The end of winter is near and spring is arriving, or are they alien egg shells? Located right here in Indiana.
Friday, February 24, 2006
Monday, February 20, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
Olympics and Crying
Did anyone see Lindsey Jacobellis take that fall last night during the snowboard cross? I felt so awful for her! Dan and I are watching short track right now. I love the Olympics! I always feel inspired to work out and eat really healthy after watching the Olympics, but then our neighbor brings over cheesecake with strawberries and chocolate coconut pie, and I forget all about those goals. :)
This past week was a hard week but good. Quick story that some of you have heard. Friday I kicked a student out of class for calling another student a "buttf*%@". Seems normal, right? Apparently not. Monday I found out this student's father was very upset with me for kicking his son out of class, and this same student ended up being EXTREMELY disrespectful, which, in the class he's in, has a snowball effect. He spent the class in the hallway, but the rest of the class period (the last one of the day) was awful.
I went to talk to the vice principal right after school, and right when I got a chance to talk to him, two of the other English teachers asked to see me. I met with the principal first, explaining my situation and getting worked up. He's met with me a lot because of on accoutn of the two remedial classes, so I didn't understand why he was rushing me and ushering me out of his office. I kept explaining my situation and started crying when I found myself outside one of the classrooms where all the teachers were waiting for me - they were throwing a surprise welcoming party for me and the other new teacher! And I was standing outside the door crying - my first time crying at school. Of course, everyone was very understanding and many told me about their own experiences of stressful school days. I actually wasn't that embarrassed in the end. I work with a really supportive staff, thankfully! In fact, the party included opening gifts from all the teachers - I won't need to buy paperclips or white out for a LONG time. :)
This past week was a hard week but good. Quick story that some of you have heard. Friday I kicked a student out of class for calling another student a "buttf*%@". Seems normal, right? Apparently not. Monday I found out this student's father was very upset with me for kicking his son out of class, and this same student ended up being EXTREMELY disrespectful, which, in the class he's in, has a snowball effect. He spent the class in the hallway, but the rest of the class period (the last one of the day) was awful.
I went to talk to the vice principal right after school, and right when I got a chance to talk to him, two of the other English teachers asked to see me. I met with the principal first, explaining my situation and getting worked up. He's met with me a lot because of on accoutn of the two remedial classes, so I didn't understand why he was rushing me and ushering me out of his office. I kept explaining my situation and started crying when I found myself outside one of the classrooms where all the teachers were waiting for me - they were throwing a surprise welcoming party for me and the other new teacher! And I was standing outside the door crying - my first time crying at school. Of course, everyone was very understanding and many told me about their own experiences of stressful school days. I actually wasn't that embarrassed in the end. I work with a really supportive staff, thankfully! In fact, the party included opening gifts from all the teachers - I won't need to buy paperclips or white out for a LONG time. :)
Monday, February 13, 2006
A World record . . .
Friday night. A day and a half of mass produced food at Calvin College = gas discomfort. Relieved by doing Yoga stretches.
Saturday night. On the road home to Upland and gas discomfort returns after a roast beef asaigo cheese sandwisch and Queso Fiesta Soup for dinner, at Panera Bread.
Saturday late night. Eat yogurt with 6 active cultures to try buffering the cramping and alcer like feeling growing in and around my 6-pack stomach (training for a marathon induced). Heating pad added to ease pain. Doesn't work.
It is 2am and after trying to sleep with growing pain and discomfort I find myself bent over double, whispering sweet profanties all the while.
It seems a small evil gerbil has decided to reside in my stomach. Giant fork in hand that is used to roll my spaghetti stomach lining onto it before eating. Gerbil must be Italian.
One realizes that an emergency plan of action is useful-knowing where the nearest open hospital is- when trying to decide to go or not to go. Figure a dead husband isn't worth it, nor the continued flow of profanties thinks Julie.
A friend drives Julie and I to Hartford City ER room and I am admitted. My first ER visit and their only patient in this small town hospital.
Standard paper work, questions between gasps of pain. Very preganant nurse tending to my needs, what if she goes into labor? Secondly, what state am I in to answer all these diagnosis questions? I could be loopy and not in my right mind and forget to mention some allergy or key information (oh ya, never did mention I am on malaria medication!) What if the evil gerbil was giving answers?
Two IV's put into my veins, heart monitor, and saline water added.
Do I want pain medicine? Yes, please. Morphine? Never had it. Let's try a little.
Apparently, after thrashing around in agony and a large drop in blood pressure and nearly passing out they concluded I am allergic to morphine (Julie, was out of the room at this point as not to have to witness this scene).
After returning to reality,"Want a different pain med?" "No, rather deal with the pain," says Dan.
10 minutes goes by. Pain med please. Administered by shoot and it helps a little.
Bloodwork, internal bleeding check (ya, you know what that involved), and Catscan.
Wait for results, Wait for results, try to sleep.
Watch Olympics I think.
Oh, try an pee into jar.
7:15am, pain seems to be gone, completely. Except I need to pee really bad.
Proceed to empty 42 oz of liquid. World's longest pee and elasta bladder recorded.
Results back. Not the appendix, not a pendicitis, but you have an enlarged liver, but everything else looks fine. Don't know what to diagnois, but given your travel outside the country it may be a parasite of some kind. Antibiotic prescribed and come back if this happens again.
All and all not a bad evening.
One Miracle and a world record.
Saturday night. On the road home to Upland and gas discomfort returns after a roast beef asaigo cheese sandwisch and Queso Fiesta Soup for dinner, at Panera Bread.
Saturday late night. Eat yogurt with 6 active cultures to try buffering the cramping and alcer like feeling growing in and around my 6-pack stomach (training for a marathon induced). Heating pad added to ease pain. Doesn't work.
It is 2am and after trying to sleep with growing pain and discomfort I find myself bent over double, whispering sweet profanties all the while.
It seems a small evil gerbil has decided to reside in my stomach. Giant fork in hand that is used to roll my spaghetti stomach lining onto it before eating. Gerbil must be Italian.
One realizes that an emergency plan of action is useful-knowing where the nearest open hospital is- when trying to decide to go or not to go. Figure a dead husband isn't worth it, nor the continued flow of profanties thinks Julie.
A friend drives Julie and I to Hartford City ER room and I am admitted. My first ER visit and their only patient in this small town hospital.
Standard paper work, questions between gasps of pain. Very preganant nurse tending to my needs, what if she goes into labor? Secondly, what state am I in to answer all these diagnosis questions? I could be loopy and not in my right mind and forget to mention some allergy or key information (oh ya, never did mention I am on malaria medication!) What if the evil gerbil was giving answers?
Two IV's put into my veins, heart monitor, and saline water added.
Do I want pain medicine? Yes, please. Morphine? Never had it. Let's try a little.
Apparently, after thrashing around in agony and a large drop in blood pressure and nearly passing out they concluded I am allergic to morphine (Julie, was out of the room at this point as not to have to witness this scene).
After returning to reality,"Want a different pain med?" "No, rather deal with the pain," says Dan.
10 minutes goes by. Pain med please. Administered by shoot and it helps a little.
Bloodwork, internal bleeding check (ya, you know what that involved), and Catscan.
Wait for results, Wait for results, try to sleep.
Watch Olympics I think.
Oh, try an pee into jar.
7:15am, pain seems to be gone, completely. Except I need to pee really bad.
Proceed to empty 42 oz of liquid. World's longest pee and elasta bladder recorded.
Results back. Not the appendix, not a pendicitis, but you have an enlarged liver, but everything else looks fine. Don't know what to diagnois, but given your travel outside the country it may be a parasite of some kind. Antibiotic prescribed and come back if this happens again.
All and all not a bad evening.
One Miracle and a world record.
Saturday, February 11, 2006
Snowy Saturday
I woke up this morning, pulled open the shades, and blurrily saw (I hadn't yet put my glasses on) wet, baby snowflakes! Beautiful.
Dan is in Michigan at a development conference at Calvin College. He's been gone since Thursday, and I barely missed him this time. I know that sounds bad, but it's not meant to. It only reflects how busy I am with school and how leaving your wife for three weeks during an extremely stressful time of life may lead to a lack of missing in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing him tonight though.
I have again spent most of this Saturday doing school work. I start a new unit in Advanced Composition and a new unit in AP on Monday. In AP we're going to be reading Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, which I'm reading for the first time. It's harder to teach a novel I've never read before, especially a novel by Faulkner.
I find that now that I'm a teacher, whenever I read anything (National Geographic, Atlantic Monthly, the back of the cereal box), I automatically start thinking: How can I use this in the classroom? This thought process has led to some interesting discoveries, but it also makes it difficult to ever read SOLELY for enjoyment. I'm not complaining. I'm just sharing what's happening in the ole brain.
This week I asked for a student to be permantely removed from one of my classes. He had a 0%, had been kicked out of class several times, and had an extremely disrespectful attitude towards me and his classmates. Two students in other classes dropped out (I guess these are two students who do this every semester). Another of my students is being recommended for expulsion. This makes me sad. Of course, these students are a very small percentage of the whole, but it still saddens me. What are they going to do with their lives? On a positive note, I set up an extra credit assignment for my AP class that involves reading and responding to essays by people such as Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver, and one student is reading Wendell this weekend for his first time! Yippie!
Dan is in Michigan at a development conference at Calvin College. He's been gone since Thursday, and I barely missed him this time. I know that sounds bad, but it's not meant to. It only reflects how busy I am with school and how leaving your wife for three weeks during an extremely stressful time of life may lead to a lack of missing in the future. I'm looking forward to seeing him tonight though.
I have again spent most of this Saturday doing school work. I start a new unit in Advanced Composition and a new unit in AP on Monday. In AP we're going to be reading Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, which I'm reading for the first time. It's harder to teach a novel I've never read before, especially a novel by Faulkner.
I find that now that I'm a teacher, whenever I read anything (National Geographic, Atlantic Monthly, the back of the cereal box), I automatically start thinking: How can I use this in the classroom? This thought process has led to some interesting discoveries, but it also makes it difficult to ever read SOLELY for enjoyment. I'm not complaining. I'm just sharing what's happening in the ole brain.
This week I asked for a student to be permantely removed from one of my classes. He had a 0%, had been kicked out of class several times, and had an extremely disrespectful attitude towards me and his classmates. Two students in other classes dropped out (I guess these are two students who do this every semester). Another of my students is being recommended for expulsion. This makes me sad. Of course, these students are a very small percentage of the whole, but it still saddens me. What are they going to do with their lives? On a positive note, I set up an extra credit assignment for my AP class that involves reading and responding to essays by people such as Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver, and one student is reading Wendell this weekend for his first time! Yippie!
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Unwell but Alive
I had a headache all day today. Fortunately, I didn't have to teach because the English department was discussing curriculum and standards all day, which was actually quite interesting but not helpful for my headache.
Midterms go out this week. From all my classes, I have 11 students who are failing, which is around 10%. It could be MUCH worse. But I will work on that 10%! That means 90% are passing!
I read Romans 15: ? last night, a verse about trust, hope, and joy. I wish I could remember it because it was necessary for my survival to get up this morning. I'll look it up and post it another day.
Midterms go out this week. From all my classes, I have 11 students who are failing, which is around 10%. It could be MUCH worse. But I will work on that 10%! That means 90% are passing!
I read Romans 15: ? last night, a verse about trust, hope, and joy. I wish I could remember it because it was necessary for my survival to get up this morning. I'll look it up and post it another day.
Word and Plant of the Day
Any one guess the common name of this plant?
Physocarpus opulifolius is the Latin.
Physocarpus opulifolius is the Latin.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Five Phases of Coffee from plant to grind
Not M and M's the real bean ripe from the plant all the way to grind
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