Hedgetoad Teaching

Continuing with the end of the world theme in young adult fiction, I read Life As We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer. It's actually pretty similar to One Second After , a book I read earlier this year, but without the horrific death scenes or the belief that when something bad happens almost everyone is going become little more than savages out to murder everyone else in the most horrific way possible. It's your basic something bad happened and all the eletricity, fuel, food and water sources are limited or gone type of story. The main character is junior in high school when a natural disaster strikes. The book is basically her diary of the events - she goes from being jealous that her best friend has a date for the Prom to wondering if she'll ever see 17. At first people are bit worried, but still believing that things can soon return to normal. Luckily for the main character, her mother sees bad things coming. The description of the scuttle for supplies is almost funny. Things...

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading Readicide by Kelly Gallagher. There is a huge discussion about the book on the English Companion Ning - I highly recommend reading through it. There are so many great idea and points to ponder throughout. At the end of the book is a huge list of books that are of high interest to students who aren't that motivated to read. As mentioned last week, I hit the used bookstore to find as many as I could for the upcoming year. I now has enough books to last me for the rest of the summer if I don't finish painting the living room. Or anything else. On the other hand, they are pretty easy to get into, which is the point, I suppose. The first one I dove into was How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff . The description promised an end of the world theme (which is my favorite), and given our days of sunshine lately I thought it a good start. There's nothing worse that reading a depressing book while it's raining and let's face it, teens do se...

I've written about the joys of my clothesline before... how green it is, how it saves me tons of money (seriously at least $20/mo.), yadda, yadda. I didn't, however, really know how to work it... I mean, it's a clothesline right? Pin the clothes to the line and let the wind do the work. How hard is that? Except the underwear question. No one wants their underwear hanging out for everyone to spy. So, what does one do with the unmentionables? I know what you are thinking, lord-luv-a-duck, could you not figure it out on your own? And I couldn't. It wasn't until I attended an OSPI conference session led by an Australian using the book The Terrible Underpants (which is hysterical, by the way). An amusing story, the speaker went on to described how in Australia, where everyone uses a clothesline, the underwear are hung in the center of the Outdoor Clothes Dryer while the sheets or large towels are hung on the outer line so that all undergarments are hidden from street...

mobile posting... I have a feeling that this is not the proper way to do, but if it works, what the heck. Book shopping today with my list from Readicide (good book!) for high interest teen books. Trying the used bookstore first. Cheaper and they don't hassle customers about using the teacher discount. Borders is the worst about using a teacher discount. I rarely go there now because of it. It also shows how corporate they've become... and I have to wonder how many other super book shoppers they've also turned off with this policy?

I haven't totally been lazying around during summer vacation... my job list for today included: painting a section of the living room wall. At this rate, I'm assuming I'll have it completed by the end of next week. trimmed and pruned all the bushes in the front yard. Light now shines through the front windows again. Hung the new house number sign and removed the tacky reflective stickers from the side of the house. Seriously, it was so tacky I'm amazed that I lived with them for so long... but finding the right house number sign was a difficult choice. ordered birthday cake for party next week. went to grocery store took a nap to get rid of headache. Although they have lessened in length of time, the headaches are still hanging around. While painting the wall, one of the neighborhood 40 year old adolescents kids let off a bunch of firecrackers . It scared the crap out of the dog and she came running to me - stepping into the paint pan and rubbing up against the wall....

I spent the last two weeks of year desperately trying to not vomit in class, while simultaneously downing copious amounts of pain killers. It took awhile to get into to see a chiropractor, but apparently I have a vertebra in my neck pointing in a wrong direction and a hip joint that is tilted. According to the chiropractor my right leg was nearly two inches shorter than my left... who knew? Anyways, it may be working to rid me of weeks long headaches I've been having. In the meantime, I decided officially to do national boards. I may be insane. Last week I attended a Jump Start session. It was somewhat scary and very informative. If you're thinking about doing national boards, I highly recommend attending. On thing everyone mentioned over and over how much time is required to complete everything. Dozens of stories of neglected family members, houses falling apart, no personal time, etc. I'm still nervous about being able to get everything done... especially with my prope...