Zentangles - Photo Challenge/New

So once again I am going to try to do a NEW tangle a day.  I haven't managed this the last two years, but I did get pretty far into it last year when the wheels came off the wagon, so to speak, when school started in September and I just never got caught up.  The last year that I completed was 2013 - yikes! I look forward to trying a lot harder to complete it this year.  Especially since these last few calendars have shown the step-outs enabling me to really use them as reference guides for tangles. 

A friend of mine who teaches at the middle school in our district talked me into helping her come up with an enrichment class to offer during her school's enrichment days (two of the three single-session days during the school year and Take Your Child To Work Day).  The teachers were asked to come up with a subject area that they could teach to a group of students that was not part of the curriculum. In the course of my conversation with her I mentioned Zentangles and how I wished I could get back into the classroom and share that.  

Well, as it happens, they were also looking for community members to share hobbies and interests with the students, so we proposed an introductory session on tangling as long as I got release time from my principal to be able to go over there.  He was okay with it, and her proposal was approved so on Wednesday, Dec. 23 - the last day before our holiday break - I quickly flew through my morning duties at my school and booked it over to the middle school (which is only about 5 mins. away, thankfully!).  

I have to say that it felt really good to be in the classroom again.  The students were great - there were 11 of them and one student aide.  Some of them had had exposure to Zentangling before, but told me that they still learned new things about it.  

Here are some of their tiles.

We provided tiles and pens and I showed them how to add a string and four basic tangles.  I also brought along my calendars and books and during the second part of the session (when I had to go back to my school) they continued to work on their original tiles and on some ornament shapes that I had made copies of for them.  My friend gave them some colored Sharpies and you can see that some chose to add color to their tiles.  

Today I got a thank you note from the middle school principal (who had dropped in during the class along with the acting superintendent) for coming over and helping to make the enrichment day a success.  He doesn't realize how uplifting it was for me!