Miscellaneous Missives

zinnedproject.org Earlier in the week, a first year science teacher came up to me in the hall and asked, "Can students read banned books?"  Of course, my answer was a resounding yes, but I was wondering what provoked this question.  It seems a student had asked her, and she didn't know the answer.  First, I explained the ridiculousness of banned books to begin with and gave some example.  My interest, however, was piqued.  I couldn't help but wonder what the student was reading, so the science teacher and I went to talk to the student who wouldn't show us the book.  This made me want to know even more, so I had the conversation about banned books with the girl. "Is it Eleanor and Park ?" I asked.  Although it wasn't Eleanor and Park , she had read it, so we were able to discuss why it had been banned in some places.  I also told her what it would actually take to get a book banned at our school.  Even after a bit of conversation, she wo...

This weather is really starting to get on my nerves.  If it wasn't for Jimmy Fallon and Emma Stone, I would have stayed inside tonight instead of going to Hennepin Reads at church tonight.  Jimmy and Emma are so amazing that I forgot that it sucks outside. Hennepin Reads highlighted author Rebecca Kanner .  I finished reading her book this weekend about Noah's wife.  It was dark but certainly a good read.  We also were privileged to listen to the Tim Sparks play Klezmer (?) music on his guitar... beautiful.  It was a wonderful night and certainly worth having to go outside into the horrible, cold, and rainy weather.  Thanks Jimmy and Emma!

Mysteries, Yes Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity while we ourselves dream of rising. How two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken. How people come, from delight or the scars of damage, to the comfort of a poem. Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have all the answers. Let me keep company always with those who say "Look!"  and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads. Mary Oliver, Evidence Life is about opportunities and taking advantage of those opportunities.  Today I am going to give you an opportunity although I don't have all the answers, merely suggestions.  A colleague and friend needs books for her classroom to do literary circles.  She's using Donorschoose.org to solicit enough books to make it happen.  It's easy.  Go to Donorschoose.org.  ...

Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day!  IMHO, my school did a poor to quite poor job promoting this event this year, but at my urging, most of my students did have a poem in their pocket.  I, too, had a poem in my pocket.  This year I chose Billy Collin's The Trouble with Poetry. The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins The trouble with poetry, I realized as I walked along a beach one night-- cold Florida sand under my bare feet, a show of stars in the sky-- the trouble with poetry is that it encourages the writing of more poetry, more guppies crowding the fish tank, more baby rabbits hopping out of their mothers into the dewy grass. And how will it ever end? unless the day finally arrives when we have compared everything in the world to everything else in the world, and there is nothing else to do but quietly close our notebooks and sit with our hands folded on our desks. Poetry fills me with joy and I rise like a feather in the wind Poetry fills m...

Today was World Book Night.  I chose the book Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, and chose twenty, actually nineteen because I kept one copy, students to gift this book.  It was also a day of doctors appointments.  I've realized that my shoulder is getting better yet is still painful to quite painful.  Instead of waiting another week to see the orthopedic shoulder doc, I called this morning to see if I could get an earlier appointment.  Not only could I get an earlier appointment, he was able to see me at eleven this morning.  Since we were in the middle of MCA testing (YUCK), I e-mailed several people to assist me, so I could make the doctor appointment.  Everyone came through (as they always do) for me!  LR helped me by giving the books to the chosen students and took pictures for me.  Although I was a bit saddened not to be able to hand out the books, I knew she was the perfect person for the job.  This allowed me to meet with the orthopedic guy...

Love that I match... hate the boy hairstyle. Happy Easter!  Today is absolutely beautiful.  It's what spring should be, 73º and sunny.  First, I went to the sunrise service at 7am, and it was wonderful.  Since the weather was glorious, I walked to the grocery store.  My walking trip the the grocery store crosses the Midtown Greenway (actually, it's not officially the greenway by my house, but I'm not sure what this section of trail is called).  Bikers were all over the trail enjoying all the trail has to give.  It made me sad that my bike was sitting in the garage. I called the Y to see if there were any biking classes offered today,  Summit Ride was offered at 2:00.  Since my exercise options are limited to quite limited, I went to the class.  Of course, it's not an equal replacement to being outdoors on a bike.  This class was also my first indoor bike (spinning) class.  It went well, and sweat poured from my pores. ...

As I've mentioned before I find Good Friday an oxymoron.  Of course, I attended Good Friday service (the music sucked!), but I also made my first visit to the PT.  Although I sometimes don't listen to the doctor, I almost always listen to my PT (actually I have two).  Today he gave me reason to wear my sling (The orthopedic guy should take lessons on persuasion from the PT.  If he had, I would have been wearing the sling for two weeks now instead of twelve hours.).  I've known for two weeks that I should have " buddy taped " my fingers, but the PT also persuaded me to do this.  Actually, he wanted to do it while I was in the office.  I told him the only reason you want to do this for me is because you don't think I'll do it myself.  If I didn't respect his time, I'd take a picture of my "buddy taped" fingers and email it to him.  Perhaps I should also email J because I'm sure she doesn't think I actually have them taped, but I...

I have never known what maundy means, so I actually looked it up tonight.  Maundy is the ceremony of washing feet, so it makes sense.  Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) remembers the Last Supper, and Jesus washing the disciples feet.  Typically the washing of feet (or hands) and communion is the extent of the Maundy Thursday services I've attended.  Tonight our service was different.  The theme of Lent this year has been the Holy Way.  At tonight's service, we walked the Stations of the Cross.  Although I'm sure I have at some point (maybe not... I'm not Catholic) I've walked the Stations, tonights Stations were different.  They had a current theme (current issues, struggles, beliefs...).  Fifteen stations (There are normally 14.  I looked it up on my phone as I sat in the sanctuary while others finished the stations) were designed by various church members.  My favorite was made from a poetry book.  Others were made from news...

Picture taken today... snowflakes :( I think snow in April is ridiculous.  Yep, that's it.   I am thankful for... 1) watching as a student "gets it" 2) My bike is fixed, and the guy at the bike shop actually left a message asking about my shoulder and how I was doing. 3) Fellow Iowans 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/12/animal-friends-forever_n_5087661.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063 Thanks to this Huffingtoon Post article, I have pictures to start my Notebook presentation for the next two weeks. Tonight was parent/teacher conferences, and I love that the students are part of this experience.  As one young man and his father were sitting at the desk, I realized the son's problem.  "Tell me you're not one of those kids," I said and pointed at him.  Basically, he's a bright kid that's figured out doing homework and other (formative-30%) assignments is a waste of his time since he always does well to quite well on his (summative- 70%).  It does move his grade a little lower, but he still has basically As and Bs.  The father asked me what one did with "those kids."  First, I told him, be thankful he was smart enough to figure it out and use it for his advantage.  It takes intelligence to make this work.  As I looked at ...

  356.  Auguries of Innocence by   William Blake T O  see a world in a grain of sand,   And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,   And eternity in an hour.   I have a group of women whom I meet with once a month over a glass of wine.  It's called our Sabbath group, and I'm sure I've written about it before.  We chose to find Anne Lamott's interview with Oprah on Oprah's Super Soul Sunday for next time's discussion, but we couldn't find the entire version.  Instead we settled on Sue Monk Kidd since the video was still online.  To prepare myself, I listened and took notes of those thoughts that resonated with me.  All of these should be in quotes and tidied up for grammar (whatever), but here is a list that I took of what I listened to and believed: Prayer is the intention of the heart what is faith if not paying attention to what we belong to This moment is enough. Thi...

I've been feeling sorry for myself ever since church this morning.  My church is full of lovely people who want to hug me and pat me on the shoulder.  Both happened today and no one knew I was about to jump out of my skin in pain.  Outside it's grey and gloomy, and inside I'm kinda feeling the same way.   To make myself feel better I decided to do something nice for someone else.  This typically works.  A friend and colleague made me dinner earlier this week, so I need to return the containers.  Instead of returning them empty, I decided to fill them with Easter candy.  I bought my favorite candy Whoppers Robin Eggs for one of the containers and Dove chocolates for the other.  Because I wanted to make sure I had enough candy (sounds good, right?!), I also bought a bag (small) of jelly beans.  Do you see where this is going?  I had too much candy for the containers.  Since it didn't all fit in my small glass jar, I've bee...

This is the best ice pack ever. Today's post is brought to you by Ibuprofen and an ice pack.  For some reason during the night, the pain in my shoulder subsided.  I think it's because I iced it several times throughout the afternoon and evening.  My range of motion has also improved although it's not even close to normal.  Baby steps.  Because I was doing better, I decided to knock out two tasks.  First I changed the sheets on my bed, washed the flannel sheets, and stored them in the linen closet.  After this task, I took a break to read and get caught up with some magazines that were hanging out on the floor.  When I felt rested, I took care of the door that leads to my small deck.  I replaced the storm with the screen.  Since I was able to complete this with my arms close to my body, it went well to quite well.  Now that both of these tasks are finished, I feel like Wonder Woman.  Quite frankly, I also feel like doing mo...

During the middle of the day, I received an e-mail from a colleague.  HH CC 3:00?  My immediate reply was YAY!.  I was invited to happy hour at the CC Club at 3:00 which meant we needed to leave directly after school and drive to said location.  My choice of beverage was Surly Furious.  I'm not a big fan of their beer list, but I am a big fan of the location and their portobello fries.  Plus, I grabbed a greasy grilled ham and cheese sandwich to take home.  Happy Friday! Today's Lenten suggestion was to read the story of John 8:1-11.  It's the "throw the first stone" passage.  I do appreciate the wisdom of this story. Today I'm thankful for... 1) lunch our with great colleagues and happy hour with a great colleague 2) birds chirping as I awoke this morning 3) sun, sun, sun!

Last night I started to freak out as I research my shoulder pain symptoms in preparation for my appointment with the shoulder doctor.  After geeking on the internet for an extended period of time, I was certain that I had a torn rotator cuff.  This extended time of worry was unwarranted.  Basically, I have a shoulder separation .  It's severe (Type IV) because the clavicle is actually pushed behind the AC joint which is unusual.  The doctor thinks it will be a month before I am able to bike.  According to him, I "need to be able to protect myself" before I can get on a bike.  Currently, I'm unable to reach out far enough to grab the handle bars, but I feel confident that I can get back on a bike in two weeks.  Hey, I need to prepare for RAGBRAI .  He also informed me that I couldn't do anything that would make it worse.  My face must have lit up because he followed it by, "but you can impede your progress."  As soon as I had my s...

Today's Lenten suggestion is becoming my blog post and a time waster.  The suggestion was to use freecycle.org .  Since I didn't know what it was, I took some time to peruse the site.  Basically it's similar to Craigslist, but everything is free (offer or wanted).  It a recycle site.  One rule is no money is exchanged.  It was fun to look at and think about.  What do I have that I want to get rid of?  What does someone else want that I have no use for?  Go check it out. Today I am thankful for... 1) wonderful friend colleague who supplied me with a huge mean (enough for dinner tonight, breakfast tomorrow, and dinner tomorrow night) 2) coconut cupcakes 3) today's sunrise was absolutely beautiful

I took this picture of my leg today after my dad's girlfriend commented on the pretty colors of my bruises.  Remember it needs to get worse to get better, so it's getting better. I think this shoulder injury has made me lazy.  Since I was dealing with finishing my bike ride, urgent care, and the injury on Sunday, I didn't go get groceries.  Instead I've been buying individual sandwiches for lunch (not making my own) and hitting Caribou for breakfast (difficult to make smoothies with one hand (?)).  Of course I've also had to take leave of the gym and biking which means I come home, take a nap, and watch The Voice... seems kinda pathetic.  Tonight while watching the local news I found out about this wrestler from Blaine who was recognized by his city council (? some official adults of some kind).  It's a pretty amazing story, and I love it when kiddos good deeds are noticed.  Let's be honest; this doesn't happen very often. Speaking of good kids,...

Day 6 of the #30daysofbiking did not go well.  After getting lost on Saturday, I was quite sure I had Sunday was going to be awesome, warmer weather and a better idea of my trail.  Five miles into my ride I braked too quickly to avoid a cement wall.  This caused me to fly off my bike and land on the pavement.  It also dinged up my new bike.  I'm not sure how it happened but I was able to finish my ride (probably another ten miles).  I really need to find a GPS bike app that works, but maybe my accident cleared it.  Anyway, I finished my ride in quite a bit of pain, but I really think I was riding on adrenaline.  When I got home, I took my bike to the bike shop and headed to Twin Cities Orthopedics.  The doctor at Twin Cities said I should come back on Thursday for another X-Ray and an MRI.  Until then I'm supposed to keep my arm in a sling to protect my shoulder. Today I decided to leave the sling in my bag because I could control t...

I will admit to being a Kurt Cobain and Nirvana Fan.  As I looked at my Twitter feeds this morning, I was shocked to realize it's been twenty years since his death.  Twenty years?! I enjoyed a wonderful weekend in God's country.  The car is still on the ice, but it looks like it's leaning.  As I drove over the bridge by the car, I hoped it would crash through the ice as I watched.  My weekend included visits with wonderful friends and a trip to the Taco House! Today I went to scout out the path for my twenty mile ride tomorrow.  My plan was to ride ten miles today.  Instead I got lost and ended up riding a bit more than I had planned.  It was all good since the weather is better.  Check out my Instagram or Twitter to see the results of melting snow on parts of the bike trails.  Tomorrow is going to be even warmer.  Woot Woot! I've actually done OK this week with the Lenten observance suggestions although my blogging is defi...

Yesterday I saw a post on FB that showed the ice on Lake Okoboji starting to go.  Each year they (? IDK) put a car on the lake sometime after Winter Games then people guess when it will go under.  I assumed, by looking at the picture and the car, that the car would be under by mid-afternoon.  I sent a text to my dad saying the car had gone through the ice although technically I merely thought it would happen.  He sent a text back saying someone was lying to me and inferring that I was gullible.  Did I mention that once in high school at a pool party with adult beverages I believed an attractive boy who told me gullible wasn't in the dictionary?  I digress.  He told me to check the camera online.  Sure enough the car was still on the ice.  We went back and forth, but I assured him that it would be under by nightfall.  This morning I received a text saying the car was still on the ice.  Tonight I checked the camera again.  The...

Yesterday I went to the chiropractor for acupuncture.  He asked what I was doing for spring break.  "Bitching about the cold and miserable weather," I quickly answered.  Today my dad asked the same thing and received the same answer.  It's hard to post everyday when winter has depleted my soul.  For April Fools Day, we received snow, cold, and wind.  I can think of better April Fools pranks like the one I saw on the Today Show this morning (replacing white of Oreo with toothpaste).    Today also started #30daysofbiking .  I waited until 3:00 in hopes of less wind and warmer weather.  Both happened although the wind was still fairly fierce.   Basically, I'll try to post every day in April even if it's merely a picture of my ride.  I'll try to follow the Lenten practice and write my gratitude list, but again, the weather has sucked the breathe out of my soul. Yesterday I followed the Lenten suggestions (sorta)....