Brownies and back to work

I got back to work today writing my curriculum guide. There is one social justice curriculum planner that a teacher of mine at NYU wrote, but I haven't found a lot of it accessible- both to my students and their lives and to me and my background. I found that as a teacher I was interested in promoting design to my students because I found that there was a practical application for them- it's always been important for me to teach them skills that they can get paying jobs for- if they really want to be an artist the work they do in my class will support design based careers in addition to critical thinking and skills needed for the fine arts. Additionally it's always been important for me as an urban educator to raise critical awareness and teach my students what's happening in todays contemporary and multi-cultural art scene. The intersection of this has been vast- from Gees Bend's quilts to sneaker design to violence in video games and tv leading to toy design and critical thinking about media arts- I would have extended this to a project in media arts, but so far I have yet to work at an urban schools with laptops and the software - although you can make decent animations on powerpoint even if it is seriously time consuming... 

I love writing curriculum, and I'd love to publish my work as a book- but it doesn't seem like there is a market for this kind of material. Still I think after I'm finished I might put it together as a guidebook DYI style and try to sell a few through NYCORE or something- I'm not interested in the money as much as I am sharing my teaching perspective and my passion to make the arts in schools mean something...

But my laptop has become a time-share with Sylvain's dying and whatnot, I can only work while he's at school- well thats not entirely true, because he's not always on it- but frankly I like to be able to work without distractions and really focus. There's so much research that goes into writing lesson plans- sourcing materials, media and whatnot- I want my students getting a sort of dossier of material- articles, video clips, artist statements- field trips or museum visits if possible... Man, it's going to be really hard not teaching in New York- the gold ticket of art at the source. 

Anyway, in real life, I made brownies but burnt them- there are no temperature settings on the oven- you just light the fire and you can adjust the flame, but who the hell knows what 350 degrees F looks like. The outer edge was inedible but the middle was ok, and the frosting masked the dryness. So I will try again next week. 

The weather is now in the mid 70's and while it's hard to complain about summers arrival- I've noticed one problem: the streets being filled with stray dogs as they are means the streets are a doggie toilet- normally this isn't that annoying if you're watching where you're going - but the smell, is pungent. It was so nice, I wanted to sit outdoors and read but soon a dog walked by and peed in the middle of the road and I was forced to retreat inside. It's a shame they don't spade and neuter, I love dogs, but many of them here have serious problems- my dad always said it was a crime to have a dog for a pet in the city, but I disagree, this is a crime- the dogs look like out of work bums, laying in the plazas all day long with nothing to do, dirty, their hair is worn thin in places from itching due to fleas or skin irritations, many have lost legs, and there is absolutely no green space here- parks, trees etc.