Book Club went with a classic and attendance was great. We had a couple English Lit. teachers and a Canadian that has visited Charlotte Bronte's home in England. There was a special Bronte table cloth and special cut-outs in our napkins, fruit, cookies, and a tart - just like having English tea.
I had read Jane Eyre in high school (on my own, not assigned) and loved it. When I reread it, I could only remember the burning of the curtains, and the insane wife. I didn't remember about Jane's childhood, the orphanage, her life after Rochester, or how the book ended! I loved the book all over again. I was also very impressed with myself as a teenager. It wasn't a light read.
February 28, 2013
February 26, 2013
Biggest Loser
I'm on our school's Biggest Loser for Life team. It's just a six week commitment. Each week we focused on a different important strategy like eating whole grains, adding activity, and eating smaller portions. This week we're suppose to eat healthy breakfasts. Our school nurse organized a potluck which was delicious. I ended up eating breakfast about three times - first oatmeal with walnuts, fresh blueberries, and brown sugar stevia, then at break, Greek yogurt, granola, and lots of fresh fruit, and finally I added more fresh fruit, cheese, and a pumpkin muffin to my lunch. Our team is losing the competition, and I'm not losing weight.
February 25, 2013
The Oscar Party!!!!
My friend throws an amazing Oscar party. She spends all year preparing and collecting. This year was the 20th anniversary of her first party. I've only been going for about 15 years. It's always one of my favorite days of the year.
The excitement started earlier this year with the pre-show starting at 4:30. We also moved to a new venue - upstairs. This year we all had soft seats, the TV had DVR capabilities, we had the whole dining room table for food, and drinks were no longer relegated to the treadmill.
Every year we:
The excitement started earlier this year with the pre-show starting at 4:30. We also moved to a new venue - upstairs. This year we all had soft seats, the TV had DVR capabilities, we had the whole dining room table for food, and drinks were no longer relegated to the treadmill.
Every year we:
- have boas to wear
- get gift bags like the stars with trinkets and bling
- pick boyfriends and collect kisses every time we see them or hear their name
- bring food to match our favorite movie of the year (This year's winner made a football field with veggies for Silver Lining Playbook.)
- play movie trivia games and match movies to bottles of wine
- collect many, many prizes for picking winners on our ballots (Prizes are also awarded for not picking any winners.)
- offer opinions on all dresses, hair styles, make-up, and acceptance speeches
- critique the host, presenters, and musical numbers
- catch-up on Hollywood gossip from one attendee who reads Star magazine weekly
- laugh - a lot!
- and then head home with a bag full of books, DVDs, movie tickets, marquee night lights, glittery feather pens, and every kind of movie candy you can imagine
February 21, 2013
Evaluation
Every year your principal has to come into your classroom to watch a lesson and do a formal evaluation. Even after decades of teaching it still makes you a little nervous. It's like live TV. The students are always a wild card. I really don't mind the observation. Anyone can come and visit my classroom any time. But as the years have gone by, formal evaluations have gone crazy town!
I spent 3 hours on Tuesday filling out my pre-evaluation form. It probably wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't had an attitude problem. All the information I put down was just reworded by the principal on my final report. I think I was doing the administrators job, writing my own evaluation. I could make it sound good, but it wasn't a fun process.
Then I spent 2 hours on Wednesday night writing a lesson plan. Again, it might have taken less time if I hadn't had an attitude problem. My school district has developed their own lesson format with several different templates that you can choose from. In my opinion, this instructional model is a confusing, smooshed, mess. I think the superintendent should be embarrassed to have our district's name attached to it. We've had a lot of training, and I have a lot of experience, and the lesson I taught was thorough and engaging, but after 2 hours, I could not fill out the template. I finally just faked it.
Today my principal came in and observed for about 20 minutes. The kids were sharp. I was smooth, and the lesson was a hit. The outcome would have been the same without the 5 hours of prep. I could have used those 5 hours grading papers.
I spent 3 hours on Tuesday filling out my pre-evaluation form. It probably wouldn't have taken so long if I hadn't had an attitude problem. All the information I put down was just reworded by the principal on my final report. I think I was doing the administrators job, writing my own evaluation. I could make it sound good, but it wasn't a fun process.
Then I spent 2 hours on Wednesday night writing a lesson plan. Again, it might have taken less time if I hadn't had an attitude problem. My school district has developed their own lesson format with several different templates that you can choose from. In my opinion, this instructional model is a confusing, smooshed, mess. I think the superintendent should be embarrassed to have our district's name attached to it. We've had a lot of training, and I have a lot of experience, and the lesson I taught was thorough and engaging, but after 2 hours, I could not fill out the template. I finally just faked it.
Today my principal came in and observed for about 20 minutes. The kids were sharp. I was smooth, and the lesson was a hit. The outcome would have been the same without the 5 hours of prep. I could have used those 5 hours grading papers.
February 17, 2013
Recruiting
I love the women in my family. They're my favorite people to be around. Almost all of us got together for a lunch in Eagle yesterday. Marisa was visiting and we all want her to move to Boise. We have everything figured out for her, except the job, but Dad is working on that. She would have so much support up here, and we're fun. We don't all get together and go to lunch all the time, but we can - and on short notice.
February 15, 2013
V-Day
It's always fun to celebrate Valentine's Day with elementary kids. For a week they have been sending each other Friendship Grams. It's a fund raiser for 4th grade. It only costs 25 cents to have a pink slip of paper delivered to a friend with a piece of penny candy taped to the back. A lot of sixth graders spend a couple dollars a day sending friendship grams to themselves.
I blew my healthy eating habits for the day. Fifth grade celebrates with an Italian luncheon. I had a whole plate of pasta and two giant frosted sugar cookies. That was an hour before our class party which was just a lot of sugar and noise. I finally got them settled down and watching a Berenstein Bear Valentines Day video. Sixth graders are pretty funny. You never know what will work. Last year's group had an impromptu dance party. This year a video for 5 year olds worked.
The most impressive part of this year's celebration was the homemade valentines. My class learned how to do origami birds for a big mobile that they're making for Art Night. That led them to origami videos online, which led to several individually made origami valentines. I was impressed.
I blew my healthy eating habits for the day. Fifth grade celebrates with an Italian luncheon. I had a whole plate of pasta and two giant frosted sugar cookies. That was an hour before our class party which was just a lot of sugar and noise. I finally got them settled down and watching a Berenstein Bear Valentines Day video. Sixth graders are pretty funny. You never know what will work. Last year's group had an impromptu dance party. This year a video for 5 year olds worked.
The most impressive part of this year's celebration was the homemade valentines. My class learned how to do origami birds for a big mobile that they're making for Art Night. That led them to origami videos online, which led to several individually made origami valentines. I was impressed.
February 13, 2013
My First Wreck
I don't even want to write about this. It was just a little wreck. No one was hurt. It happened on a pretty quiet street. The police arrived in just a few minutes and everyone was nice. If it was going to happen, it happened in a nice way, but I could have gone through life without that experience.
I caused the whole thing. I was just around the corner from my house, on my way to work, and I looked down at a dead raccoon that was on the side of the road. He was big, and his face was looking back at me. When I looked up, traffic was backed up in front of me and I screeched to a stop, but didn't make it. I hit the car in front of me, and she hit the car in front of her. When we got out, the person in front of me was a teacher from my school! When I called the office to let them know that I might be late, the secretary was shocked. She said, "Weird, Emma was in an accident this morning too." We both made it to school on time, but I was greeted all down the hall with comments and questions. I thought I should have sent out an e-mail.
I was shaky, a little sick, and greatly embarrassed all day. Even though it was just a minor fender-bender, it's going to add up to a big expense. My car didn't look much worse than a bent license plate and a couple scrapes, but the estimate is $1,300. I am grateful for the best insurance company on the planet - USAA. (Thanks Dad, for being an officer in the military.) Now I just have to deal with my fine for the inattentive driving ticket that I received.
I caused the whole thing. I was just around the corner from my house, on my way to work, and I looked down at a dead raccoon that was on the side of the road. He was big, and his face was looking back at me. When I looked up, traffic was backed up in front of me and I screeched to a stop, but didn't make it. I hit the car in front of me, and she hit the car in front of her. When we got out, the person in front of me was a teacher from my school! When I called the office to let them know that I might be late, the secretary was shocked. She said, "Weird, Emma was in an accident this morning too." We both made it to school on time, but I was greeted all down the hall with comments and questions. I thought I should have sent out an e-mail.
I was shaky, a little sick, and greatly embarrassed all day. Even though it was just a minor fender-bender, it's going to add up to a big expense. My car didn't look much worse than a bent license plate and a couple scrapes, but the estimate is $1,300. I am grateful for the best insurance company on the planet - USAA. (Thanks Dad, for being an officer in the military.) Now I just have to deal with my fine for the inattentive driving ticket that I received.
February 10, 2013
Head Games - Wow!
My nephew Matt has been all over channel 7 and on the radio lately. He's the community outreach person for the St. Luke's Concussion Clinic. My family turned out on Saturday night to support him in a community event at the Egyptian Theater. I really wanted to see Matt in action. He's an impressive young man, but I was worried about spending 3 hours listening to stuff about concussions. As it ended up, we were there 4 1/2 hours there, and it was amazing.
The theater was almost full, more than 600 people. They showed a documentary Head Games, which was stunning. Everyone with kids that play sports needs to see it, also every coach, PE teacher, and young athlete. After an intermission, Dee Sarton moderated a panel discussion with questions from the audience. The panel consisted of Matt, an NFL player, 2 doctors, the legislator sponsored the concussion legislation last year, and the head trainers from BSU and Boise High. They were all informative, funny, and sharp. It was fascinating. It was so good to be there as a family. We all learned a lot, and Matt was amazing.
The theater was almost full, more than 600 people. They showed a documentary Head Games, which was stunning. Everyone with kids that play sports needs to see it, also every coach, PE teacher, and young athlete. After an intermission, Dee Sarton moderated a panel discussion with questions from the audience. The panel consisted of Matt, an NFL player, 2 doctors, the legislator sponsored the concussion legislation last year, and the head trainers from BSU and Boise High. They were all informative, funny, and sharp. It was fascinating. It was so good to be there as a family. We all learned a lot, and Matt was amazing.
February 07, 2013
Personal Progress
I've been asked to be a mentor for one of the Young Women in our ward, to help her with personal progress. We'll all be getting together on the first Wednesday each month, so Feb. 6th was our start date. It was so good to be back in YW. I was thinking during opening exercises how much I had forgotten about all the energy of teens. We don't have many kids in our ward, but there was plenty of activity.
We played a get-to-know you activity with all the girls and their mentors. We did get to know a lot about each other. Then we had time to see where our girl was on her personal progress and help them make a plan for this month. I had read the new PP book online and was a little overwhelmed. I'm excited to be working with Val, and I was really excited to see that she has a lot done already.
I've decided to complete the activities and projects along with Val. I'm glad that she's done everything up to the last activity and project for Choice and Accountability. So this month, I'll be working on honesty, and spend 10 hours cleaning and organizing my loft. After that well have most of Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue to do. It might take a year and a half, but it's going to be fun working together.
We played a get-to-know you activity with all the girls and their mentors. We did get to know a lot about each other. Then we had time to see where our girl was on her personal progress and help them make a plan for this month. I had read the new PP book online and was a little overwhelmed. I'm excited to be working with Val, and I was really excited to see that she has a lot done already.
I've decided to complete the activities and projects along with Val. I'm glad that she's done everything up to the last activity and project for Choice and Accountability. So this month, I'll be working on honesty, and spend 10 hours cleaning and organizing my loft. After that well have most of Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue to do. It might take a year and a half, but it's going to be fun working together.
February 02, 2013
Literacy Luncheon for the Learning Lab
I have a friend on the board of the the Learning Lab, and for the last two years she has been in charge of the centerpieces. I'm one of the people that she has recruited to help get everything set-up, which is fun, but better yet is our reward of having a table at the luncheon and getting to hear the speakers, participate in the auction, buy raffle tickets, and basically just spend the whole day with books and people who love books.
The centerpieces are mostly books (workbooks for a new language, GED help, children's books) with ribbons and colorful doodads that add interest. People buy the centerpieces, then donate them back to the Learning Lab. We collect the ribbons and doodads to use again next year. Last year we had 72 tables, this year 84. I'm sure the fundraiser was a big success. I was outbid on all my baskets and books, but I brought home a list that I'm ordering from Amazon, and plenty of ideas for auction baskets for BEA or Trail Wind.
I saw several nice outfits - not like what I usually see when I'm with a group of school teachers or church ladies. Our chicken dish was surprisingly very good. The speakers were both excellent. They always have a student from the Learning Lab and an author. I found out the they're changing the GED at the end of the year and if you haven't completed all of the tests, then you have to start over. That doesn't seem fair. And I had a very enjoyable day off work.
The student speaker had dropped out of Capital High in 1996, just a few months before graduating. She was pregnant and thought it would be easy to pick up her GED. It wasn't. She had tried to study on her own, and enrolled in another program that didn't work, before she found her way to the Learning Lab. She's now passed four of the five tests with honors, and is learning algebra and geometry so that she can take her final test this summer. I was so struck when she said that since 2009, when she started, she's read 13 books - and she liked them! Imagine the difference it makes in the lives of her children, when she succeeds and reads.
The author grew up in Boise and I knew her mom as a school board member. Alyssa Harad has written a memoir that deals with her study of scents and perfume. She told a story of a time when she was working with young people in the mental hospital here in Boise. A boy of ten who couldn't read or write attended her poetry writing classes and was a rock star among the others because of his poetry. She would start the class by reading a few poems, then the students would write and share their own. This boy would pretend to write, but really only drew big loopy scribbles. He "read" his poems and others were wowed. Once at the beginning of class she stopped reading because she thought this boy was getting upset. He told her not to stop, because he found his poems in the poetry that she was reading. She then encouraged us to not stop reading, because others find their poems or their stories through our reading. It was very powerful in a room full of book lovers.
The centerpieces are mostly books (workbooks for a new language, GED help, children's books) with ribbons and colorful doodads that add interest. People buy the centerpieces, then donate them back to the Learning Lab. We collect the ribbons and doodads to use again next year. Last year we had 72 tables, this year 84. I'm sure the fundraiser was a big success. I was outbid on all my baskets and books, but I brought home a list that I'm ordering from Amazon, and plenty of ideas for auction baskets for BEA or Trail Wind.
I saw several nice outfits - not like what I usually see when I'm with a group of school teachers or church ladies. Our chicken dish was surprisingly very good. The speakers were both excellent. They always have a student from the Learning Lab and an author. I found out the they're changing the GED at the end of the year and if you haven't completed all of the tests, then you have to start over. That doesn't seem fair. And I had a very enjoyable day off work.
The student speaker had dropped out of Capital High in 1996, just a few months before graduating. She was pregnant and thought it would be easy to pick up her GED. It wasn't. She had tried to study on her own, and enrolled in another program that didn't work, before she found her way to the Learning Lab. She's now passed four of the five tests with honors, and is learning algebra and geometry so that she can take her final test this summer. I was so struck when she said that since 2009, when she started, she's read 13 books - and she liked them! Imagine the difference it makes in the lives of her children, when she succeeds and reads.
The author grew up in Boise and I knew her mom as a school board member. Alyssa Harad has written a memoir that deals with her study of scents and perfume. She told a story of a time when she was working with young people in the mental hospital here in Boise. A boy of ten who couldn't read or write attended her poetry writing classes and was a rock star among the others because of his poetry. She would start the class by reading a few poems, then the students would write and share their own. This boy would pretend to write, but really only drew big loopy scribbles. He "read" his poems and others were wowed. Once at the beginning of class she stopped reading because she thought this boy was getting upset. He told her not to stop, because he found his poems in the poetry that she was reading. She then encouraged us to not stop reading, because others find their poems or their stories through our reading. It was very powerful in a room full of book lovers.
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