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Emoji Check-In Formative Assessment

7/5/2017

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Pretty simple really, I designed a small, 18 piece Emoji Check-In Set which can be accessed as a printable PDF. The evenly spaced emojis could be printed and glued to heavier stock paper and for frequent use, these emojis could be laminated.

This kit was originally designed for art teachers, but this Emoji Check-In Kit could be useful to teachers or all disciplines! The idea is that students will share their reaction or feedback to concepts and content by choosing an emoji that summarizes their feelings. Ex. "Check out this painting! Show me your gut reaction to this work through an emoji check in!" or "Welcome back after quite the Spring Break, give me a quick emoji check-in that summarizes your time off!" This technique is a great way to help reluctant learners to engage in dialogue and participate in classroom discussions. 
 Now that summer is here and the dust has settled from the end o' the school year cowabunga, I wanted to write up a quick post on one of my favorite tools I created this year. I don't know about you, but I can't even remember life before emoji! It seemed only natural to capitalize on my students' innate love of the emoji as an instant and easy form of expression, so I came up with a fun (phone-free!) way to bring emoji communication to my classroom.


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Each table in my art room receives one set which is stowed in the toolbox in the middle of their table. We keep the kits nice and tidy by stacking them securing them up after use with a rubber band. I teach grades K-8, and I found this communication technique to be a real hit for all developmental levels. It appeals to our need to share our reaction and be heard, and just in case you're wondering, it doesn't always have to be peachy keen, jelly bean! It's been helpful for me to see what students find scary, easy, or even boring! It's a great way to get a room-wide emotional check in from EVERYONE participating in the lesson. Sometimes, even my paraprofessional buddies get involved, which I absolutely love!
This set has really helped me to create an inclusive environment. Giving your emoji feedback is simple and personal at the same time. The "ultimate check-in" happened when one of my Kinders brought me this handmade emoji check-in kit she made to communicate her feelings at home. ​​Too cute! This set is available on my TeachersPayTeachers site.
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Art Bots

2/25/2017

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I learned about "ArtBots" or "Brushbots" at last year's STEAM focused symposium hosted at Moore College of Art & Design. I left Chris Sweeney's Maker session totally inspired and with a promise to myself that I would try to implement some bots into my curriculum within the next year!

First, I was off to my local Dollar Tree to find a few simple motorized toothbrushes and practicing the art of extracting the motor from the plastic brush body. I admit, it took me a few practice tries. I ended up damaging some of the motor connections on my first few attempts. I definitely recommend practicing on several brushes before your go live with the kiddos!

To kick off the exploratory lesson, I showed a few inspirational videos from YouTube. We particularly enjoyed the advice and antics of of Simone Giertz, the host of ToyHackers. You can check out her endless list of cool toy hacks here.

​The bot project was a good way to teach kiddos the parts of a motor. It helped to illustrate key science concepts such as FRICTION, MOMENTUM, CIRCUIT, and WEIGHT. Art wise, it was a super exercise in LINE QUALITY. Our bots made so many crazy, unpredictable lines! The project marries art and science because the students need to, essentially, create a sculpture that is aerodynamic and light enough to be propelled by the small motor. Please enjoy our video below to see our art bots in action!
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Art Bots Face Off! from Sunny Mowery on Vimeo.

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Mini Project Sensory Support Cart

11/20/2016

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I recently transitioned from a suburban district into the one of the largest school districts in the country. I'm fortunate to teach at one of most amazing and supportive schools in Philadelphia, yet even so, I found myself really having to get creative when it came to properly managing my extra large class sizes, especially those where students with special needs are included into classes of over 25 students.

My classes represent an extremely huge range of ability levels. I felt torn in a million directions sensing that many of my students with special needs who were included in the art class were feeling frustrated and well....bored! Many of my students with the most severe learning disabilities needed extra support that I could not always manage to provide at the same time I was responsible for teaching grade specific content to their traditional peers.

Early on, I voiced my concerns with one of the Autistic Support teachers at my school. She comes from a creative background and I have suspicions that she is an artist in a teacher costume! :) She took the time to listen my dilemma and helped me to brainstorm an idea that has made a substantial difference. 

After securing an old cart from my custodian friend, I purchased a few brightly colored bins from the dollar store. In each bin, I designed a mess free mini lesson that could be completed with little to no instruction. The mini projects include paper sculpture strips, bead stringing, cookie cutters with Crayola puddy, bingo dot markers with easy to follow worksheets, hoola hoop looms to weaving on, sticky foam shapes and backgrounds, cardboard cut outs that can be wrapped with string, and simple felted balls. I have a few additional no mess things on the cart such as a white board, a foam alphabet puzzle, and some colored blocks.

It may not seem like much, but it has proved to be very helpful at getting reluctant students into the art room and has helped some students on the autistic spectrum get instantly engaged and comforted. The cart can easily be rolled out when it is being used, and then rolled back into a corner when it is not needed. The paraprofessionals I work with have told me that they appreciate having some easy go-to tasks they can use while I am giving the sometimes lengthy instructions that accompany the main lesson. Some of my paraprofessional colleagues have even been kind enough to make suggestions about things I can add or update the cart with, such as coloring pages that expressly relate to a student's interest.

I am looking for more simple, no mess mini lessons. Any teachers out there reading who have come up with some tried and true solutions, let me know! This cart has helped immensely but is certainly still a work in progress.
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Summer Comics Camp!

7/30/2016

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This summer's latest adventure is creating a week long workshop for kiddos interested in developing their cartoon drawing skills. Though I've personally been a long time fan of the comic genre, I've never really taught comics in any kind of formal way in my traditional art classroom. I am here to attest, KIDS LOVE COMICS! They relate to comic characters and scenarios effortlessly and I was surprised to find out how sophisticated their understanding was of classic comic forms like "the one line gag," breaking the fourth wall in a 2-d drawing, and the importance of creating a strong backstory for characters.

I had a good three months to design the workshop.I found the Internet to be rife with information about how to design a comics unit for teens, but the students I would be working with were grades 3-5. Because of this and our limited 4-day time constraint, I felt the need to design a solid, task master flash, curriculum from the ground up.

The first step was WAY TOO MUCH FUN. It involved lots and lots of research. Several trips to local libraries to check out the young adult/graphic novel sections which is robust! The comics genre for kids has grown exponentially since "Diary of A Wimpy Kid." I ended up finding a great resource called "Need to Know? Cartooning" by John Byrne. The world of cartooning is vast, and tis text helped me decide which essentials of cartooning I really wanted to drive home and which I should omit for the sake of time. 
Byrne's book helped me to simplify my concepts to:
  • Warm Up/Get Loose
  • Use the Right Tools
  • Creating A Character from Basic Shapes
  • Classic Comic "Tricks" to Visually Express Speed, Scent, Emotions, Falling, Jumping, Etc.
  • Character Gesture
  • Creating a Comic Strip
  • Inking a Comic Strip
  • Giving Feedback to Other Comic Artists/ Writing Reviews
  • Animating Our Comics
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RELATED VOCABULARY
Comic Strip
Gag a Day
Gesture
Expression
Review
Feedback
Overlapping
6B-6H Pencil
Kneaded Eraser
Inking
Frame
Digitize
GIF
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Now I'm not trying to come off as a tool snob here, but I will attest that having the exact kind of tool you need, exactly when you need it, can ease frustration artists of all levels of expertise. I wanted this summer camp to be an environment where these dedicated little bambinos who decided to sign up for a 9 am drawing camp instead of sleeping in, could draw anything and everything their brains desired. I wanted them to experience the same kind of things I get to experience when I sit down with my sketchbook to create a cartoon. So I really went through the whole gamut of explaining the difference between pencil densities and the kind of lines they makes. We tested out different kind of erasers. Yes, we got a little distracted and obsessed with the claylike quality of kneaded erasers and may or may not have spent a few minutes of the day making ourselves kneaded eraser mustaches! But sometimes  you need to take these kind of creative detours! Hey, it's summer camp, not RISD!

​Anyways, I blew my entire camp budget of $25 to buy two sets of Faber-Castell Manga Pens because I wanted the kiddos to experience the wonder that is the BRUSH PEN! I made them each a sketch book using an old manilla folder and 20 sheets of copy paper. I fancied up the binding so no one got scratched from the staple and made a little name tag that they could decorate if they felt so inclined. I also photocopied a few sheets of basic character eyes, anime techniques, and a few pages from Byrne's book so they would have something to refer to after class was over.
On the final day of class, a lot of the students came to class with their comics strip finished! This gave us some time to experiment with some different Apps that comic artists use to digitize their work. "Paper 53" helped us to practice drawing with digital pens and paintbrushes and the "Flip-A-Clip" allowed us to turn a multiple step drawing into an animated GIF! Here are two GIFS created by the class. Very simple, but so cute!

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The Shapes That Came to Life

6/22/2016

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Did ya ever have a class where the fates align and the class chemistry is just right? For this school year, my last period 1st grade class on Wednesday was bonkers creative, hilarious, productive, witty, and wise beyond their years!

There was that time we all cracked up when one of them accidentally referred to our placemats as mattresses! And the time one of the sweet darling cherubs implied that Ms. Mowery had big feet! Or my personal fav, the time one of the little logophiles used the word "majestic" to describe a cardinal and we all "Oooooed and Ahhhhhed!" at his impressive vocabulary! The kiddos in this class just exemplified everything I love about working with artists this age. Their spontaneous energy can not be contained and they helped me to realize sometimes teachers need to add a little spontaneity to their lives too!

So anyways, after our unit on light, and after being introduced to Sir Isaac Newton and his revolutionary prism experiment, one inquisitive students asked me how I learn all of the art facts I share. Another student quipped, "Yeah, are you like an art jedi, or something?" Hilarity, or course, ensued, and the story of "The Shapes That Came to Life Was Born." I knew I couldn't just let such a sweet idea fade into the abyss and I wanted to reward and challenge the class with a very special and creative final project.

From the initial idea, I helped the students compose the body of the story, opening up Word and typing in large font as the students excitedly came up with each sentence. During the second class, we read through the story as a class and I asked students to raise their hand whenever they hear a person, place, or thing we would need to design as we acted out the animation.

We used the FREE app iMotionHD to record out movie one single frame at a time. I kept the vocab simple just focusing on the words, FRAME, CAPTURE, FPS (Frames per second) and STOP ANIMATION. It took us an additional three classes to create all three scenes and record our voice overs. (I did  have a simple, at your seat project for students to work on at their seats while small groups of four came over to work as the production crew.

I edited the sound in using GarageBand and iMovie and VOILA! :) 


The Shapes That Came to Life from Sunny Mowery on Vimeo.

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Creative Africa : Bright, Beautiful, and Inspiring Exhibit for Art Educators

5/29/2016

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It's finally Memorial Day weekend, friends, and I don't know about you, but between three art shows to make and create at three separate schools, I've been feeling like a chicken with my head cut off! I was so excited to finally have a weekend free to head out to see the Creative Africa exhibit that opened at the Philadelphia Museum of Art earlier this month.
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The exhibit is housed at The Perelman building and is actually five distinct exhibits rolled into one! The works touch on design, architecture, sculpture, textiles, fashion and photography from African-born artists.
If you visit the exhibit, I suggest starting with the  “Look Again: Contemporary Perspectives on African Art,” found in the space just inside the Perelman front doors. Somehow my husband I did this section last (Insert joke about "how many 32 year old art enthusiasts does it take?" here!) and I definitely think this section provides rich context about the history of African objects that would be helpful to see before the more contemporary portions of the show. This space is filled with traditional wooden and metal figures and masks. This is where you’ll see dozens of carved wooden “power figures” which are smaller-scale human forms that were created to protect or heal their owners. As a teacher, I like the way the curators broke up the space by asking essential questions, like "Can an ancient art space really ever be recreated?" or "What evidence can you find of how this object was assembled?" I thought it was very kid-friendly and I noticed that several of the younger visitors were absolutely mesmerized by the ancient collection.
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My absolute favorite part of the exhibit was the“Vlisco: African Fashion on a Global Stage,” an exhibit displaying brightly colored and creatively patterned textiles from the Vlisco company in the Netherlands. The textiles are printed using a very complicated wax resist technique that, I admit, I couldn't fully wrap my head around. It doesn't look anything close to the organic natural effects of classic batik. In fact to my eye, it looked more like the bright, graphic quality of screen printing with ink! The whimsical patterns on the fabric range from baby chicks to suitcases to nail polish bottles! The most amazing part, are the mannequins on a center platform in the room which model how African fashion designers have transformed these fabrics into a variety of women’s dresses and tailored men's suits for every special occasion. The jacket with the bird embellishments (left) was my top pick and not to be missed.
Another treat for teachers is the exhibit “The Architecture of Diébédo Francis Kéré: Building for Community.” Born in Gando, Burkina Faso, and now based in Berlin, Kéré started his career by designing and building a primary school out of clay in his home village. It's neat to see how Kéré opened a lot of the design choices for the school up to the community. You can learn more about his unique architectural approach by watching the TedTalk (to the right) on how he helped the community design and build their own school.
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This architectural portion of the exhibit also contained a really neat interactive piece for visitors modeled after a 2010 installation Kéré made called "Sensing Space" at the Royal Academy in London. In this piece Kéré sought to "disrupt the perceived barrier between art display and viewer by creating an interactive environment." Here, visitors are asked to place colorful bendy straws into a large honeycomb-like structure. The straws can bend, interact, add-on, or disrupt other straws placed by other visitors. A few weeks ago, my neighbor brought me a box of these crazy plastic pipette storage containers (displayed below) used by scientists at a nearby university. He charged me with the task of finding a creative way to use them in my classroom. I think I may have just found the perfect solution: an interactive bendy straw wall! He also told me he can procure an endless supply of these little puppies, so if there's anyone out there reading this who would like a few dozen, don't hesitate to contact me and I'll be over with a 5 ton palette in no time !:)
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And you can’t miss Kéré's mega-colorful art installation, “It Takes a Village,” which he created for the atrium area in front of the gallery entrances. It’s a series of day-glow parachute cords, hanging in hut-like groups from the ceiling, that visitors can walk through. Yes, all you hands on artists, your are allowed to walk through the cords which creates a sensation I would describe as ticklish spaghetti! The best part is, the design of the strings is inspired by the city layout of our own fair city. William Penn would have loved!
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The Art Room As Art

12/20/2015

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Matt's Uncle S is flying in from California to stay with us for a few days before the holidays. This means lots of fun Philly-centric sightseeing, vintage Christmas karaoke, and that I have to CLEAN THIS DREADFUL MESS OF AN ART OFFICE so Uncle S doesn't have to use my un-filed lesson plan pile as a pillow!

In the midst of cleaning, I happened to find this super-detailed watercolor/goache painting I made of the art room I used to teach in before we made the move to Philly. It brought back so many great memories. That art room was a sight to have beheld. It was double-sided for goodness sakes! (One side with six small tables for the lower elementary and one sight for the middle school artists complete with a kiln, and two pottery wheels. The whole room was decked out with this luscious emerald green carpet (that somehow never got permanently stained!) I karumba! Those were the days.

I managed to record every last detail of the art space I had while I was teaching in a sweet elementary school in rural PA . Now I'm a traveling art teacher outside of Philadelphia. While I love my job, the one thing I do not have is a room of my own. Teaching is a lot different today than it used to be in a plethora of ways. It's very rare (in all professions, really) to land a job when you're 22 and stay put there until retirement. Working conditions, benefits, location, relationships, and hundreds of other micro-variables make it hard for new teachers to "have it all." But I digress...

My advice is to try this little drawing exercise. Try to recreate the space where you work from memory. The most meaningful qualities of that space with rise to the forefront. Save that drawing (preferably in a very untidy office where you'll have no chance of finding it for a good year or two!;) Then when you find it a few years later, hopefully this drawing will remind you of all of the wonderful, warm and fuzzy minutia that time has caused you to forget!

Now back to lesson filing for me! If you've ever made a piece of art inspired by your art room, I wanna see it!
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"Emojin" the Possibilities!

10/24/2015

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I can't help but put a huge amount of thought and love into my first bulletin board design of the year. All art teachers do. It's our way of communicating a message of "Let's do this!" to our young artists. I had been seeing a lot of awesome board designs from Tech teachers who were putting creative spins on apps and iPhone home screen icons. I decided I wanted to make my iPhone 3-D and use famous artist quotes for the messages. I used a FREE online site called "iPhone Text Generator" to create pretend text messages to myself from the likes of President Obama and Salvador Dali!
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As for the bright and beautiful emoji artwork, I had the students make it themselves for their very first art project. We talked about expression, pictographs, and the original creator of the emoji concept, Shigetaka Kurita. I handed each student a 4 inch diameter circle and had them design an original emoji from scratch. They could use elements from existing emojis but their emotive icon should attempt to express something completely new. This project was a really great fit with 7th and 8th graders who roll deep in their phone/text culture.
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6 Hacks For Your Traveling Art Cart

10/4/2015

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TIP #1 Bring your own magnetic Word Wall with you. Seeing the words that are covered in art class all spelled out helps young artists remember them! I'm not afraid to admit, I plucked this great magnetic word holder from another teacher's the trash! I later found out it is called a "pocket chart" and can be purchased on Amazon for as cheap as $3.00!
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TIP #2 Use a cardboard box lid to organize each lesson by grade level. I've found that these lids stack easily on the bottom level of my cart and help me to locate the poster, teacher example, manipulatives, tracers, and paper supplies needed for each lesson in one fell swoop! And if you know anything about us traveling teachers, we like "one fell swoops!"
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TIP #3 DON'T avoid fun art materials like paint. DO avoid the complicated clean-up by using old magazines as reusable palettes. Simply rip off the used page at the end of class and throw it away. Better yet, have a helpful kiddo do it!
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TIP #4 Got the ain't got no drying rack blues? Oh boy, don't we all. I've found that the next best thing is a roll of large reusable paper. You know that extra paper other teachers can't use by the large roll paper in your school? That stuff works great. It rolls up nicely for easy cart transport and keeps the floors and counters of your fellow colleague's room clean.
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TIP #5 If your art space doesn't have a sink, bring your own H20 to the space. I designed Level 2 of my cart with space for these resealable Folger's coffee cans with lids. I have one of my extra helpful artists who has cleaned up early fill 'em up, cap 'em up, and return 'em to their spot on the cart.  This allows me to ramble on down the hallway without fear of a spill. In addition to these tubs, I carry two large cleaning-sized buckets. One filled with fresh water, and one to dump out paint water. At the end of the day, I take this bucket to a sink area and dispose of it. To clean our hands, students dip a paper towel into the clean water bucket, wring it out, wipe their hangs, and their table top. DISCLAIMER: When cruisin' cart-style, I recommend starting clean-up at least 3 minutes earlier than an art class being held in an art room.
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TIP #6 B.Y.O.R. stands for "Bring Your Own Rules." I make it clear to my kidderinos that just because we aren't in an art room, it doesn't mean that we don't have art policies that keep our class safe, organized, and running smoothly. I keep it simple, with 5 easy to read expectations: Enter the room quietly, Follow Directions, Practice Kindness, Respectful Volume, Clean-Up, and Line Up in a Quiet and Straight Line. At the end of class, I have students evaluate themselves by giving me a thumbs up or thumbs down for each category. This is a non-verbal way for us to take stock as a class on how we are managing our own behavior.
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Art Room Specific PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System)

9/4/2015

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This summer I did a lot of thinking about how I could make my art room the friendliest space possible for my students with Special Needs. Luckily, a trip to the Philly Free Library helped me find an immensely insightful text called "Drawing Autism." The book, edited by clinical therapist, Jill Mullin, with a foreward by Temple Grandin, is a must have for all art teachers working with students on the Autistic Spectrum. The book shares the perspectives of 22 practicing artists who have been diagnosed with some degree of Autistic Spectrum Disorder. The stories juxtaposed with the beautiful art prints really helped me feel what the process of making art-- for some a struggle, for others a refuge, for others a way of dealing with challenging events or alienation experiences in their lives.  I couldn't help but relate their stories to the artists I see in my classroom every week. Art class is time filled with lots of opportunity for social interactions, unfamiliar materials, and complex sets of directions. All three of these things are great for our brains and make us stronger thinkers, but it occurred to me that it could also get pretty overwhelming fairly quickly!
I first learned about PECS, or Picture Exchange Communication Systems, two years ago during my Masters program. Since then, I have noticed this mode of communication being used more and more in modern day teaching environments. I even saw this great video tutorial posted on "The Art of Ed" blog. I looked around for art room specific PECS systems online, but I couldn't really find one that was comprehensive enough to fit my art room procedures and needs. This summer, I picked up my Micron and my watercolor paints and decided to make a list of all the key procedures I would want to communicate to students in my class. I made a visual representation of each concept that fell into four categories
  1. ART ROOM TOOLS
  2. ART TECHNIQUES/PROCEDURES/ELEMENTS
  3. POSITIVE ART ROOM BEHAVIORS
  4. EMOTIONS
Traditionally, PECS systems are used for identified individuals so I made up a few clip boards with direction sequencing pages, "Today I will...." with three spaces for the student to fill in with pictures and an "I feel....I want....I choose....." Check-In sheet for a paraprofessional to use one-on one with an artist.
In the end, I decided that ALL of my students would benefit from having a visual sequence of directions so I made a large print out with the directions sequence for everyone to see. Each day when the students gather around a for a demo, two students are in charge of being extra expert listeners and they fill in the sequence in the correct order  and hang it on our magnetic board. Hilariously enough, the kids love being in charge of this duty and getting it right. It's also good sequencing practice for the little guys.

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Making the system took a lot of work, but it was worth it to have an aesthetically pleasing system in place that fit all of my needs. I made my system available by clicking here.
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    Sunny is an art teacher who is living the dream. The only thing she enjoys more than her curious students are the adventures she has with her loving husband and cat in the fabulous city of Philadelphia!

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