And so, the white crow flies to Newark

Ah, the joys of queuing up at the airport. The first leg of the flight takes me to Newark with a three hour lay-over before I head on to Barcelona.

Up, up and away!

Research, reading and more

My Fund for Teachers' work station, research center and day dream central!

Counting down

The countdown is definitely on. I've posted information about my Fellowship on the board at school. I've been passing out the URL for this blog to anyone who cares to follow along. I've had my students helping me figure out the exchange rate from dollars to Euros. They've been assisting in figuring out my budget. We've talked about Barcelona, Spain, soccer, and more. Almost all of their work is returned. Looking around my classroom, I'm about half finished. I'm hoping to finish up tomorrow. I must have everything in my room boxed and put up by the end of the day Thursday. Friday morning the contractors come and start moving furniture and boxes about, so there won't be any more opportunities to straighten anything up after Thursday afternoon. I've been online looking at Barcelona info, collecting apps and ebooks, and generally setting up to go. I have apps that translate Spanish to English and back again. I found a children's app for learning Catalan. It works for me! All my travel books are loaded in to my various i-devices. I'm looking forward to this weekend when I can truly focus in on this trip. By this time on next week I'll be on my second day in Barcelona! Gaudí, Picasso, Miró, Dalí here I come!

Technical difficulties

It always seems that technical malfunctions happen at the worst of times. I try to remember to never say, "Let me show you how easy this is . . . " or "Let me show you how well this works . . . " I am absolutely sure that those are the famous last words of someone who met their demise strangled in a mass of cords and cables. Right as I'm testing out gear, in between all the tasks that have to be completed before the end of school and my departure for Spain, my e-mail decides to malfunction. My primary account was determined to neither send nor receive mail. ARGH!!! I went on line. I checked the help desk. I followed directions. I printed out pages of instructions. Nothing, nada, zilch, zip, as a matter of fact, things only got worse, if that was possible. The final instructions said to delete, yes, you heard me right, delete the account and start over. After much nail biting, lip chewing, file moving anxiety I pushed the button. You guessed it, it was not a success. It was an abject failure. Oh, the account was deleted alright. The problem was I couldn't set it up again. I got message after message telling me that either my user name and password was incorrect. I could go no farther. I was finally reduced to calling the tech help line and relinquishing control of my computer to a perfect stranger. Ruth walked me through the whole horrid ordeal. In a few short moments she had me up and running again. I spent this morning, before the frantic e-mail fail, setting up techno-gear and accounts for the trip across the pond. I'm ticking off the items on my plan. Data plan, check. Text messaging, check. E-mail, check, thank you, Ruth! This time next week I'll be on my way to Spain!

Good news from the Fund for Teachers

On 29 March 2012 I was sitting in the Fort Lauderdale airport feeling like something the cat dragged in. I'm compulsive about being on time so I had a while to wait before my flight. It had been a rough trip all around. While the turn of events in Florida had been better than I originally expected, it wasn't good news. With nothing better to do, I begin checking my e-mail. My whole day changed when I read: "Fund for Teachers Fellows, Congratulations! Fund for Teachers is incredibly proud to call each of you a 2012 Fellow. We wait with anticipation to hear more about your incredible journeys this summer." I had been making plans to spend my summer cleaning house, but all that changed with that one simple message. I could clean house after I got back. I had received my third Fund for Teachers Fellowship! I wish I could show you in vivid detail how much the Fund for Teachers has meant to me so far. I'll give it a try, but I really can't do it justice. In 2002 I received my first Fund for Teachers Fellowship. I asked to go to Europe and see the artworks that I teach about first hand. I had been to Mexico before and I once went to Canada for about fifteen minutes, but that was the farthest I had traveled from home. The Fund for Teachers had said to plan my dream professional development and I did. I never believed that anyone would say, "Yes." I think the hardest part was realizing that now I really had to go! Lo and behold, off I went! I spent a month touring Europe, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Nice, Venice, Orvieto and back to Amsterdam. I traveled alone. I purchased round trip airfare and a Eurail pass and off I flew. It was the most eye opening trip of my life. Traveling by train and booking a room through the tourist office in each city kept everything exciting. I returned home with a wealth of new experience and knowledge. I brought back souvenirs and materials to use in my art room. I brought back a new self-confidence. If I could undertake this trip and survive, I could do anything. Most importantly, I had a new found empathy for my Spanish speaking students and their parents. This first Fellowship opened the flood gate. I saved my nickels and dimes all the next year. The summer of 2003 I returned to Italy, spent time with a friend in Orvieto where she taught me to knit, and looked at art in Florence and Rome. My second Fellowship in 2007 is documented in this blog. I followed in the footsteps of Georgia O'Keeffe across the Texas Panhandle where she taught art and on to Santa Fe, New Mexico and beyond. The next summer, 2008, I received a Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Fellowship. I spent eighteen days with a group of American teachers as guests of the Japanese government. You can find that trip on this blog also. I want to thank Raymond Plank, the man who founded the Fund for Teachers, and all the donors who make these fellowships possible. You have no idea how much your contributions mean to the teachers who received Fellowships. The effects of your giving ripple out from teachers through their students and the community. From the bottom of my heart, thank you one and all.

It's been a little while, but here I go again!

Here I am again. I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd logged in here.

I've been so busy that a lot of things fell by the way side. I've been on my school's Shared Decision Making Committee for the past three years and I've been one of three area representatives for Area 6 of Texas Art Education Association for the past six years. I'm lead specialist/core enrichment teacher on my campus and I've spent this last year serving on the Student Performance Work Group for my district. I was chosen TAEA Elementary Division Outstanding Art Educator of the Year for 2011.

There's been a lot more going on than all of this, but what I'm really excited about right now is the opportunity to go to Spain this summer courtesy of the Fund for Teachers. I'll be in Catalonia to study Spanish, Catalan, Modernist architecture, particularly Antoni Gaudí, and the lives and work of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, and Salvador Dalí. I'll be focusing on the ceramic and mosaic works of these artists. I plan to use Barcelona as my base of operations with trips to Reus, Mont-roig, Figueres, Cadaqués, and Mallorca.

Once back stateside I'll be developing lessons for my art room incorporating ceramics, mosaics, math and science.

Stay tuned, the journey has only barely begun.

This is a test to see how mobile posting looks on this blog. This is only a test.

So many networks, sites, etc., so little time

For most of this trip I have been posting on my FaceBook account. You can find me by my user name, kingjean. All the photos are there.

I'll be updating this blog once I'm back home. Right now I'm at the tail end of my trip. I'm sitting around in un-air conditioned London typing this as I wait to print out my boarding passes for tomorrow's flight back to the states.

All in all it's been a good trip, drank from a water fall, went to a castle or two, toured a fjord, rode the vaporettos around Venezia, and went to art and museum shows everywhere I went. What more could I want except more time and cooler temperatures?

See you all soon back home in Texas.

Day 2: Milan

First view after exiting the Metro

I took the Metro down to the Duomo this morning.

After looking around the neighborhood of my hotel, which feels a great deal like Houston, flat, hot and humid, it was wonderful to come up from the underground to a setting that could be no place else but Italy.

The morning was cool enough to be enjoyable. I wandered around the area of the Duomo and the Galleria for several hours observing architecture and people.

I have no pictures of the interior of the Duomo. Apparently I am one of the only people taking the signs at the entrance seriously, for inside the Duomo is full of tourists blatantly violating the rules posted at the door. A series of signs using the international "No" sign show what not to do. No cell phones. No cameras. Inside the cool, dim interior is a light show of strobe flashes from the tourists' cameras. Several people walk about, cellphone to ear, seemingly unaware of their surroundings. In the midst of all the intrusions and confusion, over on one side of the church are several confessionals where several priests are listening to the various sins of their congregation. I have to wonder if any of them are confessing to taking photos and talking on their cellphones.

For 8 Euro, I took an elevator ride to the roof of the Duomo


Gargoyle on the roof of the Duomo


Bambini should be held by the hand. Do not dangle them by the feet or hold them by the throat or hair. Oh, yes, and no smoking by you or the kiddos.

Meanwhile, back down on the piazza.


I was wondering whether this boy's older brother was helping him out by turning him into a human bird feeder or if he was hoping the pigeons would either fly away with or devour him.


Bicycle rental on the piazza


In Milan even the fashionistas ride bicycles, in platform shoes yet. I loved this woman's attire and her well-groomed dog.


The Galleria, inspiration for the Galleria in Houston, Texas or so they say.


Inside the Galleria, in the same structure where you find Prada, you can find a lovely McDonalds.


A beggar just inside the Galleria. It was impossible to tell anything about this person. The scarf completely concealed their face and head. They shook and quivered, although I noticed that the hand with the basket for coins seemed steady enough.

I was reminded of Hieronymous Bosch's paintings. There was something incredibly disturbing about this person.

I took this last photo and wandered back outside. When I returned less than five minutes later there was no sign of the beggar anywhere. Your guess is as good as mine.

I wandered on.

I took a break in one of the stores, enjoyed a gelato and headed back to the hotel in time to take a nap before time for dinner.

Summer Approaches

The countdown is on. Only two weeks to go. Only 9 work days to go. Only 7 and a half days with kids to go. Now, subtract the 5th grade field trip on Tuesday and Field Day for the third through fifth grade on Friday, and you have 5 and a half days of teaching. Minus, of course, the class parties and awards ceremonies leaves what?

This summer there is very little travel in my plans. Instead, I will be taking time to do more here at home. There's so much to do and there just may be enough time!

There are two one-day mini conferences scheduled during the first two weeks of the summer by the Museum of Fine Arts and Area VI of the Texas Art Education Association at the museum and the Glassell School. CEDFA has it's usual summer session. A Community Bridge Program course is being held at the Glassell School during the end of the summer. The Holocaust Museum Houston has a Summer Institute.

I'll be setting up my studio which involves rearranging the entire house. I'll be spending some time in the studio for a change. I've been filling up on ideas and images for the past few years. Now to process them.

There's also all this new technology to play with and plans to be made. There are wikis and VoiceThreads, Twitter and FaceBook, not to mention Nings. There are presentations to be planned and lessons to be put together.

I've already started putting together the materials I need for Area VI of TAEA. Lots of new ideas there, too!

Finally, I'm working on a program for teaching knitting with parents and kids. I have a lot of work to do on that end. More about this project, Knit Together, later.

We need to do a lot around the house. Our deck and porch need to be redone. We need to get a new refrigerator and mattress. Lots of fun projects to come! You can follow along if you like.

For those who've gone before

Once again, I've managed to go months without posting.

Since last I posted I applied for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to attend a seminar in Assisi and Siena, Italy. I didn't get this one. I don't receive every grant I apply for, I'm simply hard headed enough or possibly determined enough to keep applying. Persistence pays off.

Barb and me

Right now I'm thinking about my friends who are no longer among us. My friend, Barb Jones, passed away of cancer on my sister's birthday back at the beginning of March. Virgil Grotfeldt, who I was acquainted with from my UH days, died on my daughter's birthday in February. No causal relationship between the birthdays and the deaths, just weird coincidence.

Barb's self portrait, painted not long before her death from uterine cancer

Both of them will be sadly missed. Two excellent artists gone. The world is a little less for the loss.

When I travel I carry a small leather photo album. Inside it are photos of friends and family, At the very back are photographs of friends who never got the opportunity to travel to the places that I've gone.

There's Allison Magee. She taught fifth grade at the same school as me here in Houston. She was an awesome teacher, creative, talented and loved by her students. She was talented and creative. She died July 4th, 2001, a month after Tropical Storm Allison hit Houston, another one of those coincidences. I miss her. She was fun to work with and we roomed together a couple of times at conferences. Her death was a tragic case of the state of the medical system here in the US. She was waiting on the insurance company to stop procrastinating and get her in for testing. It was a sad, unnecessary loss.

My friend Malcolm Smith is there, too. He was almost 45 years old when he died on October 27, 1996. He was a good musician and friend. He died in his sleep.

Roger Ruffcorn, Zeke Zuelke, Bruce Henry Davis, Bruce McIlheny, Townes van Zandt and Colleen Cade are all gone, but not forgotten. I still remember holding baby Colleen while her parents, Bill and Lucille Cade, performed at Anderson Fair. The longer I think and remember, the more friends come to mind.

When I travel I remember all of these friends. I carry them with me in my photo album, in my mind and in my heart. They inspire me to keep on going.

Well, gotta go. I'm trying to figure out where to go next. Will it be Yad Vashem in Israel? or a mosque in New Mexico? Who knows, but I'll be taking my friends with me where ever I go.

Time goes by

I wonder how I let time get away from me. It's been ages, literally, since last I posted.

I've been consumed with school. I changed classrooms over the summer. Due to the broken wrist, I was unable to do my own packing of materials or unpacking for that matter. I went back to work at the start of the school year, but I've had to spend an absolutely incredible amount of time negotiating the miracles of the modern medical jungle: insurance adjusters, doctors, physical therapy, occupational therapy, on and on it goes.

So much to do and so little time.

My photographs of my travels in Japan, London, New Mexico and New Orleans are available at http://gallery.me.com/jeanking9#gallery . This site can give you a better view of what I've been up to.

You can also find me on Facebook, H-town Art Teachers, and several other places around cyberspace.

We'll see if I manage to keep up with this space over time. This tends to be my summer blog, more than anything else. My other blog, News From The Art Room, has also been sadly neglected. So many places, so little time.

I want to go back!

I've been organizing all the material that I brought back from Japan and, I have to tell you, I am amazed. As I look over all the information and remember the places I've been and the things I've seen I am struck by both the quality and the quantity of experience. Yet, there is so much that I wish I'd done, so many things I wish I'd seen.

i want to go back.

I did not even make a dent in learning about the arts of Japan first hand. I've no idea how much time, money and energy it would take to be able to do this.

Let's see, there's ceramics. I'm putting together a ceramics program at my school this year. One of the other groups got to see the famous kiln in Shimotsuke. I was so jealous when I realized this.


Japanese paper is one of my favorite things, from shoji screens to washi. And then there's origami, the art of paper folding. I do a variety of origami lessons with my students, but I want to learn more. Or how about kirigami, Japanese cut paper. Of course, there is the combination of the two in the form of pop-ups. I don't know the Japanese name for them, but I love them all the same. I ran into kirigami in Katori, but the gallery was closed for the day and it was my last day there.

I would love to be able to check out the woodblock prints. I bought one over in Asakusa, but I would like to see more.

I had hoped to bring back tools, woodworking tools in particular.

I guess I will simply have to save my dimes and nickels until I can go again.

Chiba University

Our first full day out of Tokyo we went to Chiba University to meet the education faculty. We sat on one side of the room and the University folks sat on the other. We were given a packet of information, a lovely Chiba University bookmark and a red and gold origami bird. Tom gave our opening speech, introductions were made and the question and answer session was underway.

Facts learned from this visit:
Student teachers only practice teach in the classroom for four weeks!
Teacher turn over in Japan is very low.
Teacher salaries in Japan are subsidized by the government. Check this website for more info on teacher salaries worldwide, http://www.educationworld.net/teacher_salaries.html
"Monster Parents" are a problem in Japan. (Think about it and I'm sure you get the idea. Are you having visions of Godzilla at this point?)

I spent time talking with Shingo Jinno, Associate Professor, Theory of Visual Art. With the help of Dr. Mitsue Allen-Tamai, we were able to communicate quite well. I'm hoping to be able to establish a line of communication now that the trip is over.


Scrumptious Japanese sweets!

My flight home

I know that this blog is not in chronological order, but you'll just have to bare with me.

The Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka staff lined up to wave good bye to us.

Leaving Japan was a breeze, although my big bag was overweight and I had to pay 3000 yen for the privilege of getting it back to the states. Narita Airport was easy to navigate and the employees of United Airlines in Japan were very helpful.

I was able to board my flight early and the flight attendant helped me with maneuvering my bag into the overhead compartment.

I had the middle seat on every flight I was on for the entire journey. On the flight from Japan to San Francisco the gentleman who had the window seat was a body builder and wrestler. I am not kidding or exaggerating. His arms were easily bigger around than my thighs. He was wearing a tank top. He was huge! Now remember that we are flying economy and we will be sandwiched together for ten long hours.

The body builder was on my left, that's the side with the broken arm, and an average, normal size American guy was on my right.

My wrestler friend had two dinners and three breakfasts! Yum, airline food!

When we arrived in San Francisco we had to stay on the plane while a passenger was removed. It seems for the last five hours of the flight this gentleman had become determined to open the door and get off. It took a while before they escorted him off in handcuffs and interviewed the witnesses.

I only had an hour and a half between connecting flights and part of that had been lost due to the delusional passenger. I got my bags and with help maneuvered them onto a cart. I passed through customs with no problem.

At San Francisco security the fun begin in earnest. I did as I had been told to do. I explained that I have recently acquired a metal plate in my arm and that it will set off the metal detectors. I asked to be pulled out for a pat down and to have my arm swabbed to detect any explosives. I was told to wait and go through the metal detector. This slowed everything down. The security folks were slow. It is humiliating enough to go into the little clear acrylic isolation booth, but this is followed by being swept with a metal detector followed by being physically patted down by hand. Finally they take two swabs and go over my hands and splint. Everywhere else I had been asked if I wanted to have this done in a small private booth. Not in San Francisco.

I was watching the clock. My plane would begin boarding in five minutes. One of the security agents asked to look in my bag. I opened it and he took a quick peek. My hand was swollen from the previous flight and I couldn't zip the bag closed again. Time was passing. The security agents watched with interest as I tried to close my bag. I finally asked for help and was soon on my way.

At the terminal one of United Airlines employees refused to let me board early when I told her that I would need assistance boarding. She instead asked me if I would like a wheelchair. Wasn't it United that used to ask you to fly the friendly skies?

We landed in Houston and had to wait for a plane to vacate our gate. I was ready to be home.

Sure enough when I came out of the terminal Joel was there waiting. What a sight for sore eyes! He went with me to baggage claim and helped wrestle my bags onto another cart. In every other airport the carts were free. I was surprised to have to pay three dollars to use a cart in my hometown. Welcome to Houston, ya'll!

I was glad to arrive home to the heat and humidity and my own bed.

Of broken bones and traveling

If you have a choice of traveling with a broken bone or not, my advice is don't do it. If you are going to do it anyway make sure you take along plenty of ibuprophen.

If I had been able to change the dates of my JFMF trip from the June cycle to the October cycle I would have. As it is, I am a hard head and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. Everyone I know told me that the JFMF is the trip of a lifetime and they were right. Broken arm or not, I couldn't pass it up.

Variations in temperature and altitude caused me problems. Fast elevator rides hurt. Heat made my hand swell. Several times during the trip I attempted things that I simply could not do and the pain was excruciating. My eyes filled with tears.

Several of my travel companions were quite kind and if it hadn't been for them I could never have made it all the way through. They helped with my bags and included me in their activities. For this I am incredibly grateful.

There were times that I felt sorry for myself. Self-pity is an ugly thing no matter where you are.

At other times I felt angry. One of my fellow travelers had the audacity to ask if I felt my broken arm was effecting my emotional state. I found her question cruel and thoughtless. The answer to her question was not simply yes, but hell yes. My mobility was effected. My balance was thrown off. I couldn't put up my hair or fasten my bra. I could only apply deodorant to one armpit. I had to put a bag on my arm to shower. If I ate too much soy sauce with my sushi my hand would balloon out. I couldn't take part in group activities like bowling. Finally, I could only type with one hand, which left me poking and plodding away at a task I normally fly through.

Since our free day was at the beginning of the trip my arm limited where and what I could do. My desire to go to Kamakura, Kyoto, Hiroshima or Nara was not to be. At that point in the trip I couldn't handle crowded trains or having my arm jostled and bumped. I spent my free day in Tokyo wandering around with some fellow JFMFers.

Towards the end of the trip my arm was doing much better. I no longer needed the sling. I could use my fingers and, if i did it correctly, I could carry light objects.

What the arm looked like under the bandages on the next to last day of the trip.

Just letting it stew

I have not left Japan yet, but I have started to reflect over my experiences here. Just as a pot of stew will simmer on the stove so my thoughts and memories are simmering in the back of my mind.

I set out on this trip with very high hopes and expectations. I was hoping and believing that I would see extraordinary art education here in the land whose art inspired the likes of Van Gogh and Gauguin among others. I also started out on this trip with a broken arm that was more of a hindrance than I was willing to admit.

I toured the elementary school and found that there was no art specialist on campus and that art was only taught on Monday and then only two of the grade levels took part. I need to note here that the school was very small. There were only 101 students. A budget that supported a separate art teacher was probably not a possibility. The head principal at the school is a master calligrapher. Calligraphy is an art form in its own right and this man is most certainly an artist. In the course of a lesson in the school garden where the students raise vegetables, they came back inside and drew themselves in the garden.

In the Junior High I saw some lovely work. Students worked from photographs. I did see beautiful examples of color exercises and, a couple of days previously, we had run into some of these same students painting along the river in Sawara. The book on the teacher's desk was Johannes Itten's color text. This is one of the books that I use at home in the United States.

When I traveled through Europe I finally understood why the various painters from the Renaissance to the impressionists painted as they did. They were capturing their environment in two dimensions. The quality of light, the land, the plants, the sense of place are there because this is where they worked, this is what they saw.

As I write this I am thinking of Monet and his Japanese bridge, Monet whose work was inspired in part by Japanese woodblock prints. Monet has been big news this week when his painting of waterlilies sold at auction for a record $80 million.

In my mind's eye I see the iris festival that I was privileged to visit twice during this trip.

I let my mind wander to the almost tactile sensation of crossing beneath a Tori gate and entering the quiet beauty of the forest as I approach a Shinto shrine.

The smell of earth and trees warmed by the sun while I walk through cool green shade past pools of koi and turtles. The wisps of incense carried on a breeze.

I long to see more Japanese art created by Japanese art teachers and their students. I know that several of my colleagues said they saw a great deal more than I did. I wish that I could tour Japan looking at the school art rooms across the country.

This trip has taught me a great deal, but it has also highlighted how little I know.

I am waiting to have time to reflect over my experiences here. I hope to correspond with both my Japanese and AmericanI. Maybe in this way I'll find answers to the questions that I have.

Perhaps there is some way to collaborate between our art classrooms using the internet, something more than showing student work in an online gallery, something somehow interactive that allows the students and the art teachers to establish a dialogue across the Pacific.

I need to say thank you to the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund and the Japanese government for making it possible for me to take this trip. So many people did so much to make this trip a possibility. Thank you all!

Let me now sing the praises of the dogs of Tokyo

Dogs and small children, both seem to act as magnets.

Wandering around Tokyo I spotted both, but what got my attention the most were the dogs, particularly their clothes. So, for your viewing pleasure, I bring you some of the dogs of Tokyo.


Dogs in shades


Pretty in Pink


Sports fan


Daddy's girl

Beauty in small things - manhole covers

Attention to detail and aesthetics is everywhere.


It's not a manhole cover, but isn't it lovely!



Tokyo


Chiba City


Kartori (Sawara)

Skipping Around in Japan

I just sat here in my room on the 28th floor if the Grand Prince Akasaka Hotel in Tokyo and watched a red half moon rise over the Tokyo skyline. I tried to photograph it, but I just couldn't catch it.


A small piece of my view.

Who would ever have thought that I would be here?