Hedgetoad Teaching

Yesterday I didn't shop. Besides the fact that I really don't have a lot of money to shop with, I just didn't see anything that grabbed my attention. It's a sentiment I heard from many people, so I'm guessing that all crowds were of people who just wanted to shop. There were some good lap top deals, but I don't need one enough to fight the crowds. Instead I spent the day doing genealogy research (and laundry). I stumbled on some new contacts on Thanksgiving and they wrote me back almost immediately. I know have copies of my great-great-great-grandfather's death certificate and will. You know what's really weird? With a few exceptions, my father's family all comes from the same general area in OH but apparently never met until arriving in Spokane, WA. I always heard stories about entire towns moving out to WA after getting letters from early arrivals - but an entire state? Even weirder? Part of my mother's family is from the same area too! Makes i...

The turkey is in the oven, slowly baking it's was to Thanksgiving goodness. Dinner will actually be Indian food with my brother and his fiance in Seattle... but I couldn't let the holiday go by without a little tryptophan . Besides, as you can see below, Keavy is waiting with baited breath!

It's been a short week, so not a whole heck of a lot was accomplished. I think, however, we had a bit of fun. Sophomores took a practice WASL essay test. The entire department will be gathering soon to grade and map out a plan of attack to get them over the testing hump. They also took a reading fluency test. I'm hoping that the scores from that test will be able to be used in a formula that a researcher in Spokane developed to predict likelihood of passing the reading WASL. We also started reading A Christmas Carol . Juniors read a selection from Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. It was, I quote, "boring." Then we went on to the quotes from Poor Richards Almanac and interpreted them. That was much more interesting. My AP classes didn't really do a whole heck of a lot as they are were working on the first major analytical essay for the semester. They have to write a paper proving that Pearl is the most modern of child characters and go on to describe how that...

If you're planning on smashing a pie into someone's face, stick to the old "whipped cream in a pie tin" trick. Using an actual pie can cause eye damage, especially if it's got sprinkles on it. Or bring goggles. We made nearly $300 on our "pie your favorite teacher" fundraiser this past week. There were days when it looked like we would get almost nothing, but some how we pulled through to get a little cash-ola. Especially nice was the cost of the fundraiser - $3 for pie, $1 for bags to put votes into... paper for posters and tickets were donated.

Via hipteacher ... ( about a hundred years ago... I'm always up-to-date) 1. Why did you start blogging? Actually, I started a now defunct online journal back in 1998 - Brain Floss. I started blogging after I was laid off in 2001 before I even thought about becoming a teacher... it's all a writing exercise. I love to write, but often find that I don't have time to do or get distracted. Blogging is a way to almost force myself to write something. 2. What do you blog about primarily? My life. Sometimes teaching is in the forefront, sometimes it's my garden, sometimes it's politics. As an exercise for my writing, really I write whatever it on my mind at that moment. 3. Professionally, what do you get out of blogging? A release of stress and writing out my thoughts helps to organize them or make me realize that I need to go into a new direction. 4. Personally, what do you get out of blogging? A sense of life outside of school. I had a friend ask me just yesterday if all ...