my chaos theory

i am so incredibly tired.

we're rounding out the last week of school here -- 1/2 day on monday is our last -- and i don't know if i'll make it through, folks.
the last week is usually characterized by antsy kids, long award assemblies, last-minute grading and furniture moving out to the hall.

on top of all that miscellaneous i thought it'd be fun to add a giant classroom mural painting project as the final hurrah.

in theory it sounds good -- keeps my kids busy up until the last day without any projects for me to grade and hand back before they leave. not only that, but it keeps them engaged in something fun that they'll actually want to be doing.
in practicality it's a nightmare!! there's paint everywhere. my classroom is trashed. choraling 110 amateur painters is an exhaustingly long chore. getting them to clean up after themselves every day is a constant struggle. keeping each of them painting all class long is hopeless.
supervising may sound like a pansy job, but truth be told, it's really really tiring. i've been wondering if something's wrong with me the last few days -- i haven't wanted to do anything when i get home except eat and sleep. today i've finally decided i'm just not used to the stress of dealing with this project all day long.

to keep my kids motivated, i told them that if they get it done before school's over, we'll have a wear-clothes-you-can-paint-on day and we'll all paint on each other's clothes. :-)
i'm sure they each have a few options -- it seems every single class finds me helping someone scrub paint out of their shirt. aprons, while functional, don't always match their outfit for the day. turns out, neither does gray paint... or pink or green or yellow.

i'll make sure to share pictures of the finished product. it's going to be pretty fun. sometimes the most chaos turns into the coolest end result. as my momma always says, "if it's worth doin', it's worth doin' right!"

i think is worth doin'. i'm working on the "doin' it right" part. it just might kill me, but at least i'll leave a long labor-intensive legacy for the next generation of blue eye art students to enjoy.