Que Desastre

Love the hairdo and the hypnotic eyes...

While on vacation with my sister's family in Ecuador, my brother in-law coined one of my favorite phrases. We were trying to get to the airport in Quito, and were stuck in the city of Otavalo. Indigenous protesters had blocked the Pan American Highway, and were not letting any cars or trucks through. In a hired truck, we traveled the back roads. Small bands of protesters were on every road. They had chopped down trees, and used them to build roadblocks. It was then that I first heard "Que Desastre" muttered.

Today, while completing our first ceramics project, I had cause to use this handy catch all phrase repeatedly. We were making slab faces. I had the six steps drawn on the board with simple pictures. Then, I demonstrated all six on the projector at the front of the room. So, it seemed like all was going to go well. NOT. I've never seen greater chaos. Keep in mind that there were 33 children in the room. Almost each child that I stopped in to check with, was doing something other than the steps. Each time I stopped, I'd ask the student to look up at the steps, and to tell me what step he or she was on.  He or she couldn't tell me what step. There were a couple of students using the slab rolling sticks to angrily beat the clay. Not sure what that was all about! Many students weren't using the slab rolling guide sticks at all, but were just rolling out the clay to potato chip thickness, and then were surprised when the slabs stuck to the desks. When it came time to clean up, everyone was wandering around, touching everything in the room with "clay hands".  Of course, no one was following the clean up directions. 

I left the entire mess, which is really hard for me to do. I like things to be orderly. Okay, I have OCD, so there! But, they are going to clean it all up on Tuesday. Almost all of our navy blue chairs are covered with clay handprints. It's going to be an eye opener, I hope. A definite learning opportunity… I thought back to all of the different elective clay classes that I've taught. Even the class with 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students went more smoothly. 

There were some nice projects that emerged from the chaos though. I realized that no matter how prepared you are, and how well everything is planned there are still many variables. I'm kind of nervous about glazing. I can't imagine trying to teach them to clear glaze with care. So, we'll wait and see! Upon arrival at home, a double chamomile tea with some aspirin seemed to make the situation more hopeful!

Awesome hair and eyes...

Love the nose...

Big eyes on these ladies...

Some thoughts for Tuesday morning...

But, my desk IS clean...

Make mine a double...