Recap #6: The Ice

Not too much has been happening this week, so it's hard to recap anything.  But we had an ice storm of sorts last night, so here goes.

All day Thursday I check the weather, hoping for a 2 hour delay.  I'm to travel to Indy on Friday to see a high poverty school that has high test scores.  I don't want to go because I'm having trouble getting stuff done.  I want to see the school.  Just not this week.

I ask everyone I see what they know about the weather.  They know the same stuff I know, so I change tactics and ask everyone, "What's your feeling about what will happen tomorrow?"  Many are unsure.  I attend yoga in the afternoon and when asked to focus on my heartfelt desire, I think about a 2 hour delay.  Namaste.

I venture down to attend our community forum, where we talk up our cool school to anyone who has an interest.  At 5:57, no one is there.  I ask kinder teacher who is v. good at praying to say a prayer that no one will show up so we can head home. She does this, but she says really the prayer should have been prayed earlier because anyone who's coming is already en route and probably the prayer won't make them turn around.  She's correct.  At 6:01, a family shows up to learn about our school.  They seem nice and we would like them to attend so we go into our spiel.  Kinder teacher shares info about her unit.  She refers to a book about sushi that the kinders read.  Potential new kid talks about how he likes sushi and they sometimes make it at home.  Surreptitiously, I text Husbandman that I would like to go out for sushi this very evening.  The talk goes well.  The family seems interested.  I sneak out as others tour the building with the fam.

It's snowing, but is it enough, I wonder.  The drive home is slow.  People taking their time.  A little bit of slip sliding, but nothing horrid.  Husbandman and I risk our lives and head out for some sushi.  It's everything I hope for.  We sit at the window table and watch the snow.  Will it stick?  Will it turn icy later?  At home, we see via our TV that some schools have already called the 2 hour delay.  I'm exhausted and taciturn.  Finally the robocall comes through.  We will have a 2 hour delay.  Soon after, the text arrives, telling me that the trip to Indy has to be rescheduled.  Life is good.  I feel at ease and secure in my knowledge of what is to come. Sleep arrives at last.

Recap #5: Your Dog's Teeth

Come to find out, you're supposed to be brushing your dog's teeth.  I spent the weekend with sisterwoman and she showed me a ton of great fotos of dog dental work, so I asked her to give me a thorough recap on this new area of learning for me.  SisterWoman is a vet tech. This is what she told me:

Big dogs enjoy a nice tooth brushing.  Small dogs?  Not so much but try to do it anyway. Brush your dog's teeth using dog toothpaste.  Human toothpaste can and will kill your dog.  Your vet can also clean your dog's teeth, but it's going to cost hundreds of dollars for the dog dental.  First the vet will give your dog some meds to loosen her up a bit.  Then they'll anesthetize your dog and give your dog an IV of fluids.  The vet will use an ultrasound toothcleaning tool to clean your dog's teeth.  If your dog has some rotting teeth, the vet will remove those.  Or your dog can have a root canal. My sister takes before and after pictures of the dental work, so your vet may do this as well.  Ask for the photos and send them to me if possible.  Like all of you, I'm now obsessed with dog dental work.

Recap #4: The 5K

We started early in the morning.  I stood near the back.  Older brother and Younger Sister went to the front.  I went to the very end of the line.  I could tell I was not running well as I pretty much was at the way end of the pack.  At the one mile point, the timer said, "You're at 13 and a half minutes.  Really good considering how cold it is."  I laughed and added, "And considering what a crappy runner I am."
He yelled back, "Hey.  I am standing on the side with a poster.  You're doing it."  I thought that was v. nice.  Slogged along with a gal in pink shorts who kept running past me, and then that little brat would start walking in front of me.  By the end I had enough and passed her up. Ha Ha on you, Pink Shorts Gal.  Here's another nice thing.  Around the last corner, SIBS came back to meet me and they ran me in, side by side. Brotherman's not in this photo because the finish line alley got skinny and he dropped back.  I thought that was the sweetest thing ever and I cried a little heading over the finish. Their times?  Sister Just over 25.  Brother Just over 29.  My time was 45 minutes and 24 seconds, but I'm telling everyone 45 minutes.  I'm happy that I slogged the whole time.  Well done. We've decided to make this a fam tradition.

Recap #3: The Altercation

Tree Identification Hike Morgan Monroe State Forest

3 more days at the leadership thing this week.  At the end of the day today I was feeling annoyed with life.  One guy made some comment that I felt was judgmental about my ArtfulSchool.  So then I start yakking about how the guy doesn't even know us or our school.  And then the guy starts talking about all he's done in education and honestly, the guy's done a ton of good stuff.  So then we talk about some other stuff and I'm trying to feel okay about being kind of an unpleasant dork which is making my mood way worse. So then I start thinking everyone hates me. But there's nothing I can do about it. And that's the recap of one portion of one of the worst days of my life.

Recap #2: The RtI

It's early morning, but no I'm not at work.  I'm at the university learning about something called RtI or, in layman's terms, Response to Intervention.  I try to listen with an open heart, but over and over again I feel annoyance and even anxiety. The speaker is sharing stuff that I know about already. With no preparation I could stand up and give her talk. It's super basic stuff for anyone who teaches in this great state of ours.  On top of that, Speaker keeps adding comments like, "It's okay if you don't understand.  I'm here to help."  I start thinking of ways to kill myself, but what would be the point really?  I decide to ignore Speaker and just think about my own thoughts. A long day, but it's over.  And I lived to tell the recap.

Recap 1: The Puzzle

Bracelet, IU Alumni Show:  Grunwald Gallery

New February Challenge described over here on WordSavvy.  It's all about RECAPPING.  So here we go:

This morning, Husbandman and I sit together to solve the NYT Sunday puzzle, as we are wont to do each and every Sunday morning.  The puzzle writer is our old nemesis, Patrick Berry.  We record our starting time: 8:41.  I open my iPad to take some notes for the recap.  Husbandman is not happy at all about this, but I assure him it's necessary because of my short term memory issues.  

Upper left quadrant gives us some trouble.  We move on and begin answering other clues at a pretty good clip.  Husbandman says, "I feel like we're going to get this whole puzzle done and then that left hand corner is going to be impossible."  On the iPad I write, "Negativity."  Husbandman reaches over and tries to delete my note.  We struggle over ownership of the iPad, but then he gives up as we're losing valuable time and we move on.  

I figure out the gimmick for the puzzle and I'm pretty pleased with myself.  Husbandman critiques some of my printing.  I reach for the iPad again and write "judgment."  Husbandman says, "Why don't you recap yourself and leave me out of this?"  

Towards the bottom of the puzzle, I can't figure out 83 across, "A somewhat redundant literary genre." Husbandman comes up with it (Short short story) and I'm royally cheesed off because literary genre tends to be my domain. 

We finish everything except for the left upright corner.  3 down: Skull Session result.  I figure out the answer is IDEA and the rest of the corner falls into place: smite, Auden, murk, Ennius.  9:24.  One of our best times ever.  I hand the puzzle over to Husbandman so he can write the epitaph for the puzzler. He does this every week and it really seals the deal on our sense of victory.  Husbandman writes, "We'll sip some sherry as we're feeling quite merry, Berry." 

We've done it again.

The Delight

Find the hawk.

Yesterday I went searching for delight as the day went on.  When I told fun new teacher about my search, she decided to help me out.  She sent me some fun sites to look at during the day.  And right before I went in the lunchroom, she pasted a name tag on me that said, "Hi I'm...Creole Lady Marmalade."  I had no idea what this meant, but I went with it.  Every kinder and firstie wanted me to read the name tag to them. I told them, "Fun new teacher gave this to me.  I'm not sure what it means.  It says I'm Creole Lady Marmalade."  The entire table inevitably would laugh uproariously, increasing the boister and the buoyance already in play.  So the name tag gave delight to many, if not exactly to me.  Fun new teacher says I can attend the birth of her child next week.  I'm stoked.

The Good

I'm on kind of a negative roll with a lot of kvetching about my job when I get home.  After spewing for a bit, I said to Husbandman, "Do you want to hear one thing that was good today?"  Husbandman sarcastically commented that he would give the world to hear me say one good thing.  See, that's the kind of thing I consider more thwartive than supportive.  Anyway, I've read about Frida Kahlo to all the kids at Artful School.  Today a seconder's mom came up to me as I was putting up bulletin board paper.  She told me, "Olla noticed a print we have of Frida Kahlo and was so excited.  She told us about how she loves Frida and wants to be just like her.  We bought her a little paint set and she's been painting every day."I loved this story.  A time to remember that the gig is good.

The Shirt

Yesterday a firstie took his shirt off in the lunchroom.  Caused quite a brouhaha.  Hard enough to maintain order in there, and I have to deal with this bare-chested little weirdo sitting there eating his chicken nuggets without a care in the world.

The Vocabulary

Tomorrow I'm talking to some teachers about vocabulary.  I'm on a two person team, and my partner has done most of the work, thanks be to GOD.  Still, I have some prepping to do tonight and it's tough, what with trying to livetweet #thebachelor.  

ps:  My friend Sarah's blog is now added to my blogroll.  She's capturing life over here. 

The Grades

IU Alumni Show Grunwald Gallery

The hideous computer lab tests are behind us and the leadership training is over.  Friday was time for me to get back with my peeps.  We had a 2 hour delay, so I pretty much started my day with 2 hours in the cafeteria, living the dream.  After that I spent time with preschoolers, then 5th graders, then 6'ers.  With the preschoolers, I worked on writing and performing our original poem about fall.  They're studying seasons.  It was tough stuff, but I think our fall performance basically kicked ass over the other seasons. The others were good, but when it comes to adding sound effects to fall activities, we can't be beat. For the big kids, I finished up the One Book One Fairview project at last, reading, drawing and writing about Frida Kahlo.  The fifth graders were awesome. They freaked out when they found out that Frida was married to Diego Rivera because they're studying a Rivera mural right now for Artful Learning.  The sixers were a little tougher.  They had a guest teacher who was excellent, but you know how that goes.  I still love the sixers though.  They've got cat class and they've got cat style.  I wish my job could be more teaching oriented and less testing/data oriented. I guess everyone in school-land wishes this right now. Let's work on that peeps.  We're so past ready for a social/political shift in our schools, way past ready for decreasing the importance of standardized testing.  I know, Preaching to the Choir yadda yadda yadda.  But still, keeping the dream alive can't be bad.