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STAR student Mosaic Project - Finished!






The installation of the 9 stars went pretty smooth. Each piece had finished edges which really cut down on time. The students completed their mosaic stars and then I did a marathon grouting of nine stars and nine hearts.
Students and everyone were excited to see them finally up and each piece is very unique and each star has the students name tag on it.
Students did their personal strength words on their mosaic stars as part of a leadership project. Glass, tile, glass gems, mirror were some of the materials used to fabricate the stars. the mosaic stars are part of a mural for the inner courtyard of the school. Pictures did not come out as well due, I think, to the sun being directly in the camera lens which was facing east into the sun at times. Good part was the shade during the installment!

Reasonably Suspicious (The Arizona Immigration Song)

This spoof was made by a teacher at the school in south Tucson where the mosaic star installations are. The actors are students from the school as a protest to the current law in Arizona where a person can be stopped on appearance if suspected of being illegal in the USA. Notice that they do not question the white european, middle eastern, asian illegal immigrants etc.- just the mexicans because of the border problems. The students I worked with said said that if you are a white mexican instead of brown you don't get harassed. They joked and said they would put up a sign on their cars saying "Stop me - I'm mexican!"
Even the 4th and 5th graders expressed their opinion - pointing out that it is unfair that brown mexicans dressed in popular mexican fashion are targets for harassment. Though the problem is getting worse and everyone is looking for answers, profiling is not a solution. It's like regressing back to the japanese camps during the war.

The Reverse Graffiti Project

Posted this on Facebook, but wanted to put it up here too. A great idea to create environmental awareness even if it is a bit of an advertisement. Hey, sponsors are essential too.