Riley Woods Photography

WES Winter Art Show

rileywoods — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:59:05 +0000

I held my first art show at school last Tuesday. I spent a week with all of my classes teaching them how to critique their work and having each student choose one piece of art to put in the show. Then we mounted each piece. (AKA some of my students helped, but I came in extra early for a week and for 3 hours on a Saturday to mount all of them). Three of my classes helped me set up for the show, putting mounting tape on all of the artwork, hanging each piece in the multipurpose room, making signs for the hallway. I was really proud of how much work they put in to help me, and how the event turned out. Unfortunately, with a school of over 400 students, only 25 adults signed the sign-in sheet at the art show, 8 of which were teachers/faculty and my roommate. Needless to say I was extremely disappointed.

The experience was even more of a wake up call about the community in which I’m living and teaching. I need to work harder at investing my students in the idea of not only creating art, but also showing it off. I need to work even harder at investing the parents and family members at my school in my art program. Moreover, this experience was another affirmation of how little art is valued even within my school, and I need to stop allowing my subject to be treated as inferior to “real” classes. Even though a part of me really wants to not even bother having another art show in the spring, I know soon enough this bitterness I have towards the low attendance at the show will turn into a drive to increase attendance at the next show. That’s what this job is all about – failing and coming back for more again and again.

Pretty much how the gym looked all night: empty.

Return to the Delta

rileywoods — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:58:37 +0000

On Martin Luther King weekend, I went back to the Mississippi Delta for the first time to visit my friends from Institute. It was so wonderful to see these girls that I had only seen or talked to through skype, phone calls or texts, in between all of our busy teaching lives. Being with them again was so comfortable – going out to dinner, driving all around Mississippi, fooling around while we were supposed to be lesson planning – like I had never left. It was a much needed reunion and really great to see what their lives are like in their region! I didn’t take as many photos as I intended, but here are a few.

I’d never seen Mississippi from the sky before, and it was beautiful! I took 3 flights that Friday to get to Greenville, MS. It was the smallest airport I’d ever been to, right in the middle of a cornfield (it reminded me of Hollandale in that way). I wish I took a picture of the recliners they had that I was lounging in, or the creepy airport cop that was half hitting on me, half trying to kick me out of the airport.

Saturday we went to Oxford, MS, Home of “The Harvard of the South.”

Oxford again

On the way back to Greenwood from Oxford. Love the delta sunsets.

Julie decided to walk down the hill this time, rather than rolling down like she’d done 10 minutes before.

Friends Helena, AR

23rd Birthday

rileywoods — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:25:05 +0000

Keeping up with my new year’s resolution, I made sure to document my 23rd birthday (while my roommates made fun of me relentlessly). I had a really great birthday, starting with 2 of my first graders coming into my room in the morning and singing to me. It was so cute that they remembered when it was and thought to come sing to me! Some of my other first grade classes found out it was my birthday so I got a lot of hugs and singing in the halls, too. Thanks everyone for the cards, calls, texts and facebook posts! And thanks to all my roommates for all the fun things in the photos

I opened the fridge when I got home from school and found a birthday card and Sam Adams!

Check + birthday! Thanks roomies!

2011 in Photos

rileywoods — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:47:08 +0000

I thought I’d start this year’s wrap-up with a quote from last year’s final post: “My biggest goal for 2011? Make it to North Carolina. I’ve been saying it for years, and this is my year to finally get there.” (To view last year’s post, click here.)

Joining Teach for America and being placed in North Carolina wasn’t my original plan to reach this goal, but either way, I’m happy to have accomplished my biggest goal of 2011!

Big things in 2011:

• Deciding to apply for TFA on my 22nd birthday, and being accepted in April

• Syracuse graduation ceremony

• Spending the summer in Mississippi. This was my first extended period of time somewhere other than the Northeast, and it was an important experience to see how people live in another part of the country. I made some wonderful friends, learned a lot about teaching and myself, and it was also my first time being in a time zone other than EST, which was cool!

• Having my placement changed to K-4 Art. I wouldn’t have changed my placement of U.S. History over the summer for the world. My CMA, CMA group, and students were such an integral part of how much I learned as a teacher, and surviving/loving Institute. But for me, being switched to art solidified that joining TFA and moving to ENC was the right thing.

• Getting my first place in North Carolina. Great roommates, in-ground pool, close to Wal-Mart. Not too shabby.

Even though I love teaching, my biggest goal of 2012 is to stop neglecting my photography. I think I did a great job keeping up with it at Institute, both documenting my experience and taking portraits, but I’ve hardly taken any photos in North Carolina. That’s going to change in 2012. I want to take more photos of my students, what I’m doing for fun, and get my name out there for portraits and weddings.

Other resolutions:

• Decorate my house more through DIY projects

• Teach my kids more technical drawing skills and steer away from craft-based projects

• Spend more time exploring North Carolina

• Donate blood regularly

Ok, ok. For those of you solely interested in the photos, here they are. I’d be interested to hear in the comments if anyone had a favorite photo that I did not include.

First week in the Mississippi Delta. Getting on the bus at 5:55 was rough that first week, but the sunrises were beautiful. I’m sure I made great first impressions snapping photos while everyone tried to sleep.

Mr. Steve, best bus driver ever. It didn’t hurt that he drove the only air conditioned bus.

Weldon Elementary Football Game

rileywoods — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:05:03 +0000

I’ve really been missing weddings lately. Wondering why I decided to move to North Carolina to teach art at an elementary school in the middle of nowhere instead of going straight into photography. But then I went to my kids’ football game this morning, and they were all so excited to see me there. If you’ve never seen 8 year olds play tackle football, it’s probably the cutest thing ever. I still miss weddings, but photographing the game today was really fun, and I’m realizing that I have the opportunity to practice different kinds of photography here, and I just need to start taking advantage of it.

Here are a few of my shots from the game. This is really only the second time I’ve tried sports photography, and I don’t have the best lenses for it, but I like a few of them. Hopefully I’ll get better as the season goes on. Final score: WES – 20, Halifax Academy – 8

Shameless plug for my art class

rileywoods — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:34:41 +0000

If you’ve been following my blog this summer, you may have gathered that I’m taking a little break from pursuing my wedding and portrait photography career to be a teacher in North Carolina through Teach For America (www.teachforamerica.org). I am the new Art teacher at Weldon Elementary School in Weldon, NC. TFA places mostly recent college graduates from all different fields in low-income, low-performing schools. I teach grades K-4, and have a little over 375 students split between 19 different classes. I am very lucky to be teaching art. Many of the schools where Corps Members in my area are teaching don’t offer art. (As it is, my school only has Art, PE and library). Art and other enrichment classes are really important to the development of children and moreover offer a much needed break and creative outlet from academic classes during the day. Unfortunately, they are often the first to be cut when there isn’t enough funding. As a recent college graduate and new teacher, money is tight, and I have been buying a lot of my own supplies for my class. I would really like to add more art books to my classroom to help incorporate literacy into my curriculum. Some would really help with planning lessons and activities, while most of them will be used independently by my students either when they complete an assignment before the rest of their classmates, or on the one Friday per month that they will have specialized drawing/craft sessions with me.

Here is an example of my kids’ first project, which was to decorate their name tags using at least 5 different colors and drawing 2 favorite things. (We’ve only had 2 days of school so far due to Hurricane Irene, so I’ve only had 10 out of my 19 classes and we’re still on the 1st project.)

I can’t take credit for how awesome I think this name tag is because I haven’t taught anything yet, but I think this little 1st grader will be an awesome artist this year! (I censored my student’s name)

The cheerleader does not look pleased that that pass is about to be completed!

So, shameless plug:

I have created an Amazon Wish List with books that would be helpful in my classroom. If you would like to contribute, I would be so grateful. Most of the books are available used at a much less expensive price, and I encourage you to purchase those as they will be handled by many little children (so they might as well start out a little beat up!). Also if you happen to have any other drawing, painting, crafting books for kids lying around your house that you no longer use, those would be much appreciated as well!

http://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/22Y9VGKU23IEU?reveal=unpurchased&filter=all&sort=date-added&layout=standard&x=8&y=9

Thank you very much in advance!

My new room in North Carolina

rileywoods — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:09:11 +0000

My room in my new home in North Carolina is finally decorated, so here it is for those of you who’ve been asking what it looks like! Due to Hurricane Irene, the rest of the house was pretty dark when I took these, so photos of the whole house will come later. I stupidly didn’t take a before shot of the room, but it used to have white wall paper with multicolor confetti on it that had been up for about 20 years. We all repainted our rooms and got rid of the wall paper.

I hand painted the signs above my bed from fence pickets in my back yard. I’ve been searching around here for more of them so I can make 2 more that say “Mississippi River” and “Lake Gaston,” but no one really has fences like that around here, so I may have to have my mom mail me more.

The Barbie light switch plate was here when I moved in, and I couldn’t get rid of it after I painted! Alexa room has a deer standing in a field.

I’ve been collecting antique bottles for a while, and every time I go to a new beach I take sand home to fill them. Newest addition is sand from the Mississippi River, and a piece of driftwood from there too. (They were selling driftwood at The Warehouse in Cleveland for $30, but I got the real deal for free. I bought those colored pencils made from twigs at the Warehouse though.) I’ve been searching antique stores for literally 2 years looking for a shelf like this for the bottles, and surprisingly I finally found it at Urban Outfitters. The tags on the bottles are handmade paper that I made with old computer paper and flowers from around my town.

I bought these old shutters at an antique store at home and repainted them. Then I tied ribbon to earring backs to hang the hole-punched photos.

The last days of Institute

rileywoods — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:39:04 +0000

These are just some random photos from the last 2 weeks of Institute. A lot of the photos I took during this time were of my students and my friends teaching, and unfortunately I’m not allowed to put those online (but if you’d like to see portraits of my students you can come ask me).

Delta Institute definitely had its ups and downs, but overall it was probably the best summer of my life in terms of how much I grew as a person and a teacher, and the amazing friendships I made. I’ve also had the opportunity to experience completely different places and people than I’m used to, and take some cool photos along the way.

(The photos in this post are no where near my best work but just show some of the stuff I’ve been doing in Mississippi.)

This is a barge floating down the Mississippi. We went to the levee to swim one weekend.

Chillin on a dirt road

Just some donkeys blocking our way.

We passed a sunflower field on the way home from the levee.

The sky outside the dining hall one day.

From inside Catfish Baby restaurant

There is a great amount of stray dogs in Mississippi. Someone found this puppy outside of our school all alone and a CMA decided to adopt her. Her name is Friday.

On the first day of Institute every corps member is assigned to a group with a CMA (Corps Member Advisor). I got the best CMA group and CMA I ever could have hoped for. This is from CMA appreciation day when we bought our CMA, Cliff, a bunch of presents.

Cliff is the #1 CMA!

His shirt said “Let me just drop everything to work on your problems.” Which he did all the time.

My beautiful friends at our CMA group dinner.

I didn’t take this photo, but this is my CMA group. I wish they were all in ENC with me!

May freedom forever fly

rileywoods — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:38:11 +0000

4th of July weekend in the Mississippi Delta

If you haven’t seen enough sunrise photos

There was an awesome 80s cover band at the Pickled Okra.

TFA/Delta State put on a great 4th of July party for us with BBQ and fireworks.

Week 2 in the Delta

rileywoods — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 16:40:14 +0000

Bananagrams on a Saturday night

My view on the way to school each day. I’ve never been somewhere so flat where it looks like the clouds are so close to the ground.

Our bus ran out of gas on the way to school this week. Just another day at Institute.

longest bus ride = longest naps

The sunsets here are unreal. This is the view from where we were working on lesson plans in the student union.

We took a 2 min break to watch it on the balcony.

Cliff, my CMA, being animated as always. “Dang, Mr. Archey your eyes so BIG!”

We had a “teacher stare” contest at our school on Friday.

My CMA group cheering on our rep. in the teacher stare contest.

Just some bunnies we saw chillin on the side of the road.

On our quest to the Mississippi River, we stopped at an alligator pond.

The TFA Album, soon to be exclusively sold at Walmart.

We found the Mississippi River!