, but for regular elementary grades I much prefer them to draw their own. Here are a few of the results! As a follow up activity I had the kids make construction paper lanterns and two GIANT dragon 'parade floats', which were really one sided dragon banners that I hung in the junior recreation room. They were done in primary colors only and each student made a body part that I then connected together to make the whole peice. I'll have pictures up of that tomorrow or the next day. I really wanted to get into NYC to see the parade but yet again, it doesn't look like it's going to happen, oh well, maybe one of these days...

Banksy

Brought to my attention by my students, after doing a Keith Haring lesson, the went on a tear about an artist named 'Banksy'. After googling his name, I found a pretty good short (9 min) video on youtube describing him. If you like elusive British artists, better yet, if you like street art you MUST check him out. I don't think I've ever been so inspired to draw on the walls of buildings!

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e0IJSOq0xg

Boys and Girls Club National Fine Arts Exhibit

Last week was the Girls and Boys Club of America's 'National Fine Art Exhibit. Each club (the local level) hosts a juried art show consisting of all the artwork done since September. Each of the three judges votes on their favorite pieces in 9 different categories (multi-colored, b & w, pastels, acrylic & oil, collage, sculpture, group project, watercolor, and mixed media) in 4 different age groups (9 or younger, 10-12, 13-15, and 16-18). The winning pieces get sent to the regional exhibit, and voted on there; where if they win, they get sent to the national compeition and become elgible for cash prizes and club grants.

Considering that I run an art program where they kids come on a voluntary basis, I amassed a pretty decent amount of work to show! Unfortunately I didn't have much middle school work (middle schoolers are so damn fickle!), and hardly any high school work, but I had quite a bit of elementary level pieces. The 9 and younger age category was particularly frustrating because the cognitive ability of a 4th grader is so drastically different than that of a 1st grader, that to lump their artistic accomplishments together into one category made it really hard to judge. What ended up happening, which I can only assume happens in other clubs as well, is that the 5 to seven years olds works get trumnped by the 8 or 9 year olds work and never gets picked. My other problem is that December is so early in the year to have an art show, it was really hard to cover all those mediums in successfull lessons, I wished I had more time. Alas, to combat this I spoke with my director and have put in for an end of year art show in the gymnasium, which I think will be great. The only downside to that is that I pretty much am the entire 'art department' so prepping the work, setting it up, and displaying it will be a ton of work.

Anyways, the show we had was great, we had it in the learning center of the club, a fairly large sized room. The artwork was mounted on matt board and construction paper and posted on large black bi-fold partitions. We served potato chips, cookies, and popcorn, which the kids consumed voraciously and we had quite a few parents come by and check the work out. I even put up a vote box for 'best in show' so that the members and staff could vote for their top three picks. I wish I could've had the show in the local library, but if you'd beleive it, all the local libraries were booked up for the entire year! I put in for 2010 at the Tilles Center, but who knows if it'll pan out. Overall it was my first student art show and I think I did a pretty good job. Hopefully every show here after will get even better.

We need a secretary of the arts!

I came across this on the Getty art teachers listserv that I subscribe to. It's a petition to president elect Barack Obama to elect a secretary of the arts (and culture), a position which is held in other countries but has never been held here. So here's the link:


http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition.html


We need more art~Go sign the petition!!

Finding Your Flow

Every once in awhile, when I feel overwhelmed by chores, stress, and the general anxiety sometimes brought about by everyday living, I turn to a good piece of literature to provide me with some solace. Being that I'm off the whole week of Christmas to New Year's I've taken it upon myself to read a book a day (or at least try). One of the books I just finished was entitled Finding Flow, after skimming the library shelves the name on the binding practically jumping off the shelf at me. From all outward appearances it seemed like the perfect inspirational/philosophical book to read for a quick holiday stress pick-me-up. Even though at 150 pages, it's a quick read, it wasn't disappointing.

Providing concise short theories on everything from sociology to spirituality, and Karl Marx to Sigmund Freud this short volume discussed the idea of using positive psychic (Not the ESP kind) focus and concentration as a way to achieve your goals and stop an 'entropy' of the mind brought about by boredom and the over pursuance of passive leisure activities. Even more interesting that the basic premises of the book, was its consistent use of 'the creative individual' as an exemplary model of a positive, proactive, useful, and most importantly, happy life. Now, telling an artist that the pursuit of a creative life is probably one of the best ways to find happiness is preaching to the choir, but for many self proclaimed 'uncreative' people, this may be a shock, and even an insurmountable challenge. For those of you who constitute the latter half of my milieu, perhaps these excerpts will help you to understand the 'artists' way of life, or at least their approach to it:

"When asked what has been the most difficult obstacle to overcome in his career, the novelist Richard Stern answered: I think it's that rubbishy part of myself, that part which is described by such words as vanity, pride, the sense of not being treated as I should be, comparison with others, and so on. I've tried rather hard to discipline that. And I've been lucky that there has been enough that's positive to enable me to counter a kind of biliousness and resentment...which I've seen paralyze colleagues of mine, peers who are more gifted than I. I've felt it in myself. And I've had to learn to counter that. I would say that the chief obstacle is-oneself. For each of us, the chief obstacle to a good life is oneself. Yet if we learn to live wit it, and like Ulysses find a way to resist the siren song of it's needs, the self can become a friend, a helper, a rock upon which to build a fulfilling life. Stern goes on to describe how as a writer, he can tame the unbridled ego and make it do creative work: Of course there are things in myself...which I know are bad, mean, twisted, weak, this, that, or the other thing. I can draw strength from that...I can transform them. They're sources of strength. And as I said earlier, the writer takes those, and they're his material. "

Another good excerpt from the book:

"This attitude toward one's choices is well expressed in the concept of 'amor fati-or love of fate-a central concept in Nietzsche's philosophy. For instance, in discussing what it takes to live fully, he writes: My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fait; That one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not bakward, not in all eternity...Not merely bear what is necessary...but love it. And I want to learn more and ore to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful."

My best advice? read, read, read (anything and everything you want) and then pursue it, and in the words of a fellow blogger, "engage and persist"...and hopefully we will all find our flow!

Collography

Here was my dilemma: How do I teach a meaningful printmaking lesson with practically no printmaking supplies? That's right, no brayers, no heavyweight paper, no printing inks, blocks, cutting tools, and as I'm sure you can see where this is going, of course, no press.

I had read a lesson on collography using mat board and pieces of cardboard/ oak tag glued on top of it. Aha! I thought, there's my starting point. I cut 5 x 7" pieces of mat board, then had the students use tacky glue with heavy weight watercolor paper cut outs to form the abstract shapes. I would have liked them to create images, but I figured this was a good starting point for them, especially since many of them never did printmaking before. Making do with the materials I did have we used very (VERY) cheap sponge and plastic brayers, the ones used in pre-k activities, which btw were terrible. Light weight white paper for printing on, tempera paints as printing inks (another ugh) and wooden blocks as pressing tools.

All things considered the lesson was pretty successfull! The kids loved the idea of rolling out a 'rainbow roll', creating their own ''plate, and using the printing method to create a new and different image every time they pressed it. However, I wouldn't reccomend tempera paints (ever!) and cheap sponge brayers (ever! ever!), but it's better than not doing the lesson at all. And on the up side? My real printing supplies should be arriving very shortly...and now that my students have some experience with printing, their results should be even better with the right supplies!

Peacocks Aplenty

After having been inspired by these wonderful clay elephants (complete with oil pastel rendered rugs to stand on)
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/artroom/Sky/Sky3.htm
that I came across at the incredible art department website.
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/india.htm

And then, on the other end of the spectrum, after seeing a mediocre bulletin board entitled 'Peacocks: the National Bird of India' rendering in oil pastels as well, at a school I sub in. I decided it was karma, and that it was time for me to create my own lesson on the whimsical and beautiful peacock.


As part of a unit based on the art of India that I'm working on, I decided to discuss with my students the symbolism used by countries of animals, or for that matter any other items, such as flowers, trees, and even the idea of flags. I asked them about symbols, why and how we use them and then we studied the symbolism of peacocks and how they pertain to India. We also learned a little about the animal itself, it's habitat, food, characteristics, etc. But the best part, as always, was the creation of them. After seeing the good...and the bad results from two different approaches to the idea I decided to go in a different direction. Instead of merely rendering them, which, even to me, would be a little overwhelming (they have sooo much damn detail!) I decided to use collage.

Initially I was going to intergrate the idea of complimentary colors, having the students create yellow/orange backgrounds to contrast with the blue of the bird, but when the kids got started they really wanted to chose their own background colors. Additionally, I was going to have them collage in the background using constrctuion paper and snippits of the same color magazine peices, but after doing one myself I found the background to be too complex and it detracted from the actual subject. So instead we used tissue paper. I let them chose a color family and work from there. Some chose pinks, purples, and teals. For the bird I let them chose any color in the blue/green family and told them that the tail feathers could be diamond shapes, circular, and tear drop, as long as the cut out shapes stayed consistent.

The results were really good. Here are 3 examples. One of them I'm even using for the cover of the art exhibit invitation in January. I'll post more finished peices when, well, more kids finish them. I was really excited at the results. It's nice when a lesson goes well, especially after putting in the time and effort to make it successfull!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

For the start of the Christmas season I was asked by my boss if I'd like to make Christmas tree ornaments for the Planting Fields Arboretum. Apparently this year we have a tree exclusively reserved for the Boys and Girls Club which will be on display in the main dining hall of the arboretum. So, rising to the occasion, ahem, like I always do...I came up with about 8 different ornament ideas consisting of felt, red and white paint, pipe cleaner, ribbon, glitter (of course), popsicle sticks, plastic lids, and pom poms. The majoriy of the decorations were done in red and white, because that's what the theme of the decorations are for the arboretum this year. There not the most innovative decorations you'll ever see, but since I was asked on Friday to have a whole trees worth of ornaments by the following Wedensday I thought I did a pretty good job. Actually to give credit where credit is deserved, the kids did a pretty good job!

Some of the ornaments include red felt Poinsettias, snowmen, snowflakes, wreaths, pipe cleaner flowers, candy canes, candy cane wreaths, and the occasional Santa Clause. Because of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without the big S.C.

Laurie Hogin at Shroeder Romero

While perusing through some updates of the blog I follow I stumbled upon Schroeder Romero Gallery and their current exhibit of the paintings of Laurie Hogin. At firt, humored, then interested, then hypnotized by the images on the website in front of me, I was immediately reminded of the book I'm currently reading by Daniel Pink 'a Whole New Mind: Moving From the Inormation Age to the Conceptual Age' . More specifically, her work reminded me of Pnk's idea of Abundance, which is simply the idea that due to market competitveness and surplus of consumer needs, we now look for products that are more aesthetically pleasing, wholistic, and even transcendental in nature. Now this is a loose connection, or perhaps a better word, interpretation. But the nature of her work struck me as something that exemplifies abundance in art. Simply put, the surreal or better yet, hyper-real elements in her images depicting technicolor hybrid creations comment on our interpretation of reality. That reality is no longer appealing enough, so as a result we need to depict otherworldly, outerwordly, interpretations based on realistic experiences, ideas, and, feelings. I don't know if it supports or dissuades my point, but I like it.

The gallery put a succinct, if not a bit over the top, description of her new body of work, that above all else is really well-written. So if you are as interested as I was, after viewing the pieces, give the excerpt a once over.
http://schroederromero.com/

Also here is the artist's website:
http://lauriehogin.com/

Images from the conference

2009 NYSATA 'Why Art?' Convention

After having driven a total of 12 hours for my trek up to Rochester, NY to attend the NYSATA conference that was held at the Regency Hyatt, I was left feeling disappointed, and not to mention broke. The Hyatt charged a special conference room rate of $125 a night, which is probably half of what they normally charge for room rate, plus, the $17 dollars extra a night in room tax. The ticket fee for the conference was $125 dollars, which was the pre-registration fee. Pretty steep considering the National Conference ticket fee in Minnesota later this year is only $130 and even less if you your a member. As if that wasn't bad enough, I had to pay $26 dollars in parking fees, $50 to renew my membership at NYSATA, so I could get the reduced $125 dollar ticket price. and then meals, and tips (for the valet, and room maid, etc.), and gas money. The conferece was a total of three days long and on Sunday at around 4o'clock, before the last of the workshops even ended, vendors and stands were all but packed up. By 5 on Sunday the small convention taking up the second floor of the Hyatt looked like a veritable art ghost town.

Overall I attended about 12 workshops, a mix of hands-on, theory based, and supply company sponsered, they were all pretty interesting. But not 12 hours worth of driving interesting. Amidst the workshops my favorites were the recycled books one, where we learned some simple folds on used books to create sculptural pieces. The Massapequa school distrcits (my alma mater) 'Books of Hope Program' where students make books to send to children in need in Uganda. A paper making workshop, where we learned how to paint, sculpt, and mold with paper pulp. And lastly, a workshop that included a yearlong of high school curriculum. Which incidentally, the presenter ran out of cd's to distribute and we had to put our addresses on a peice of paper so he could mail it to us. I'll see if I actually get anything.

The keynote speaker, Alice Aycock, was pretty good also, her work was outstanding. She is an older woman, with a warm speaking voice, and her work consists of these monumental almost, installation like sculptures that explore the ideas of vortex's, spinning planets, (and spinning rides), tunnels, cave, observatories, and the paradoxical idea that we create things very formulaically and scientifically, only to use them to explore the unconcious, ethereal, and virtually unexplainable. I strongly reccomend checking her work out.

However a few good highlights, I had some issues with the conference as well. Firstly, many of the conference rooms were too small. At almost every workshop we were crammed in, elbow to elbow, with standing room only left over, and many times, even that was filled to capacity. Because of this, most of the time the presenters didn't have enough supplies, even handouts had to be rationed. which was extremely irritating. Nothing is more frustrating the taking the time and spending the money for professional development only to find that when you attend a workshop you have to either A: watch someone else make the project, B: fight it out over the supplies so you get your own, C: even if you get supplies wait, and wait...and wait, till someone else is done with the tools so you can make the project, or D: leave the workshop. Grrrr

Another issue was that the conference was small. I didn't think it was going to be huge, but I expected it to be at least twice the size it was. The floor it was on at the hotel was tiny, so in additoin to the rooms being small, the conference itself felt squisehd together. There were only about 6 districts from Long Island who exhibited their student work. Hicksville where I student taught, having the largest and most impressive stretch of work. Yay Hicksville! and the members exhibit was housed in a small room and with ALL the art teachers who were there, which was a miniscule, dissapointing amount, there were only about 15 peices showing. Four of which were again, from Hicksville. Considering the fact that there are over 60 districts on Long Island alone, each with it's own art department. There was an incredibly underwhelming amount of districts represented at the conference.

I'd definately go to another conference, but unless its within a reasonable (2 hour or less) driving radias, I'm sad to say, it just isn't worth it.

Melted wax-Trial and Error Part Two

This is the follow-up to a post I made on 11/4 regarding the melted wax paper I made with my students. Initially I had them print onto the paper using scratch foam (the white foam that lets you trace a design on it using a simple pencil or pen point) Truthfully, I don't really like the stuff, I know it's idea for young children, especially early childhood, but I feel like no matter how much care is taken with it, the prints are good for only one round, and even then the quality isn't that good. Proving my point, the prints I had initially hoped to do on the paper came out, let's just say, less than what I had hoped for, so i scrapped the idea and thought on it a few days. Lo and behold, one of my 6th graders took it upon herself to cut out her paper into the shape of a dog. To my surprise, it looked really good! So I went with it. I gave the students the option of cutting their paper into any shape they wanted. some made simple shapes, like a snake or ladybug, while others made more complex choices, like the girl I had who made a house complete with fence, tree's and bunny rabbit (for the bushes). The results were very cute, and it was a great use of the paper because it didn't require the altering of the materials so much that it took away from their basic appearance. So here they are:

ART20 Fair NYC

Running its 7th consecutive year the Art 20 show held at NYC 7th Regiment Armory on 6th ave and 67rh street is a modest and reserved art fair which really should have been called ode to abstract expressionism. 59 exhibitors from local to international galleries showed work ranging from 1900 to the present. A few of my favorites were pieces by Lori Nix (Miller Block Gallery-Newbury St. B'ah'ston MA), whose large glice prints of elaborately decomposing 'stage-set' like scenes appealed to my my interest in the ideas of the surreal and trancendental.

Fernando Botero's Circus Girl in her Trailer (Tasende Gallery L.A. CA) ,



Eric Zener (Gallery Henoch NY, NY) whose beautifully rendered paintings of swimmers in water really demonstrate the amazing qualities of reflection, light, and distortion.



and Alice Dalton Brown (Fischbach Gallery, NY, NY) who paints light and airy scenes that, if for no other reason, have the ability to remind me of peaceful New England summers at the Cape, that I never had, but would like to one day.

Other than a few choice peices (including the untoouchabes: Alexander Calder (works on paper), Robert Rauschenbergs and Roy Lichtensteins, which ranged in prices starting at the half a million mark, (which, lets face it, for the majority of us is..completely untouchable,) the rest of the works overall, had a muted, almost reserved feel. Most of which was abstract/expressionistic in genre.

The show was quiet, dare I even say peaceful, with little to no crowding and friendly and unobtrusive gallery workers. My only regret? Not having that spare 5 grand to buy a Lori Nix print (Damn, I knew I shouldn't have bought all those latte's from Starbucks!)

Sand (Art) Part Two

Here are the end results of the lesson I did inspired by sand art. I ditched the castle idea, (way to tedious for the students + I had no buckets/pails etc. ) Instead the kids did beach themed animals/objects like shells, sand dollars, clams, and some other cute ideas. I used crayola brand self-hardening clay (not model magic) with a little bit of water to make the clay more pliable and to finish the pieces I used pearlized paints in peach, baby blue, brown, and off-white. After they painted their sculptures, while the paint was still wet I had them sprinkle either the corresponding sand color or different colors of sand, on top, to make it feel 'beachy'. The effect was really nice! When I display it in the art show I'm going to find a large shallow tray, fill it with beach sand, sprinkle in some of the colored sand they used and place the sculptures in that. It's going to look really cute. My only caveat? Nobody sculpted any seahoarses! Which would have been my first choice for things to make. Oh well, I suppose ya can't have everything!

Melted wax-Trial and Error

Weeks after finding a mouse in the crayons, I've finally gotten around to having the students actually do something with all the miscellaneous crayon piecesI had them pick out. After given them each a small plastic baggie (similar to the ones found in the fruits and vegetables section of the grocery store. I had them pick about 10 crayon pieces, reminding them to try and pick a color scheme. Twenty students, one mallet, and 30 minutes of crayon hammering later. They all had a handfull of crayon bits to melt.

I used a warm iron and spread the bits out around the page. Then covering it with a sheet of wax paper, I ironed over the bits until they melted. However, I will say that if you don't melt the crayons enough (until they're a liquid consistency) when they dry, they're too thick and they crack and flake off the paper. Of course, I found all this out the hard way! But, alas, the kids were great sports, even liking the idea of pealing off the wax to reveal a light multi-color stain underneath.

So now that that part was done I had them hand tear a square shape. I thought the jagged edge would make it more interesting. In keeping with the idea of papermaking/prinmtmaking I played around with ways they could print things over the melted wax backgrounds. I'd like to say it was a success, but it kind of wasn't. I don't have printmaking supplies so I had to make due with the styrofoam scratch boards that can be drawn on with ballpoint pens and sponge brushes instead of brayers. The kids picked light colors for dark backgrounds and dark colors for light backgrounds and using the foam squares I cut, drew variuos bug images and then 'printed' them onto the backgrounds by pressing with their hans (I forgot to bring in a spoon or two to burnish with). The pressed images didn't come out as well as I'd hoped, althhough the silver lining was that, at least the few students I had try this seemed to like the printing process. But I'm definately going to try a different method of printing...I'd like the image to be a positive stamp instead of a negative, so I've got to figure out a way to make a cheap and easy to cut lino blocks. Ug art on a budgeT!

The worms crawl in the worms crawl out...

And just like that Halloween is over. Sad but true. At least I can say I had a pretty decent time this year. Having played the part of wicked fortune-telling witch for a scary Halloween maze, and marching in a Halloween parade that about 200 people attended, made for a pretty good All Hallows Eve. On Saturday night the festivities continued, with me making 'dirt' pie (complete with gummy worms and all. and watching lame vintage horror movies with friends.

Some pics from my weekend upstate

Here are some images from my trip up to Cold Spring, Sleepy Hollow, and Tarrytown NY this weekend, it's so beautiful this time of year upstate~!

Is that a mouse in the crayons?

If you read my blog yesterday, I was on a crayon bend, and decided to use scrap crayon pieces to re-make new ones. Well, today I had some kids start to separate the pieces of crayon from this large plastic tub of old remnants I had in my supply closet. and low and behold I hear a wave of high pitched screeches from the three girls I had given the task to. Popping my head out of the supply closet I arched my eyebrows and was about to say "wha...", when a girl answered my questions before I could let the words roll off my tongue." "There's a dead rat in the crayons!!!". And sure enough. There was! A medium size, gray petrified mouse. Frozen in an expression of horror, as if jumping into the pale of crayons killed him (although, old crayons really do smell rancid) Acting quickly, I responded to my students, "no silly its just a peice of gray cloth!" (I said this while I SWIFTLY took the basket of crayons out of eye shot) I then called in my supervisor, who calmly removed the tray, throwing away said mouse, crayons, and just for good measure, entire plastic bin itself.

You didn't expect me to throw that mouse away myself did you? I could barely look at it! It reminds me of the time I had pet mice in a ten gallon fish tank only to find that one day one mouse had made the great escape, never to be seen or heard from again, while the other mouse, looking much like a suicide attempt, died, belly up in the water dish.

It's a shame, I had big plans for all those crayons...dam mouse!