I am finished for this school year and it has been so interesting and only occasionally frustrating.  This is a great school with engaged staff and administration.  My glitches were the business office ordering materials and getting the building folks to play nice with art and women.  It all worked out and we had our grant extended into next year.  This is so important for this type of learners to have at least 2 years.  This is a developmental learning school and what I might take for granted takes more time.  On the last day students finally looked at me directly and related verbally.  Jayde learned my name instead of saying “excuse me” all the time.  On the last day we got students to draw things for the next part of the mural.  I think autistic kids and most of us need to see something concrete not abstract to understand.  I have been blessed with being able to see the big picture and help others do the steps to create something.  I’m kind of an art general contractor.  Most aren’t like me that way I’m finally realizing.  Hopefully this realization will make me a better teacher.

What we have so far.  This is 16 ft by 8 ft high and the lighting makes it so hard to photograph.  It is a curved wall so that is why I went with an appliqué approach.  The high relief bits are attached with construction adhesive and temporary screws.  It was decided that I could install.  This gave me the opportunity to have students set tiles directly on the wall and one of the most rewarding parts of the process.  We now have 16 additional feet to work with.  I’m delighted students now get it and are excited about designing more.  I can’t wait to see how things develop next year.

Our high relief dog.  A student made a drawing of a teacher’s dog that we used.  We have an F-16(I think that’s the right plane) that another student drew.

A kids Sponge Bob

Some handmade clay bits with our background of blue glass tiles.  I had them set handmade tile and glass tile on small pieces of mesh.  This was a great way to have kids apply tile to the wall.  I always want to know what clay and glazes were used so for us it was some kind of low fire white that I found in the art room and rehydrated.  We used Amaco velvet underglazes my go to glaze for inside and outside and a low fire gloss glaze.  I had most of the kids use cookie cutters to make tiles but some made more unique tiles.  John made his name and large!  We spread the letters out throughout the mural.