Today was a good day

So after several weeks of trying to get schedules to match up, today was the first of four visits from an artist-in-residency in my art room. She is teaching the students how to do gyotaku, a fish-printing technique. She brought 3 real fish and one rubber one, and the kids painted them and printed the fish images onto muslin fabric. I'm planning to stitch them together and make wall hangings to stay in our school. Below are bits of the finished prints.
I also stayed after school tonight to help supervise our K-12 art show. Each teacher brought around 25 pieces to add to the exhibit and the final product is really, really nice. It was fun to talk to the families who came through to ooh and ahh at their children's work. These are the days when I truly love my job as an art teacher. A little shake-up to the routine, new materials, student work all fancied up for display. Today was a good day.