Hedgetoad Teaching

(please note that this list only applies to the Puget Sound Area - not the entire state of WA or the PNW as a whole. A real Spokanite wouldn't do even half of these crazy things!) 1. You know the state flower (Mildew). 2. You feel guilty throwing aluminum cans or paper in the trash. 3. Use the statement 'sun break' and know what it means. 4. You know more than 10 ways to order coffee. 5. You know more people who own boats than air conditioners. 6. You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant. 7. You stand on a deserted corner in the rain waiting for the 'WALK'signal. 8. You consider that if it has no snow or has not recently erupted, it's not a real mountain. 9. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Tulleys, Seattle's Best, and Veneto's. 10. You know the difference between Chinook, Coho and Sockeye salmon. 11. You know how to pronounce Sequim, Puyallup, Issaquah, Oregon, Yakima, Snohomish, Skykomish, Scapoose, Tulalip, Stilaquamish...

The Math WASL begins today - boring, boring, boring. Two hours of watching various students waste time and try to entertain themselves. And we don't even get a "healthy" snack this time!

Towards the end of Spring Break, the baby started getting very sick. A visit to the doctor did not result in any progress on the wellness scale... On Monday, I got a call from the daycare saying that the baby's temperature was pretty high and rising. Luckily, the day was almost over. Another teacher covered the last half hour of my class and I rushed off to the doctor again. It was pneumonia. Just a small spot, but definitely not good. We got a stronger antibiotic and spent Tuesday going crazy. Ok, just I went crazy. The baby just cried and slept. Today we sat outside in the sunshine, free of fever, coughing and best of all... snot! In the meantime, school is rolling on as normal. There are 10 weeks left and I'm really wishing that I hadn't been told that. I'm wanting summer already! and I shouldn't even be thinking about it yet.

This year, my school choose to start the Navigation 101 program. It's a program spreading over the state... those that have joined in in some manner will probably be shepharded in soon or at least that's the way it appears to certain people who worry about these things. Mine is not working out as well as I had hoped. The class meets twice a month. I really don't know the students in class - I'm still trying to figure out names. I only see three of them on a daily basis in an education class. Generally, I get the "lesson plan" the day before the class takes place. This doesn't give me much planning time and given the resources I have at hand, not much with to spice it up. These lesson plans are generally 15 minutes long, but the class itself is 35 minutes long. They say things like "dicuss whether or not parents use a bank and which one for 5 minutes ". Seriously. This leaves a lot of time to argue "why we need to do this crap" and ...

After year long hiatus, Loobylu is back! And full of crafty ideas! I think I'm already inspired! Check her out!

Spring Break is here and it's snowing! Predictions are that it will rainy/snowy/generally crappy weather... I'll be using the time to catch up on everything that has been piling up over the last three months. My desk appears to weakening under the pressure of the paper piles.   The essays from the Writers' Workshop seem to be very well done. I've only gone through a few, but the students seem to be very proud of their work and are excited to share them with each other.   Unfortunately, the research papers seem to be full of plagarized information, wacky citations and little student opinion, reflection or even thought about the chosen topic. I was so disappointed, I almost cried. Instead, after talking to several colleagues, I gave the papers back and told students that they had two weeks to clean them up and turn them back in. So far, I've received 5 back - out of 30 students. Even in choosing their own topic ( an issue in a book they had read/enjoyed ...

Next Wednesday is the due date for the first essays for the Sophomores Writers' Workshop. Students had to write three pieces. Two were WASL prep type - an expository and persusasive using the usual prompts. The third was an editorial on a topic of their choice. I'm interested to see how they turned out. I've seen bits of several and talked with all the students about them, but the final product I haven't seen on most of them. Speaking of WASL, the writing prompts were weird. The expository one made one proctor cry and a couple of kids had to talk about what they wrote after because of the emotion it caused. The persusasive one was so close to ones that have already been released, I'm surprised that any student had even think. I'm pretty sure all my students wrote the same thing they've written in previous exercises. Also, I'd like to send out a plea to the test creators... stop asking the students to "write a letter"! They aren't writing a ...

Lala is becoming more of a little person every day! She's learned to sit up fairly well, even in the bathtub. This weekend, she seems to have crossed the line between passive observer to actively touch everything - I dunno how to explain it, she just suddenly seems to be more interested in things around her. She's got a new favorite toy that she picked out herself (it was the only one she did more than just stare at)... she remembers it from previous play times, so maybe some object permanance is going on. She's still more interested in eating books that reading them. She graduated to Stage 2 foods (which basically means, she eats more in a sitting) - we were getting mixtures of foods and fruits. I'm still trying to figure out all this "when to introduce..." advice. Everyone says something different... however Lala isn't at the stage where she recognizes that "if I put something in my mouth, I can eat it, rather than just play with it" and she...

Time really flies by when your sick, and your child is sick, and everyone else is snuffling around you... because all you think about is surviving to the next day. For my students it was somewhat of a holiday - they got to watch part of Monty Python's Holy Grail and were disappointed with my return. I felt the love.   Actually, despite missing work, this semester has started out fairly well. My regular sophomore classes started working on WASL writing - and I found a way to tie it in to the Writer's Workshop. I did attend a session at the OSPI conference this January about using Writer's Workshop in the high school setting, with many practical ideas and handouts. So far, it's going well... but I'm still waiting for the final products. I have high hopes.   Junior classes have to write a research paper this semester - we decided to change up the topic selection this year. We asked the students to take an issue from a book they read in the past. For exam...

For the past couple of days, Lala* has had a somewhat juicy sounding cough. She's always been a bit wheezy, but the cough had been moving slowly up the juicy/more frequent scale. Last night, after charming every mother attending the local high school basketball game (my dance team had a performance), we came home to a screaming- I'm-so-uncomfortable -can't-breathe cold and the nasty elevens. After two showers and sitting next to a steaming tea kettle and about a hundred trips around the kitchen in the stroller, she finally relaxed enough to fall asleep. Might I stress my love of my umbrella stroller? I'm pretty sure it's the single most sanity saving device I have. Lala loves to ride around in it, it can double as a rocker, sit in the bathroom while the shower is running and for a kid who dislikes the car, dryer and being held in any position except fully verticle (while I'm standing-no sitting allowed), well, I may have it enshrined. Today we're off to purc...

School is back in session, dance competition/performance schedule is in full swing... and... the week before last an infant was placed with me! Yah! I was a little shocked that it happened so fast. I took a day off to aclimated and get appointments in. I'll be taking another this week... good thing, since we've come down with our first cold and now have 4 days to fight it off. My arm muscles are crying (most people get to go from 5 or 6 pounds and work their way up) - she's a chunk! Everyone at school has been so supportive, offering me things (homemade soup!) and helping me to manage my time and responsibilities. I even had someone thank me for asking her to watch the baby during our half half-time performance. In the meantime, I'm having a lot of conversations about poop, coughs, food types and which diapers are the best. I'm also learning to exist on short naps - last night, one of my dancers said "you look so happy when you have that baby in your arms....

I spent a significant amount of time yesterday looking for performance poetry that was school appropriate - sadly, just when I thought I'd found a really good one, out would fly some word that I can't use in class. It did, however, make the Taylor Mali's "Whatever" a little more meaningful... the whole lack of vocabulary thing. Taylor Mali - Whatever Taylor Mali - What Teachers Make (cleaner - does have lower level swearing) Nayeli Knutson, Priceless employeed poor ( includes the word shit ) Billy Collins - Forgetfullness (Animated Poetry) Billy Collins - Now and Then (Animated Poetry) I don't know if I'll be able to use any of these in class. Novemeber's storm wiped all the categories in our filtering system. In the restoration process, the filtering system software company informed our technology people that NO other schools had as much openness as we do. I immediately pointed out that their pool of information came from their own clients... bu...

The Social Worker emailed me on New Year's Eve to let me know that my homestudy report was completed and had been sent on to the supervisor. That's the final step to getting my license. It's a little hard to describe what I'm feeling about thist... on the one hand, I'm all fluttery and on the other, I'm all "ehh". I emailed back about a timeline and well, there really isn't one. You just have to go with the flow and hope for the best. I am hoping that I'll have a couple month wait so that dance competition season will end before. Eeek... I do have to have a chat with my boss and a conference coming up at the end of the month. The only thing to really pin hopes on was " but it usually doesn’t take too long ". No, I have no idea what that means.

For the past three years, I've taught poetry during January - it seems like a good choice and it's a nice way to end the semester. Also all the literary language leads nicely into the second semester books, which are a little more... umm... literary. This year, however, I'm teaching Juniors for the first time. I have to include transcendentialism so how and find poetry that will be more than slightly interesting to the class. I need help!

I've always like the idea of New Year's Day. It seems so ripe with possibilities. Of course, it's an arbitrary date and any day has possibilities... but maybe I'm just a traditionalist. So what's on my New Year's Resolution list? Keep up with grading! Eat more vegis Build up my savings account Not very exciting, I'll admit. I think, however, I'm looking forward to a more relaxing year.

I jetted out of school on Friday morning like the devil himself was on my tail... I left my last class to another teacher, so I'm hoping that there wasn't a lot of food left lying around (going away party for a member of the class)... The moutain pass on the way home was predicted to be bad Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday - if we didn't leave on Friday, we might just miss the holiday entirely. Friday was a great day to travel - clear roads, no snow. Since our arrival, it's done nothing but! It's a freakin' Winter Wonderland out there and I'm loving it. Especially since I don't have to drive anywhere or even scrape my windshield clean. The night before I left, I had my final homestudy check to become a licensed foster-to-adopt parent. The licensor will write up the report and hopefully all will be done by the middle of January. I'm hoping I'll be adopt a young girl sometime in the coming year. It's a very long, nerve wracking process and ...

Via Mildly Menlacholy Here are the rules: - Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. - Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself. - Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. - Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. 1. I had an Uncle named Ronald McDonald - no one in the family thought it was wierd, just annoying when others laughed. 2. I can have a cup of coffee at 2am and still fall asleep. 3. I own 26 purses and still buy a new one each season. 4. I found my dog's name on pet naming website. I choose it because it rhymed with the name the shelter gave her. Now I wish I hadn't becuase I think it would make a great child's name. 5. I'm usually done with my christmas shopping by Dec. 1 and am always the first to send out holiday cards (Thanksgiving weekend). 6. I read the entire Twilight series (3 books) in approximately 4 days. 7. I'm hoping to adopt a...

Well, things are slowly returning to normal. We were out of school for the entire week, which made for an interesting time this past week. With the holiday break so close and a weeks vacation, everyone was a bit squirrly. The first days everyone traded tales of cold showers and the number of monoply games they managed to get in during the power outage. Did you know that Monopoly now comes in an electronic form? Yes, today's kids don't even have to count their monopoly money - an electronic debit card does it for them. Seriously, I think there is a little too much automation in their lives. Of course, that statement makes me officially old. My sophomore Honours class is doing really well with finding the symbolism and imagery in the Christmas Carol - at least in Stave three. It's nice to have a class that isn't just interested in who's dating whom. They've actually pointed out a few that I never really thought about... it's nice to have a literary discussion...

Apparently, no school tomorrow either. Hey, as long as I've got electricity, who can complain? Heck, there may not be any school this week at all! Latest rumor has it that since the kitchen cupboards are bare, the school can't open. I dunno if we're going to the competition on Saturday either... the roads are still sketchy apparently, and no one is being all that communicative.

What's the old saying... "men make plans and God laughs"... It snowed on Saturday. Really fat flakes that stuck around long enough to make a snowman. Sadly, it melted in the rain on Sunday. Sunday night brought on a big storm - at least to Pacific Northwest standards - kinda like a Nor'easter only with more panic. Really, people around here are such pansies when it comes to inclement weather. I was a little worried about the satellite dish on the roof, but I also knew that there wasn't a clear path for the wind to blow it directly. About 1.30am (monday), the power went out. I woke up about 5.30am to wait for the phone call from school... it never came. Eventually, I found my emergecy radio (hidden next to the emergency candles, except I already had candles out, so looked there last), wound it up and listened. No power anywhere, most of the county was dark. People are starting to call me to find out about school, but no word. I was just about to drive in when the r...