- My Cartouche
Cartouche generated by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology website.
Now that school is back in session for my daughter and a routine [of sorts] has once again been established after winter break, I have started teaching another session of my after school clay class. I don’t repeat lessons often, except for a few overwhelming requests that the kids want to make again and again such as cups – they love making cups for some reason. Last week, I substitute taught on Friday and I had an hour of free time while the kids were in PE to think about what kinds of projects I wanted to teach this time around.
As I scanned the teacher’s book shelves, I picked up a book titled, Write Like an Ancient Egyptian by Beth Levine which I found fascinating. My brain started racing and I decided to have a theme this time around for my kid’s clay classes – “Around the World with Clay”. Our projects are going to focus on the ancient cultures of Egypt, the Mayans and Africa for the next 8 weeks. I think a cup will enter the picture for the Mayan period – maybe a stirrup cup.
On Tuesday afternoon we began our first project – and you may have surmised from my photograph at top and the title of this post, we made cartouches out of clay. I found the U of Penn website and typed in each kid’s name in order to give each student a print out of their name in hieroglyphics to use for the project. We are going to make canopic jars next week.
Here are a couple of the kid’s cartouches from Tuesday afternoon, still green and in various stages of drying (as usual, many kids break the template, which I kind of enjoy):
Meanwhile, my daughter auditioned for Denver School of the Arts yesterday afternoon. It was a tough day, and I don’t know about her, but I am glad it is over. Parents were not allowed in the room during auditions and were left to wring our hands, bite our nails in nervousness and otherwise kill time in the hallway. When my daughter exited the audition room, I could see by her face that it didn’t go well and she had all she could do to hold it together until we were safely in the car where the tears flowed freely. What a tough process for a 5th grader to experience, and an even tougher one for me. My girl is growing up and I realized that I can’t protect her from every disappointment in life. A kiss, hug and a band aid just don’t suffice in times like this. I did ask her whether she wishes I had discouraged her from applying to the school, and she replied, “No.” I guess all I can do sometimes is just to be there and to support her no matter the outcome. Sigh….
She has been offered an interview at the Denver Center for International Studies which takes place at the end of the month and there is a third school in the running - so not all is lost – it only feels that way to her right now. Some of you may remember that Denver offers school choice – gone are the days of going to the neighborhood school. Instead, kids apply to schools that they want to attend which has created keen competition for many of the more popular schools. Consequently, the schools make kids apply as if it was a college or a job they were going after (recommendations letters, essays, transcripts, resumes, head-shots, and interviews etc. are often required). Although some schools, like the School of Science and Technology, have instituted a lottery system instead which takes away the competitive aspect of applying and leaves fate up to the “luck of the draw”.
At any rate, I’ll be back sometime this weekend,
~Cynthia
