Miscellaneous Missives

Soooo, I ordered cycling shoes, the clip in kind, from REI outlet.  When they came yesterday, I was disappointed that I couldn't wear them to spin class today because they didn't have the cleats, and they were an ugly grey.  I went to REI for cleats and some advice.  Martha (I think) helped me out.  As we walked to the cycling shoes, I admitted that I bought them because they were cheap and wasn't necessarily happy.  We talked a bit about shoes, and she explained that many shoes were on clearance.  She also talked to me about my shoes and cycling.  While I was explaining my biking habits, I couldn't tell if she was appalled or impressed that I rode nearly 1,700 miles on my bike with running shoes.  Anyway, we started looking for shoes, on clearance, in my size.  Since I have a narrow foot, buying athletic shoes is always a challenge, and I expected one as she brought out shoes.  Eight pairs of shoes, one additional salesperson, and 1....

This year I've finished to books about reading.   Notice and Note (Beers and Probst) and Book Love (Kittle).  First, I would like to say that I wish I had read Notice and Note earlier in the year, like over the summer before the school year started.  It would have changed how I introduced a couple of novels at the beginning of the year.  Even though I didn't read it early enough to help with the reading of the novels in my class, I introduced "contrasts and contradictions" to my students recently as we were reading short stories, and I think it helped all readers.  It helped struggling readers tie the story elements together, and it gave all readers a chance to pause and think about the reading.  Yesterday I met with a group that discussed Book Love an wished some of them were reading Notice and Note .  Book Love is a wonderful book for teachers who are teaching reading or language arts. While Book Love reminds us of the importance of individua...

I absolutely love that our students are 1:1 with Chrome Books.  Today as students were brainstorming about their "Moment in Time," I walked around and noticed a student with the Valley Fair map open on his desktop.  When I told them I needed a specific place for their personal narrative, he was taking me seriously.  During second hour, otters was mentioned for some reason, and I asked every student to stop mapping their moment and find me an image of an otter.  It was not helpful to the completion of their task, but I was humored.  Later when one of my afternoon classes was describing one of the plants in my room, I used the word variegate as a descriptive word, I quickly used a different word until I noticed at least three students were looking it up, "Are you looking up variegate?  What does it mean?"  Perhaps some learned a new word today.  Later in the day a student asked me how to spell ostrich.  "You have the Google machine in front...

Last year I did two days of RAGBRAI and was disappointed I hadn't signed up for the entire ride.  I was worried this year would go through the southern part of the state, and I wouldn't know anyone to find a place for a shower and perhaps a bed.  My buddy Al was at the announcement part and quick to post the overnight towns.  I've already contacted people with ties to three of the overnight towns.  It's a more hilly ride this year with a great climb, but I registered last night and hope to ride the entire week.  I was soooo excited and nervous that I didn't get much sleep.  Hey, I even ordered a jersey.  I guess it's time to push it a little more in my spin class, and it's time to quit skipping the gym and pump classes.

This morning I asked for help.  By the end of the day,  had an interesting list.  Feel free to continue to comment or message ideas. Charlie Hebdo (two sides?) Israel-Palestine Cuba Immigration Reform Keystone Fracking Corporate Personhood Free Two Year College Ferguson "I can't breathe..." Stand Your Ground Death with Dignity (move from CA to OR) Mandatory Safety Locks (guns) Body Cameras for Police Minimum Wage Torture Gitmo Meat Industry 20 Week Abortion Limit (two sides?) GMO labeling Vaccinations Health Insurance (ACA, Obama Care) Religious Dress and State-Issued IDs) Medical Marijuana Liability for Oil Spills (BP, Ecuador vs. Chevron) Accommodations for "pumping" or breast feeding mothers White Flight Voter Suppression/Gerrymandering Taxing the 1% Outsourcing NAFTA (trade) Foreign Sweatshops (Nike, Apple, Abercrombie, Forever 21) What are your thoughts and/or additions?

www.toberight.com I'm moving into research next.  While my regular students will be doing children's rights, I want to push my honors students.  In my head, I'm still thinking about the State of the Union and rebuttal (or lack of).  While I was taking a shower, I had an idea, but I need lots of HELP and IDEAS.  My plan is for students to choose a current event that has two sides (Democratic and Republican).  For their research they will need to look at both sides (say MSNBC type news sources and Fox type news sources).  My problem is I really would like a list of TWENTY such topics that have two distinct sides.  Some ideas have already came and gone, but this is my list:  Charlie Hebdo (two sides?), Israel-Palestine, Cuba, immigration, Keystone, Fracking, corporate personhood, free two year college, Sony spy (who's responsible) or even pull vs. not pull movie, Ferguson, "I can't breathe,.... I'm trying to stay away from topics like abortion...

The custodian and I have been playing a game of hide and seek with Darth .  He has been in several different locations in my room.  Sometimes it's really difficult to find him since he blends in.  Then this small pink star appeared on my white board.  I saw the custodian and thanked him for the star since it was bright and shiny as opposed to the evil Darth.  Then I returned the next day to find out not only had Darth moved again, but my star was gone.  Feeling sad, I left a note on the board. The next day a poem appeared next to my note. It took a colleague to help me find the star (and Darth). Today, Darth has moved again, but he has the star taped to his forehead.  At some point, there will be no other places to hide Darth.

"Excuses change nothing but make everyone feel better."  ~Mason Cooley My plan leaving school today was to go to the gym tonight which would be good for my physical health.  The other plan was to watch the State of the Union Address which would be good for my intellectual health.  Instead I've decided to watch the Iowa State men's basketball team on ESPN2 which should be good for my emotional health.  Driving home I already started forming excuses on why I couldn't go to the gym.  First, I have three loads of laundry and a new washer.  Next, I went yesterday and Sunday.  Finally, I can't always watch Iowa State basketball due to my limited television stations.  It does make me feel a bit better that I feel guilty about not working out and/or watching POTUS but not guilty enough to change my mind.  Go 'Clones!

"But I don't want to go among mad people,"  Alice remarked. "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat; "we're all mad here.  I'm mad.  You're mad." "How do you know I"m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here." ~Lewis Carol   Alice in Wonderland I don't want to go to school today.  It's my fault because I spent too much time grading formative assignments and missing work.  As I mentioned before, I told students I would grade formative assignments during the ISU game.  This didn't happen because the game was too intense (ISU won).  Most of the assignments were graded Sunday; one class was graded yesterday.  I wrote the same comment on all papers that were not finished, "You should have finished this, so I could help prepare you for the summative." "Yesterday, I received an email from a student who said, "I don't under...

"Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." I feel a bit guilty that I didn't do anything to celebrate MLK Day.  Although I had thought about joining a Black Lives Matter march in St. Paul.  The march, however, was planned from 1-5, and I had some final grading to accomplish.  As I periodically checked FB, since I was already on my computer, I looked and read all the MLK posts, many merely quotes.  One caught my attention.  It was an article from Huff Post about Ralph Abernathy who is portrayed in Selma .  It seems his wife feels he didn't get the historical attention because he wasn't assassinated.  I'm sure there's some truth to this, but it seems to me we should focus on the message not merely the people involved. With current racial problems in the United States, I think  Letter from a Birmingham Jail  is MLKs most important work, even more important than I Have a Dream.

Whirlpool Last night I spent quite a bit of time online searching washers and dryers.  I went to several sites including Sears, Appliance Smart, Best Buy, Lowe's, and Warners' Stellian.  It seemed that most of the prices were similar.  After doing as much research as I could online, I decided to go with Warner's Stellian since the are a Minnesota family-owned company.  My next decision was more difficult.  Figuring out what washer (front loading, top loading without agitator, top loading with agitator) I wanted was super stressful.  The front loading pair would have been $600 more than the top loading pair with an agitator.  Since I live by myself, I don't do enough laundry spend the extra money.  Not having an agitator would be grand, but with the top loading pair without an agitator, one has to be careful with loading the washer.  Yeah right!  I'm just going to throw clothes in.  To add to the stress, since I live in Minneapol...

I'm choosing Part I for this post because they'll inevitably be a Part II.  Tonight I've been doing laundry and working on revising my next writing unit.  It's taking a long time because I keep changing the timeline.  When I change the timeline, I need to change the notebook file.  I know I should do the timeline first, but sometimes planning like writing is a fluid process. Did I mention I'm also doing laundry?  My planning is also interrupted by laundry.  Realizing my second load had been in the washer for a long time, I went down to put the clothes in the dryer.  Unfortunately, the washer is full of water.  I did have an alternate plan for the wet clothes, but it's best that I don't discuss it.  In all reality, it's a plugged drain hose or pump.  Perhaps it's a bad pump.  It doesn't really matter because it will probably cost $100 to get someone to come out.  I've done all I can to alleviate the problem, but my washer...

I'm ready for bed.  It's been a long day since we had parent teacher conferences until 7pm.  Honestly, it was a long day after I was done teaching before conferences.  The PTA was generous enough to provide snacks.  While I waited to add potato chips, a Rice Crispy bar, cheese and crackers to my plate, an 8th grade LA teacher told me about an interaction with a student.  This student mentioned that I had worked with her last year, so she was doing well with this particular writing.  Ahhhh....  Then the other eighth grade LA teacher approached me and said she had talked to a ninth grade teacher who said that he thought we were doing a good job teaching writing in the middle school.  Ahhhh...  I kept these comments in my mind as I opened up document after document of student work to share with parents tonight.  Maybe it's all worth it.

Today the seventh graders listened to me rush through a story about Dondre Green.  It was a nonfiction story about Dondre not being allowed to play at a golf course in 1991 because he was black.  This nonfiction selection ( Mason-Dixon Memory ) also tells the story of a young man who was not allowed to go to an amusement park in 1959 because he was black.  Our conversation revolved around theme and conflict, but many of the students were having problems with the nonfiction aspect.  At least one student in each class stopped me for clarification.  "How can this be true?  It takes place in 1991?" they questioned.  We had the discussion about racism and how it hasn't disappeared from our lives.  Plus, I added in that in the 90s there were golf courses that didn't allow women. Also, one day this week I posted to FB this week that I was calling in sick because it was cold outside.  A couple people messaged me with their concerns.  I had...

Early last week, the tech guy at the district suggested we change our school Gmail picture to see if anyone would notice.  Since my picture was merely a photograph of a turtle I took on the bike trail, I decided to follow the suggestion.  Last week's journal theme was polar bears, so I changed my picture to a polar bear.  At the beginning of this week,  I changed it to a moon (above picture).  When I'm using pictures, I'm using the advanced search to ensure that they "labeled for reuse."  Today an astute student commented, "You changed your picture to match the journals."  Yes, indeed I did which causes a bit of a problem for next week.  Next week our journal theme is Martin Luther King Jr.  I think it would be disrespectful to use his likeness, but the only other image I can think of using is a peace sign.  At least I have a week to think about it and solicit ideas from others.

This evening I'm going to make a simplistic rice chicken dish.  The recipe asks for paprika.  While I was in the grocery store looking for paprika, I started wondering about this spice.  The only paprika on the shelf was almost $6 while the other spices were $2.  What makes some spices more expensive than others?  What is paprika?  I sent my brainiac friend a text, "Is paprika the same as cayenne?"  Since I knew I had cayenne and chili powder at home, I skipped buying paprika.  This led me to think about chili powder.  Isn't chili powder merely cayenne?  Are chili powder and paprika merely crushed cayenne?  Do we really need a variety of spices?  Hot damn, my post has more questions than answers.  I guess I'll ned to rely on a variety of  comments from others to help me with my spice issue.  After all variety is the spice of life (ba boom).

Although I should thank my students for refusing to do their work because it made grading go quickly today, I'm frustrated with the lack of concern.  I'm also frustrated because my classes grades are horrible and conferences are Thursday.  To alleviate class discussion about grades and missing assignments, I created a form and document stating procedures to improve their grade on this individual assignment and e-mailed it to each student.  My guess is that most students won't do anything about it until they (and their parent) meet with me Thursday, but at least I have a plan which requires effort from the student at that time. The good news is that the Iowa State women defeated #3 Texas at Hilton today, and the men are currently leading West Virginia.  Go 'Clones!

I told one of my classes that I was 73 years old.  Frequently, I tell the students I am a certain age, and since I never give my age, it's never correct.  Quite frankly, I didn't share my age, not even a ficticional age, with my first class because they're the group that made me feel like a crabby 73 year old lady.  After lunch a girl came to my classroom perplexed information she learned at lunch.  "A friend told me you told her class that you were 73," she stated.  Of course, I let her know that I did tell the class my age, and it was the truth.  "You can't be 73 because my grandmother is 50, and you move way faster that she does," she explained.  With the lack of energy and enthusiasm of my first hour class, I'm guessing both her grandmother and I move faster that this class, at least when they're in my room although I did not share this thought.

This morning I was sitting at my desk and noticed something black on the top of my white board.  At first, I thought it was a wad of paper.  Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a Darth Vader head.  Immediately, I went down the list of suspects.  Immediately, three science teachers, Star Wars geeks, names came to my mine.  Two wouldn't take the time to get to my room, so I went across the hall to confront J.  She said that she didn't do it.  My next suspect was someone who would have access to my room and likes to pull pranks.  Since I ran out of suspects, I knew it had to be him.  To show my displeasure of putting the bad guy in my room facing my class, I sent him the " Don't Make Me Destroy You" link.  At lunch I went to confront him, and he said it wasn't him.  He seemed sincere, but it had to be him.  I even went as far as asking the dean if she would look at the footage of people entering my room after school to p...

Sometimes I wish for things that either I can not have or things that will never happen.  For example, I wish I was a science teacher because they get to do cool experiments (like Mentos and Diet Coke).  Another thing I wish is that I had the proper body parts that would allow me to write my name in the snow.  If I've gone too far, you should stop reading this and check out posts on FB because today's post is going to go past the comfort zone, and I would say the idea was given to me.   After school today, I walked into the seventh grade science office.  The conversation switched to the word diphallia.  I, of course, did not know the meaning and was told NOT to look it up at school. This piqued my curiosity.  One of the science teachers looked at me and calmly said, "You know phallic."  Oh, OH!  Di  means two.  Two?  What?!  It seems while looking up genetic diseases (?) for Life Science class, the teacher came upon...

It seems tomorrow's wind chill will be near -35º with actual an actual temp of -13º.  Many schools have closed, but as of now, mine is not one of them.  I've actually already decided on what I'm going to wear tomorrow.  Since it's going to be miserable, I'll be wearing my "too cold" outfit.  Wearing my insulated workout tights under my skirt and layers under the sweater make it the perfect outfit.  Plus, it's bright and happy although the outfit isn't without worries.  Before I wear the sweater, I will have to sew up the hole under the arm.  It should be darned or knitted, but I don't have those skills.  The skirt is in tatters and has been mended many times.  In fact the seamstress of these mends told me she wouldn't mend it again (I think because it's threadbare and falling apart).  Should I give up on the outfit?  Maybe, I actually know the year (1994) I bought the skirt and sweater.  Unfortunately, it's too worn to give ...

It's 7:12, and I already feel that I've made a mistake by saying that I would watch The Bachelor because Chris said, "Love is a lot like farming.  You plant a seed..."  Yuck!  Recently I read an article about Chris Soules .  I also took time to look up Arlington on the map.  It's good he has a lot of land which may equal a lot of money because his bachelorette is going to want to travel (a lot!).  He made an appearance on RAGBRAI (Registers' Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa).  My guess is he would have better luck choosing a girl who actually knew what she was getting into than these girls who may have never lived on a farm.  I've never lived on a farm and am certain to quite certain I wouldn't make it very long.  Let's hope he only has land and not livestock. I really don't know how tonight's going to go, but it's 7:22.  I feel like it is 22 minutes of my life that will never get back.  Honestly, I'll tune in occasionally (D...

I know you are saddened that I did not share the video of Eddie Vedder playing Just Breathe , but today is about my other favorite... Vicks Vaporub  (I may put some on the plant KK keeps eating).  Although I'm not 100%, I'll admit I'm feeling better and thankful for two weeks of sleep.  I, however, am even more thankful for finding Puffs with Vicks!  Now, I'm ready for school tomorrow (kinda).  Woot!  Vicks and Puffs!  Woot!

Hanging Around by the Counting Crows I've been hanging around this town on a corner I've been bummin' around this old town so long I've been hanging around this town on a corner I've been bummin' around this town for way too long I knew today was going to be an absolute waste when I started by finishing off the remaining Rolos for breakfast and following it by removing the two gym classes from today's schedule on my phone.  It's really inexcusable because today is the first I've actually felt decent all break.  Perhaps it's the realization that break is basically over, but my school work is complete, and I'll probably be ready when Monday morning comes.  Today, however, I feel like doing absolutely nothing, and that's what I'm doing.

"Fear is interest paid on a debt you may not owe."  This quote came today in my fortune cookie.  I'm not sure it's fitting of me, but KK was fearful of the Rug Doctor machine.  A couple of days ago a friend accidentally spilled a beer while sitting in my stuffed chair.  Although it was a good IPA, it still left the smell of a college dorm room, not that I drank anything other than cheap beer in college.  Since I've been ill, I haven't had the energy to do anything other than try soap and water.  Today I rented the Rug Doctor with accessories to clean upholstery.  It took me awhile to figure everything out, but within two hours I picked up the machine,  steam cleaned the chair , vacuumed and steam cleaned the area rug, and returned the machine.  The result is a clean rug and a clean chair.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure the smell of hops has left, but it smells less like a dorm room.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Parks I had big plans for this morning.  1) Go to Caribou for a dirty chai.  2) Check news and blogs on Feedly.  3) Quickly play Scrabble and Trivia Crack.  4) Put Christmas decoration away and tidy up. 5) Grade the remaining two (at least one) classes of fables as I watch the Gophers (no bowl game for Iowa State... waiting for the Final Four).  Step one went awesome.  Instead of moving to step two, I skipped it and completed step three.  Then I moved back to step two and my plans started to unravel. I read LH's blog about Gordon Parks.  Since Gordon Parks spent time in St. Paul, I thought I should introduce the 7th graders to Gordon Parks.  Instead of putting this in my brain to do later, I started putting together the journal entries for a week about Gordon Parks. Monday- Instead of doing a poem, I'm doing a page from A Choice of Weapons. Tuesday- Quote  "I suffered evils, but without all...