Four Fever

All right....looks like it's my turn to try this four game, so here goes:

Four random things I love about my husband :
1. He loves jokes, puns and total silliness and he's always making us laugh
2. He is the most reliable worker I've ever known--always does his best, never takes a sick day, totally dedicated
3. He never complains about what I spend
4. He is involved with and supportive of our children (and grandchildren)

Four jobs I’ve had:
1. High school teacher
2. Freelance writer
3. Writer for UT Arlington Publications Office
4. Grounds keeper at BYU

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. Pride and Prejudice (Kiera Knightly version and Colin Firth version)
2. North and South (a BBC production)
3. Persuasion (with Amanda Root--the Masterpiece version was not nearly as good)
4. Jane Eyre (with Timothy Dalton--yummy)

Four TV shows I watch:
1. Law and Order (and Law and Order SVU and Law and Order Criminal Intent)
2. Monk
3. What Not to Wear
4. House

Four random places I have been:
1. London, England
2. Paris, France (but not Paris, Texas)
3. Brussels (and Liege, Belgium)
4. Florence (and Rome, Italy)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Medium rare sirloin steak with a loaded baked potato
2. Dove or Leonidas dark chocolate
3. Gelato (preferably in Italy)
4. Blue Bell Ice Cream Sandwiches

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Australia
2. Scotland
3. Wales
4. More of England outside London

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. a great year at school
2. traveling to London, Paris, Berlin, Prague, Budapest and Vienna next summer with some students and a good friend/fellow teacher (you are most welcome to join us!)
3. Lauren graduating from BYU
4. Kara receiving great scholarships and going to a great university

Ooops!

I must remember the most important part of this week.....Lauren is home!!! She's here to visit us between semesters and will go back to finish college and graduate in December. We are so proud of her!!!!! (and happy to have her home). It's a blast just to watch Julie, Lauren and Kara together. They don't even need to talk in complete sentences with each other--it's a hoot to watch--and they are hilarious. Julie says their collective IQ drops 10 points when they're together. I don't know about that, but silliness does reign. I never hear as much laughter as when all three are in the room, and the jokes are usually led by Lauren. We are so lucky to have her here.

A Great Beginning

Today marked the "official" beginning of the school year--Convocation for school teachers. We all gather for a motivational morning of inspirational talk. Sometimes it's great and sometimes its just so much drivel. Today, it was fantastic. Our speaker was Erin Gruell (I probably spelled that wrong), the lady who started the Freedom Writers. She talked about the amazing difference teachers can make in the lives of students and, of course, I cried. Then, one of her toughest students, Maria, (if you've seen the movie, she's the girl whose dad was in prison, and whose fellow gang members tried to beat her up), joined her on stage and told us how she had hated teachers and principals and bus drivers and cafeteria workers when she was small, because they had all given up on her. But Erin was different, and she completely changed Maria's life (and the lives of 149 other students). Today, Maria has a successful career, and has graduated from both high school and college. As a teacher, I very much hope that I can have a positive impact on my students. I will work very hard this year to remember every day that we are teaching children, not teaching a test. That's a very important distinction, and it gets muddled in these days of TAKS testing.

One of the most fun things about this morning was running in to one of my former students. Eddie S. graduated in 2007 and this year he is working part time as a teacher's aide while attending college. He plans to be in the classroom full time within three years. It was great to see him--all grown up! He's a terrific kid. He was also part of another fun story from our family vacation last summer.

Mike, Kara, Lauren and I spent a week in New York City last June. One day we spent most of the morning walking down Fifth Avenue window shopping. By the time we made our way down to FAO Schwartz, the famous toy store near Central Park, I was worn out and looking for a place to sit down. (One of my cardinal rules now is: when you find a place to sit, sit). Anyway, Mike and the girls wanted to shop, so off they went to the toy store. I was enjoying my rest outside when my cell phone rang and Kara said I needed to come inside. Why on earth would I want to go into a toy store? I was massively irritated, but she insisted that I come in. So, I dragged myself into the store, and who did I see but Eddie S. and Emily B., two of my wonderful students!
There we were in the middle of New York City (where we knew almost no one) and we see kids from home! It was great. We all had a wonderful time visiting, and when I went back outside, I ran into more of my students. They were in NYC with their church choir, and somehow, in the midst of that vast city, we saw them. The Lord does give us lovely little blessings like that sometimes.

I'm nervous about being our English Department chair this year, but I'm going to do my best. I've tried to befriend all the new people and put them at ease and at least that seems to be working. My room is a disorganized mess, my lesson plans aren't finished yet, and I have a presentation to do on Thursday that I'm not ready for yet.......Obviously I'm going to need a lot of help this year. Everyone seems dedicated to helping, so I hope we can succeed together.

It's late (I stayed up late again--watching Nastia and Shawn take gold and silver on beam) and I've got to get some sleep........

Good Friends, Good Times

I had a wonderful weekend and early week. On Saturday Kara and I went to Julie's to spend the afternoon hanging out with Jenny and Jenni and Bonnie (and even Joey). I am much (much) older than these wonderful ladies, and in fact I have taught all of the girls in Seminary classes at church, but now they're all grown up and we get to be friends. It always amazes me that when you're in high school, a two year age difference can be almost insurmountable. But, now that they're in the the mid twenties to early thirties and I've hit the big 50, a twenty year age difference is all but erased. We're just all grown ups and friends. I am so blessed with friends of all ages and they're all wonderful! We ate and talked and laughed and were thrilled that Jenny could come up from League City to see us. We'll be traveling up and down I-45 I think, just to keep up with her.

I must now confess that my proposed boycott of the Beijing Olympics has been a total failure. I meant to avoid the entire thing, as I am very much opposed to the fact that the IOC awarded the games to a totalitarian government that has a terrible record on human rights. However, my sports mania has completely taken over, and I've been watching (and watching and watching and watching--okay, you get it). Michael Phelps is completely AMAZING, the 4x100 men's freestyle relay (swimming) was the most exciting sports moment I've seen in ages (Jason Lezak caught up with and passed the world-record-holding Frenchman on the last leg for the US win) and I do love gymnastics. The U.S. men's gymnastics team surprised everyone and won the bronze, and while the women let the gold slip away, some of their routines were absolutely a joy to watch. Anyway, I'm a failure at the boycott, but I am glad that President Bush was pretty outspoken with the Chinese government leaders while he was over there. I've been really impressed with the Chinese people, and I have always heard that they are wonderful, friendly, delightful folk--they just have a terrible, oppressive government.

Sunday was good, as always. I love going to church; I love feeling the spirit, and now I'm in the family history class, so maybe I'll actually get going on my genealogy.

On Monday, we ate Chinese food with Julie and the boys, and it's always fun to spend time with the world's best grandsons. I am very much blessed with my children and grandchildren. They're all loving, fun, talented, delightful to be with--what more could you ask?

Yesterday, Lisa and I took Ali, one of the sisters we visit teach, to the temple. It was a very crowded session (kind of surprising on a Tuesday morning) and we had a great experience there. It was especially nice to see several sisters from our Stake working there. I love having our own temple and knowing some of the workers--it makes everything feel so comfortable and right. Ali is another of my former seminary students, and it's nice to get to know her better as a grown-up, too. We had a great visit in the car going over and back and I hope we'll do this again, soon.

I finally finished my story for UT Arlington Magazine this morning. It's about a young man who immigrated to the U.S. from Cambodia and has written a book about his family's experiences there under the Khmer Rouge regime. I always learn a lot from my interviews and research. I have another story to do on an art researcher, and I'm looking forward to that as well. She works in the area of validating art work--confirming that a painting or sculpture is genuine and are not a forgery. It sounds fascinating, too.

The countdown is on for school. Teachers report next Monday, so I really have lots of preparing to do. Gotta run for now.

Learning to be a better teacher

The model we're using this year for lesson design involves five parts: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend and Evaluate. I'm not going to get too far into teacherese here, but I thought you might help me with some Engage activities. The basic idea here is to start class with something that will "hook" the class into the lesson, get them thinking and "engaged" with the material. The activity can be almost anything. For one class, my fellow AP Lit teacher and I will be reviewing Crime and Punishment, which students are to have read over the summer (delightful summer reading, don't you think?). I'm going to ask our school resource officer (a bonafide peace officer) if he can or will come into class and "arrest" someone. (I'm not quite sure if he is allowed to pretend something like that, but I'm going to ask). I think that would get their attention and get them engaged, don't you? We could then proceed into a discussion of the current criminal justice system and the segue into a discussion/review of the book.

I have to come up with "engage" activities for every class, so any clever, fun things you remember from teachers in your past (or present) are greatly appreciated.

Back to class for teachers

This week I've been going to classes where people are teaching me how to teach. I know, it sounds a bit boring, but it's actually been really interesting. Today we worked in groups preparing a lesson to share with the entire class (which consists of our entire English department). I'm really pleased with all our new teachers--they are enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and ready to take on the challenge of teaching today's high school students. Our student body, like most urban schools these days, is fairly challenging. They're good kids, but a bit tough on the outside. You have to work your way into their hearts and then they'll do most anything for you. I've been very fortunate in that I am naturally a friendly, easy-going person and I REALLY like hanging out with teenagers. They're fun to talk to and seeing one of them "get" what I'm trying to teach always reinforces my conviction that I'm doing exactly what I should be doing. Advanced placement English presents tremendous challenges for students--the work is hard--but their satisfaction and pride in themselves when they master it are palpable. It's always a great moment for them and for me, too.

It's hot, hot, hot here in Texas these days. Today we had a "cool" front and only hit about 98 degrees. After summers like this, I freely admit, my favorite season is fall. Finally someone upstairs turns on the A/C and we can go outdoors without danger of instantaneous heatstroke. (I don't much like spring--all it does is yell "Summer is coming" to me). The older I get, the less I like the heat, but I love, love, love the cool of fall. (We don't have autumn in Texas, as Jerry Flemmons says, autumn is a marketing ploy of fall-foliage-mecca New England, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Kodak). (By the way, if you haven't read Jerry Flemmon's commentaries on Texas, you gotta. I have the book, just ask).

I'm not sure anyone is reading this yet, but maybe someday there will be someone..............

And so we begin

I've been thinking about a blog for a long time, and have finally decided to try to begin. I have so much that I need to write (especially all about the trip to Europe in June) that it seems overwhelming, but one must start somewhere.

So, first a review of my lovely day today. This morning I picked up my dear friend A and off we went to see the Impressionist exhibit at Fort Worth's Kimbell Art Museum. This exhibit, from the Chicago Art Institute, features some outstanding, amazing works by favorites like Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Renoir, Pissaro, and all the greats. My only regret is that they didn't bring Seurat's "La Grande Jette" along for the tour to Fort Worth, but apparently it does not travel. (I actually searched for it on my first visit to the Musee D'Orsay in Paris, but soon learned that it lives in Chicago. Apparently to see that one, I'll have to make a pilgrimage to the windy city). Anyway, A has a son who is an artist and we had a great time looking and talking our way through the museum. I bought a membership to the Kimbell this year just so that I can make multiple trips to this exhibition--and every time I go, I can bring one guest with me--for free!

After the art fix, we went to see my dear, bestest friend, L, who has moved to a darling duplex in Fort Worth. While I regret that she no longer lives as close to me as she once did, I'm thrilled that she is right next door to all the great art museums as well as some delicious restaurants, and one of the world's most fascinating foodie haunts, Central Market. I'll be heading her way about once a month, just to enjoy the culture in her neighborhood.

In other news, I'm getting geared up for the new school year, which pretty much starts for me on Monday, as I'll be in a teacher's academy for three days, then in AP training another day this week. The following week is free, but after that, teachers report to school and it all starts anew. This year I'm teaching AP English Language and Composition (a rhetoric course that focuses on argumentation and nonfiction) and AP Literature and Composition (a course that is all fiction and poetry). They are very different classes, and I've taught AP Language for three years, so I'm not too worried about it. The Lit class is a bit more problematic. I'm excited to do it, but I always feel a bit anxious when I try new things. However, I know I'm going to learn a lot and have a great time with the kids. I love, love, love teaching high school and having the very brightest kids in my classes is a privilege and blessing. I'll have both juniors and seniors this year and I'm really looking forward to the challenge and excitement.

I have also been honored to take on the responsibility of being our department chair for the coming year. It will be another big challenge, but I have been so gratified by the support other teachers have already given to me. Several have said that they knew it would be me and one told me that he feels I'm the right person for the job. I really appreciate their vote of confidence.

I guess that will be all for now. I'll try to get more done in the coming days.