I Appreciate...

-the idea of teaching children, not training children - and that you teach expectations I found so well thought out.  What a great outlook to have in assisting in developing a young person. 
-the idea of a responsive classroom with an emergent curriculum.  I feel though, this comes easier with experience in teaching, after knowing a group for a while.  I believe this isn't for the new teacher like me.  I would find it necessary to have a plan to work off of, and adjust according to the individual.  Elements of an emergent curriculum are:

• a loose plan of work
• an energy in the room to pursue something
• to solicit responses from the students

and that:

• it doesn't seem appropriate to determine all that's going to be taught before the class assembles
• the more casual it looks, the more conscience it is

-I also love the idea of 'if you tell everything all at once, what is left to discover.'  I really hope I can create this environment for my students.

-the idea of going over sketch books, but it was too much.  I admit, I checked out, I didn't want to hear so much about everybody's.  Maybe an intensive overview for 30 minutes, when people are rushing to get in their thoughts because they are being timed.  Or only doing half the class every other week.  I used part of the time to really enjoy Vitamin 3-D by Phaidon Press.  The sculptures were what I like to do, and what I like to see.  It was really motivating.

-the feeling of being smart.  I don't read much because I've always been a slow reader, coupled with being relaxed by reading, equals someone who takes a while to read two pages, and then falls asleep.  I still haven't finished a book a great friend gave me years ago, but I had read about synesthesia in an Opera Magazine, and had discussed it with him, which intern he gave me the book, Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens by Patricia Lynne Duffy.  I was so glad I could contribute to the class in a real academic way, and that I could reference a book, by title, in a conversation.

-the idea of using a wax resistance technique with a white/clear candle.  I had tried to do a self-portrait in oil pastel over a hammock in watercolor.  NOT SUCCESSFUL, you need more then just a waxy material.

-I also desperately felt the need to have an idea of what we would be doing with this creation; I just felt I could make a better choice if I knew more about where it was headed.  I just didn't want to leave the project to chance and then deal it into the projects' focus- is that so wrong?  Hi, I'm Cheryl & I'm a control freak.

-the idea that we are going to work with a theme of an apocalypse.  'Contemporary Ruins' is going to be the theme of a graphic novel we will be making.  Likened to the movie The Road with Cormac McCarthy, we are to think about when everything comes tumbling down, economically, environmentally, the DIY Movement.  After a week of thinking about this, I felt worried and talked about it with my husband multiple times.  Thanks for such a great bedtime story at the end of class Aileen!