A quiet day. This morning I was at Peninsula for two classes again. Today, the 7th graders were making their posters, and a few of them needed to reshoot their pictures. The first class worked pretty efficiently to finish their posters, while the second class had a lot of reshoots, and most kids didn't finish and had to stay at lunch. Tomorrow is my last day at Peninsula; Teafly will be teaching the Caldera class, and I'm staying for the assembly where Teafly will show a slideshow of all the best photos that the kids took. I'm super excited to see it!

Today started out kind of bad, but the end of the day was amazing. First of all, I was supposed to get to Peninsula at 10:15. My alarm went off at 6:00 because I'd set it to the wrong time. Of course, I stayed awake till 8 something, and then fell asleep and woke up at 10. I rushed to get out of the house, and miraculously managed to get to Peninsula at 10:30. I could only stay for an hour, because the Caldera staff were going on a retreat, and needed me back at the office so that they could introduce me to the people in Studio.

Yesterday was the last day I got to work with the 8th graders, and today was the last day I got to see the 6th graders. It was really amazing to see how the kids changed over the week. The first day, they were rowdy and some of the kids were rude, but by today they were all smiles and much more respectful of Teafly and what she was teaching. One of the 8th graders, Julian, said the first day that he "hated art," and was asked to leave the Caldera class and just attend his 8th grade class.

 Note: I'm posting this on Friday because the website wouldn't let me post on Thursday.

 Today was my first day being an assistant teacher at Peninsula K-8, and what an incredibly exhausting day it was! I got there a little before 8, and met Teafly, the teacher. Every year, Caldera teaches classes in 5 middle schools all over Oregon. They call these courses "residencies," and they are all taught by artists. Teafly, as I later found out, does everything from photography to producing soundtracks for her own productions. The first class that she taught was a class of only Caldera students, who meet weekly.

Today was the second day on the job! Monday was really cool; Caldera is located in the beautiful Wieden and Kennedy building, so it's an incredible atmosphere to be spending the day in. I got a tour of the building as soon as I got there, the highlights of which were the free Coke vending machine and "the Nest" up on the 6th floor, as well as the balcony. Both Monday and today, I have been doing a lot of office work. The month of May is really busy for Caldera, because they are pulling together the summer camps and the student exhibition on the 3rd of June.