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At that moment, I sucked in all the air in the airport. Didn’t you see in the news that for some mysterious reason, walls caved in at the Incheon Airport in Korea?  I turned and ran, not for my flight, but for my life. My Zen exploded like a watermelon being dropped from the planes flying over head.  You know the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. The older brother, George Bailey, takes his turn staying home to run the family business, while his younger brother goes off to college, never returning to take his turn at running the family business. I am the younger brother that needs to go home and take care of family business. I had not told my sister and mother that we were extending our stay in Korea.  I did make our flight to Bangkok only to spent the next four and a half hours in an internet “dead zone”. I could literally feel the pins my sister was stabbing in the voodoo doll she had made of me. In the article Your online reputation can hurt your job search, they talk about employers reading social network and blog posts, remove the negative and promote the positive. In my situation it was positive information and I am thrilled that my daughter is excited about sharing the news. It was just information I was not ready to share and Facebook was not my choice of where to share it. I guess that is part of my generation.  I didn’t lose out on a job, just my inheritance.  It’s not what you read, but who reads it first in my case.

By final project is inspired by the work of George Rodrigue and his Blue Dog.

I asked my 6th grade students to come up with a riddle of sorts that relates to their won personsal experiences and interests in relationship to the elements of art: color, texture or shape and the art of George Rodrique’s – Blue Dog.

For example: What pattern is Blue Dog if wants to play a game? Checkered.

What color is Blue Dog if he is Berry Happy? Raspberry.

You get the idea.

Next, the students are to paint Blue Dog, using color theory knowledge that they gained in a previous unit.

I would love to show you the finished product of the iMovie that is going to be created, but we are still painting.

I teach Middle School Art. I struggle with how to integrate technology into my classroom with integrity. I flash to the Pixar movie Wall E. The story of how the Earth has become so toxic, that the population is evacuated and put on an automated spaceship. It is so automated that the inhabitants become obese and loose all bone density. I am worried that with the use of technology, my students will loose all fine motor skills. Teaching penmanship is a thing of the past. I know that the Replicator is just around the corner. Putting a frozen dinner in a microwave sends me into a panic. I too am guilty of shopping online.

The first thing that my students say to me when I start a new semester: Do we get to use clay?  Second is: Do we get to do tie dye?

Technology can not be about replacing paintbrushes and paper and glue and scissors and clay and dye and plaster and wax and pastels and colored pencils and, and, and, and …………….. you get the idea. How do I use technology and still get messy?

I know I am a “digital immigrant”. And I certainly do not want to be a “Luddite”. The Internet has brought art history alive for me personally and for my students. No longer are the days of sitting in a dark classroom while a professor flashes slides and recites dates and information that is solely his opinion. I can watch YouTube’s of artist in action.

I can find blogs that pulls art from the past and challenges our everyday experiences. For example: Did Picasso influence the Mac Finder Icon?

http://www.cultofmac.com/75608/did-picasso-influence-the-mac-finder-icon/

As Aaron Russell puts it:

Every designers’ dirty little secret is that they copy other designers’ work. They see work they like, and they imitate it. Rather cheekily, they call this inspiration.

Is this how I use technology in my art room?

It is my opinion if you have more than two of something, it is a collections or a theme. I am afraid that I am on the verge of an old lady theme and must radically divert.

Recently I had the good fortune to travel to Belgium.  My daughter was participating in an Orchestra Festival and I got to chaperone. Belgium is the land of chocolate, frites, waffles and good beer.  It is not the land of high speed or free Wi-Fi. In Seoul, I can be miles underground; traveling at warp speed (note Star Trek reference) and my friend will Skype call me on my iPhone.  Our connection will be crystal clear in both sound and picture.  In Belgium, I was staying in a four star hotel in which I had pay for Internet. The nerve! Ten Eros for 24 hours of clock time, not of time used. What was I to do? I needed to stay caught up on COETAIL. I bought my Internet card and logged on only to discover that the signal was spotty at best. I kept having to walk out in the hallway or up or down a floor to boost the signal.  Then I would get that “Ah Snap” message and all my tabs would shut down. The closest coffee shop only gave you 30 minutes of free access and then you were blocked for 24 hours no matter how many cups of coffee you ordered. It felt more like 30 seconds. I can’t believe how isolated I felt. How did we communicate before the Internet? When we sent family and friends to far off lands, did we just hope for the best?  How is it that I always seemed to make it back home and there was someone waiting for me at the airport and I had not called or texted to let them know I had landed? How did we let everyone know we were safe, having a great time and “wishing you were here”?

I spent the afternoon writing post cards. Finding the Post Office was almost as tricky as finding Internet.

Thinking back, I think I made a fair number of collect calls.

After voicing my frustration with the hotel staff, they offered my two options. Change rooms or take the free beer coupon and do my work in the bar.

I’m no fool. 

A year and a half ago, I packed up what I thought was the most essential items for moving to Asia. One thousand Q-tips were of the first items in the suitcase. I hate those flimsy plastic ones and I couldn’t risk having itchy ears. I also packed my favorite tea. Yes, moving to Asia and I brought tea from America. I like it because it has affirmations on the tag.  Like “ It’s not life that matters, it is the courage that we bring to it.” I also brought my pillow. You can handle just about anything if you are well rested.

Along with checking off other items on my must buy and pack list, I felt the need to buy my 82 year old mother a Macbook.  I was taking two of her grandchildren with me and thought it was important to explore all possible ways of staying in touch. She had grown accustom to my sister printing an interesting email, stories that get forwarded a millions times and entries from Caring Bridge, you know that blog like site when people are ill. She is someone who reads the local paper, always clipping and saving articles for me, watches the news and is game for a good cup of coffee and a long chat. She does not drive and life can become very isolating when you are limited to what shows up in the mail box, what is on TV and who walks through the door.  By buying her a computer, my hope was that she would at least learn how to click the stamp on the doc and open an email. Talk about Messing Around. We call her a “Skype Stalker”.  You have to be careful not to leave your skype icon on green. My son, who is 6^th grader in a one to one program, has had to decline Nanie’s calls during class several times. Thank god for the time difference and her need for sleep. She has a Facebook account. She has figured out how to watch missed episodes of her soaps and she can download recipes from afternoon talk shows. But what I enjoy most is the look of pure determination on her face while I am skyping with her 6000 miles away and she wants so badly to have my face “full screen”. I still laugh about the day I had to draw a picture of the volume button on a piece of paper and hold it up to the camera for her to see. She loves to click and scroll and when she gets “lost”, she just hits the power button and restarts. Messing Around has opened up a whole new world for a woman who is slow on her feet, but not in her mind. Just this morning, she told me she was tired because she stayed up late watching a high school hockey tournament. There was a player who had got hurt and the team was going to “win it” for him. She had been following his story on facebook.   Now if I could just get her to adjust her screen so I can look at more than just her forehead, but I guess that is better than having to look at her boobs.

I was given the name Strega Nona by my husband and two children . Stega Nona is a storybook character imagined by Tomie dePaola. She is an elderly woman who is the “go to” gal when people are having trouble. My family did not give me the name for that reason, but because I was always lagging behind. While out riding bikes as a family, I am always blocks behind. Not just in speed, but in terms of gear. They are all wearing helmets and tennis shoes, water bottles filled. I am in a dress, Burkenstocks and drinking a cup of coffee.  Seldom do I make it across the street that I do not feel the need to run at the last minute. That alone gives them reason to mock me. In Italian, “nona” means “grandma” or “old woman”.  I am not that old! And there is nothing wrong with being a grandma. I just like to take my time and enjoy the journey.  Without telling you how old I really am, I will tell you that I used a type writer for all my papers in college.

I love art! I am blessed to have the opportunity to teach art!  And crayons are my favorite medium. I tell my students that crayons will never fail you. They do not have a cap, so they never dry out. If they break in half, you just have more to share. They are affordable and accessible to all. Even if they get too hot and melt, they still work. Best of all, they are non-toxic, so snack away. I want to have as much confidence in technology, as I do my box of crayons.

 I thought it would be fitting to name my blog “Strega Nona” for a couple of reasons. One, I have started to establish myself on the net as Strega Nona. It is my skype name and ……….. well that’s about all I have done on the net. Is “net” even the right word? By the way, I didn’t start this blog until after 3:00 p.m. so I could do what Jeff said and have a glass of wine. Second, I am kind of slow out of the blocks. Here it is the start of week three and I am just now completing the homework for week one. But lastly, “Stega” means witch.  Stega Nona has a big pasta pot, an enchanted pot that makes pasta on command. Embarking on this COETAIL is all about learning how to work the big magic pasta pot of technology. Learning how to make it work for me, so I can be a better educator.