A Halloween Celebration With Marvel Comics Alum!

Today, Friday, October 30th, 7 PM (EST) I’ll be joined by 90s Marvel Comics creators D.G. Chichester, Christian Cooper, Howard Mackie, Marcus McLaurin, and Gregory Wright. We’ll be discussing the Midnight Sons: Ghost Rider, Darkhold, Morbius, Nightstalkers & more. We also plan on looking at the Clive Barker list of titles published through Marvel’s imprint Epic Comics. It all happens here on this channel!

Check out this spooky trailer for more!

Teaching In the 2020-21 School Year, Day 4

So … it’s my first week of returning to school … except I don’t exactly have a school. Long story made short, my district is scrambling and multiple teachers are being moved or expected to teach at more than one school. My principal said he’s planning on my return, but because of the chaos of distance learning vs hybrid teaching across fifteen schools, there’s no guarantee. So while I wait for assignment this week I enrolled in a Healing Centered Engagement workshop. The idea is to not just help students dealing with trauma (of all kinds) by coping, but to give them tools to heal. I’m learning a lot and feel this will be setting me on a new path to explore as I continue adapting my curriculum for the future.

Meanwhile, I also started designing my new online classroom. When I’m done each image on the screen will link a student to a particular lesson, all art related work. I literally just pulled or cut images from my desktop to incorporate into the ‘room’.

UPDATE: Following the weekend, on Day 6, was officially assigned my school of the last five years. *PHEW* But I’m still waiting on updated hybrid schedule. All I know is that I have to zoom afternoons from the classroom.

UPDATE 2: Day 11 – Our first morning of zoom orientation went awry and several of us found ourselves playing musical classrooms as we searched for a quiet corner of the building in a matter of minutes. Tomorrow is in-person orientation for Cohort A.

UPDATE 3: Day 13 – Today was the first official day of school, working off a semi-hybrid schedule. My head was spinning all day and it still is. I found out Friday I’m splitting my time between classrooms. Then a leak overnight left me reassembling the classroom an hour before the bell. I made it with a minute to spare. I can’t believe I have to go back tomorrow and do (most of) it all again tomorrow.

Sending love, luck, and patience to ALL educators out there trying to make things work. 😓

Marvel Comics of the 1990’s – TOMORROW

If you missed my announcement from earlier this month, check out this trailer for tomorrow’s event! I can’t wait to discuss Marvel Comics of the 1990s with such an illustrious panel of guests!

Trailer Screen

Go to https://youtu.be/ZYWNqe1tZic Aug 28 at 7PM!

Marvel Comics In the 1990s!

I am SO excited for Aug. 28th! I’ll be sitting down for a virtual discussion with unsung creators of Marvel Comics, Marcus McLaurin, Gregory Wright, and D.G. Chichester. This trio had a hand writing/editing characters like Ee1iEOuXsAMzdAeLuke Cage, Daredevil, Deathlok, Silver Sable and more! I’m happy we’ll have a chance to explore this era of comic book history and their particular corner of the Marvel Universe. Missing will be creator, Dwayne McDuffie, who passed in 2011 and ask you consider donating to the Dwayne McDuffie Foundation, a non-profit organization looking to establish academic scholarships for diverse students. Check out https://youtu.be/nT59XiRG2eU or follow #90sMarvel on Twitter for upcoming details.

Major 2020 Update

Where has time gone? It’s been months and I’ve failed to update my website’s blog in forever, but as you might imagine — there’s a lot going on. And that was BEFORE the shelter in place hit Boston (and the rest of the world). In as few words as possible, here’s what I’ve been doing —

  1. I found myself outside the art room and teaching fifth grade more often that not. If gave me the confidence to start teaching subjects beside the fine arts. I applied and was accepted as a graduate student for a Master of Education (Elementary). It’s been a lot of work and very different than getting a grad degree in my twenties. I am learning a lot.
  2. Because everything shut down (except for supermarkets, hospitals, and schools) my team and I are teaching from home. I’ve been trying to incorporate arts integrated projects to support lessons my colleagues are sharing. I’m positing (slightly tweaked) week’s worth of lessons here until I fully update this site.
  3. I had a fun project concerning a forgotten super hero from the 80’s, but it’s been postponed indefinitely now that most publishers have suspended all activity for the foreseeable future. Here’s a tease of a work in progress.