Our grade-level workroom has a large white board in it. I suppose we should be using it for important things, like reminders for meetings and things like that, but we don't. First of all, no one can reach it because it is set on the wall above large built-in shelves. Unless one is seven feet tall, nobody is writing on that board.
No one, that is, except for me.
I'm tired of looking at the white space. It reminds me of blank paper, mocking me until I write something. I decide to create a winter scene on the board, and, because I am so short, this means I will need to climb up onto the shelves and make a spectacle of myself. For this reason, I only work on my idea while people are out of the building or out of my immediate area.
Early in the winter, I start adding things to the board: a slope, a tree, a sledder, a skier. Over the next few weeks I occasionally go in and add something else: a skater on a pond, more trees, a house with smoke coming from the chimney.
After that, the board sits for a long time. I don't mind if anyone wants to add anything to the board. I mean, it's not "my" board. But, no one does.
Finally, during conference week, I arrive back at school an hour early for one of the evening rounds. I gather every color of marker that I can find in my classroom and head back down to the workroom. Tonight I add a snowboarder, a snowball fight with a fort, a small bonfire, a dog, a person roasting marshmallows, and the final snowflakes. (Yes, I know the snowflakes have too many points, but I'm not an artist.)
We still have eight more weeks of winter, so I suppose the picture can stay. Maybe I'll add flowers as things thaw. Maybe I'll melt the pond and have the skater fall in. Maybe I'll add some deciduous trees as the weather warms or have a bear awaken from hibernation and chase someone across the board.
Until then, perhaps my drawing will brighten up everybody's day when they're stuck in the workroom fighting with the copy machine.
