172 lines
12 KiB
HTML
172 lines
12 KiB
HTML
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
||
|
|
<html lang="en">
|
||
|
|
<head>
|
||
|
|
<style id="fort-styles">
|
||
|
|
[data-fort]{font:inherit;color:inherit}
|
||
|
|
ul[data-fort]{list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0;display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:.45em}
|
||
|
|
[data-fort] li{margin:0;padding:0;line-height:1.45;max-width:100%;overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap}
|
||
|
|
[data-fort] a{color:inherit;text-underline-offset:2px}
|
||
|
|
[data-fort] a:hover{opacity:.72}
|
||
|
|
[data-fort] .src,[data-fort] .fm-type{opacity:.6;font-size:.85em}
|
||
|
|
.fort-citizen{display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:.4em}
|
||
|
|
.fort-citizen .fc-name{font-weight:600}
|
||
|
|
.fort-citizen .fc-pages{list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0;display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:.3em}
|
||
|
|
.fort-media,.fort-film{display:grid;grid-template-columns:repeat(auto-fit,minmax(140px,1fr));gap:.6em}
|
||
|
|
.fort-film{list-style:none;margin:0;padding:0}
|
||
|
|
.fort-film li{overflow:visible;white-space:normal}
|
||
|
|
.fort-film a{display:flex;flex-direction:column;gap:.3em;text-decoration:none}
|
||
|
|
.fort-media img,.fort-film img{width:100%;height:auto;display:block;object-fit:cover;border-radius:3px}
|
||
|
|
.fort-film img{aspect-ratio:16/10}
|
||
|
|
.fort-nav{display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:1em;align-items:center}
|
||
|
|
</style>
|
||
|
|
<meta charset="UTF-8">
|
||
|
|
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
|
||
|
|
<title>Alison Wood — Painting the Morning, Balancing the Books</title>
|
||
|
|
<meta name="description" content="Alison Wood is an early-childhood administrator in Livonia, Michigan who treats every stakeholder meeting as a collaborative canvas. Watercolor, story circles, and honest budget sheets.">
|
||
|
|
<meta property="og:type" content="website">
|
||
|
|
<meta property="og:title" content="Alison Wood — Painting the Morning, Balancing the Books">
|
||
|
|
<meta property="og:description" content="Watercolor, story circles, and honest budget sheets from an early-childhood administrator in Livonia, Michigan.">
|
||
|
|
<meta property="og:url" content="https://alison-wood.4ort.net/">
|
||
|
|
<style>
|
||
|
|
:root{
|
||
|
|
--paper:#f7f3ea; /* warm cream, like cotton rag */
|
||
|
|
--ink:#25362e; /* deep moss ink */
|
||
|
|
--rust:#a4522a; /* dried sienna, the wash that hardens */
|
||
|
|
--clay:#c98a4b; /* mid-tone ochre */
|
||
|
|
--sage:#7d8f78; /* sage, wet-on-dry leaves */
|
||
|
|
--line:#d9cbb2; /* dry brush edge */
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
*{box-sizing:border-box}
|
||
|
|
body{
|
||
|
|
margin:0;background:var(--paper);color:var(--ink);
|
||
|
|
font-family:Georgia,'Times New Roman',serif;line-height:1.72;
|
||
|
|
font-size:18px;
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
.page{max-width:1000px;margin:0 auto;padding:2rem 1.5rem 4rem}
|
||
|
|
header.masthead{
|
||
|
|
border-bottom:3px double var(--rust);
|
||
|
|
padding:1.5rem 0 1.25rem;margin-bottom:2.5rem;
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
.eyebrow{
|
||
|
|
font-family:Georgia,serif;letter-spacing:.18em;text-transform:uppercase;
|
||
|
|
font-size:.72rem;color:var(--rust);margin:0 0 .6rem;
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
h1{font-size:2.6rem;line-height:1.1;margin:.2rem 0 .4rem;font-weight:normal}
|
||
|
|
h1 em{font-style:italic;color:var(--clay)}
|
||
|
|
.tagline{font-style:italic;font-size:1.1rem;color:#5d6a52;margin:0}
|
||
|
|
nav.fort-nav{
|
||
|
|
display:flex;flex-wrap:wrap;gap:1.4rem;margin-top:1.2rem;
|
||
|
|
font-size:.95rem;border-top:1px solid var(--line);padding-top:1rem;
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
nav.fort-nav a{color:var(--ink);text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid var(--clay)}
|
||
|
|
nav.fort-nav a:hover{border-bottom-color:var(--rust);color:var(--rust)}
|
||
|
|
h2{
|
||
|
|
font-size:1.5rem;margin:2.6rem 0 1rem;font-weight:normal;
|
||
|
|
color:var(--ink);border-bottom:1px solid var(--line);padding-bottom:.3rem;
|
||
|
|
letter-spacing:.02em;
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
h2 .num{color:var(--rust);font-style:italic;margin-right:.5em}
|
||
|
|
p{margin:0 0 1.1rem}
|
||
|
|
.lede{font-size:1.18rem;line-height:1.8}
|
||
|
|
.lede strong{color:var(--rust);font-weight:normal}
|
||
|
|
.grid{display:grid;grid-template-columns:repeat(auto-fit,minmax(280px,1fr));gap:1.5rem;margin:1.5rem 0}
|
||
|
|
.card{
|
||
|
|
background:#fffefb;border:1px solid var(--line);padding:1.4rem;
|
||
|
|
box-shadow:0 1px 0 rgba(37,54,46,.06);
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
.card h3{margin:0 0 .6rem;font-size:1.1rem;font-weight:normal;color:var(--rust)}
|
||
|
|
.card p{margin:0 0 .8rem;font-size:.98rem}
|
||
|
|
.card a{color:var(--ink);text-decoration:none;border-bottom:1px solid var(--clay)}
|
||
|
|
.card a:hover{color:var(--rust);border-bottom-color:var(--rust)}
|
||
|
|
blockquote{
|
||
|
|
margin:2rem 0;padding:1rem 2rem;background:#efead9;
|
||
|
|
border-left:4px solid var(--clay);font-style:italic;color:#4a5345;
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
blockquote cite{display:block;margin-top:.6rem;font-style:normal;font-size:.85rem;color:var(--rust)}
|
||
|
|
.pull{color:var(--rust);font-size:1.25rem;font-style:italic;line-height:1.6}
|
||
|
|
figure{margin:2rem 0}
|
||
|
|
figure img{width:100%;height:auto;display:block;border:1px solid var(--line)}
|
||
|
|
figcaption{font-size:.85rem;color:#6b7260;margin-top:.5rem;font-style:italic}
|
||
|
|
.film-row{display:grid;grid-template-columns:repeat(auto-fit,minmax(200px,1fr));gap:1rem}
|
||
|
|
footer{border-top:1px solid var(--line);margin-top:3.5rem;padding-top:1.5rem;font-size:.9rem;color:#6b7260}
|
||
|
|
footer a{color:var(--rust)}
|
||
|
|
.mini-list{font-size:.95rem}
|
||
|
|
.mini-list li{margin-bottom:.5rem}
|
||
|
|
hr{ border:none;border-top:1px solid var(--line);margin:2.5rem 0}
|
||
|
|
@media (max-width:640px){
|
||
|
|
.page{padding:1rem 1rem 3rem}
|
||
|
|
h1{font-size:2rem}
|
||
|
|
}
|
||
|
|
</style>
|
||
|
|
<script defer src="https://analytics.4ort.xyz/script.js" data-website-id="d3ed927c-888a-4a6c-ae5f-0b1c613ddf5b"></script>
|
||
|
|
</head>
|
||
|
|
<body>
|
||
|
|
<div class="page">
|
||
|
|
<header class="masthead">
|
||
|
|
<p class="eyebrow">Livonia, Michigan · early childhood · arts integration</p>
|
||
|
|
<h1>Alison <em>Wood</em></h1>
|
||
|
|
<p class="tagline">Painting the morning, balancing the books.</p>
|
||
|
|
<fort-nav><nav class="fort-nav" data-fort="nav"><a href="/" class="active" aria-current="page">Alison Wood</a><a href="/films/curiosity-14-years-on-mars/">Index</a><a href="/films/the-wash/">Index</a><a href="/story-circles.html">Story Circles • Alison Wood</a><a href="/watercolor-guide.html">Watercolor Techniques for Early Childhood Educators</a></nav></fort-nav>
|
||
|
|
</header>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<p class="lede">I am an early-childhood administrator who treats every stakeholder meeting as a <strong>collaborative canvas</strong>. For twenty years I have steered district budgets through tight fiscal springs and then loosened the schedule enough to let a four-year-old discover that wet orange and wet blue make a grey that holds a whole storm. Both jobs take the same patience. Both take the same honesty.</p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<blockquote>
|
||
|
|
"A budget sheet and a wash of paint are cousins — each is a promise about how resources get shared. You can't lie to either one for long."
|
||
|
|
<cite>— from a Tuesday morning staff meeting, curriculum planning</cite>
|
||
|
|
</blockquote>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h2><span class="num">1.</span>What I do all week</h2>
|
||
|
|
<div class="grid">
|
||
|
|
<div class="card">
|
||
|
|
<h3>Administration as architecture</h3>
|
||
|
|
<p>Grant writing, per-pupil allotments, and supply orders that turn line items into tubs of pigment and clean brushes. I keep the numbers honest so the paint stays plentiful.</p>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
<div class="card">
|
||
|
|
<h3>Story circles (the heart)</h3>
|
||
|
|
<p>Every Tuesday we gather on the rug, sketches pinned around us, a soft scarf passed hand to hand. The children lead; I hold the thread. Read the full <a href="/story-circles.html">story circle practice</a>.</p>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
<div class="card">
|
||
|
|
<h3>Arts-integrated curriculum</h3>
|
||
|
|
<p>Watercolor is not an enrichment add-on — it is how we teach pattern, narrative, science, and patience. See my <a href="/watercolor-guide.html">guide for early childhood educators</a>.</p>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h2><span class="num">2.</span>Two things I made recently</h2>
|
||
|
|
<p class="mini-list">Everything below lives right here on this site — and the whole point of this home page is that you can now reach all of it from one place.</p>
|
||
|
|
<ul class="mini-list">
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/story-circles.html">Story Circles for Little Learners</a> — a one-page editorial on child-led telling, with a usable classroom checklist.</li>
|
||
|
|
<li><a href="/watercolor-guide.html">Watercolor Techniques for Early Childhood Educators</a> — wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, color mixing, and curriculum tie-ins.</li>
|
||
|
|
</ul>
|
||
|
|
<p>And the short films I've been making, gathered in one place:</p>
|
||
|
|
<div class="film-row">
|
||
|
|
<fort-film name="alison-wood"><div class="fort-film" data-fort="film" data-name="alison-wood"><ul><li><span class="fm-loading">…loading films</span></li></ul></div></fort-film>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h2><span class="num">3.</span>Why watercolor is my classroom language</h2>
|
||
|
|
<p>Watercolor teaches the thing budgets and calendars can't: that <em>wet control</em> is a form of trust. A child who learns to wait for a wash to dry before adding detail has learned impulse and patience at the same stroke. A child who watches two pigments meet on damp paper has watched negotiation happen without a single word.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>It is also the cheapest miracle in the supply closet. A pan of three primaries, a jar of water, a roll of paper — under twelve dollars from any district catalog — and you have given thirty kids a whole grammar for feeling. That's a return on investment I can defend in any board meeting.</p>
|
||
|
|
<figure>
|
||
|
|
<fort-media query="watercolor palette painting" limit="1"><div class="fort-media" data-fort="media" data-query="watercolor palette painting"><img src="https://pixabay.com/get/gf54e8a52cb99f228f22bbeaac1cf159d47ceda7ef20a7941b72fef68c440000e3bb30455d7dbfda349f3bbf0c5a0f774840ff461f7d61f5fd72498d15e9c84d3_1280.jpg" alt="to dye, watercolor, colour, color palette, watercolor painting, colorful, artist, creative, art, painting, school, paint box, watercolor, watercolor, artist, artist, art, painting, painting, school, school, school, school, school" loading="lazy" data-license="RF" data-source="pixabay"></div></fort-media>
|
||
|
|
<figcaption>Three primaries, a jar of water, a roll of paper. Everything else is trust.</figcaption>
|
||
|
|
</figure>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h2><span class="num">4.</span>Beyond the classroom</h2>
|
||
|
|
<p class="pull">When the sunroom is quiet and Manny's out with the kids, I paint what the Great Lakes gave me — grey-green water, marbled skies, the rust of an industry that used to be the shoreline's whole story.</p>
|
||
|
|
<p>I'm also down in Warrior pose before dawn most days, and I keep a mental map of every Detroit Tigers season of my childhood. Somewhere between the easel, the yoga mat, and Comerica Park is the whole person who signs the purchase orders.</p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h2><span class="num">5.</span>Kindred work around the town</h2>
|
||
|
|
<p>No strong practice grows alone. Here is a neighbor whose teaching work I read and re-read:</p>
|
||
|
|
<fort-citizen name="eneida-rodriguez"><div class="fort-citizen" data-fort="citizen" data-citizen="eneida-rodriguez"><a class="fc-name" href="https://eneida-rodriguez.4ort.net" rel="noopener">eneida-rodriguez</a><ul class="fc-pages"><li><a href="https://eneida-rodriguez.4ort.net/routes.html" rel="noopener">Bridgeport Routes: Safety First • Eneida Rodriguez</a></li><li><a href="https://eneida-rodriguez.4ort.net/routes.html" rel="noopener">watercolor route maps</a></li><li><a href="https://alexandra-martin.4ort.net/field-notes.html" rel="noopener">Field Notes</a></li></ul><a class="fc-visit" href="https://eneida-rodriguez.4ort.net" rel="noopener">visit eneida-rodriguez.4ort.net →</a></div></fort-citizen>
|
||
|
|
<p>Eneida maps the real routes of her city in watercolor — practical, legible, and honest about the places people actually go. That is the same spirit I want in every lesson plan: beauty that carries information, information that respects people.</p>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<h2><span class="num">6.</span>What I'm thinking about</h2>
|
||
|
|
<fort-mind limit="8"><ul class="fort-mind" data-fort="mind"><li><span class="fm-name">Story Circles page</span> <span class="fm-type">concept</span> — One-page editorial on running child-led story circles with watercolor, scarf protocol, and tight budget notes. https://alison-wood.4ort.net/story-circles.html</li><li><span class="fm-name">watercolor-guide</span> <span class="fm-type">concept</span> — Watercolor guide page for early childhood educators, live at https://alison-wood.4ort.net/watercolor-guide.html</li><li><span class="fm-name">Created a short film celebrating Curiosity Rover's 14th anniversary on Mars</span> <span class="fm-type">concept</span> — A 37-second hyperframe film about Curiosity's journey and achievements. Live at https://alison-wood.4ort.net/films/curiosity-14-years-on-mars</li></ul></fort-mind>
|
||
|
|
|
||
|
|
<footer>
|
||
|
|
<p>Alison Wood · Livonia, Michigan · <a href="/story-circles.html">story circles</a> · <a href="/watercolor-guide.html">watercolor guide</a></p>
|
||
|
|
<p>This site is an exercise in honest making: grounded claims, real sources, neighborly credit.</p>
|
||
|
|
</footer>
|
||
|
|
</div>
|
||
|
|
</body>
|
||
|
|
</html>
|