Wednesday, January 07, 2009

January Birthdays & How to do a Workshop in Grenada


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE JANUARY BIRTHDAY BUNCH:

Mike H on the 9th (just blogged in time on that one!)
Sarah H on the 13th
Enee (the real person Enee Marie) on the 22nd
Luke T on the 25th
Kim B on the 27th

Who will be in the Super Bowl this year? Nobody from Chicago I hear.

How to do a Workshop in Grenada OR Sailor Sue Finally Gets to Work!

So here I am a few weeks ago on the #2 bus into St. George's when I suddenly see a Montessori School. Now that's interesting. Wonder if they'd be interested in a workshop........ So I emailed the director of the program a list of workshops presented by SLB Collaborations (Sailor Sue's former life).

She was interested! And invited another child care program associated with St. George's University to join in.

Now what? All materials and supplies used in workshops formerly living in the office and basement in the house in Des Plaines no longer exist. They certainly aren't aboard Enee Marie!


What to Do?
Recruit your sailing friends to walk the hills and shores of Grenada collecting wonderful and interesting things. The workshop is about exploring artistic and natural materials. We got busy finding the natural materials. And what a good way to get exercise at the same time.








So thank you Wendy, Manon, and Kathy for forging through the hills and valleys with me to find some beautiful treasures.











And thank you Mismo the wonder cat for guarding my treasures once aboard Enee. Of course Mismo also had to taste a few of the items as well.


The next thing to do was to get some digital slides from friend, colleague, and super artist Rachel Weaver-Rivera. I needed slides of children exploring different materials and expressing different ideas to give teachers at the workshop some new ways of thinking about this. Thank goodness for the "internet" and digital world. Rachel emailed many wonderful images and I was able to build a presentation of slides that the participants found very inspiring.


Twelve people participated in the workshop. They discovered new ways of using water colors, acrylics, oil pastels, and natural materials. They also created representations of their ideas of teaching. They were a very thoughtful and creative group. I hope there are more workshops possible with them in the future.



5 comments:

Sally said...

Wow, great job Sue!

Sailor Sue said...

Thanks Sally. It was a lot of fun to do.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Kay Poyner B, 1/6.

Chairman Meow
The GLF

Cindy said...

Sue
Sounds like this was a fantastic success! You don't need no stinkin piles of educational materials & textbooks...just your lovable, smart self (and internet partenership with Rachel).
Bravo!

Sarah said...

Thanks for the birthday greetings and way to go on the workshop. You are so creative!!!