Miscellaneous Missives

Fall Song by Mary Oliver Another year gone, leaving everywhere its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves, the uneaten fruits crumbling damply in the shadows, unmattering back from the particular island of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere except underfoot, moldering in that black subterranean castle of unobservable mysteries - roots and sealed seeds and the wanderings of water. This I try to remember when time's measure painfully chafes, for instance when autumn flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing to stay - how everything lives, shifting from one bright vision to another, forever in these momentary pastures. I wish I had something pithy to say about fall. Although summer is my favorite season, fall always makes a valiant effort to warm my heart. I accidentally took this photo, but I think it's kinda cool.

I have an awesome job. More importantly, I have awesome colleagues that keep me entertained. A general music class meets in my room. It is a class for students not in orchestra, choir, or band. Perhaps this is all I need to say about the student population. Any way, the teacher lets me sit in the room while she teaches. She also warns me when the students' journal will be a country song, so I can escape. Today the students were less than motivated. She used an analogy of working in a corporation. If there needed to be cuts, which two would be eliminated? Most students took the advice and started working while one students raised his hand. I guess he saw "the writing on the wall". Earlier in the week a colleague commented about my apple being the "world's smallest apple". Today I took him an apple from my lunch which was smaller. He asked if I wanted to make a wager about whether or not he could eat it in one bite. I promised a dollar and tr...

This morning I left home early, so I could make it to school by 6:45. I stopped at Caribou for breakfast (large hot cocoa, one less scoop dark chocolate, skim). The trivia question was incredibly easy... Which comes from a plant? a) silk b) cotton c) wool d) nylon ...and yet I missed it. I can't even explain what happened. School went well, but when my Benadryl wasn't working at lunch, I decided to take more and cancel my appointment to give blood. This was a good decision since I didn't feel the best and because I ended up staying at school until 4:30 correcting journals. Tonight I will correct some other papers. When does it end? Plus, to add to the agony the 2012 nominees for induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame were announced making me feel old (Guns 'n Roses, The Cure, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Heart, The Red Hot Chili Peppers).

It seems like we are living in a data driven age especially in teaching. Recently I viewed this chart on Facebook, so I'm not sure of its authenticity. I'm, however, going to guess it's factual (you know with wars, tax breaks to the rich, and everything). Recently one of my few Facebook friends questioned the Elizabeth Warren statement, "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you," she says. "But I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory...

Today a colleague and I attended the Minnesota Writing Project's fall conference. The focus was the Native American (American Indian) focus in the new standards. One break out session shared a way to talk about various stereotypes with students. The lines and spacing of both are a bit off due to the blog format (sorry). The sample poem: Because I am a Native American People think if they hire me I will only stick with the job for the two weeks till payday. Then, they think, I will take my money and quit. And they think I am a lazy, untrustworthy, unreliable quitter. But really I am a strong, hard worker, with deep loyalty who knows the effort and hardship of survival who made living in a one room basement apartment built for one work with seven room-mates and only four bed. I am the determined descendent of people who worked months to feed the village. Who walked more miles than most to relocate and start anew, adjusting our ways on the path, Who hunted, and ha...

Tonight I decided to skip the gym since I needed to correct papers and watch the Rams game. Honestly, it's been easy to come up with excuses to skip the gym since school started. My favorite excuse has been that with being out of town on the weekends, working, hip flexors, and giving blood I couldn't make my twelve times to the gym this month, so I've really not gone to the gym. It's amazing I was able to spend a week in Guatemala in July and still hit the gym +12 times. Sooooo.... I'm sitting her correcting papers, eating popcorn, drinking Diet Pepsi and watching pregame when this great commercial comes on the tube. Maybe I better not wait for October to start that gym routine.

Today' sermon was "Practicing Generosity". Being present was mentioned as a way of practicing generosity. As they were talking about being present, actually listening not thinking ahead, I was only partially present since I was making notes on my bulletin and had already checked my email on my phone twice. In all honesty, I think most of the time I am only merely partially present. Early in the service I had started writing on my bulletin, "My mind is racing, so I have grabbed a colored pencil from the kids' bucket. Unfortunately it's too light to take notes although I am trying." Perhaps I need to work on being present as a way of practicing generosity, but it is difficult to quite difficult.

Although my alarm was set for 6:30 am, I'm not sure if it was the alarm that woke me or the "pop, pop, pppppop, POP, pop" in the background. At first I couldn't figure out what it was. Then I realized it was the firing of guns. It must have been the opening of goose hunting season in Iowa. Upon the realization that the noise was guns being fired, I decided to skip the walk and stay in bed a little while longer.

This week has been crazy. I feel as though I've been lost most of the week. At least it's been an eventful week. Instead of blogging about my crazy week, I'd like to share a news article. It seems a cat lost in Colorado five years ago has shown up in New York. They were able to trace the cat back to its owners due to its chip. All I can say is that I'm not sure I would want my cat returned after five years. This weekend I will leave him alone for 30 hours, and he will be extremely crabby when I return. I can't imagine what the response would be after five years!

As I was working on ideas for next week's journal, I thought of a famous painting that I wanted to use, but I couldn't think of the name. I called my brother and was thrilled when he answered the phone. Without any pleasantries, I said, "What's the famous painting where the person is standing with its head in its hands?" Yep, that's all I said. He gave me the answer immediately, "The Scream." Sweet! I looked up the rest. Edvard Munch 1893. Although I often feel like others are smarter than I am, I appreciate that they are willing to share their knowledge! In other news, it seems I have been somewhat lax in my posting. The truth is that I'm trying not to always write post that are about me feeling sorry for myself. Lately I've been doing some of this in my head. First, and perhaps foremost, my hip flexors are still giving me problems, and it's beginning to make me super crabby. Second, my allergies/sinuses are going complete...

Wage Peace - Judith Hill Wage peace with your breath. Breathe in firemen and rubble breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds. Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields. Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees. Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact. Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud. Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers. Make soup. Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages. Learn to knit, and make a hat. Think of chaos as dancing raspberries, imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish. Swim for the other side. Wage peace. Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious. Have a cup of tea and rejoice. Act as if armistice has already arrived. Don’t wait another minute. I'll admit that I almost skipped church today primarily because of the 9-11 madness. My church ...

Pill, I think that's what the little fuzz balls that end up on this fleece are called. I love this fleece for the beginning of fall since it's super light weight although I rarely wear it because it pills all over. The pill shows through the fleece leaving unwanted bumps in the wrong places. Recently I bought two different de-pillers (my word). One is called a sweater stone and is made from natural and recycled materials, so it is my favorite. Both seem to work although I'm not sure that the picture shows the results. Maybe I'll wear my fleece in a couple of weeks when it cools down since the pilling (another made up word) is gone.

This first three days of school has made me realize that I wasn't born to work. First, I obviously snack all summer long. By the time my third class is finished, I am starved. The poor seventh graders still have one more class before they can eat. Second, I am exhausted by the end of the day. Although I'm active all summer, standing and walking around all day is different than my typical summer activities. Lastly, I am having difficulties finding time to workout. It seems I have school work to do when I come home or other activities, so I am missing workout time. When I don't have to work, I have more time to workout. Obviously I wasn't meant to work; I was meant to have a more flexible schedule with more time to do what I want (whatever I want and whenever I want).

This summer when I was running in the morning, I periodically saw turkeys on the Greenway. Since I didn't have my phone, I couldn't take pictures. Friday on the way to work, I noticed a group of turkeys in front of the town homes as I was stopped at the light. I grabbed my cell phone and took a picture as I was turning onto Lake Street. Yesterday I noticed another flock as I was crossing the railroad tracks to enter the Greenway. Three waited for me to take their picture. Today is the first day of school. My hope is that the turkeys are limited to the bird type not students in my classroom. I'm ready for a good year.

Writing in The Cap Times , Phil Neuenfeldt, the President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO reminds us that Labor Day is a time to recognize and celebrate the hard-working men and women who make our country great. "While we honor working men and women everywhere, we pay tribute to the union movement. The labor movement not only brought us the weekend, child labor protections and a safe work environment, but unions provide a necessary check on unbridled corporate greed and CEO power." I will admit that I have not always been a member of the teacher's union. When I taught in Iowa, I was not a member. Moving to Minnesota I joined the union because if one is not part of the union, they still pay something close to union dues for the work the union does. For years I have been "ho-hum" about unions and their benefits. Recently I have watched the Republicans try to ruin unions, and I have found a new respect for unions and their necessity. My 180 has been ou...

I have been debating about writing this post since Friday afternoon. At least two people that read this blog will disagree, but I think they will both keep reading. Friday I talked with a social studies colleague in my building. Thursday the social studies teachers in the district were told not only that they needed to teach about 9/11 in their classroom, but that they needed to follow the plans given by the district. If they chose to do something on their own, it needed to be OK'd by the district curriculum person. Immediately I was angered about the process and relieved that I didn't have to teach it. We have district standards and state standards that we uphold. 9/11 is not part of either of these. Not only was the mandate issued late, it has little to do with current curriculum. Basically one family in the district made this mandate. Of course it is the tenth anniversary of 9/11, and it should be mentioned to these middle school students because they will need t...