Mirror - Chimera

Still catching up on past adventures ...

Last year Olive Delsol and I co-taught a creative writing class at Kennedy Alternative High School on a volunteer basis. The first term was mostly free-writing and Olive and I working to come up with prompts that would engage the students -- and coping with how the class was almost never the same group of people. For the second term we decided on a curriculum of reading and writing our way through the early history of storytelling (fables, fairy tales, myths, and legends). That term was also when we "teachers" spent a lot of time learning how to keep the class on an even keel while our students coped with their often tumultuous lives. For the third term the class decided to produce Kennedy's first ever literary magazine. Many deadlines were blown and Olive and I kept reminding ourselves that the students were working mostly in the dark, having never produced and held in their hands a final product like we were making. In the end it all came together: 48 pages of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and lots of art funded by ten donors in our Cottage Grove community. During that same push to deadline, Olive and I found out about a grant four days before it was due; we wrote up our proposal, hand-delivered it with at least 20 minutes to spare, and later received $2000 to continue our class next year and produce three more issues of the magazine.

About the photo: the first issue of The Kennedy Mirror was called The Chimera because of our myth and legend work. Also a chimera is a fabulous creature of disparate parts (such as lion, goat, snake) that can spit fire. Five students made the parts of the chimera and its fireball.

sleeping with the sharks

Ronan slept with the sharks last night. She survived it. In fact, she did great according to her dad. I survived my first two days and one night alone since ... I can't remember. I had a good time. They had a great one.

Matt and Stephan took Stephan's class of Kennedy Alternative High School students to the Newport Aquarium. In trade for four hours of cutting blackberries, the students got to sleep in the tunnel under the shark tank. They also had a scavenger hunt through the displays and watch the seals and sea lions being trained. The seals were being conditioned to accept medical examinations; the sea lions were doing tricks. I knew Ronan would do just about anything to get to sleep under the shark tank, so we asked for permission and then sent her along with Matt, geared out with a pair of sturdy Red Wing work boots (handed down by Kris Woolhouse, an organic farmer - good thing Ronan has such big feet) and some leather work gloves. Ronan hates wearing work gloves and would rather get any amount of splinters than wear them, but these would be blackberry thorns, not tiny pesky fir slivers. Also as the daughter of Matt, the forester and Kennedy "crew leader", she had to keep up, no slacking off, especially if she wanted to go on other Kennedy trips.

Ronan returned from the trip proud of the blackberry scratches on her cheek. She made friends with two of the high school girls. She laid out her sleeping bag right up against the glass and on top of another viewing spot in the floor. She fell asleep watching the softly glowing shapes of the sharks and rays drifting to and fro in the dim lighting ... and was the only person there that slept soundly that night, according to Matt.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... none of the goats have had kids yet. They are due any day, and because of that we opted not to try to get someone to farmsit for us. I'm just as glad the goats held off. I enjoyed my day and half of time mostly to myself. I ate only leftovers (Hi-diddely-dee, the bachelor's life for me!), did the farm chores and spent the rest of the time getting as much writing done as possible.