It's been a while! Well, after four weeks of orientation and preparation, we finally began teaching groups of kids yesterday. It is so tiring, but unbelievably exciting and rewarding. So many of the kids are utterly precious. It feels like such a privilege to be an integral part of their museum experience...I hope that they will all have good experiences, and that they will come back. One little girl who came yesterday was wearing a flowy pink top and pink skirt, and told me proudly that she chose that outfit specifically for that day because she thought pink would be a good color for the art museum!
For our first week of teaching we are working in pairs. I have been partnered with Louise, and together we have been teaching kids about a Picasso painting, a Calder mobile, an Indian sculpture, and the Japanese teahouse. The kids ask a lot of questions, which is great, but some of them are surprisingly hard to answer on the fly, particularly those regarding nudity or religion...Two difficult things to speak objectively about. One child pointed at a [nude] statue of the goddess Diana and asked, "What kind of clothes is he wearing?" I was a bit baffled and found it odd to inform him that she was actually not wearing any clothes...Also, today a girl asked me if the Hindu god in the statue I was teaching about was a real person. I said that people who believe in the Hindu religion believe that he is a real person, and left it at that. We're not in Grantham anymore, Toto.
Here are a few photos from last week (preparing the classroom where we supervise the art projects after each tour) and today:
For our first week of teaching we are working in pairs. I have been partnered with Louise, and together we have been teaching kids about a Picasso painting, a Calder mobile, an Indian sculpture, and the Japanese teahouse. The kids ask a lot of questions, which is great, but some of them are surprisingly hard to answer on the fly, particularly those regarding nudity or religion...Two difficult things to speak objectively about. One child pointed at a [nude] statue of the goddess Diana and asked, "What kind of clothes is he wearing?" I was a bit baffled and found it odd to inform him that she was actually not wearing any clothes...Also, today a girl asked me if the Hindu god in the statue I was teaching about was a real person. I said that people who believe in the Hindu religion believe that he is a real person, and left it at that. We're not in Grantham anymore, Toto.
Here are a few photos from last week (preparing the classroom where we supervise the art projects after each tour) and today:
Zach building the "arch."
Europe!
Cutting LOTS of paper...
Zach and Cassie and loads of kids!
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