Reflection

On Monday, December 7th will be an art reception displaying the student's digital art as well as other art students' work influenced by our discussions of trash, recycling, and environmental issues.
The Director or Keep Midland Beautiful will speak for a few minutes with ideas on how students can continue to be active participants in protecting our environment. She has also brought over recycling bins and offered to help start a school recycling program.

As I set up the plastic curtain, the reactions and comment were very positive. 

• The Administration has been very supportive and willing to make changes to help the school be more proactive in reducing, reusing, recycling plastic. 
• Teachers K-5 through 12 have asked me to explain the curtain to their students.
• The Upper School visual art students who helped build it, are now bringing bottles to the recycle receptacle near my room. 
• An eleventh grade girl came to me asking if I would help her plan an Earth Day event
• A teacher/mom said, "I think it is beautiful and we are going to make Christmas decorations for our tree the same way." 

One disappointment has been how quickly the plastic curtain is getting torn down. At first I felt student weren't respecting or getting the concept, but then I witnessed the joy of the young students seeing it for the first time. Their faces lit up with excitement and they took off in a full run, arms spread as the coils wrapped around their bodies. On the other side of the curtain, they had plastic attached in their hair, on their backpack, and under their arms. With the confused looks, I decided, they understood the plastic annoyance notion. 

"That plastic thing is really annoying Mrs. Gates, " one exasperated student complained to me after the third day of the installation.