My Favorite Project

    Out of all of the amazing, and often difficult projects that you put together for us this year I have to say that my favorite was the outside reading assignment with a visual aid. Personally I love art. And even though its very disconnected with English I always enjoy when you add in something artsy. For that project in particular I chose to read The Count of Monte Cristo, the longest and probably hardest book I could have chosen. What was I thinking! I struggled to finish the book in time, often behind the other people in my group. I would inevitable read in the car on the way to school, in art, at lunch or even with a flash light late into the night. To be honest I didn’t like the book very much, it was written for a different era, one that appreciated subtle irony and literary newonses. I sadly can recognize neither and continually got confused by the abundance of intertwined characters and prolonged anecdotes. Still I must say the story was well written, and once I get through it left a resonating mark on my creative mind.
    This of course led to my need to create the perfect visual aid. So that others could understand the complexity and transformation of Dantes the main character. Obviously this led me to create the split poster of the young Dantes and the aged count. Now I say create and not draw because my poster is made up of hundreds of little pieces of ripped construction paper. Even though the project looks relatively simple it took hours for me to find the correct clothing for the appropriate year, age, and social placement of the two men. After that I had to find a reference picture for the way each character was standing so that the perspective would look right. Then came the actual assembly of each piece of torn paper. At one point, probably around twelve, I just about gave up. I was surrounded by heaps of various colors of paper and glue and scissors and discarded drawings. Not to mention an aggravated and exhausted Chihuahua. Regretfully my big melt down was because I had run out of yellow paper. That’s right yellow construction paper. How was I supposed to create respectable lightening without yellow paper? It sounds silly now but then with four hours of artistic work used up and only a half finished, so-so poster to show for it, I was pretty upset. How was I going to show the class what a complex and in depth book The Count of Monte Cristo was when all I had was a flimsy piece of card board that looked like it had been made by a kindergartener? A cup of tea and a sorely needed serving of creative problem solving later I was able to rally together the dwindling supply of energy I had left and finish. In the end I was still disappointed. The poster still looked like a little kid made it and the count of Monte Cristo looked frail and short instead of ominous compared to his younger counter part.
    On top of my disappointment I fumbled and stuttered my way though my description, of a book that deserved a lot more credit, in class the next day. So, I was quite surprised when my poster was selected to go on the famous Wall along side your other favorite visual aids.
    After a few weeks though I began to think that it had been a pity selection since the poster had fallen over and was laying face down on top of a bookshelf. It wasn’t till just recently when you said that it was one of your favorites and said something to the class about my artistic talents that my pride for the flimsy piece of cardboard swelled. That’s when I realized how instrumental your support of my work and talents has been this year. Freshman year has been hard for me, and I know I haven’t put my best fot forward. Thankfully you’ve been there to make sure I take the right turns. Mathew and Meaghan are right you know, you really are the best teacher in the world!