I am in one of those careers that has built in holidays. I really needed a week off, here came spring break. While I don't want to brag...I think everyone deserves a spring break. Should we adopt the French way of life...I believe they have a 40 weeks of work per year. What are we doing working 50. And who really takes their 2 week vacation these days?
Now, as a teacher I have this whole week off. I went to Washington, DC this past weekend to hang out with my parents. We went to the natural history museum, saw the cherry blossoms, went to the air and space museum, sat at the Hirshorn museum, bought a digital camera, found awesome fabric at G Street Fabrics. As far as meals, we had two awesome meals. One was at the Lost Dog Cafe, one was at Sweet Water Tavern, and the last was at the Dog Fish Grill. Yummy.
I then drove north to a small town just a bit past Baltimore to Abingdon. Here is where I spend 2.5 days with a college roommate, Jess, her husband and 5.5 month old, Mikaela. It was so fun hanging out with a stay at home mom and her daughter.
As far as this weekend, more college friends. Chris and Leah will be here later tonight. I am so excited here is the menu for the weekend.
Friday Dinner: Vegetable Enchiladas, Guacamole, Refried Black Beans, Salsa, and Chips.
Friday Dessert: Chocolate cake or Ice Cream (Moose Tracks)
Saturday Breakfast: Pancakes, Bacon or Sausage, Eggs, Toast, Coffee
Saturday Lunch: Chicken Salad in toasted bread bowls, Grapes, Apples, Root Beer
Saturday Dinner: Spinach Stuffed Chicken, Vegetable Saute Couscous, Salad
Saturday Dessert: Chocolate cake or Ice Cream
Now that I have a digital camera...I start to document more of my life.
10 more weeks until Summer break.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
A Bad Day Revisited
Just so you know this is how my day started...
1] My neighbors were on their porch drinking at 2 AM loudly talking, which kept me awake most of the time between 2AM - 5:30 AM.
2] My automatic coffee maker didn't put the grounds in for me last night...so I had to make my coffee twice because the first pot was just hot water.
3] There was ice on my windshield, which I had to scrap...which required me finding my scrapper since this is the first time this winter I had to scrap.
4] While I was scraping my windsheild, my neighbors were still partying from last night and came out to see how I liked the ice. (I was already a 1/2 hour later than my usual departure from my house to work, due to a sleep in, and they were drunk).
5] I needed gas in my car, gas tank door frozen shut.
6] Pump at gas station wasn't on for the morning yet, so I had to wait 5 minutes for the ever efficient gas attendant to actually turn on the gas.
7] I forgot to drink my orange juice, so I was starving by the time I got to work.
8] Before I got to work today, I had clocked 40 hours of working this week. It's only Thursday.
I think I am having a bad day and possibly a bad week.
1] My neighbors were on their porch drinking at 2 AM loudly talking, which kept me awake most of the time between 2AM - 5:30 AM.
2] My automatic coffee maker didn't put the grounds in for me last night...so I had to make my coffee twice because the first pot was just hot water.
3] There was ice on my windshield, which I had to scrap...which required me finding my scrapper since this is the first time this winter I had to scrap.
4] While I was scraping my windsheild, my neighbors were still partying from last night and came out to see how I liked the ice. (I was already a 1/2 hour later than my usual departure from my house to work, due to a sleep in, and they were drunk).
5] I needed gas in my car, gas tank door frozen shut.
6] Pump at gas station wasn't on for the morning yet, so I had to wait 5 minutes for the ever efficient gas attendant to actually turn on the gas.
7] I forgot to drink my orange juice, so I was starving by the time I got to work.
8] Before I got to work today, I had clocked 40 hours of working this week. It's only Thursday.
I think I am having a bad day and possibly a bad week.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
AP Physics
Here I am on a Sunday morning, I just have done 2.5 hours of studying to teach my AP Physics class tomorrow. My head is tired already and it isn't even 11 AM. I have never studied or worked this hard in my life. I love teaching a higher level of physics, but really what is magnetic flux. Seriously that's what I am teaching on Monday.
You know, I don't even think I remember learning about this in college. Also, who really remembers those freshman level classes anyway. You know if I went back to undergrad now, I would get so much more out of those classes. I wished I paid more attention or at least studied a little bit more. (I am a nerd).
Thank God for good students. My students are gracious with me. I think I have them fooled into thinking I might know what I am talking about. Although Friday, they asked if I could go on to the next lesson and I said "No, I just couldn't." The real reason...I looked at my notes and I saw magnetic flux and the internal dialog was, "What the hell is that?" No, we can't go on...I can't let you get too ahead of A day folks. I teach 2 classes of AP Physics students....I meet with them every other day for the entire year. Instead of just having them for a semester.
Well..enough procrastinating. I have 60 Honors Physics lab reports to grade and am trying to work out #4 on that AP Physics Quiz I am giving on Wednesday. I'll leave with this quesition...is it fair to put a question on a quiz that the teacher can't do or understand?
You know, I don't even think I remember learning about this in college. Also, who really remembers those freshman level classes anyway. You know if I went back to undergrad now, I would get so much more out of those classes. I wished I paid more attention or at least studied a little bit more. (I am a nerd).
Thank God for good students. My students are gracious with me. I think I have them fooled into thinking I might know what I am talking about. Although Friday, they asked if I could go on to the next lesson and I said "No, I just couldn't." The real reason...I looked at my notes and I saw magnetic flux and the internal dialog was, "What the hell is that?" No, we can't go on...I can't let you get too ahead of A day folks. I teach 2 classes of AP Physics students....I meet with them every other day for the entire year. Instead of just having them for a semester.
Well..enough procrastinating. I have 60 Honors Physics lab reports to grade and am trying to work out #4 on that AP Physics Quiz I am giving on Wednesday. I'll leave with this quesition...is it fair to put a question on a quiz that the teacher can't do or understand?
Saturday, January 26, 2008
COFFEE
I hang out with a group of ten women about once a month. We often ask each other questions, last night the question was what are three things that make you happy. Here are my three.
1] My house.
2] My job. (it's new and I love what I am doing)
3] Coffee
The last one is so important because of my little coffee ritual each day. When describing it, my friends said I should write an editorial. So, here it goes.
It's the night before, I am about to go to sleep and I put the water and grounds in my coffee maker. It's not just any coffee, it's my Carmel Truffle Millstone coffee. At 5:35 AM, the gloriousness begins. The coffee starts to brew. I can smell the aroma as I get out of the shower. I know it will warm me inside out.
As I leave for work, I take out 2 travel mugs. Yes, that's 2 mugs. I fill them both as much as I can. I drop a spoon of slenda and a splash of fat-free French Vanilla creamer and stir. As I leave my house, I have a coffee mug in each hand and usually a smile. It's like I am preparing for a big adventure.
The first mug starts getting sipped by the first stoplight on my commute to work. The drive is about 25 minutes, this is just enough time to finish that first cup of coffee. The first cup is mostly to make sure my eyes stay awake while I am driving at the ungodly hour of 6:00AM.
Each morning, I am one of the first cars in the parking lot at work. It's then that I grab the other mug and I get to enjoy the 2nd cup of the morning. That is one of the happiest things I do each day. I really savior and enjoy that 2nd cup. Even when I forget to finish the 2nd cup because work gets away from me, it's the thought that knowing I had the option of a 2nd cup of coffee to enjoy that makes me thankful.
Coffee makes me happy. The taste, the jump of energy. I am thankful for a lot in my life, but I am really thankful for coffee.
1] My house.
2] My job. (it's new and I love what I am doing)
3] Coffee
The last one is so important because of my little coffee ritual each day. When describing it, my friends said I should write an editorial. So, here it goes.
It's the night before, I am about to go to sleep and I put the water and grounds in my coffee maker. It's not just any coffee, it's my Carmel Truffle Millstone coffee. At 5:35 AM, the gloriousness begins. The coffee starts to brew. I can smell the aroma as I get out of the shower. I know it will warm me inside out.
As I leave for work, I take out 2 travel mugs. Yes, that's 2 mugs. I fill them both as much as I can. I drop a spoon of slenda and a splash of fat-free French Vanilla creamer and stir. As I leave my house, I have a coffee mug in each hand and usually a smile. It's like I am preparing for a big adventure.
The first mug starts getting sipped by the first stoplight on my commute to work. The drive is about 25 minutes, this is just enough time to finish that first cup of coffee. The first cup is mostly to make sure my eyes stay awake while I am driving at the ungodly hour of 6:00AM.
Each morning, I am one of the first cars in the parking lot at work. It's then that I grab the other mug and I get to enjoy the 2nd cup of the morning. That is one of the happiest things I do each day. I really savior and enjoy that 2nd cup. Even when I forget to finish the 2nd cup because work gets away from me, it's the thought that knowing I had the option of a 2nd cup of coffee to enjoy that makes me thankful.
Coffee makes me happy. The taste, the jump of energy. I am thankful for a lot in my life, but I am really thankful for coffee.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Exhaustion
Have you ever been too tired to eat? Never in my life have I chosen sleep over food while still healthy. When I am sick all I do is sleep. But when I am healthy, I never chose to miss a meal.
Last week that happened. I had a snack to make it until I had enough energy to make it until dinner. At nine o'clock, I awoke on the couch...brushed my teeth and went to sleep and slept through the night! The next day I ate dinner at 4:30 when I got home from work because I could feel my energy level fading fast.
What's the cure for exhaustion? I think I might need a mental health day soon.
Last week that happened. I had a snack to make it until I had enough energy to make it until dinner. At nine o'clock, I awoke on the couch...brushed my teeth and went to sleep and slept through the night! The next day I ate dinner at 4:30 when I got home from work because I could feel my energy level fading fast.
What's the cure for exhaustion? I think I might need a mental health day soon.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
My Fall Phobia.
The acorns are coming...the acorns are coming.
Once a year I am always startled by the acorns that fall from my huge oak tree and hit my roof. The first fall I lived in my house...I thought they were rats in my walls...because I would hear scurrying, then silence. This was the acorns rolling off my roof.
Late at night during a big wind gust it sounds like a bomb being dropped in my bedroom. I heard the first couple fall last night, but the acorns are coming.
So, I have developed a fear of acorns. Do you think that's called acornaphobia? (Don't confuse that with a cornacopia.
Once a year I am always startled by the acorns that fall from my huge oak tree and hit my roof. The first fall I lived in my house...I thought they were rats in my walls...because I would hear scurrying, then silence. This was the acorns rolling off my roof.
Late at night during a big wind gust it sounds like a bomb being dropped in my bedroom. I heard the first couple fall last night, but the acorns are coming.
So, I have developed a fear of acorns. Do you think that's called acornaphobia? (Don't confuse that with a cornacopia.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Life
Life lessons are hard to learn. In working with teenagers I seem to see students learn really hard life lessons. To be honest, it hurts my heart sometimes.
This week two students at my school died in a car accident. Didn't anyone tell those children that teenagers are not suppose to die? As I found out the news and found out they were in my co-worker's classes, my heart ached. The bell for first period rang and it was strange as I looked in my student's eyes; they were about to find out about the car accident and that two of their peers had died the night before. As the announcement was made, I couldn't look at my students...only an hour before had I found out the news I had mental pictures of all my students hoping that they weren't my students that had died.
It was surreal that after the announcement was made over the intercom, I was to start teaching physics. As I looked at my students I was hoping that an adult or professional would walk in the room and start telling us what to do. But wait, I was the adult and professional. I was to know what to say and how to say it. I was to be the role model of how to deal with this tragedy.
They don't train you for that in your education classes, only experience helps. I was haunted this week from the memory of my first year teaching. In May, after I taught Jason for 8 months in my first period physics class, he committed suicide. I found out from an email that said URGENT. The days that followed I will always remember. I was the one that emptied his locker. I was asked why I didn't see the red flags. As a friend drove me to the funeral, I barely could walk and had trouble dealing with the reality of Jason's death. This week brought a lot of those memories back. How do you get over the deaths of students?
You don't. You deal with the grief, and you move on with your life and your heart grows for your students. You get around losing students, but you never get over it. Teenagers are not suppose to die.
This week two students at my school died in a car accident. Didn't anyone tell those children that teenagers are not suppose to die? As I found out the news and found out they were in my co-worker's classes, my heart ached. The bell for first period rang and it was strange as I looked in my student's eyes; they were about to find out about the car accident and that two of their peers had died the night before. As the announcement was made, I couldn't look at my students...only an hour before had I found out the news I had mental pictures of all my students hoping that they weren't my students that had died.
It was surreal that after the announcement was made over the intercom, I was to start teaching physics. As I looked at my students I was hoping that an adult or professional would walk in the room and start telling us what to do. But wait, I was the adult and professional. I was to know what to say and how to say it. I was to be the role model of how to deal with this tragedy.
They don't train you for that in your education classes, only experience helps. I was haunted this week from the memory of my first year teaching. In May, after I taught Jason for 8 months in my first period physics class, he committed suicide. I found out from an email that said URGENT. The days that followed I will always remember. I was the one that emptied his locker. I was asked why I didn't see the red flags. As a friend drove me to the funeral, I barely could walk and had trouble dealing with the reality of Jason's death. This week brought a lot of those memories back. How do you get over the deaths of students?
You don't. You deal with the grief, and you move on with your life and your heart grows for your students. You get around losing students, but you never get over it. Teenagers are not suppose to die.
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