a new art camp started last week, and my students took a little while to warm up to each other, but now they are really casual and talkative. one boy in my class (i'll call him dale), is a home-schooled snarky kid who, on the second day of class, put red paint on his neck while carrying a piece of glass and made me do a double take. he's somewhere between the class clown and the cool guy on campus, and he knows it. it's pretty obvious that a girl likes this boy (we'll call her amanda) because she'll stretch her never-shaven legs out next to him, blurts out irrelevant things, and always likes his art the best. i swear it's like i'm reliving my pre-teen years all over again.

this week, however, we throw into the mix a new girl, who is heavy competition. she's the bossy type of girl who has 7 ponies, plans to drive a red convertible when she's 16, and tells her friends what they should do and how they should feel. she's a rule-breaker not to be rebellious, but to make the teacher question the rules after a convincing proposal in a baby voice and batting some eyelashes. whatever, kid.

so needless to say, amanda keeps her distance from (ashley) because she's been interfering with her scheme to get dale's attention. but ashley has been laying on the charm pretty thick, bragging about this or that. then one day, her mom will bring snacks for the class, and the next day, the other girl's mom will bring better snacks for the class. the next day, one is sitting next to his usual seat and the following day, they are both sitting next to his usual seat. comments are getting more snide and more personal as each day goes by:

"why do you always have to be out of your seat?"
"why do you bring your backpack every day?
"why are you talking to dale?"
"how come your shirt has a hole?"

i've been very sympathetic toward the awkwardness and watching attempts for attention fail horribly. in a few years, i'd say dale would be more into amanda than ashley, only because he will have made out with ashley and realize that ashley is a fraud. deep down, he prefers brains over silly lip gloss any day.

IT'S FREE SLURPEE DAY!

here are some photos of the photography lesson that I taught back in May. We used Sunprint paper to make prints out in the sculpture garden. First, they used leaves and flowers and found objects; then they drew their own designs onto transparencies; and finally, they cut out used negatives from the Fresno Bee to add photos and words. They taped them onto transparencies and created their own collages, which were printed out in the sun. So basically, we did photography without cameras, film, chemicals, or a darkroom. My students did so great!