whine or cry? whine....wine or cry? wine.

ever had one of those days when nothing really went terribly wrong...in fact, teaching-wise, everything went as planned-home run (third base at least)...but still felt overwhelmed? yep, that was me today, and at one point i just wanted to curl up in fetal position and cry. and it's not even for girl reasons-so not pms.

so, when i came home, i just needed a good glass of wine.

close call, but i probably really needed a good cry (every once in awhile, it just helps..like once a year)

it also helped just to reflect on the beauty of my walk yesterday! i walked for about 45 minutes, and it was fabulous-45 minutes at my pace is a good little walk! i did stop to take a few pics because they certainly caught my attention! why did it catch my attention? well, see for yourselves, TULIPS!! i said it yesterday, i am a sucker for tulips. the man who finds the way to my heart will be sending me tulips or daisies! roses are too seductive and sexy-not my style...whereas daisies and tulips are more friendly and playful!

add in a little fountain, and how can you go wrong??

then i made my way around the park behind the savoye and life was sweet. i went without the boys because they like to stop at any whiff of urine, and i was not interested in stopping, so when i got home, i took them for an extra walk.

the other thing that helped was thinking about the fact that i am going to see wicked again! with friends!

defying gravity!

and i'm planning on doing season tickets next year! woohoo! i'd love to do the symphony...we'll have to see.

this morning, i did take in the coleslaw that i made out of our garden cabbage and carrots, and when i was picking my kiddos up from specials, renee commented on the coleslaw. she first advised me that she was a connoisseur of coleslaw, always trying out different varieties, and she actually went back for seconds! what a great compliment! it was fun to make something with the goods from our garden!

so, yes, this day wasn't terrible, i just, for whatever reason, had one of those moments. this week has to get better.
julie

what did one carrot say to the other? nothing...carrots can't talk!

hmm. well, well, well...(a very deep, dark hole where fresh water can be drawn for human consumption, yet bad things can happen-cyanide poisoning, children falling in), yesterday was potato day. i took my first class out and we had to harvest some produce to make room for the taters. amongst the produce, were two sassy carrots.

it got awkward when she started to talk about her last kiss...

and tell me if this doesn't remind you of this...

someone sent me this in a text awhile back, and it just made me laugh.

the crazy thing is that i erased that text, and i spent too long today trying to locate this-i was looking for pancakes instead of waffles. but i finally found it here!

here are the rest of the veggies from this batch-the students were excited and i think they'll be even more excited to see the potatoes when they're ready!

i may be making some coleslaw with the ingredients and bringing it in on monday!

and since i was cleaning food, i decided i might as well make more salsa (i'm pretty sure i've mentioned that i don't like to purchase salsa anymore-i like mine better).

i would be remiss not to mention yesterday afternoon. we had our local ALL IN LEARNING rep on campus to show us the ins and outs of this new technology that we have, and i am excited to get started with it. and afterward, we went to a little happy hour. good times- lots of laughter, and a little bit of tranquilizer darts, but we made it through without any major incidents...until lindsey dropped her purse contents all out on the floor and had to retrieve and archive them all...

fortunately it was all there.

and everything was fine until we stepped out onto the sidewalk...this game is overrated...i'm sure that the group across the street clapping was thinking that we'd had one too many. maybe one too many darts....i'm thinking that we're going to have to write some new legislation about dart-control...i'm calling for no more than 5 darts in the 'clip' per day-with low dosage of venom...otherwise, it gets a little ridiculous.


i need to go see if i can snag spock now. (one of my friends sent me a txt with a picture of his cousin up in mckinney! so funny!)

but if a carrot could talk, it would probably 'root' for the cabell chargers, being orange and all...
julie

you say potato, i say potato...(not quite the same effect when typed).

it's valentines day! sometimes i just look at all the cheap chocolate the kids bring in and think, "you really should've saved your money." but then i put on my best game face and 'my thankful motherly voice' because they are doing all they know to show appreciation, and they need to know that the thought does in fact count. so on my way out to the car, i was pondering what to do with all the extra chocolate and stuff. when i got to the parking lot, one of my 5th grade co-workers said she gave hers to our counselor...good call, why didn't i think of that? i hate it when people think of all the good ideas before i do!

i love the homemade stuff! although...the glass rose that glows and changes colors is pretty awesome!

 but my favorite of the day was this nifty little package that my co-science teacher gave me! you smash the bag, and then the package starts to expand..and all of a sudden, the bag busts open, and out pops this little bitty hand-sized balloon!! coolest thing ever!!

it was like a bag giving birth to a balloon and then sacrificing itself as it burst forth so that the baby balloon might live...i'm sure there's a devotional in there somewhere...

on the way home, i had to stop at tom thumb for the ingredients for salad i am taking to our little luncheon tomorrow. it's my favorite salad...a smoked salmon, spinach, fruit....with a zing- homemade vinaigrette type dressing...anyhoo, the point is, when i stopped, i saw but did not fall to the temptation of playing the claw..

i really wanted creepy spock!!

think of all the fun one could have with creepy spock. i mean, he could be a pass around at school...like a teacher flat stanley...only not flat and not stanley. hmm. in fact, i may have to stop in tomorrow with a handful of quarters and try my luck if he's still there! non-buyer's remorse..

tomorrow is the planting of the potatoes. we'll see how that goes. first i have to dig up whatever is in beds 5 and 6. just following orders. hopefully i can get to school early enough to prepare, and then work on it during my science classes, as it fits in with our current topic of soil. hands on will be good for our kiddos. and good for me, because they'll get their hands dirtier than i will. AND we'll get potatoes!

tomorrow is the day that will perhaps change the face of assessment and feedback in the classroom forEVERmore! i cannot wait to have the all in learning master pro come to teach young grasshoppers...(kung fu..anyone? anyone??) best worst-acting show ever! thank you, 70's!

enough is enough...tonight we sleep, for tomorrow.....we plant potatoes.
julie

i'm just glad the awkward sexy cup wasn't for me!

welp...good thing that would you rathers don't come true and are only hypothetical otherwise, this post would likely be antithetical...for i would be forced to rhyme all of the time. the last "would you rather" asked of me, was a bit of tomfoolery. to ask a teacher to rhyme all day, seems a bit like child's play. but i WILL say that although this may seem a bit nonsensical, i appreciate the allure of the more commonsensical.

i'm no dr. seuss.

i had the misfortune of being shot again today-methinks this should not be a daily occurrence..even after fixing the laser pointer...0 appreciation.

tutoring = toooooo loooong. the only saving grace is that my side kick is great.

and when i finally got home (had to stop to get valentines), i had to cut up potatoes...focusing on the eyes. making sure that each piece had 2 eyes-i was tempted to draw smiley faces on them before we plant them. i'm not quite sure how i got suckered into this. i still have other things that i need to be focusing on. i had looked up the info about planting them prior to the whole idea, so i knew what to do. now i need to wait a day for the protective coat to form on them before planting them (in case anyone wanted to know...)

THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS IS THAT THE POTATOES THAT COME FROM THE GARDEN WILL GO TO THE FOOD BANK!

in other news, one of the teachers on my hall got an early valentine from one of her students this morning...

awkward much?

last night i went to my education reform policy class, and it was a really great session! we got to hear from mr. mckenzie, an op-ed blogger for the dallas morning. he was interesting and had some good insights. and then we had three advocates telling a little about their organizations and how they got started. it was enlightening. 

i must make a quick plug for one of my coworkers and policy ed fellow, dallas gutierrez. check out his blog post on the teaching trust site here.

it is tragic that our society here in america holds the profession of teaching in such disregard; that it is not valued in a manner that reflects its importance. the fact that the phrase "those who can, do, those who can't teach," even exists, is evidence of a huge misconception about teachers. let's be honest, (as honesty certainly is the best policy) in fact, let's be brutally honest (intellectual brutality?) the job of a teacher is not merely to know one thing and master it. i find myself constantly learning new things and then i have to figure out the best way to coach different types of students and deal with discipline, and plan ahead, remember a to do list of items that need to get done and have deadlines, try to keep the lessons engaging enough for kids who are on, above and below level....try to integrate the latest and greatest technology into the lesson somehow, create rubrics, grade writing, reading, science and social studies essays...what have i left out? oh yeah, plan for tutoring, talk to parents, plant potatoes...work on common assessments, study data to figure out how to best impact my students, grade district writing papers, put up relevant bulletin boards..and i've left out so much (like sst's, rti, trainings, sub plans, committees, paperwork, paperwork, countless hours at home finishing what i didn't want to stay at school doing), but that said, if you are one of 'those who can' and feel that teaching is a cop-out job, i would like you to remember that the only way that you possibly could do, is because there was once a string of teachers who gave you the tools that you needed.

oh, and i would love to see you come to my room and 'do'  for a day in my classroom (without my help and management)...game on!  you see, the truth is, i have held a plethora of jobs in which i could have moved up and 'done,' but i wouldn't have had the impact or made a difference like i can as a teacher.

i'm not complaining, nor do i mean to rant, but last night the thought was just screaming through my head. teachers in this great country are not revered in the way they used to be, and our society reflects that. that is a sad commentary on our society.

to all of my teachers, i may not have shown the most appreciation when i was in class, but in retrospect, my hat is off to you. (if i were abraham lincoln, it would be a top hat, but lately, it's just a bandana....but it's still off in complete respect!). to those of you currently in the teaching profession, do not quit (unless you are terrible; in which case, it might be best if you did find a new calling). quality teachers are not easy to come by, but when we do encounter them, we should do whatever it takes to hold onto them!

i know, all of that from last night's meeting...

g'night!
 jrob

why can't they just make cards with my thoughts on them?

well...back to school!

so...i think i may have scared the pee out of someone today. we had made an agreement to put the invisible darts and dart guns away during the school-day, but as soon as 3:15 rolled around, game on! and of course, lindsey beat me to the draw on the way down the stairs, and i went down, but fortunately maria was there to find the invisible dart so i could get out the door to dismiss students. well, there was someone at the foot of the stairs, and when he saw me go down, maria said his face was in shock because he had no idea what was going on.

so, those of you who have no idea what this thing is, the 'game' consists of an invisible dart gun and invisible darts. when shot, you go down...because that's what darts do! and you're down until someone removes the dart. i think i might request a 30 second limit on the down time, because i know that if olivia, maria or dr. hughes is around, they will remove the dart, but i wouldn't put it past lindsey to sneak in when no one else is around on the last day of school before spring break and shoot me...we take this game seriously. perhaps by then it will be in the past. perhaps not.

i looked for any card that had a far-side or something with aborigines and dart guns at target, but i couldn't find any, so i made my own little comic. (erin beckwith loves it when i make comics, so she'll get a kick out of this one!)

a little difficult to see, so i added a close up

 let's not lie, this is definitely a contact sport...contact with the floor, wall, whoever you happen to fall on...it can be intense-as it should be.

carpet burn.

i wish i had the video or a link to the video, because the ambush in the hotel was classic...as was the willingness of the hotel night attendant to play along. he was like commando (not not dressed, but like the movie-diving and rolling and all that jazz)

and last night, i finally got to sit and catch up with heidi, one of my dear friends from HONDURAS. i made a book with my students, to model how to write a descriptive book, and i did it about utila, one of my favorite places in the world. she used to invite me out when she came back to visit, so i sent her a copy. it was so great to catch up, and it made me smile to know that although much has changed, much remains the same! i need to be better at staying in touch!

i am actually getting ready to look at the mimio website-i know i mentioned it in my last post, but if you teach, i would suggest you check it out! i am hoping to look into some grants or something to try to get a mimio teach (although i would prefer to get the projector), and the reading program. my biggest wish is that they would work on some bilingual materials.

so..i'm off to check that out right now and prepare my invisible darts,
julie

what do invisible aboriginal dart guns have to do with the tech conference?

well, it's been a long week-a good week, but i am still tired! we left on tuesday from school to go to a technology conference in austin. i was so relieved that one of my really good friends was able to take care of the boys. bruno and chaco felt very comfortable knowing that nika was caring for them-THANKS NIKA!!

i'm sure she didn't need all 3 pages of hand-written notes...

we piled into the minivan and off we went. it was a fairly light and easy ride down. a nice short stop in waco and then to our final destination with an eta of 5:50, just enough time to make it to the counter for our registration and specialty bags (with nothing super special...except the book-o-events). once we got back to the car (short for minivan...i guess van would be too, but that conjures up visions of the old white panel vans where kidnappers lurk)...anyhoo, we then went to z-tejas for dinner.

delicious and relaxing

 then when we had gorged ourselves....we went back to settle in at la quinta. i had checked my email and sent a text to nika to check on the dogs and finally closed my eyes to go to sleep-listening to ocean waves on my zune to fall asleep when all of a sudden, there were fog horns going off--strange, as i have listened to this every night for years, and there have never been fog warnings...a little confusing, then i finally fuddled my way to grab a jacket and go out for the fire alarm that had gone off...we looked out into the hall and maria and alisha were there looking around as well-none of us really wanted to go down 4 flights of stairs...then we got the call from olivia and lindsey saying that in fact, there was not an emergency; it was merely a laundry room thing. back to bed.

wednesday morning, we had an excellent keynote speaker- peter sheahan. i was impressed-it didn't hurt that he's hot. we got our tickets in for the door prizes, but we didn't come home with any doors.

i went to a few sessions-the one i was most impressed with was the ONE-EYE PATCH CLASSROOM...or maybe it was the one i-pad classroom...i was hoping for the previous...i mean how engaging would it be for the students to have a pirate environment type classroom! aaarrg! but the apps and application were very cool.

i did spend quite a bit of time in the exhibitors hall-the first day, dr. hughes showed me how to navigate the room and make the most of the experience! i walked away with an array of pens, mouse pads, candy, etc. i stopped at several booths to enter for ipads, ipad minis and a plethora of other fun items...so i am certain i will be deleting several emails over the next few months!

 then when a session i wanted to go to was full, i decided to go back down and learn more about several exhibitors and get pics with mobi, because my students are brainpop fans! i also found the booth that provided starbucks, and at another booth, i won a starbucks gift card-which i gave to maria, because she would appreciate it more than me.  i usually do not win things, so that was a surprise for me.

that evening we decided to do dinner out at the oasis (i liked the idea for the mere fact that it reminded me of a favorite song midnight at the oasis). so on the way out to travis lake when there was a lull in conversation, i mentioned the little know theory that approximately every 7 minutes, someone somewhere in the world is thinking about abraham lincoln-this was a theory that my old kamp friend joneel introduced me to several years ago, and it stuck with me.

once we got there, we missed the beautiful sunset, but it is still a beautiful resort! we had dinner, and truthfully, our waiter must've been having a rough evening, and we received the brunt of it. and when we finally received our check (which they could not divide),  and being the non-math person that i am, i went to task trying to divvy it up, but strangely i kept coming up short. then i finally realized that they had rung up olivia's twice, even though they were going to take it off entirely because it had been messed up and it arrived in an untimely fashion. so when we finally got that taken care of, we got home in time to go to sleep again. (long day)

then thursday i learned about mimio and i was in -educator-utopia. i liked. A LOT. in fact, i stayed through 2 different sessions hoping to win something. (i did in fact receive a great whiteboard eraser for wearing their bag around-and i gave it to lindsey-the shameless beggar-she'll use it more than i will anyway) and i had a great conversation with the presenter, who was her district IT tech. then i went to stand in a ridiculously long line for lunch and by the time i had waited halfway through the line, i realized that it was time to leave to get to the next session, or keynote.

i left in a huff, because i had not gotten lunch. people who know me well know that i am fairly easy-going until i get hungry. then i turn into a bitter human being. so i stopped at a little vending stop for a diet coke, and a snickers bar, hoping it would hold me over. then it got worse-the session i wanted was full, and by the time i got back to key note speaker, they weren't taking door prize tickets, so i didn't want to waste valuable time.

i decided it would be in the best interest of mankind if i went back to satisfy my hunger

 then i made my way back to the exhibit hall and sat through a few more interesting exhibitors and got more fun stuff. most of the time i was without cell phone because the convention center had sapped my juice! when i finally met up with the others, they wanted to go one way, and i decided to stick with the amx presentation (which really had nothing to do with me, it's just that i didn't want to get too far from mimio-i was watching their presentation, sitting in amx seats-just didn't want to seem like a mimio-stalker). the amx guy got one of the ladies to do dance dance revolution with him to dancing gangnam style and it was a hoot! i got some giant sunglasses AND i won the drawing for a $50 itunes card! woohoo!!

when we all met up again and took our stuff to the car, we then made our way to the cocktail party that we'd been invited to by knowvation. it was really nice, and it was good conversation-some interesting twists in conversation. then we made our way back to the convention center for the concert with the spazmatics good times-i enjoyed it more than i thought i would..thanks for wanting to go so badly, olivia!

i was informed that i walk too fast...i guess i walk with a mission...i fear that if i walk to slowly my blood might coagulate...

i believe it was at the concert that i may have opened a can of worms by introducing the invisible aborigine dart tranquilizer game...i  would have to say that lindsey probably took to this game the most. more about that in a later post.

Friday we went into a pinterest session, but it was a beginner session, so we walked out and went to the exhibitors booths again, this time we were on a mission to get to all in one learning. the most exciting part about this was that dr. hughes knows the gentleman that runs this booth, and he hooked us up with some clickers, a doc cam and an amazing system that i think will change the way we grade much of our stuff. i am very excited about this. it is a trial, but is is inexpensive enough that we might be able to actually get some! trial time starts now!! so each of us walked away with a box..everyone who saw us was asking if we won them, or where we got them, and what they were-we were free advertising!

AND lindsey and olivia got smart clickers! woah! needless to say, we were certainly packed into this minivan..it was cozy. and on the way home, we decided to wait until we were out of town to grab lunch. well, we passed the exit for macaroni grill-didn't get our mobile devices out and around in time...so we found a place called gepetto's pizza. we got there, and it was in a travel center..gas station. gas station pizza was not what we signed up for-got back in the car and went into salado and found a great little pizza place called...the pizza place. delicious! and it wasn't busy when we got there! we were all pleased!

when we got back in the car, we had a rough game of would you rather...i would rather be shot in the face with a tranquilizer dart. 

julie

breakfast and the pocket hose

i still have much 'work-stuff' to do, but i think i will take a break to write in my FUN blog! see, i just finished writing and editing the last of my 3 essays for the master program i am applying for (i only have one piece of information i need to get my paws on, and it will be NO TURNING BACK TIME).  i also just finished completing my blog post for the ed-policy, which i will add a link for when it gets published (not so much because it's amazing-which it isn't, as because it took so long to finish).

today started out a little flusteratingly because i had put the bacon into the pan and started crisping it up when i realized that i had no eggs. boo. so i thought about just eating yogurt and granola...with bacon. when i pulled out the yogurt, i am surprised that lightning did not come from heaven with God's booming voice letting me know that yogurt would be a sinful way of ruining his most blessed creation...but i realized it without all the drama because my stomach did a little flip flop. so i returned the yogurt to the fridge and thought, "hmm...hot tea and bacon for breakfast." then i decided just to break any semblance of a diet early and eat pancakes.

i grabbed the pancake mix and guess what...it wasn't bisquick, and it called for 1 egg...AND milk. well. i decided to go for it anyway and make my pancakes without the egg and without the milk. oh, and i added brown sugar instead of regular sugar too, so there! it turned out just fine, all of you egg and milk lobbyists out there who probably insisted that they put that on their label! i then realized that i had gotten rid of my aunt jemima syrup long ago. but...there was some karo syrup (which i keep for the pups should they ever have low blood sugar). with a little maple and vanilla extract, it was immediately converted into a sort of maple syrup...not bad.

as i type, i am, as a matter of fact, watching hgtv, and the POCKET hose commercial came on, "store it with your garden tools, OR JUST KEEP IT IN YOUR POCKET!" i've long thought these hoses were nifty, but really? keep it in your pocket?? being a soccer mom person (even though i'm not a mom) is one thing...preparedness (even though i'm not a boyscout) is another, but i cannot recall a situation when i've been asked if i had a spare hose in my pocket...pretty much EVER. besides, especially for the men, it just opens up that can of worms to the never-dying joke...'is that a hose in your pocket...or..." (you know you were thinking it).


after taking the boys for a walk, bruno was begging for a trim, so i chopped his furry hair off. said he wanted to look good for nika while she was watching them.

now it's time to get back and see if i can get in to put grades in for my kids-i kept getting kicked out earlier; i hate it when i can't get that kind of stuff done at home because i just never have time to do it when i'm at school. not to worry though, if i cannot get in, i have plenty of other things i need to mark off of my to-do list!

'working-weekends' are for the birds...i just don't know which birds, but i'm pretty sure not the bluebird of happiness.

julie