Who Are You Working For?

I recently had a phone conversation with my daughter's high school principal and it's a good thing it was a phone conversation. I don't think he would have appreciated the face I made when he tried to talk about Twitter with me.
You see, my 16 year old daughter received an inappropriate request anonymously through Twitter.  She immediately told me and, while discussing how to handle the situation, she asked if she could report it to her favourite teacher. This teacher then reported it to the administrative staff, the police were called in and action was taken very quickly. I am grateful for the serious expediency.
However, a week later, when I made a follow up phone call to the school, the principal was trying to explain the activity that had occurred on this Twitter page in the subsequent week and he stumbled in his explanation. He then apologized for his ignorance claiming that he did not know much about Twitter. I practically choked on my words of condemnation.  He seemed almost proud to admit his lack of social media knowledge.
I don't believe this is anything to be proud of. A high school teacher should be knowledgeable in all  forms of social media that his students are using. Social media is how his students communicate, connect, announce new relationships, advertise important events, entertain and are entertained, bully and stalk.
Educators have been trying to catch students in the act of 'passing notes' since pencil and paper replaced chalk and slate. Here is a digital note being passed for a global audience to read and this administrator chooses to ignore it because it is written using a device instead of lead?

Life is Better Messy Anyway: Over the Moon!

Life is Better Messy Anyway: Over the Moon!

My Grade 6/7 students did this Birch Tree water colour art;
Water Colour Birch Tree Art

Here are a few pointers to a successful art class;
1. Use water colour paper.  At first, we did not use water colour paper and the paper that we did use was too thin.  It ripped and wrinkled when it got too wet.  Also, paint seeped underneath the tape because the paper bubbled under the tape when the paper got wet.
2.  Before sticking the tape on the paper, stick the tape to clothing or a rug to make it less sticky.
3.  It is very important to lightly outline the tape at the bottom of the page that is in the snow so that you know where the tree ends and the snow begins.
4. Make sure that the horizon line is not evident through the tree.  As you can see, the student's art below this does not follow this rule.
5.  Adding the shadow down the length of the birch tree is very effective, so do not let the students go ahead and put markings on the tree until they have created the shadow effect.
6.  Talk to your students about the angle of the shadow that is cast in the snow and explain why all the shadows should be in the same direction.