This is a magnetic picture frame with three pictures stuck to it. I simply played around with the angle of the picture, and the exposure. My goal in making these pictures of myself and my cousins my own piece of artwork was to draw the eye to other elements present in the photo besides the intended focus. When I look at this picture I see the wear and tear of the frames and how the paint doesn’t evenly coat it like it used to and the flash reflecting off of the back-ground of the frame accentuates the scratches and texture. I hope you see it too! But if not, I’d love to know what you see, after all it is your respective perspective, even if it is my picture 
I had so much fun putting together the things about myself that are an indicator of how old I feel. I suppose I should explain a couple of these items huh?
The poster sporting my name in imaginative pink objects keeps me feeling young. My mom brought that back for me after returning from one of her work trips to the city. I was about twelve and had an undying love for anything and everything pink. I later grew to despise the color for a short period of time but this wasn’t until I’d acquired an obscene amount of pink belongings.
That being said I see it fit to explain the remaining pink objects. The Lip Smacker chapstick is something I started using when I was in middle school and I’ve continued to use ever since then. Every time I use it I’m immediately back in the lunch room, sixth period, a circle of friends, Powerade’s filling the table, and lots of laughter as the chapstick makes it’s way around the circle. Seems kind of gross to think about it now but in sixth grade none of us were concerned about germs.
The I-Pod was the first one I ever owned– yes I do own a more updated version thank you. I received this artifact for my fifteenth birthday. Funny how the things that hold little to no value now, used to bring so much joy. I remember the day vividly. My parents took my sister and I out to dinner for my birthday and we were sitting in Red Lobster when they gave it to me. I can still smell the melted butter and cheesy biscuits.
The Excedrin reminds me of the point in my life where I started to become responsible. I never got headaches until I started working as a cashier. Headache was a bit of an understatement to be honest. Rude people drive me crazy. So the Excedrin is a stepping stone in my life for when I got my first job. I still have that same job six years later, however, I escaped the cashier position and have since moved to a different department.
The picture is one that my mom took of me when I was five or six? I’m not exactly sure how old I was but these pictures frequent the house. My mom used to buy me dress up clothes when I was younger because what five year old girl doesn’t like to play dress up? One day she did my hair and make-up for me because I was dying to look the part and not just tromp through the house covered in sequins. So after she finally gave in to my incessant pleas, she continued to follow me around the house and have an impromptu photo shoot. No matter how old you are, it’s always fun to dress up and dance around the house. This theory has brought me out of some foul moods.
The earplugs are significant because people always say, “If the music’s too loud, you’re too old” well I’ve recently discovered that sometimes the music IS too loud. Namely when I’m trying to do something productive, however, it still makes me feel old. And yes, I have on occasion actually used those earplugs.
The pictures are of my nephews. I think their role is obvious for the most part. My brother is thirty-eight, married with two kids. I was ten when my first nephew, Ryan, was born and twelve when my second nephew, Joe, was born. Now eleven years later I only feel older.
The AAA card and Cortland ID are both indicative of me growing up and juxtaposed with five-year old sequined Toni and a love of pink things, makes for a pretty conflicting image of how old I feel.
This is my one and only tattoo.
I got this in October of 2008 right after my birthday. I distinctly remember my parents taking me out for my birthday dinner and telling me not to go and do anything stupid now that I was 18… less than a month later I had permanent evidence of my “stupid” actions. I love my tattoo though. I always said that if and when I got a tattoo it had to be someplace I could hide it (my foot) and it had to have significance to me. I didn’t want any of that peace, love, hearts and flowers business. I wanted something that had sentimental value to me. Hence, Grandpa B.
I got my tattoo in remembrance of my Grandpa – I think that’s painfully obvious (pun intended). He died in December of 2007 and it was the first time I dealt with a death that really hit close to home and changed me as a person, better yet made me want to change who I was. Change for the better, and that’s what I’ve been striving for every day since then. Taking it one day at a time, putting one foot in front of the other. My grandpa may not be here to watch my journey but he’s got a front row seat watching my stumbles and sprints. Love always <3
I’ve got to hand it to you, you’ve got a way of catching detail.
Through the valleys of empty space and contours of hard work, the creases a map of your life always with you. You carry it with you, sometimes in your pockets, sporting gloves swinging in rhythm with your saunter, constantly searching. Searching for that perfect mesh. That moment when fingers interlock and the sensation travels straight up your arm and into your heart. Making all the callouses, hangnails, and paper-cuts of life worth the wait. Finally you can entrust the map of your life to someone else and let them carry it for a while.
Take a picture of your favorite memory.
My mom has always been my best friend. When I was younger I would scream and cry when she tried to leave me with anyone else. The only way she could escape the house without me was if she put one of her shirts on me. The scent of her soap and lotion made me feel as if she was still there. Oddly comforting. Since then I have always appreciated the comfort and emotion that a specific scent can evoke within a person.
Every time I bite into a juicy Bartlett pear, I’m back on the beach in Florida, back to a time when everything was picture perfect. However, pictures was the only medium in which perfection existed.
Running along the water being chased by the one person I wanted to catch me. Giggling uncontrollably, face-planting in the sand only to pop back up and keep running. Not a care in the world besides the sand crystals caught in the crevices of my teeth and having to stand still for the second sunscreen application.
If everything you lose ends up in the same place, is it really lost?
Lost waiting to be found, stored waiting to be used.
The Black Hole
Take a picture of a place where you always lose things.
I get home from class, work, gym-
Where do I throw my jacket, bag, shoes?
The closet
I turn my room upside down trying to find
anything and everything,
but it never fails to be in
The closet
Upside Down
What does the best stuff on earth consist of exactly? According to Snapple: tea leaves, filtered water, citric acid, tea and other natural flavors.
But what do you think the best stuff on earth is?
freshly mowed grass
cherry-flavored chapstick
ice-cold tea on a hot day
hot cocoa on a cold day
butterfly kisses
dad’s bear hugs
moms gentle dove hugs
splashing through puddles
telling secrets by candlelight
in the safety of a city of blanket forts
Snapple claims to be made from the best stuff on earth, but correct me if I’m wrong, I don’t taste any of these things when enjoying Snapple.
The best things on earth are those that evoke an emotion with the power to move you.
The idea of Ed Parkour, teacher’s who aren’t intimidated by the slew of variables that constantly work against them, is an inspirational one. Parkour, typically defined as: the sport of traversing environmental obstacles by running, climbing, or leaping rapidly and efficiently– reminds me of a jungle gym. Isn’t that essentially what we’re doing as teacher’s? Playing with our students on the playground of education? The swing set to me seems to be the perfect example. The student is sitting in the swing and we push them at first, coercing them to do it on their own (scaffolding) until they are able to swing by themselves. However, we must always consider the reverse situation. For everything we can teach students, they possess the equivalent amount of knowledge to teach us as well. This is part of our lifelong journey to students and teachers as master learners.
Who is Ed Parkour?
a play on shadows for Daily Create #24 "Make a creative photo silhouette by aiming the camera into a bright light."
enLIGHTenment
I sat in my room for a while trying to figure out what object I had that could create a creepy silhouette and as a sat there thinking about it, I was eating animal crackers. I held an animal cracker up to the light to see what animal it was (because you can’t eat an animal cracker without knowing what animal it is!) and I thought it looked pretty cool. So I grabbed my camera and photographed the dark blob my animal cracker turned into. Bet you didn’t know it was an animal cracker!
Bag of Gold
I really enjoyed Gardner Campbell’s webcast. The one thing he said that really stuck out to me was, “education needs to be about discovery and not about instruction”. Too often students sit in class and are told what they should be learning in class. The students end up playing a game of guess what the teacher already knows instead of being truly motivated to learn something. Looking back to my own education the only time I ever really felt wonder while learning something I was in fourth grade. We were learning about magnets and we were making designs with metal shavings by moving the magnets underneath the desk. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced and I took a liking to Science after that. My teacher at the time didn’t have to go to great lengths to captivate us. She understood the lack of control in our own lives, so she provided us with something we could. Moving those metal shavings around on my desk for twenty minutes was the best part of my day.
There is mention of learning as a transaction- making learning a job to complete paired with anxiety instead of enjoying the learning process. Students resort to this theory of learning because it is ingrained in us that we are taught, we learn, we’re tested and then we move onto something else. In our educational journey not one teacher has asked us to learn for the sake of learning something new. There is always a reason we learn; a test that follows, an essay to write or a project to complete. We have never been asked to learn information because it’s nice to know things.
Campbell also states that offering students options gives them room to grow, room to play… to discover. While it gives them room to do all of the aforementioned, it also gives them ownership of their learning. By taking ownership of their learning they become the so called ‘system administrators’. But in order to foster this ownership of learning in our students we must also establish an openness with them. A reciprocal relationship of mutual trust where anything can be discussed or questioned. Student’s feel like they’re being judged when they walk into any classroom so by establishing this relationship with them it takes away the anxiety and allows them to be vulnerable. After all vulnerability is where the most crucial learning takes place.
