Quackin' Good TIme!

Despite my frustrations with not getting to make glass for a while, I have had a bit of time to reflect on the month I spent in Eugene teaching an education course at the Uof O.

I had an amazing group of grad students on the verge of becoming teachers. My fears about not having useful information were thankfully unfounded. My prior experiences at PSU teaching Literacy in the Content area was good preparation for this course which was sub-titled: Everything They Should have taught You That You Need To Know. I appreciate the trust the Ed. dept. gave me- allowing me to invent this elective course. I especially appreciate the welcome I received from my students.

The world of public education is a tough place to be in these days- lots of meaningless testing and accountability crap (sorry about the soap box!) We need the idealism of these fresh new faces to beat this ridiculous set of BS procedures so we can get down to really teaching our kids!

My first year of retirement was a busy one....teaching writing at the Rose Schnitzer Manor, tutoring bar/bat mitzvah students, orchestrating JAM (Jewish Arts Month), continuing my glass work and having a leadership role in our  art group, ORA. The broken elbow/major surgery does not make the list of highlights, but teaching at the U of O does! 

The old arm is sore but I can feel myself growing stronger each week. I resume physical therapy tomorrow and hope  they can find some ways to help me get the arm a little straighter!..

New glass ideas are emerging so hopefully this fall will be a time of productive glass work! 

Disappointments

The 99W Craft Show enjoyed great weather but a very poor turnout. I was hoping to move some of my older stock but you can't have a good show with a small customer base. Oh well! It was a pretty day and I was in good company.

The other disappointment is i am still a couple months away from working on glass. The surgeon says no weight bearing activity until at least the end of August...and even then I may not be able to work on glass. Darned elbow!




I will try to redirect this sadness into design work so when I do get the thumbs up from the medical world, I will be ready to create new pieces for the 2010 October 24th Celebration of Art at the MJCC. New Judaica ideas are already brewing

But now....I am off to the beach for some inspiration and a little R&R.

Come see my booth at.....