View Full Version : School year goal
Chicken lady
8-13-17, 4:48pm
I've kind of been addressing these elsewhere, but after reading the old studio thread, and looking at the beginning of the school year, I am seeing the studio as a smaller, more achievable goal than the elephant, but still a big project.
i thought I would set some goals for the school year (which hasn't quite started for me, but I'll get a jump on it.) It runs through May.
so, I have 17 more molds on my floor to wash/find a home for/discard, and I have 37 buckets of scrap clay in the middle of my floor. They range in size from 1-5 gallons and are various amounts of full. 34 of them need to leave completely.
i have a huge pile of cardboard.
i have many random partially filled containers of glaze.
those are the biggest things.
so, by the end of the school year I will
1) finish off the buckets
2) finish off the molds
3) use or recycle the cardboard (reserving the possibility of finding a neat location to keep a reasonable supply)
4) have no little plastic cups of glaze, and a reasonable, neatly arranged number of bottles and colors
also
5) I will do 4 shows/sales
6) I will set aside at least one 4 hour block each week to produce new work.
anybody else have a goal they want to work on for the school year?
One of my fall goals is decluttering the yard. I have six weeks of "free" (included in my taxes) pickup of yard waste in October and November.
I'm glad you are getting closer to realizing your goal.
Chicken lady
8-13-17, 7:06pm
So are you starting early to pile things up? Or are you getting non-organics out of the way so that leaf clean up and such will be easier?
i have a goal #7 - the drywall scrap. I would like to have that completely cut into ware boards and distributed among school, my studio, and the studio I take classes from by the end of October.
I am piling things up early.
Sounds great, I am trying to fit into my space which is so small. I just did a lot of work in my space today. Feels very good. I am working on a goal so it is good to read others
Chicken lady
8-21-17, 7:16am
So, last week i
-1- washed some empty buckets which are going back to school today
-4- emptied a few of the little cups of glaze
-5- tried a new sale
-6- *spent some significant chunks of time in the studio glazing this week, which resulted in new pieces, but I actually mean 4 hours on wet clay. I don't really like long blocks of glazing and am going to try to avoid putting myself in that position for fall sales. Wet work needs uninterrupted time. Glazing can be done in starts and stops.
nothing on 2, 3, or 7.
yppej, how is your yard? I need to have a bonfire for mine.
zoe girl, are you unpacked enough yet? I start classroom set up with my roommate today.
I am up and running! First day of school today. I went shopping over the weekend and got a new rug, pillows with casds that match the rug, shelving for my office and more basketballs. Spent about 4 hours there yesterday with the paperwork and all. So many issues last week slowed m down.
Better get going
I tackled more of some tall forsythia bushes yesterday and have the scratches and on my dominant hand blisters to prove it. They are out of control and sending runners out all over the place now that we are no longer in drought. In a couple weeks my hand should be healed nicely and I will continue my efforts. In the meantime I will stick to light weeding.
Chicken lady
8-26-17, 6:25pm
This week, I:
2 - put away two clean molds and took one mold to s hool
4 - emptied a couple more little cups of glaze and recycled a glaze bottle
5 - researched a fall show but discovered the application deadline was in May!
6 - worked my 4 hour uninterrupted block with wet clay. Kept 8 pieces to finish and dry, finished 4, wrapped 4
need to address goals 2 and 7 as i have had no progress for two weeks.
I delegated some brush clearing to my son. Next will come cutting down some summer flowers and ferns that are deadening, but that will wait 2 weeks until after company arrives and departs. In preparation for the visit I recaulked the tub today. I also did some general cleaning with the magic erasers recommended in the bathtub cleaning thread. I really like them.
Chicken lady
8-31-17, 8:30pm
Doing an early call on this week because my son is getting married this weekend.
2- washed 5 molds
3- put 5 layers on cardboard on the floor of my greenhouse. Hopefully this will stop the blackberries from forcing their way through the landscape fabric.
That's it. This week was all about the addition and the wedding, but at least I did something.
Yeah, that plantproof landscape fabric definitely isn't.
I have less than 24 hours until company arrives so have a final cleaning blitz. DS is having a meltdown because with his new bedroom furniture the TV cable will not reach, and horrible me, I threw out the longer cable that had been laying around the house for years unused. He says the if you don't use it in a year rule toss it is stupid, etc. And it was a long day in the office, with the boss who walks past his staff without so much as a good morning lobbing out an email nastygram to the group. I am looking forward to getting back to the catharsis of my fall yardwork project the following weekend.
TooSweetForMe
9-1-17, 8:16pm
I got in over 3000 steps today - was going to walk this evening but it's raining. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.
Chicken lady
9-10-17, 7:55am
This week was the first week of classes (teaching) and I made progress on exactly zero of my pottery goals.
i am going to have to do a better job with time management. Especially since I am starting a class (attending) October 17 that will be homework intensive. The teacher is fantastic and last time I took one of his classes, trying to keep up with everything he threw at us was like drinking from a fire hose. I could have taken the ideas and instruction from the first class and worked on them all 8 weeks, but he moved on every week!
yppej, how was your company?
Hi CL, company was OK, but it was good to get back to normal including more fall cleanup yesterday. I cut down ferns and some lilies and put away the garden hose which is a big mangly mess that I am too cheap to replace with the shrinkable type hose. I have so much brush piled up my neighbor has been cool, but he has a huge tree that could fall on my house in a storm, so I don't care. Yard waste pickups resume next month.
Chicken lady
9-10-17, 9:57am
Is the tree dead? Out here, you could call the county and they would make him remove it. Although, out here the county mostly makes you remove trees that could fall on the road, because your neighbors house is unlikely to be close enough to your property line to get hit by your tree.
No, it's not dead, but it leans over and I saw live trees come down in the December 2008 ice storm.
Chicken lady
9-16-17, 8:52pm
To recap goals:
1) finish off the buckets
2) finish off the molds
3) use or recycle the cardboard (reserving the possibility of finding a neat location to keep a reasonable supply)
4) have no little plastic cups of glaze, and a reasonable, neatly arranged number of bottles and colors
also
5) I will do 4 shows/sales
6) I will set aside at least one 4 hour block each week to produce new work.
7) turn all the drywall scap into ware boards and distribute among home, school, and commercial studio by the end of october
This week i
2 - put some dry molds away on a shelf
3 - used some more of the cardboard to mulch some plants.
5 - scouted out a community event as a possible sale for next year - not my crowd
7 - finished 3 small and 4 large ware boards
I also fired my home kiln.
I am thinking that the four hour block is going to be an issue. I have very few places in my week now where i am home for 4 straight hours and don't have other commitments intruding (like farm chores, dinner, and baking). It would have to be on the weekend or every monday afternoon. I may try to do that on mondays that do not have appointments or other activities, but i think for now i am going to change it to 8 hours a week in blocks of one hour or more.
Why not keep it at 4 hours in 1-2 hours blocks to see how it goes before you set yourself up for 8 hours? You are making good progress on massive goals.
Chicken lady
9-17-17, 6:45pm
Because if i make it 4 hours i will let it get put off, and if i make it 8 i will try to slip an hour in when i see a chance. So i will probably do better failing at 8 than succeeding at 4. Once i see where the times are that work or don't, i can adjust again.
Also, if i can't put in 8 hours a week i should stop lying to myself about taking this seriously.
I have 3 trees made to go with my dragons for Maker Faire! I also taught one session of Yarn Arts on Friday, we made god's eyes and they turned out great. I have a TP tube bangle project for next week. the TP tube is wrapped with yarn and then designs can be woven into the yarn. Plus I have done fabric paint designs on some pillow cases for the reading corner at work. So those are all the FUN work things to do.
Chicken lady
9-18-17, 9:04pm
Trees? That sounds neat.
Today i carried some pieces of drywall out to the barn and i spent 1 hr, 45 min on my potery. Some of that was prep work - like wedging clay, but none of it was cleanup or organizing. I have three large pieces underway to hopefully finish up tomorrow, and clay "resting" for some smaller items i can work on as demos at school. I emptied three buckets but did not wash them yet. They will get washed tomorrow and go to school on wednesday.
Chicken lady
9-20-17, 8:44pm
Yesterday I spent an hour and 25 minutes on my pottery (week total so far 3hours, ten minutes!)
and I washed those buckets.
today I made 4 medium sized ware boards and took them to school along with the three buckets.
each student now has a bucket and one (out of 5) of my classes is full. Plus new enrollment generally slows about now. So there is less pressure to empty the remaining buckets. There are a few at school with lids that won't last the year though, and at least two at home with no lids at all.
Chicken lady
9-22-17, 6:11am
I moved another piece of drywall from the garage to the studio (there are 3 more leaning on the wall in the garage) and made two large ware boards and left them at school yesterday.
CL, It's so great to move the big things that are taking up space and get them somewhere useful! Good for you!
Chicken lady
9-23-17, 7:30pm
Moved another piece of drywall, used some cardboard, spent 4 hours in the studio including stopping to make another large ware board when I needed it, took a break, and went back for 2 hours and 20 minutes - so I'm well over my 8 hours for the week.
i didn't start anything new, but I was working with Unfired clay - detailing, trimming, and finishing started projects! I feel like I made a lot of progress - some of them I decided to just toss in the reclaim bucket, but that is progress too! Until I clear up my backlog, I shouldn't have new things underway unless they are a specific thing I need more of, I am using up trimmings from something else underway (saves reworking the clay) or I have actually reached a point where nothing I started can be worked on - hah!
there will be plenty of new work needed for my Holiday sale, so I don't have to just finish projects, but no more big new ideas!
one prototype I finished today is definitely a one of a kind instead! Cool idea, complete pain to execute and going to be a challenge to fire.
I cut down the rest of the blueflags. Next will be false sunflowers but the neighbor had a tree cutting crew in that area so I couldn't work there. Sawdust, tree limbs, et cetera were flying everywhere.
Chicken lady
9-24-17, 8:37pm
I know you are happy to have that tree down though.
i worked in the studio for 3 hours and 15 minutes today. No new pieces, just wedging and finish work and scrapping old starts. The bad news is that reworking all this clay is filling up my buckets again, but it's still a step in the right direction. Must finish what I start!
Chicken lady
9-30-17, 9:03am
Well, after that strong start to the week I have done nothing. I'm not sure if I'll get to it today - I have a lot of barn work to do.
i did get an e-mail that I have another student starting Wednesday, so I need to have another empty bucket for her.
Chicken lady
10-4-17, 6:21am
So last week was a “break” but so far this week I have washed a couple of plaster molds and emptied the bucket for the new student. I also signed up for the holiday sale at the studio.
i am starting to think that I won’t make the October deadline on the drywall. Not because I can’t do it, but because I want to give it a little longer to see what sizes of boards I really need as I am prepping for the holiday sale and how many we actually use in the classroom. I will get the last two pieces of drywall out of the garage though.
Chicken lady
10-29-17, 9:47pm
I got to spend a lot of time in the studio this weekend.
i’m still Working on the glaze cups, the buckets, the drywall, the molds and the cardboard.
i have my 3rd and last sale of the calendar year in two weeks - second one of the school year.
i Am still adjusting the studio time/wet clay work. My current hope is to get an hour of throwing in every day because I am not going to make progress if I don’t practice. I already see a bunch of days ahead when that won’t happen (like the two days when I am at the sale) and Wednesdays and Fridays are doubtful, but if I try I am likely to do at least something.
All vegetation is cut down for fall and I am putting out yard waste every week. I have cleared up one of the three piles of brush, etc.
Chicken lady
10-31-17, 9:27pm
I did an hour of wet work in the studio this morning (but not throwing). I also made some hippos this evening.
I have two new students starting tomorrow and I don’t have buckets ready for them. But I found out about one of them at 3:00 today.
i am subbing in all of my open periods on Thursday, so that is going to cut back my clay time also - I have to get to school 3 hours earlier and I have to do my planning at home.
Ask ally on school days I get up at 5:30, spend half an hour waking up with coffee online, and then have from 6-8 to make breakfast, eat, pack our lunches, do an hour of chores, and get ready for school. Leave at 8, home a little after 5 if I have no errands, and then I feel like I have a lot of time (5 hours) but it’s dinner, another hour of chores, and any planning and housework that need doing. Plus any errands cut into that 5 hours.
CL I don't see any rest time in your schedule. That's what part of the 5 hours after working all day is for.
Chicken lady
11-1-17, 5:46am
Well, I am alone with my thoughts in the car on the way home, which often gives me enough time to “shift gears”.
and I seem to be doing quite a bit of “sitting around” or something, because I can’t figure out where most of the 5 hours goes.
Sitting by the fire making hippos is restful.
It's lovely to see you are getting, choosing to get more time in the studio. I am sure it takes a big shift in thinking to get there and not put it off as there are many other things clamoring for your attention. congratulations!
Chicken lady
11-2-17, 7:32pm
I snuck 20 minutes in this morning, and I was out for an hour and 15 minutes after I got home, but 10 minutes of that was on the phone with dh and 20 with dd2. I am bad at “DO NOT ANSWER THE PHONE”.
i think I will be close to where I want to be by my sale if I keep my focus though.
Chicken lady
12-4-17, 8:18am
So Yppej, how did the yard waste turn out?
it’s been a month since I updated this, and i’ve been reworking the time in the studio over and over.
This month i’ve made a tiny bit of progress on the cardboard and drywall. I’ve also identified a couple of sales to check out for possible participation in 2018/19, and I had my third for 2017/second for the school year.
the glaze, molds, and buckets have pretty much stalled.
I got all the brush out, but there are no more yard waste days so the leaves will wait for spring. Someone gave us a leaf blower/mulcher but it did not work to speak of.
You are really planning ahead!
Chicken lady
12-4-17, 8:46pm
Well, there is an annual winter fair coming up in early February that has a dec 1st application deadline, so if I go and check it out and like it, it would be something to plan to do in 2019. When I found it, it was really too late to get my act together and apply by dec 1st.
i’m glad you got your brush done.
Chicken lady
2-3-18, 5:35pm
Two months since posting. The school year is more than half over.
getting sick was a big step back.
posting the goals again:
1) finish off the buckets
2) finish off the molds
3) use or recycle the cardboard (reserving the possibility of finding a neat location to keep a reasonable supply)
4) have no little plastic cups of glaze, and a reasonable, neatly arranged number of bottles and colors
5) I will do 4 shows/sales
6) I will set aside at least one 4 hour block each week to produce new work. - changed to 8 hours a week in blocks of one hour or more.
7) turn all the drywall scap into ware boards and distribute among home, school, and commercial studio by the end of october
In the last two months I took a few drywall boards to the commercial studio, and used some of the cardboard. Turns out I need some of the drywall to do a patch job in the basement, so it is good that it isn’t all gone.
i’ve added Enough students to be short on buckets again (great for my classes) but have spent little to no time in the studio, so wedging would be good at minimum!
No progress on glaze or molds at home, but one of my class fathers just built me a beautiful, inspirational shelf for glazes at school.
today I visited that show i was thinking about for next year. I am definitely going to apply. I talked to one of the potters at the show and exchanged some ideas, and she suggested I join the local (local being a Tristate area) semi-professional organization (which she belongs to and which has two shows a year.)
i also am am feeling inspired about creating some new work.
Good for you CL. Every step forward counts.
Chicken lady
2-8-18, 9:10am
I cleared some more cardboard out of the studio barn yesterday.
Chicken lady
3-18-18, 9:31pm
I have not given up.
more cardboard out today, worked on pieces for several hours (don’t know how long, a long time.) emptied a bucket.
Yard waste pickups resume in April so I am in hiatus.
Chicken lady
5-24-18, 8:09am
So, tomorrow is the last day of school.
none of this happened.
it all seemed very simple and reasonable when I started out, but I have spent most of the year feeling like I was either running downhill - quick throw your foot out before you fall and tumble... or dragging weight uphill, often too tired to take one more step.
i have made some progress, so there is that. I am closer to where I want to be than I was at the beginning of the year, although I think the studio is much worse somehow. I am bringing a lot home with me from my classroom this year - it may be the best condition I have ever left the room in - to try to help me sort everything in one place over the summer. I have a vision of getting a bunch of identical boxes and filling them with examples and specific equipment if materials for various units and labeling them ie. “masks”, “pop dishes”, “geometric forms”... then stacking them in my upper cupboards in the storage closet.
i do expect to have my storage closet completely cleaned out by the end of the day today. Which will be a first for ten years of teaching. I’m going to ask the cleaning crew to actually clean all the cupboards this summer. (Which will be a first in 7 years in this building and who knows how long before that - I inherited the closet with materials in it left behind by people who taught in the school when it moved five years before we moved in)
CL, sounds as if you HAVE made good progress. Starting with an empty, clean storage closet is magic! One year when teaching our 4th grade team cleaned and scrubbed the communal closet....the vice principal took it over for book storage and had us share with another grade's closet. Of course, the cleaning and scrubbing had been done on our own time.
Chicken lady
5-24-18, 10:50am
Nope, this is my closet! If administration tries to take it, I will leave my stuff all over the hallway, classroom, and student storage. I have lost other space, but admin is so happy to have a room that locks and that you can’t see into into which to banish my stuff! And the cleaning and scrubbing will be done by parent volunteers. (They are our heros!)
dado potato
5-26-18, 8:12am
Chicken lady,
Kudos on the milestone of 10 years of teaching. :thankyou:
From your 5/24 post, I gather that the initial goal for the school year helped focus your attention on the disorganization/stuff problem. But the problem persisted, and it may even be getting worse... despite the progress you made.
In my opinion it is "resilient" to substitute a more attainable goal, when an initial goal has been thwarted. It seems that you have replaced your school-year goal with a realistic summer-goal.
Your last-day goal of emptying the closet (for the first time in 10 years) is radical! That empty closet will be part of the solution next year, yes?
As they say in Cleveland, There's always next year.
I got rid of the leaves and brush - achieved.
Now I have lots of weeds - summer goal.
Chicken lady
5-28-18, 8:03am
So, I did in fact leave my closet empty. Actually, my whole classroom looks pretty good. (Dh is not excited about the huge mess I brought home.) I didn’t quite finish everything I wanted to do in it, but more than enough to have it cleaned. I may go back in on Thursday for the final room clean out day - maybe even take something back.
right now I am visiting my son (I am the only one in the house awake because he lives in a different time zone and dh is a sleepy head) we brought him the six bins of his electric train which he is happily setting up in the basement of his brand new (to him - built before I was born) house. The bins were in my studio. So, win there.
i have a lot of critter barn and outside work to do when I get back, but the forecast calls for rain, so I plan to spend that time in my studio. For now, being here is a wonderful break. We’re having fun with ds and ddil and it is very low stress. Today we might go to the zoo, and I might show the kids how to tie their “new” slightly neglected grape vines to the trellis.
CL, what a great time for you! Got rid of 6 tubs, left your classroom and closet clear and you're getting a relaxing break. Enjoy it all!!!
Chicken lady
6-1-18, 6:10am
I scared my boss.
Back story:
i became aware of an opportunity to expand my job and asked for it. The opportunity had been kept quiet and and already filled without notifying the staff (someone left, she didn’t tell coworkers she was leaving until the last day, but she told admin and they filled her job without posting it and were waiting to make the announcement) I was somewhat upset. My boss apologized and told me that she had had no idea that I would be interested. I cited multiple communications with her and actions by me that should have indicated an interest. - all this happened by e-mail while I was gone.
also - I stripped my room for cleaning, remember? And my boss hadn’t seen it. And my heart daughter, who is leaving, stripped her room after this all went down.
so yesterday morning my boss gave the new staff members for next year a tour of the building. Yesterday afternoon, I had my end of the year review.
my boss again apologized and told me that in retrospect she should have realized I would be interested in the opportunity. She promised that next time I would be at the top of her list. She asked me to keep an eye out for ways I could expand my role in the direction that interests me over the coming year and let her know so that she can facilitate that, she presented me with a plan for how they are going to finally buy me the expensive new kiln I have been wanting for a long time and have started to really push for the past year because the old one is failing and I don’t want another piece of garage sale make do. And she must have said seven times “you are coming back next year, right?”
i think she she thought I was upset, decided to quit, and had heart daughter clear out all my stuff.
Sometimes it takes a good scare to get attention... even if inadvertent.
that's great CL...a scare works sometimes.
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