Progressively progressive.

2011-08-11T14:50:00.000-05:00

A new addition...

So, I am 11 weeks pregnant, as of tomorrow, and I have obviously shot full-speed into nesting. Of course, I never had any doubts that I would take up this pregnancy urge. Usually, I've read, this habit doesn't kick in until the fifth month, leave it to me to be an over achiever! :)
Aaron has thus far humored me, and been supporting all of my cleaning and reorganizing instincts, including collecting all of the nursery furniture that we'll need, even though I haven't even exited the first trimester successfully yet.
We found the craigslist deal (above) for $15! So great, but needed to be scrubbed out and sprayed off (only a few strange stains- eesh). But perfectly useable!
Hooray for deals.
Hooray for nesting.
Hooray for baby O-R!

2011-07-06T12:57:00.003-05:00

Money for technology in education

http://www.technologygrantnews.com/grant-money-index-type.html

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/04/tips-for-saving-money-and-finding-free.html

http://www.ehow.com/about_5378976_classroom-grants-technology.html

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/09/10-ways-to-get-free-money-classroom.html

http://www.iste.org/welcome.aspx

http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/edgrants.html

http://www.teacherscount.org/teacher/grants.shtml

http://www.grantwrangler.com/

http://www.neafoundation.org/pages/educators/grant-programs/

http://www.toolfactory.com/olympus_contest/olympus_teacher.htm

2011-07-06T11:54:00.001-05:00

@edcampmn at Hamline University having a great time!

2011-03-20T09:39:00.003-05:00

Spring Hopes

Given that successful people begin with the end in mind (Thank you Stephen R. Covey), I have decided to set some goals for myself for this Spring... I'm also procrastinating from starting this day, because the first day of Spring here in Minnesota is not exactly inspiring.

Thanks to the trusty, online version of the Farmers' Almanac, I know that today is the first day of Spring, and the first day of Summer will be June 21. I welcome the longer days (yay for more daylight hours, especially the fact that it will still be light after suppertime!), the dark mornings will be challenging for a while yet.

Well, let me get down to it.
My hopes and dreams for this Spring are:

1.) Finish my Capstone @ Hamline University and graduate with my Master's Degree!
2.) Plan & teach my YES! class.
3.) Plan and travel an excellent Boundary Waters trip with two dear friends.
4.) Pick, cook, and can incredibly tasty strawberry jam.
5.) Successfully plan and solicit at least one wall of art for a gO-Rila gallery July show (in our house).
6.) Build or buy a raised bed and fill it with tasty plants.
7.) Construct and install our rainbarrel.
8.) Attend this sale and start composting in the backyard.
9.) Go to the St. Paul Farmers' Market (a bunch of times) and cook at least five recipes from my favorite cookbook. Serving up the Harvest
10.) Go to a live concert with my life partner.

2011-03-19T11:39:00.000-05:00

To whom it may concern:

I am in my third-year as a first grade teacher in a Spanish Immersion school here in the Twin Cities. I am happy in my job: my students are rewarding, my co-workers are enthusiastic and supportive, my principal works hard to encourage my efforts and share his wisdom when I need his expertise. I’m a happy teacher. I love my job.

With a storm of negativity raging outside our school doors each day, calling into question my roles as nurturer, educator, and professional, I am, for the first time, considering leaving my chosen vocation. I say vocation, because I did not choose this essential profession expecting to make very much money. As cliché as it may sound, I want to teach because I want to make a difference. I was called to teach like people are called to their Faith or service in our country’s military. I knew in my heart that it was right.

I am bi-lingual. I am young. I am well-educated. I am good at what I do. However, like so many of you, I make just enough to help pay our mortgage, buy food at Aldi, and shop at consignment stores for my professional clothes. My undergraduate and graduate student loan bills arrive reliably in the mail, and with talks of wage freezes, I can’t help but worry.

Our Nation needs a population of educated citizens. In order to achieve that, we need high-quality teachers. The collective pointing of an angry finger at my profession, accusing me of making more than I’m worth (currently $40,000 a year before taxes), threatening the essential professional bargaining rights that I am due, and calling me lazy for working only nine months a year, does not motivate me to continue teaching your children how to read, add, subtract, share, and solve problems with words and not their hands. It’s also terrible advertising for enticing potentially incredible future-teachers. The American public doesn’t demand drastic pay cuts for family practitioners, or dentists, or opticians or even lawyers.

When problem solving, it’s important to focus on positive steps to take while planning for essential changes. I often tell my first graders: You need a break. Take a deep breath, calm down, and come back to the situation when you are willing to help solve problems instead of make them.

Please support your community’s teachers. We work really hard for your children, and we are worth every penny that we earn.

Respectfully,
Annie Olson-Reiners

2010-08-07T15:01:00.000-05:00

I started to post a rant on a blog I bumped into, but decided to move it here-- my rant got a bit long, and I didn't want to stir the pot all in one place!

In response to this post: Letter to Teacher about Green School Supplies
I would like to say this:

I wanted to add my two cents as a "community-centered" first grade teacher...
First, let me say that I am VERY pro-"green." My first degree is in environmental science, and I teach with the heart (and head) of an environmental educator.

Brand names = absolutely NO loyalty to any ONE company... crayons are crayons, some will debate me here- to each their own, but come on! No big diff.

Paper and notebooks: send whatever you are most comfortable with-- I always look for the paper with the highest post-consumer recycled content I can find. Honestly, a lot of it eventually ends up in the recycle anyway (many sweet, handmade odes end up in the recycling at home, GOD FORBID the kiddos take offense or doubt my adoration of their works, but they still go to the recycling plant)

Hand sanitizer: YUCK! Kids, nine times out of ten, WANT to use this crap... I teach (yes, teach) them how to wash their hands with soap and water and even if they insist upon using this disinfectant crap, we wash our hands after-- that DOES NOT guarantee that they don't immediately stick their fingers into their noses-- let's be real here, people!

As much time and thought and moral-dillema-inducing-hemming-and-hawing you've likely put into your school supply purchases, "your" supplies very quickly become "our" supplies and I DO NOT have the space, time, energy, patience to keep your child's supplies separate from the community supplies-- unless your child has some life-threatening allergy. (*In which case send more ziplocks!)
Your child's crayons will be used by children in first grade that need crayons-- they might even be (omg) children whose parents buy at Walmart, drive an over-sized SUV and vote Republican. I'm not enthused about it either, but all children in my classroom use crayons, which I am happy about. I will not guarantee that it will be your child that uses your supplies-- and really, sharing and relative equality is something that most children learn to LOVE at school. If you only want "your" children to use "their" supplies- homeschool or plop your kids in a bubble or something. They don't get to hide anything in their desks either (and not tell me or the other kids about it) because
1. They don't have a desk- welcome to the world kids, you get tables to work on and 2. It's dishonest and greedy- two things you likely don't want to encourage.

"Your" child can use "their" own crayons in "their" own home.. but then, they might have siblings, or neighbors, or friends- let it go people, they're crayons.

Ziplocks: In my classroom, I use a lot of ziplocks-
ziplocks to store homemade playdough in the fridge, to ziplock open containers of paints shut to make them more child-accessible and less of a mess. We also grow beans in ziplocks so that the kids can see EVERY part of the plant- roots, seed, shoots, etc. We send home guided reading books in ziplocks because they are waterproof, can be closed, (need I mention contain the various ingredients in the bag?), as well as hold up to a mild amount of mistreatment, and can be easily replaced.
I also use ziplocks to seal up extra class snacks in the snack cabinet so as not to lure rodents or molds or bacteria. Ziplocks hold teeth that fall out, undies that get soiled in an accident, all the parts of jewelry, toys, hair ties, clothing from the (insert annoying brought-from-home distraction tool here) that break into a million pieces when the kids play with them and they break.

Paper towels (wow, I've never asked for these) and kleenex:
Kleenex= essential. I CANNOT tell you how many of your children (yes, your child) spends a lot of the day (nearly every day) with their fingers in their nose, (not to mention other regions of their tiny bodies) and then in their mouth. When a child begins to pick their nose in my classroom, I remind them where the kleenexes are in our classroom, and when they continue, or "sneak" their boogies into their mouths, I remind them that they need to wash their hands. Kleenexes catch other things though too:

Teeth: the average first grader in my classroom loses 4-7 teeth in my classroom over the course of the year. Many of them come out with blood- which I'm sure I don't need to remind you is a biohazard, and no matter how much I love them, need to treat with universal precautions.

Snacks: When parents don't send napkins, kleenexes separate your child's snack from the germy (no mater what) table surface.

Gum/Candy: When your child shows up to school with candy or gum in their mouth, it ends up in a kleenex and goes into the trash.

Bugs: When they suddenly proclaim that there's a spider on the floor during morning meeting-- unfortunately, 8 times out of 10, it ends up squashed into a kleenex. If we have time (a lot) or another container at the ready (rarely) we try to spare the lives of our insect and arachnid friends and then release them back outside- but this is the best case scenario.

Again, your moral green choices are absolutely appreciated-- honestly! Hooray for you, I'm with you. When I have children, I will try to make equally informed and responsible choices-- but school is where your child begins to learn how to get along in the world without you. (Sorry, I know it's sad, it makes me teary as well.)

It's really important that you provide excellent resources to your child- Eco-friendly pencils and paper, lunch boxes, clothing, art supplies, sneakers, not to mention backpacks- but what's even MORE important than what is going on the outside of your child, is what is going on inside your child. Healthy food (breakfast, please!!) and the ability to make educated and respectful decisions is what will help your child be happy and healthy while they learn to be responsible global citizens of our world. If they see happy, healthy adults that care about them making responsible and educated decisions consistently every day, they'll learn how to make them as well.

2009-10-15T16:33:00.006-05:00

To you, downstairs neighbor with a thing for extra-loud death metal at all hours:

You:
You are the kind of guy who bikes to work, and holds the door open for your neighbors. You're well-groomed and wear trendy dark clothes. You are slightly creepy looking, but you're normally smiling while you smoke your cigarettes outside the building, so that somehow makes you okay.

However:
You need to start saving up for some really nice BOSE, noise canceling headphones, maybe even some that are Bluetooth compatible. Because, dear downstairs neighbor, your taste in music is just really not ours'. We like you, we think, but we don't want to listen to your crappy, base-drum driven, repetitive, growling, floor-vibrating choice in music. Even the dog seems annoyed. She's moved from sleeping on the rug to sleeping on the chair, a few feet and several foam-insulated layers away from our floor, your ceiling, dear downstairs neighbor.

Please:
Just turn it down. Your choice in music sucks, but that wouldn't bother us if it didn't make the liquid in our glasses quiver.

Sincerely,
your normally mild-mannered upstairs neighbors, and our dog

2009-06-21T09:14:00.002-05:00

The happiest of days.

Our dear friends Matt and Elie have been busy with their new baby. Matt is likely drowsily celebrating his first Father's Day, likely pretty sleep deprived.
Another friend, Ruthie, has headed off to the East Coast to study up with other outstanding promising young teachers from all over the country.
Megan and Mike are preparing for their wedding and honeymoon to Costa Rica in August.
Kara and Jim are feathering their nest in anticipation of a new baby in October.
Elliot is in South Africa.

I have impressive friends. I have always known this. They seem especially impressive to me right now though, I think, with the combination of new life, being a stellar young teacher in a sea of many, absolute capability in the complexity of event planning skills, important and shining preparation for a new life, and of course, international spectacularness.

We are here in good old Saint Paul, Minnesota, having a normal summer. Mostly normal, I guess, in comparison with our peers.

I have been feeling relatively balanced in the face of two of my best friends having babies.

A few weeks ago, I helped roust a newborn from a good hard nap so that her new mom could feed her, in preparation (and preservation) of sleeping hours for the night. First, let me say, I am not good at many things. I am, however, good at waking up babies, and not in the awkward, "I'm not sure what to do with this thing" kind of way, but in a very deliberate- she might be your precious fragile joy, but I know she's not that fragile, kind of way, and I WILL wake her up, no prob. And I won't feel guilty about it either. Babies don't scare me, they just don't really interest me all that much.

I am not planning on having a baby this year, or next year, and that's okay. I have to acknowledge that I was feeling a little intimidated that I'm not ready for my own yet, but I think I'm okay with it. I have to honestly say, that I am contented to sew baby quilts, and bake cookies for care packages for a new mom, shop for baby clothes patterns and "cuddle fleece" fabric prints with dinosaurs and peace signs printed on them.

Don't get me wrong. I love babies. I love small baby things like booties and onesies. I enjoy baby's little fingers and tiny peeling toes and feet. I like how when babies cry, they cry with everything that they are, shaking to the ends of their extremities from the overwhelming emotion. I like how babies smile when they have a gas bubble. I like feeling their light weight on my thighs, while I stare at a warm and roughly equivalent tiny model of my own body. I love those things. I love babies. I love that they are not mine yet. I really do.

Someday, I will joyfully welcome the sleep deprivation and the sense of living so completely for another life. Feeding, changing, washing, dressing. The quiet content and, knowing myself well, fulfilling calm with an ebb toward nagging frustration of being in service to a life that I will help bring into the world.

For now, I am in love with my role of supporting the leading lady. Someday I'll take the spotlight, but not yet, please.

2009-06-11T13:13:00.002-05:00

I have officially finished my first year of teaching. Many first year teachers have horror stories to report or novels to write about their first years. I can honestly say that I didn't have enough drama to fill a novel, I'm not even sure that I have enough drama to fill a blog post... The fact that I had such a smooth year is due undoubtedly to the fact that I work with some of the most supportive people I have ever met. The staff at my school is friendly and out-going. They make non-pc jokes in the teachers' lounge and pop into my classroom before school, after school, and even during our day, to check in, say hi, and otherwise just be friendly. I have come to love my school almost as much as I have always loved my dear friends.

As as start writing the largest writing project of my life (likely), my capstone for my Masters degree, I cannot help but appreciate the "view from here." I'm not carrying any classroom baggage, I'm not worried about having a position next year, I'm not stressing out about the fact that I will be completing my "action research" in the fall while I will also be setting up a classroom and building a new community of learners. My teaching community is already solid. Thank god.

My first day of summer dawned with breakfast in bed (thank you, husband) and a to-do list longer than my dog's tail. A teacher's summer is not margarita's and barcaloungers, as my husband sometimes jokes. This summer I'm teaching an environmental science class to middle schoolers, I'm writing the first three chapters of my Masters capstone, I'm doing Responsive Classroom training, as well as ProjectWild training through the MN DNR. I hope I can get in some camping and strawberry picking as well as bread baking and friend visiting. But mostly, I already can't wait to get back to my teaching community, and I think that's rare. I'm in love with my craft.

2009-04-25T08:14:00.002-05:00

It was really hot
Originally uploaded by Annieo's pics

We are now home from our honeymoon. My alterior motive in bringing A to México, to a location that I have already visited, was that I wanted him to become a Traveler. A's family hasn't traveled much, and I have a serious itch to see the world. I think it worked because we had an awesome time with very few hitches, despite some flakiness on our parts, and on the way home on the plane, A asked, "Well, where to next?" I love my husband.

Flickr

2009-04-25T08:11:00.001-05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

2009-03-08T09:18:00.004-05:00

On not becoming parents, or growing up.
We have several friends right now who are growing up. Don't worry, we've told them. It's not a secret. They are having babies. What is interesting is that they are not buying houses. I think that some historians and cultural anthropologists would find this interesting. We are 27, and none of our friends- wait - yes, not one of our buddies from college owns a house. We have other work friends who own houses, but not one of our friends who are currently gestating or supporting the gestation of a baby have a mortgage.

A and I have thus far successfully avoided parentship, though someday, we would like to be parents. I haven't felt any pressure to have babies, even though two of my best girl friends are currently baking a bun, as it were.

I had my very first taste of jealousy/pressure from a small group of people who I don't know, have never seen before, and will likely not run into them very quickly again. I was sitting at a lovely local coffee shop near a newly married couple (A asked me how I knew they were newly married- I told him "because they looked 12 and had wedding bands on"). They were talking to the wife's parents about a new home that they bought. After casually eavesdropping on the details of their new garage, the fence they would have to "get after" come summer, and the verbal instructions rattled off by "dad" about "gas vs. forced air heating" I had been bitten.

I want a house. Since A and I don't even know if we will be in Minnesota next year, this a completely fool-hardy drive. This does not bother me. I will waste half of today tooling Zillow and real estate websites. We can't afford anything. This doesn't bother me either.

2009-01-24T13:21:00.003-06:00

Okay, so obviously, this isn't Aaron and I. It is however, how we felt this morning walking from our car to the grocery store. We have plunged back below zero. Aaron asked this morning,"Why do we live here again?" I told him I think it is because we were born here.
I think we're itchy to get out and about. See the country. Strike out together. Though, we often start sentences like: "When we move back to Minnesota..."

January is waiting. March will be waiting too. Waiting to see where we will end up, if we will be anywhere other than here. It's hard to hope for change when I'm happy with my present circumstances, but I am trying to hope for him.
P.S. Don't tell our dog Lily that we're thinking about moving, she likes her people right where they are, thank you very much.

2008-12-30T21:58:00.002-06:00

Good Friends
Our dear friends Matt and Elie have been in town this past week and we have enjoyed their company immensely. We wish they were closer to us and that we could share more time with them.
They are planning to add to their family in June with a new baby. I already have plans for baby bibs and booties and sleepers and everything else teeny and adorable.

2008-06-19T22:20:00.002-05:00

Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar resources

Sequencing cards

Butterfly coloring page, color by numbers

Butterfly craft

"Lively Butterflies" mini-book

2008-06-18T20:33:00.006-05:00

Lesson for There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

find old lady at:
Old Lady

find animals at:

Animals

2008-06-16T14:27:00.002-05:00

Bought Wedding DRESS!!

2008-06-16T14:18:00.003-05:00

Life gets so busy.
So, for the last few months, I've been working my ass off to get a job, a good one, that will pay me and even pay for my antibiotics when I get sick (which is definitely a hazard of teaching small, germy creatures... aka elementary school kids). So I'd been working so hard at getting a job, that the reality of actually securing a job is still sinking in.
I'll be teaching first grade next year. First grade Spanish-Immersion. Sweet. I'll have twenty students (awesome class size!) and a young and supportive staff, plus a principal who seems to be genuinely terrific. I will have a quite the commute-- 31 miles roundtrip, I figure, but there's a really good chance that I can carpool with fellow teachers who also live in our awesome, St. Paul neighborhood.
I'll also be getting married in the fall. Wow. That's something that's still sinking in. I'm so psyched to be declaring my legal status as being in love with such a true friend. We're planning the party of our lives. Which we're obsessively "greening" up - even recycling and re-using invitation flub-ups as we make them. It's really a cool project to work on.
I'm headed to Chicago this weekend to see my dear friend Ruthie, my old Arts High, Delta Dorm, roommate/fellow RA. I'm ecstatic to be going to visit her, see the countryside of flooded Wisconsin and leave the Twin Cities area-- it's been a while.
So, job- check, wedding- check, leisurely travel-check.
Life is so exciting.

2008-03-09T10:46:00.004-05:00

So insanely tasty!

So, I've crawled back onto the weight watchers wagon these days and I have been in search of tasty, "low point" foods. Here's my newest discovery for breakfast...

Blueberry Cream Blintzes

Crepe recipe:
2 eggs
1/2 C. soy milk
1/2 C. water
1 C. flour (if you used whole wheat, it would be fewer points!)
1/4 C. white sugar
1/4 t. salt

Mix wet ingredients together first. Whisk in the four and salt until mostly smooth.
Make small crepes (like skinny pancakes) in a pan using a spray of oil before each new crepe. I used a 1/3 C. measure to measure out the batter and made 7 crepes.

Filling recipe:
1/2 C. of part-skim ricotta
1 T. of honey
(you could add a teaspoon of vanilla too)
Mix together until smooth and the batter has a light butter color to it.

Assembly:
When crepes are finished, take about 1 T. of the ricotta mixture and smooth it down the middle of the crepe. Roll the crepe up like a burrito. Place the "burrito," seam side down on a medium skillet to toast for a minute or two. Remove from heat and plate. Top the crepes with wild blueberries (mine were frozen and I microwaved them until they were steamy and had some juice). You could make extra of the ricotta mixture and use a dollop of it on top of the crepes as well.

All this tasty goodness for just 3 points a Blintz!

2008-02-18T21:24:00.004-06:00

Oh so tasty!
(Sorry, I forgot to take a picture!)

Tonight A and I had delicious food (that I made-- no modesty here).
I made marsala chicken (that was supposed to be pan fried) and cheap asparagus from Mexico (gracias hermanos y hermanas del sur) and very tasty Uncle Ben's wild rice blend mixed with a homemade parmesan and onion risotto that I'd made for Valentine's Day. It was all so very scrumptious.

I turned the "fried chicken" into an oven fried chicken from this recipe:

ANNIE O's OVEN FRIED CHICKEN

PAM spray oil
6 chicken thighs
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
1/4 c. corn meal
1/4 c. smashed up seasoned croutons (I think they were "ranch")
1 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt
1 tsp. black pepper
dash of chili flakes

Combine parmesan cheese, corn meal, smashed up croutons, seasoned salt, black pepper and chili flakes in a gallon ziplock. Dump in the chicken thighs and shake them around until they are all well coated.

Spray a cookie sheet with PAM, and lay the chicken thighs out happily (they don't like to touch each other). Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, turn and bake 10 minutes longer or until tender. Make sure they are done all the way through.
Makes about 3 servings.

I highly recommend it!
YUM!

Also, the marsala chicken was altered as well
(we're trying to be more health conscious)--

1/2 c. chicken broth
10 oz. of thinly sliced white mushrooms
1/4 c. minced onion (or scallion is better, if you have it)
(put these in the pan together and cook until there's more liquid in the pan than when you started-- about 5-6 minutes)
1/2 c. marsala wine comes next. Cook it until it evaporates a bit (about 5 minutes).
1/4 c. of soymilk goes in then,
(instead of cream! eek. we don't want to be fat forever!).
Don't worry if it's a little curdly at first, it goes away
Cook it all together about 5 more minutes until it is not too liquidy and it tastes awesome.
1 T. butter comes next, after you take it off the heat. So delicious.

Buen provecho!

2008-02-07T16:24:00.000-06:00

Wedding dresses!

Tried this dress on at Heartstrings Bridal today in Hopkins. Dress.

Lulakate dress. "The Ashley"

2007-12-28T10:43:00.000-06:00

This was Aaron snow plowing our driveway the day after Christmas. We've supposedly gotten more snow this year than any other year in our young 26 years of life. We love it. Now, if only we can set aside some time to go out and ski in it! This was our first day of snow "play"-- we actually had a fun time shoveling and plowing. The snow was caked on the trees and everything was hushed by the snow. It was a beautiful morning. Then, a tree fell down across the street by our house. Wow, two trees, actually.

2007-12-14T09:24:00.000-06:00

Reflecting on my student teaching experience:

Wow, it’s finally come, the end of my student teaching semester.
How do I feel? I feel relieved. I don’t, unfortunately, feel as relieved as I was hoping that I would feel. These projects, this semester, this experience, has been just another step in my seemingly never-ending professional life. I naively thought that it would have been an ending. But now, I find that I need to jump through the right hoops in the right order to get my license, and then an interview (likely many), and then hopefully a job. After that, there will be more hoops to jump as a new employee in a district, a new teacher, and a new colleague. All along the way I will need to build new relationships, new understandings, and reflect on everything. The best part of all this, of course, is that I love it.
It feels strange to go back into the classroom that I called my own for three months. It feels uncomfortable and strange, like when I was little and lost a tooth, nudging the empty socket with my tongue where my tooth had been, and realizing that it was gone, but that a new tooth would grow, and I could already feel it poking through. I know that this class has been “lost” and that I will “grow” a new class, but I can’t feel it “poking through” quite yet, and it makes me nervous and uneasy.
Visiting my old classroom makes me feel guilty. When I visited for the first time the other day, one of my students asked me, “Srta. Annie, where have you been?” When I answered that I had been “working,” her response was a knowing nod. I know she nodded because her father left for “work” in September and hasn’t been back since. Unfortunately, he is likely deported; I am just working on finishing a semester of graduate school. My student doesn’t yet know the difference. I am happy she doesn’t.
I miss my students, but selfishly, I miss what I got out of the successes that we had in the classroom together more than the students themselves. I miss seeing the “ah-ha” moments and working on something really hard, and over, and over, and over, until I knew that they understood what I wanted them to understand. I get a lot out of the successes of my students, and in that way, I am a strange kind of selfish.
I don’t like to complain, so I’ll only do a little of it.
My cooperating teacher sucked. She sucked in a deceptive way. To the outside person, we got along well; we had several things in common: we’re optimistic, we’re enthusiastic, we make do and move on. On closer inspection by my colleagues, my principal, and my advisor, however, it was quickly obvious that the things that were working in our classroom were organized, reinforced, and maintained by the students and myself. Her role was minimal, but that was good, because her lack of organization, irresponsibility and inability to be counted on or to follow through provided for blaring failures when she did take something on.
She was welcoming and enthusiastic in the beginning of the year but her disorganization and lack of control over her own life outside of the classroom translated into a rocky and horrible example of how to begin the year. I learned, of course, by her bad example how to do things better. It would have been more fun and less work to have learned from a great example.
This profession, teaching, seems very masochistic and addicting; it lifts you up higher than high when you do something well and the class just seems to “get it” all; it slams you against the wall when a lesson flops and the class flies out of control. It all happens within the four walls of your very own kingdom, your classroom, and no one, not even your closest, most wonderful colleagues really understand exactly how you feel. But there is great reward in doing things well, and even more reward in fixing things to make them better. There is also an incredible thrill at doing it all, mostly independently, because of your own hard work and toil. Cooperative teaching opportunities are even harder work, and even more rewarding. Because of the yanking and pushing, teaching is addictive. I’m always searching for the wonderful experiences, stumbling over the awful ones, and pushing on, in search of impossible perfection.
The best part of all this, of course, is that I love it.

2007-12-10T09:03:00.000-06:00

Have student identify the numeral:

5 2 4 1 3 7 9 6 8 10 0

If student experiences success with the first set, move on to the folowing set:

15 12 14 11 13 17 19 16 18 20

Student should show the amount with manipulatives:

3 9 5 8

2007-12-10T09:02:00.000-06:00

Student Work Sample

Annie Olson
Hamline University
Fall Semester
December 6, 2007

LEARNER OUTCOMES

Student will be able to orally count in order from 0-10 (preferably in Spanish).
[MN State Mathematics Standards, Kindergarten, II. Number Sense, Computation, and Operations. A. Number Sense. Standard: Represent quantitites using whole numbers and understand relationships among whole numbers. 1. Count forward to 31, backward from 10].

Student will be able to apply one-to-one correspondence when counting objects.

Student will be able to produce the appropriate number of objects (0-10) when requested.
[MN State Mathematics Standards, Kindergarten, II. Number Sense, Computation, and Operations. A. Number Sense. Standard: Represent quantitites using whole numbers and understand relationships among whole numbers. 2. Count the number of objuects in a set and identify the quantity.]

Student will distinguish the difference between the numbers 0-10 as written numerals.

TEACHING CONTEXT
Wellstone elementary is situated on the riverfront in downtown St. Paul in an eight floored building. School demographics are approximately 41 percent African American students and 40 percent Hispanic students with the remaining 19 percent fairly evenly distributed between Asian, American Indian, and caucasian students. As of 2006, our school had 95 percent of its student population receiving free or reduce priced lunch.
Our classroom, room 203, hosts two dual-immersion classrooms. When both classes (kindergarten and first grade) are in our space, we have fifty two students, two teachers and an eductional assistant.
I believe that if society is taught in schools, teachers should take the opportunity to help teach our students how to take part in forming a better society- a society where roles of all kinds are split more equally between people. I can model that in my classroom by attempting to keep equality and fairness at the front of my mind. Student roles and ability to help our classroom family should be modeled, taught and scaffolded. During my student teaching, my belief about roles and responsibilities has been strengthened. Students love to help out and they like to be responsible for something and do a good job at it.
I believe that every child can learn, and it will be my responsibility as a teacher to decode how each of my students learn best. I believe in the importance of recognizing and teaching to the multiple intelligences. I want to reach all my students by frequently using different types of activities, centered around multiple intelligences and different learning styles. During my student teaching I found that if I don't use different activities tailored to the multiple intelligences, my students (especially my bodily-kinesthetic leaners) would drive me crazy.
I know that the education that students leave my classroom with – not only academic facts, but their abilities to understand themselves, relate to others, problem solve, and live in the broader world – will affect them for their whole lives.
My students, as I have observed, represent several of the multiple intelligences. Many of my students seem to be bodily-kinesthetic learners. Most of my students are wiggly. They NEED to move at least every fifteen minutes and usually more often than that. These students benefit from partner clapping exercises where we count and dance the numbers in order. Several of my students are very musically inteligent. They hum and sing our counting chants and songs while they are working at their tables, they remember and can recount numbers without recognizing them because of the sing song patterns that we use to count with. Most of the rest of my students seem to be verbal-linguistic learners. This could be, however, that their rote understanding of the world is still emerging and their learning styles will likely change as they mature. In my kindergarten class I have students who are five and six years old. Some of my students are more advanced in their development, physically, emotionally, and as learners. Some of them come from homes where education is very important, and their parents have spent time with them, teaching them numbers, colors, letters, e.t.c. My students love stories. They love fantastical characters like Spiderman and beautiful female characters like Cinderella.
PRE-ASSESSMENT
When students came to Wellstone Elementary's Welcome Night, Miss Nelson and I individually tested each student on basic numerical knowledge. These tests required students to verbally count as high as they could, recognize and name written numerals out of order and represent numbers with manipulatives such as blocks. This test allowed us to gain an accurate understanding of where our students were starting from. This test showed us a realistic picture of what our students already knew and what they did not yet know. This test helped us find a starting point from which to begin teaching. (Please see attached testing templates.) This test was not one of my own design, and had I the chance to organize the class into groups for the next semester, or the next year, I would do things differently, (please refer to the reflection section of this paper).
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT
I reviewed students' in-class verbal mathematical reasoning in small group work, their participation in whole group activities, as well as written work that was turned into me. These, in combination with the formative formal/post-testing, helped me identify students who needed extra instruction. Day to day classwork built on itself as much as the Everyday Math curriculum would allow me to, and at times, I was probably more flexible in my teaching than the curriculum would have liked me to be because I wanted to see the majority of my class progressing at about the same rate, with the same successes. If I observed, for example, that the majority of my students were not using one to one correspondence when counting objects with a partner, I re-grouped the class to re-teach, and then extended the lesson into the “theme time” or “snack time” of the day. We often reviewed lessons from the previous day before working on that day's lesson, which was not built into the spiral curriculum of Everyday Math as much as I wish it had been.
FINAL ASSESSMENT
I used the exact same test that we had used for our pre-testing to accurately measure exactly how far my students had come in their mathematical understanding. Students were not explicitly informed of their scores or the results of their tests, but from this test, and from informal assessments of their classroom work, I identified a small set of students who needed additional individual practice and instruction. At this point, I decided that this small group had still not achieved the outcomes that I wanted them to. Specifically, they were still not recognizing the numerals 0-10 out of order. So, my final assessment also served as another formative assessment. I took this small group of students and re-taught the numerals using Touch Math. After re-teaching in small group, I pulled them out one-by-one during class work time to tutor them on the numerals. I also placed a Touch Math number strip at each of their desk spaces. After a week of this, I re-tested the students on their numeral recognition and at that point, the majority of the students recognized every numeral from 0-10 out of order.

DATA AND SELECTED WORK SAMPLES
I chose three students' work to represent the continum of mathematical understanding that was represented in my classroom.
The first student came into my classroom recognizing all the numerals 0-10 out of order, he could count to 100 in Spanish, and he/she could represent the numbers three, nine, five, and eight quickly and easily using manipulatives. This student was alone in the class in his advanced mathematical abilities and understanding. The student demonstrated complete understanding of one to one correspondence and he/she finished his/her work quickly and effectively. An example of this student's work is the number nine page. This student even demostrates his/her counting abilities on the page, by numbering the objects that he saw and drawing circles around the correct number of objects.
The next student came into my classroom recognizing three of eleven numerals 0-10. He/she could count to seven in Spanish, and he/she could represent three, nine, five, and eight effectively using manipulatives. This student was an average student in my class. The example of this student's work in the number seven page. He/she writes some of his/her numbers illegibly, does not completely understand how many seven is, as demonstrated from one correctly displayed group of seven and two mistaken “boxes.” However, he/she did not exhibit this lack of understanding until the number seven. He/she had understood the numbers up until that point.
The last student example is a student who came into my classroom recognizing three numerals 0-10 and naming some of the numbers letters. He/she could count to 12 in Spanish and could only represent the number three with manipulatives (out of three, nine, five and eight). This student was a lower achieving student in my classroom, and was one of the students who qualified for my lower set of students who received additional instruction in Touch Math. His/her work is represented by the number four page. He/she immediately started to struggle with representing groups of numbers. His penmanship and writing of the numbers was clear, but his one to one correspondence and understanding of quantitiy was lacking.
ANALYSIS OF DATA
As you can observe from the preceeding page, every student in my class improved their overall score on the final assessment. Eight of my students could identify every numeral from 0-10 correctly out of order compared with one student who could identify them in September before school started. Almost every students' ability to recognize numerals 0-10 drastically improved with many of the majority of them improving their scores by more than fifty percent. Unfortunately, one studbent could identify fewer numerals. Only three students still demonstrated that they were still struggling significantly, and these scores unfortunately do not represent their acheivments after instruction in Touch Math. Most of my students (17 of 28) could represent the numbers three, nine, five, and eight using manipulatives by the final assessment. Most of those who could not represent all of the numbers could represent at least two more numbers than they had been able to represent before school started. Three students were still unable to show two of the four numbers. All but one of my students could successfully count from 0-10 in Spanish. All of my students could count higher than they were able to at the beginning of the year. Only one student in my class was still unable to count to ten.
DATA PRIVACY
My students' privacy is important to me. I took every necessary step to protect and conceal the identity of my students. I have removed names from student work and identified my students in non-alphabetical order by number rather than name in any representation of my class as a whole.
REFLECTION

The test that I used for pre-assessment and final assessement was not one of my own design, it was a test that has been in place for many years, and the entire kindergarten team at my school uses it. Were I to re-design this tool (and thusly, what I did with it and how I used it) I would change the testing page only slightly. I don't think that it is necessary to place a nine and six next to each other on the test (please see included testing template). I think that this serves to confuse, and almost trick the students into self-doubt. When testing even the most bright of students, each of them in turn hesitated at that point. I would change my use of the information that I gained from the test quite drastically. My cooperating teacher did not use the information gained in the pre-assessment to inform her instruction. I would rank the information gained from the pre-assessment and use it in order to better form groups of mixed ability, as well as to form groups of similar ability, so that I could challenge the students at the level that they are on more appropriately. Doing this, higher achieving students would be less likely to be under-challenged and bored, while at the same time lower achieving students would not feel as overwhelmed or threatened. I would take the class ranking of mathematical score and “fold” the class in half, placing the one half of the medium students with higher achieving students and the lower students with the other half of the medium achieving students, and I would mix up these groups frequently.

2007-10-14T21:34:00.001-05:00

I have been thinking more recently that my teaching is more reactive than proactive. It bothers me that I come in early to school every morning (at least an hour and a half earlier than the children get there) and still can't get things finished by the time I hear the busses pull up under the front windows of the classroom. I can make a to-do list a mile long, but I can't seem to ever get it all done. And, if I do get further down on the to-do list, I seem to forget something really basic, like doing lunch count, or milk count, or attendance.
It's been frustrating trying to find individual time with my students as well. I know that some of my students can read some. I really yearn to read with them and watch them learn to read better. I have other students that need more time with me to work on behavior plans, and I yearn to watch them change as well.
As for the rest of my life, I find that my personal life is very busy. Too busy, but I think it's mostly because I hold another job outside of student teaching so as to make ends meet. Between working about ten hours at school and then between weekly work and school, I spend another 18 to 22 hours more outside of my home... it's been a very busy time in my life and I'm looking forward to finishing it.

2007-09-23T21:23:00.000-05:00

I am student teaching at Paul and Sheila Wellstone Elementary in downtown St. Paul. My student teaching experience is inspiring and exhausting. Below is my second journal entry for my seminar class at Hamline. I was proud of it after I wrote it, so here it is:

The School and its culture
Wellstone elementary is situated on the riverfront in downtown St. Paul in an eight floored building. On the first floor is the front office, a community meeting room, the cafeteria, a swimming pool, a pre-k room, two kindergarten rooms, and a second grade classrooms. The eighth floor houses sixth grade, and all the other grades are found in between. The principal's office is on the fifth floor along with the teachers' lounge, the school nurse, and copy room and teacher mailboxes. The assistant principal's office is on the sixth floor along with some fifth grade classrooms, the school counselor's office, and several special education and speech and language specialists' offices. So, our school is very spread out. Several days can pass and I won't see anyone but the teachers on my floor, and the fourth grade teachers who have lunch at the same time I do everyday.
School culture is based largely on the Responsive Classroom model. Each classroom has rules that are established by the students and signed into accordance by all students and the teacher. Each class starts its day with a morning meeting. Each class has a “take a break” spot (or more than one), and teachers occasionally use “buddy passes” where a student will be sent out of their classroom and into a neighboring classroom with the goal of the student reconcentrating, calming down, and then returning to their own classroom when they feel that they are ready. Each week we have a Friday whole school morning meeting lead by our principal where we hear announcements appropriate for the whole school: a kick off of fundraising, watching a cheer squad performance, and learning about family open houses have been a few of our topics so far.
The classroom

Room 203 hosts two dual-immersion classrooms. The kindergarteners are on the far side of the classroom from the door upon entrance. One of their walls on that side of the classroom is made up of windows. The first grade classroom is on the other side of a partially divided wall from the kindergarten. Both teachers and an EA (and myself) share an office space in a loft-like area connected to the first grade half of the classroom that was once used as a reading recovery office and small group classroom space. When both classes are in our space we have fifty two students, two teachers and an aid for approximately four hours of the day, (cut up into about half hour chunks. She is shared between all three dual-immersion classrooms, kindergarten through second grade.)
On the kindergarten side of the room (which is really more L shaped, than half of the room) we have a small library space (currently unused), a teacher workspace (kidney shaped table), six student tables with between four and six students at each table, two shelves where students' supplies are kept, a lego table, a small “house” area complete with baby beds, play refrigerators, play stove and oven, play sink, play pantry and shelves, and a pretend store front with a plastic cash register. We also have a “car” carpet, where students often play with a small wooded train set during free-choice time, and we have a morning meeting rug and a bulletin board where we have our daily calendar math lesson.
Student tables are labeled with colored shapes: the purple rectangle table, the red circle table, the orange diamond table, the green triangle table, the yellow square table, and the blue oval table. Each student's space at the table is marked by the corresponding colored shape with their name on it. My teacher had not done this before, but I have found in past experiences that it makes it easier to dismiss and group students quickly for transitions and small group work. All of the students' supplies are also labeled with the appropriate colored shape as well. I hope to add pictures of their contents soon (as we're starting to get several different boxes of supplies: glue sticks, scissors, color crayons and colored pencils). Students use Ticonderoga pencils and there are enough pencils for each student to use them at the same time. Erasers are not used (or encouraged to be used, evidentally). If students make a mistake, they cross it out and write more.

Me and My Philosophy
I am dedicated to my personal vocation to teach. I believe that education, curiosity and a love of learning are powerful tools that my students can take with them out into the world, better equipped to joyously work toward the goal of a better world, where social justice and equality are the inspiring reality.
Schools train children how to fit into society. When they are new to school, we teach them to sit still, we teach them to wait. We teach them to put their names in the top left corner (or right corner) of every page that they turn in to us. We teach them when it is appropriate to sharpen their pencils, how long they have to eat, play outside, and go to the bathroom. When they are older, we teach them to keep their work spaces clean, we attempt to teach them societal norms for behavior and manners. No one who has been to a school, will deny that schools have the monopoly on teaching societal rules. We hold children in one place longer than any activity in their day (other than sleeping, we hope).
If society is taught in schools, why not take that opportunity to help teach our children how to actually take part in forming a better society- a society where roles of all kinds are split more equally between people. I can model that in my classroom by attempting to keep equality and fairness at the front of my mind. Student roles and ability to help our classroom family should be modeled, taught and scaffolded.
Students will only experience academic success if they know that success is expected of them. I believe that every child can learn, and it will be my responsibility as a teacher to decode how each of my students learn best, and provide the environment and the opportunities for each of them to experience motivating success. I believe in the importance of recognizing and teaching to the multiple intelligences. In this, I want to be unique as a teacher; I don't want to teach only as I learn, but I want to reach all my students by frequently using different types of activities, centered around multiple intelligences and different learning styles.
The best teachers that I have had in my life were the teachers that gave me the ingredients for success, and then sat back and watched as I worked toward it. They were always helpful, and supportive but never enabling. I want to be a resource and reference for my students' learning. I want to be the architect of a community where all learners (including myself) feel safe to take risks and feel valued as an essential part of a learning family.
I am a strong believer in not only being a local citizen, but being a global citizen as well. World cultures, foods, music, and traditions will be integral tools in my classroom. I want my students to be engaged, involved, and aware of the concentric circles in human society throughout our world. I believe that exposure to global culture not only builds empathy and curiosity about people different from ourselves, but it also nurtures a pride in one's own community and culture as well.
As is evident, I don't take my role as a teacher lightly. I know that the education that students leave my classroom with – not only academic facts, but their abilities to understand themselves, relate to others, problem solve, and live in the broader world, will affect them for their whole lives. I am excited (and overly eager) to become a classroom elementary school teacher, and I am ready to be exhausted with learning.

The Students
My students are inspiring, exhausting, hungry and wiggly.
My students are wiggly. They NEED to move at least every fifteen minutes and usually more often than that. I am learning all kinds of songs and activities to keep them moving in positive ways instead of poking each other, putting strange things in their mouths or throwing things that should definitely not be thrown.
My students are hungry- to learn and for food. Every student in my class has qualified for free or reduced-price lunch. Most of my students do not eat breakfast in their homes. Often an hour after they have been fed breakfast in the school cafeteria, they complain that they are hungry. One of my students is a snack hoarder- I catch him with extra napkins full of crumbly crackers in his pockets, or an extra rice krispy bar will go missing, and I'll find it in his backpack at the end of the day. Some of my students are hungry to learn. All of my students want to learn to read, some of my students already do read (which we're trying to “diagnose” levels right now, one of them reads at at least a second grade level!)
My students are exhausting. There are so many of them (twenty eight) that just keeping track of all of them takes a lot of thinking and multi-tasking. They all need so much attention and approval. Like most five and six-year-olds, they like to receive attention from adults “in-charge” in any form that they can get it. Some of my students are naughty and do things that make it hard to teach the other students, but most of them are just fairly normal kindergarteners that require a lot of patience and reminding about well, almost everything.
My students are inspiring. They are brave. Many of them are afraid of so many things and still come to school every day from sometimes scary homes, scary bus stops several blocks from their homes and scary buses with big kids who don't speak Spanish. They walk into school everyday and are greeted by (now familiar looking) adults who don't greet them in their first language. They shuffle through confusing and disorganized breakfast lines in the cafeteria and then are barked at by a woman (the lunch lady) who believes that if she shouts something in English loud enough, they'll somehow understand her better. I see my students hunched shoulders and scared eyes when they walk in through the doorway every morning, and I watch the scared melt away as they are greeted in their native language by my mentor teacher an I, and then go about doing their morning jobs with other similarily scared peers who at least speak a language they understand.
Many of my students have an entire set of knowledge that I don't have. I don't know what it is like to visit someone in jail, or what it's like to be living “bajo de la raya” as the child of a resident who is undocumented (some would say illegal immigrant. I don't believe that any human being can be illegal; they can have an undocumented and therefore illegal status of citizenship, but just as in education, I choose to acknowledge the individual and then their assigned label.). I don't know what it's like to go to bed hungry and not get breakfast until I get to school in the morning. I don't know what it is like to not have a car, or know anyone who has a car (that works).
My students have rotting teeth, rely on teacher-provided school supplies, backpacks and often clothes (hats, mittens, winter coats and boots), some of them have parents who do not know how to read or write, some have family members that are not responsible for them, or put them in dangerous situations, some have families who keep them up late, don't feed them nutritiously, and can't affort to bring them to the doctor or dentist when they are sick or hurt. Many of my students come from homes that are stable, safe, or comfortable, but as far as I can tell so far, most do not have the luxury of all three of these things. Despite this, my students are mostly very good to each other. They take care of each other and support each other. They are forming a very closely knit classroom family that is inspiring to watch unfold.

2007-07-15T15:01:00.001-05:00

Aaron and I are moving to a new apartment in St. Paul.
Here is where I will compile my wishlist for new things to make our new place feel clean, hip, tidy, and relaxing.

Underbed rolling storage box from Target

bed risers from Target, so it'll work better

An Aneboda Ikea Wardrobe for us to store our stuff in

A light blue comforter similar to one at Target -- though it'd be a lot cooler if it had a screen printed design on it.

This drop leaf breakfast bar from Target would work pretty slick in the kitchen too.

These bedside tables from Ikea would be pretty sweet too.

I'd like to buy a pile of these Ikea mirrors to make a headboard-- they're mostly frame, so you can get those kinky thoughts out of your heard-- that's none of your business.

2007-07-01T12:24:00.000-05:00

Many many good things have been happening to me recently, like:
finishing my last class before I student teach in the fall
being place in a student teaching placement-- Wellstone Elementary, St. Paul, MN
looking for a place to live with Aaron... st. paul, here we come
teaching kindergarten!
wedding research

2007-01-27T14:47:00.000-06:00

A brand new job for me!
I'm working as a first grade assistant in a Spanish Immersion classroom at Park Spanish Immersion in St. Louis Park. I love it. Here is a link to one of the classrooms that I am working with-- they have a new "friend," Esteban el Plano (Flat Stanley), and they are taking pictures of him doing things in their classroom. They're so cute, check them out!

http://www.slpschools.org/psi/grado/primer/flatstanley/uno.html

2006-12-15T13:05:00.001-06:00

Another semester over!!
one J-term, one spring semester, and student teaching to go.

Below are some of my final lessons. Use them, but hey, if you're going to get rich off of them, at least give me a nod. :)

2006-12-15T13:00:00.000-06:00

Annie Olson
Hamline University
Dec. 2, 2006
Interdisciplinary Art Lesson (Language Arts)

Quilts of Gee's Bend

adapted from the Whitney Museum of American Art Pre- and Post- visit Materials for Elementary School Students, Pre-visit Project 1: Piecing Together: Classroom Community Quilt. Found online at: http://www.whitney.org/www/programs/eventInformation.jsp?EventTypeID=4
under the heading of Pre- and Post- visit materials.

Grade Level: 2-5^th grade

Time Required: About an hour.
Reading the book as a class (approx. 10 min.)
Review Gee's Bend Quilts (if time)
Student Interview Time (10-15 min.)
Time for quilt square creation (at least 15 min.)

Time for display and observation (10-20 min.)

Featured Artworks/Artists: The Quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama

Lesson Overview: Students will read a book as an example of a cultural identity. Then students will interview a partner about their cultural identity and then create a quilt square that represents who they are.

Materials:

reliable access to the internet: “Quilts of Gee's Bend Catalogue”

http://auburn.edu/academic/other/geesbend/explore/catalog/index.htm

(click on quilts of Gee's Bend Catalog)

and/or

The Quilts of Gee's Bend by: John Beardsley, William Arnett, Pauljane Arnett, and Jane Livingston (Hardcover - Aug 2002)

One or more of these books (or another book that reflects your students' identities and communities):

Lomas Garza, Carmen In My Family/En Mi Familia, San Francisco: Children's Book Press, 1996.

Hubley, John A Family in Jamaica, Minneapolis: The Lerner Publishing Group, 1985.

Leder, Jane Mersky A Russian Jewish Family, Minneapolis: The Lerner Publishing Group, 1996.

Lyons, Mary E., Ed. Talking with Tebe: Clementine Hunter, Memory Artist, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.

Ringgold, Faith Tar Beach, New York: Crown Publishers, 1991.

White index cards (or cardstock); lined paper; pencils or pens; markers or crayons; tape or pushpins; bulletin board or wall.

Learning Objectives: Students will be able to interview a partner about their cultural identity. Students will be able to create a quilt square representing their partner.
(Meeting Minnesota Art Standards (k-3) D: 2, 4 or (grades 4-5) D: 2,5)

Steps:

Read a story together as a class. (review cultural uniquenesses represented in the book)
Remind students of the unit topic Gee's Bend Quilts and review some of the website slideshow or display some of the pictures of the quilts. (History)
Tell students that they are going to make their very own classroom quilt. Ask students to find a partner to interview. (see Attached student interview questions)
Have students create a quilt square that represents who their partner is using card stock and markers or crayons. (Production, Asthetics)
Display the quilt squares and the interviews approximately side by side to create a classroom community quilt.
Have students present and discuss their drawings and interviews with the class. (Critique)

Conclusion:
Discuss as a class:

What did they learn about their partners?

Which cultures are represented in their class?

What do they have in common?

What is special or unique about each person?

What do they have in common with the quilters of Gee's Bend?

2006-12-15T12:57:00.000-06:00

Jed Radebaugh and Annie Olson
Hamline University
MAT Program
Teaching of Social Studies

Lesson Title: What Makes a Hero?
(Adapted from Lesson Plan #1 Essig, Crystal & Parise, Gina. Culturally Responsive Teaching, Secondary Social Studies. Hamline University MAT Program, December 8, 2005.)

Grade Level:
5^th -8^th

Materials needed:
writing utensils, chalkboard/overhead projector, drawing paper, markers, costumes or props optional.

MN Social Studies Standards met:
Strand 7 Government and Citizenship. Substrand A: Civic values, skills, rights and responsibilities. The student will recognize the importance of individual action and character in shaping civic life.

Student Objectives:
SWBAT verbalize a working definition of a “hero.”
SWBAT draw, write, speak, participate in a performance to demonstrate understanding of concepts related to social justice.

Key vocabulary: (Teacher discretion when to incorporate)
Hero: Any person who has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal.
Hunger: A compelling need or desire for food; the painful sensation or state of weakness caused by the need of food.
Poverty: Condition of being poor
Social Injustice: A concept relating to the perceived unfairness of a society in its devisions of rewards and burdens.
Social Justice: Ideal condition in which all members of society have the same basic rights, security, opportunities, obligations and social benefits.

Lesson Introduction:
Teacher writes the word “hero” on the board. Students should write for one minute about what their definition or interpretation of a hero is. After the minute is up, invite students to raise their hands and volunteer some of their definitions and ideas they had written about heroes. Teacher will jot down some keywords on the board. Have the class come to an agreement about what the class's definition of a hero is.

Lesson sequence:

Have students individually write down the names of three people that they consider heroes. (real, living, dead, mythical) and have them list personal qualities that their heroes have.

Group students into small groups and have them share their heroes with each other. Have them consider these questions:

From your list of heroes, which work to end inequality and unfairness?

Do heroes always help the needy? Do they help themselves or their families?

Does a hero only save people?

How are we different than heroes? How are we the same?

3.) (Optional: Library visit, interview, talk to their parents)

As a group , have students choose one of the heroes. Have them create a story, drawing, skit, or poem describing what the chosen hero could to to try to help or change the social situation the people he/she aids are perpetually in.

4.) Have students present their heroes to the class.

Lesson Closure:
Have students think about local heroes. (were some mentioned as heroes by your students). Who are heroes that students know and respect?

Assessment:
Teacher observes student writing, drawing or verbalizing a working definition of a “hero.”
Teacher observes student drawing, writing, speaking, participating in small group performance to demonstrate understanding of concepts related to social justice.

Lesson connections/extentions:
Invite a local leader into the classroom to talk about how students can make a difference in the world.

Visit a food shelf to have students learn about how food is collected and distributed to those who need it.

Organize a food drive.

2006-12-09T03:53:00.001-06:00

Beginning Slam Poetry work as part of a poetry unit
Grade level: 3-5th grade
Materials needed:
Example of slam poetry that uses refrain to help emphasize meaning.
Vocabulary words or short stories for the students to base their performances on.

SWBAT work as part of a group to present a word definition to the class.
Skill measured by students’ participation in small group setting and the short class presentation.

1.) Remind students that they have been studying poetry, and now as a class, you’ll be starting to branch into slam poetry. Today, you will attempt to use repetition or a “refrain” to help emphasize information.
2.) (Hook)
Watch John B. poem performance from youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0spacxHIja4
(Or another example of using refrain within “light” slam poetry.
This could be read by the teacher or performed by a guest.
(Make sure that the poetry is age appropriate!)
3.) Group students.
4.) Hand out **hard vocabulary words.
5.) Allow time for student creation of songs/raps/skits using a refrain.
(ideally 15-20 minutes)
6.) Have students present to the larger group in their small groups.

**Note: vocabulary words can be any words that the teacher wants the students to work with. Or, students could be given short stories or parables to present to the classroom.

Standards:
Music 3501.0625 Grades 4 and 5 Standards
B: 5. student will improvise and compose rhythms, melodies, and accompaniments using classroom instruments, voice, or both to express a specific musical idea;
OR
Theater 3501.0625 Grades 4 and 5 Standards.
C: 5 student will create a dramatic performance by interpreting and adapting the plot, characters, and language from an existing piece of literature.
AND
Language Arts Grade 5 Standards
1:A:1: student will: read unfamiliar, complex and multi-syllabic words using advanced phonetic and structural analysis.

2006-12-09T03:02:00.000-06:00

Taylor Mali on youtube
What Teachers Make

Ken Arkind

John B poem (use this)
first 28 seconds "my president"
1:03-1:26 "your mother most likely..."
1:59-2:20 "if you're blind, stare at a rainbow"

2006-12-03T10:48:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I've been seriously infected by Mr. Man, and I'm not talking about STDs, I'm talking about the love bug. Man o man. He actually just left here. I had left my cell phone and a bobby pin over at his place, so he decided he needed to deliver them to me today before he heads off to hang out with his family.

I just saw Mr. Man last night after going to The Singers with my mom and her friends. We went to LJ's fun Over the Top party, and I WON the ladies arm wrestling contest. Sweet. To be fair, I think I had at least 30 pounds on all three of my opponents, but really, arm wrestling's not about body mass, right? (I will go on sheepishly believing this, even if you disagree...)

Yesterday my roommate, LJ's sister, and myself all did the Reindeer Run around Lake Harriet. It was F-ing freezing, and I ran only about 2/3 of the way... I'd only gotten about three and half hours of sleep, but it was fun. Really, an excellent time was had by all, except for maybe the screaming infants in the baby strollers being pushed by their amazingly fit mothers. I did see one happy kid though-- being pushed by a dad, and the mom was running with their golden retriever... I should prod Mr. Man to see if this is a future that he could see himself in... 'cause I sure could. :)

Damn I have a sweet sweet life.

2006-11-13T22:59:00.000-06:00

A ha ha. Pig puppets and name games sung in solfege= graduate school?
I never thought that I'd be doing this kind of stuff to garner a degree! It's usually fun, but as of right now, it's a little too high energy for me. Night school should definately allow for more sitting and vegging out.

Went to lunch at Shish today with RA. It was good, but we decided the hummus was a little funky. I saw AC at Coffee News-- she's as cute and friendly as ever. Man do I love that girl. After lunch (I had a gyro wrap, yummy cucumbers!) and coffee and tea with AC, we were off to drop in on Mr. Man for a surprise visit at his work, Wet Paint.

Mr. Man is probably the sweetest nicest person that I have ever met-- I only hope that I can keep up whatever it is that makes him think that I am also those things... RA and I were eating at Shish because he has some art up there-- line, figures, pretty minimalist, I wish I understood that more than I do. He's obviously uber talented and darker than he appears... He's a little intense though-- I mean, I will not marry him next week, but he's most certainly let me know that he's interested... actually, it's comforting knowing that I'm not going out on limb thinking about liking him, but eeeek. It was good to see him. He was obviously happy that I dropped by. RA said it was a wonder that he didn't lick my face though, he was so openly ecstatic.

KF made the point later that I like dogs-- and, I do, but I already have one. A boyfriend would be nicer than another dog. But that sounds awful. A day at a time. A day at a time. He could most certainly point out about a billion awful things about me, and enthusiasm isn't a flaw, it's contagious... so, here's hoping I get infected. :)

2006-10-27T01:28:00.000-05:00

This is me on the beach during my recent trip to California.
It was so fun. I want to live there.

After reading my last post, unfortunately, I'm at approximately the same place in life-- unfortunately.
Life rolls on though, and I've taken a new interest in Yoga-- which feels great and seems to do good things for my body and my stress level, which is good.

That's where I'm at.

2006-09-29T02:10:00.000-05:00

About this business of being me.

I've been struggling recently to balance things. I love my work... even though I feel like I am there way too much-- but, it's homework, sleep, and school that I feel so overwhelmed about. Much of it probably has to do with the fact that I seem to have alltogether too much homework. I mean, yes, I'm in graduate school and all, but I am working pretty hard. Harder, I think than I needed to work last year, though, this would make good sense, since I'm a year and a half into graduate school, and I guess it should be harder.

Work. Work is blissful. I often find myself saying outloud, "Ha, and I'm getting paid to be this entertained." The kids in the dorm at the arts high continuously delight me. They're so talented, so funny, so damn cute. I love them. I love my job-- even though I work weird hours and will never meet anyone because I work when people my age socialize... whatever. You can't have it all, right?

My roommate is in love. I'm happy for her. Now, if only I could join the ranks. (though, I'm working on it-- match.com, baby!)

If anyone has any tips on how to make a dog sleep, I could use them. Mine doesn't seem to want to sleep when I need to (in the middle of the day). Has anyone ever drugged their dog (safely) to sleep??

Hey. I'm going to San Francisco to visit Elliot in not that long. Yay for me. Yay for Elliot. Yay for San Francisco. Now, if I can just figure out how I feel about the last three things that I just mentioned, everything will be good. :) ah, vagueness and gray areas are always the most exciting (or scary, I'm not sure which).

2006-08-29T00:29:00.000-05:00

All that ends well.

So, due to the fact that I have incredibly luck, some of which might be self-generated, but most of which is out there, somewhere, deciding to happen to me. I have moved, and started a job that I love, that I thought that I had lost-- a Delta Dorm coordinator.

I have a new address. It's in Minneapolis. I have a new roommate. I love her. I "have" thirty high school girls whom I am now "in charge" of. I love them too. They're so warm, shy, sarcastic, withdrawn, overly dramatic, and most of all-- they are real, they are mine, and goddamnit, I love them.

Kara (new roommate) and I have been struggling to unpack. Today, as we emptied boxes of stuff, we would yell out "hooray, one more box!" It was excellent.

Oh, and, I forgot to mention. Today was my birthday. I'm now a quarter of a century old. Which makes me way too old for high school boys to have crushes on. Seven years difference in age is significant, and well, frankly, just gross to even think about. Tell that to some of the dorm boys, please.

2006-08-01T15:34:00.000-05:00

Ah yes, a new update.

So, last week was really hard and distressing, because I gave notice of quitting my nannying job on Tuesday (yes, there were many tears-- actually for several days-- but not straight teariness the whole time. It was hard, but I did it. I also gave notice at Minneapolis of my quitting, which was not quite as emotional, but also sad, as I love the job and feel as if I was cutting off my future as an eco-educator or something.

Then Saturday came around, and I worked a hella-hot day down at Mill Ruins digging with the public and generally experiencing various degrees of heat exhaustion... did I mention I was also hungover?? So, Saturday, on my drive home, I see that I have some cell phone messages. One of them was from the Arts High School-- oh "no need to give notice at your nannying job" because we are esentially going to screw you out of a job that we said you could have... yes, I was confused. It still isn't figured out.

Meanwhile, I have put in applications to work as an Americorps Volunteer with a terrific project, Project SUCCESS which works with Minneapolis public schools and the Guthrie. I also just got an email from my old boss at Fish and Wildlife-- he's still working on getting me a job too.

That's all hunky dorey, because I'm moving in less than two weeks, and I will be unemployed in two-and-a-half.

Sweet. I love life. Sometimes it's just so goddamned exciting, eh?

2006-07-18T22:03:00.000-05:00

2006-07-14T22:34:00.000-05:00

A note on Israel and Lebanon.
WTF?
One of my friends from Hamline was over tonight (to study stupid math) and noticed that I've hung pictures of Lebanon and Israel up in my kitchen-- really something that I have done since forever. (My mom has an atlas where she let me draw in the troop positions and major battles in the Iraq war the first time around.)

He said that he's heard it said (God-knows-where) that people are talking about this newest conflict becoming the basis for the next World-war. maybe. possibly. I mean, unfortunately, I wouldn't be surprised, but I can't help but be skeptical as well.

Really, it's all just incredibly sad. I heard some interviews today on public radio-- one, most notably of an Israeli woman who had a sad and scary side of things to tell. I really felt terrible for her and her children (and her husband)-- but then she went on to say that basically, she figured the best way to solve the problem was to "show strength" and kill all of the Lebanese. Ack. Shock. I just don't understand that sort of thinking.

My same friend this evening suggested to me that I would have a fierce fight-like reaction if I were put in the same circumstances. I agreed, but I only agreed that I would feel like that in a defensive way, I would never react in an offensive way in the same vein. Who is it that goes on the offensive like this? It is most certainly not mothers with children, or for that matter, even sane fathers with children-- who are these people who act in such non-seven-generational ways? Surely, no one who has seriously tried to consider what the world will be like in 300 years would act like this. I hope.

On another completely related and completely immature note-- I once erotically made-out with someone while discussing the student riots in France-- this topic would make an even better one, I think.

2006-07-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

Recipe for a great summer day with a pre-toddler (even if it is a gabillion degrees outside):

Wake up.

Play with mom.

Eat breakfast.

Morning nap

Wake up and walk/ride to the grocery store in the wagon to buy cookie dough (for mom) and stuff to make ham and peas macaroni and cheese. Yay wagon wheel pasta!

Come home and play in your play pen with your "baby" while nanny makes mac and cheese.

Eat lunch and drink a lot of whole milk.

Change into your swim diaper and swimsuit and head over to the Lake Harriet south beach with an iced sippy cup full of watered-down apple juice and ziplock full of some animal crackers.

Liberally apply baby-50 sunblock.

Splash and swim and watch other kids fight with their parents/nannies.

Have a snack in the shade.

Crawl back into the car.

Go home for an afternoon nap. (Change into a new, sand-free diaper and a onesie.)

Wake up and drink some milk.

Go for a leisurely walk in the orange stroller.

Play in your playpen while nanny gets supper together-- pureed sweet potatoes, hot dog pieces, and homemade fruit smoothie.

Mom and dad come home. Annie goes home.

play.

bath.

go to sleep.

2006-07-10T22:17:00.000-05:00

shhh by atmosphere

I wanted to make a song about where I'm from
You know? Big up my home town, my territory, my state
But, I couldn't figure out much to brag about
Prince lives here, we got 10,000 lakes
But wait, the women are beautiful, to me they are
And we're not infested with pretentious movie stars
And it hit me, Minnesota is dope
If only simply for not what we have but what we don't
It's all fair, it ain't out there, it's in there
It's in the mirror, behind the breast under the hair
Follow the dream doesn't mean leave the love
Roam if you must, but come home when you've seen enough
I love New York and Cali, but I ain't movin'
Too overpopulated saturated with humans
And I'm not big on rappers, actors, or models
If I had to dip, I'd probably skip to Chicago
None of this is to diss no one, nowhere
Like damn, I'm from Minnesota, land of the cold air
Too many mosquitoes and our fair share of egos
But like my man Sabe says, that's where my mommy stays

So if the people laugh and giggle when you tell em where you live
Say shhh, say shhh
And if you know this is where you wanna raise your kids
Say shhh, say shhh
If you're from the Midwest and it doesn't matter where
Say shhh, say shhh
If you can drink tap water and breathe the air
Say shhh, say shhh

Got trees and vegetation in the city I stay
The rent's in the mail and I can always find a parking space
The women outnumber the men two to one
Got parks and zoos and things to do with my son
The nightlife ain't all that, but that's okay
I don't need to be distracted by the devil every day
And the jobs ain't really too hard to find
In fact, you could have mine if you knew how to rhyme
This is for everyone around the planet
That wishes they were from somewhere other than where they standin'
Don't take it for granted, instead take a look around
Quit complaining and build something on that ground
Plant something on that ground, dance and sleep on that ground
Get on your hands and knees and watch the ants walk around that ground
Make a family, make magic, make a mess
Take the stress, feel your motivation and build your nest
It sucks that you think where I'm from is wack
But as long as that's enough to keep your ass from coming back
And with a smile and a hint of sarcasm, he said
“I beg your pardon but this is my secret garden”

All right
In the land of ice and snow
Well okay
In the land of ice and snow
Well all right
In the land of ice and snow
Well okay
Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minneapolis

If the playground is clear of stems and syringes
Say shhh, say shhh
If there's only one store in your town that sells 12-inches
Say shhh, say shhh
If no one in your crew walks around with a gun
Say shhh, say shhh
And if you ain't gonna leave cause this is where you're from
Say shhh, say shhh

Well alright, well okay
St. Cloud, Minnesota
Mankato, Minnesota
Duluth, Minnesnowta
Kansas City
St Louis, Missouri
Columbia, Missouri
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Madison
Milwaukee
Cincinnati, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Boulder, Colorado
Lawrence, Kansas
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Indianapolis
Say shhh..
Minneapolis

2006-07-08T08:46:00.000-05:00

I'm back from my East Coast Peacie trip. All is well, and my friends are still as wonderful in the English-speaking world as they were in our Spanish-speaking one. I am incredibly happy and satisfied to think of them living out their bright lives so far away from me, and yet only a phone call or email away. I love them, and I missed them an incredible amount.

However, now that I have visited some of my Peace Corps friends, the goal is to visit them all. The large bulk of them will be returning from Nicaragua at the end of October (or as long as it takes them to travel home by land) and I am already looking forward to hugging reunions and lots of conversations like, so what IS your favorite band? and You don't like seafood? I never knew that you didn't like seafood-- and all the other conversations that just didn't come up, even though we all share an incredible sort of indestrucible and forever bond.

So, now that I am home, I've been incredibly busy. I am going to work in a few minutes, actually, and I will be working at the Mill City Museum site on the Mississippi River. Did I mention that I love my new job? Working for the Minneapolis Park Service with little inner city kids is as fufilling and amazing as you could imagine-- those of you who like that sort of thing, that is. If I could do this for the rest of my life, and make a living doing it, I would. I just have to figure out how to do that, now. :)

p.s. I have new pictures (mostly of my friends' dogs) of my Peacie Adventure out to the East Coast on my flickr photo site.

2006-06-29T22:53:00.000-05:00

I am going to fly to Baltimore tomorrow. I'm going out to visit some fellow Peace Corps dropouts. I didn't realize until just today how ecstatically happy I am to see them. As my friend Michelle (who I'm going to see) puts it:

"There's all these people here, you know, in our real lives, and they don't get it. I mean, they're great, and they know who you are, and where you come from and everything,
but they just don't get it."

The it she speaks of is an intangible thing. Though, like god and wind and love, you can't really see it, but you can feel it. I'm pretty sure that for us, at least, it has something to do with being closely involved with someone and knowing them at their very lowest, at their most helpless, at their least happy, and I'm pretty sure it has a lot to do with relief work abroad and language immersion.

An example of the it is the fact that I haven't seen Michelle since I left Nicaragua last June, but when she answers a phone call from me she says, "hey there" in the most conversational tone possible-- it's not that fakey noise that you make when you answer a call from someone you haven't even thought about in weeks. It is as if I carry a little piece of Michelle's life. A secret piece. And she carries part of mine. And fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it) each of my fellow Peace Corps volunteers still has a grain of my life with them, and I have theirs.

Another example of the it, is my whole trip out there. I called Michelle several months ago and I said, I'm coming to visit, and we are going to drive down to see Kemp and Jenn (two other Peace Corps volunteers who live in the Outer Banks of North Carolina). There was about two seconds hesitation before she said, "Okay, sounds good. We should probably tell them that we're coming."

In the Peace Corps IN country, it was much like this as well. It was not completely uncommon for me to come home from a long day of doing everything and nothing at the same time all day at the hot box of a school down the street from my house in San Jacinto, to find some bedraggled looking Peace Corps volunteer leaning against my front door, talking to my landlord (maybe someone whom I'd never met, but knew the name of) who was there to spend the night because they were traveling, or maybe they just needed dinner and a shower before heading into the big city of Leon, and they'd heard that I lived there.

Imagine, stepping off the bus in a town and asking the first person you see where the white girl lives. Everyone knew where I lived. They'd bring them to my doorstep, and if I wasn't there, they always knew where I was-- at the school, at the vet in Leon because my dog was sick, at the river washing clothes with the little girls, out for a walk (that weird white girl used to walk under the hot sun without an umbrella, que locura), or in Malpaisillo checking email at the internet cafe and buying refresco de cacao from the lady in the bus station who walked with a limp. (yes, they'd actually know this many details... and I usually only told one or two people in the whole town where I was going for the day).

So, as you can see, I'm anxious to spend time in the presence of some of these friends who know me as a Peace Corps volunteer. They knew that I twice cried in Spanish class because another volunteer made such vicious fun of me. They know that I lived with functional diarreah for a year. They know that I loved my dog more than my host family. They know that I hated my town. They know that I wanted nothing more than to have an incredible Peace Corps experience. They know that I gave up fighting tooth and nail, everyday, for every little thing, always- and I went home. They know why. They did too.

2006-06-27T14:52:00.000-05:00

2006-06-27T14:28:00.000-05:00

Things I want to do this summer:

Go to the lake (any lake) EVERY week
Eat some coconut cream pie
Take a Boundary Waters trip
Visit a farm
See how Lily likes riding in a canoe (preferably not for the first time in the BW)
Bike to my mom's house (cities - Oakdale) --this will require my bike getting fixed first
Fly a kite
Teach Violet to say her name (and mine)
Go blueberry picking
Visit Kara at Camp Warren
Fall in love
Blow giant bubbles
Rent a pontoon with friends
Read at least five good books
Make something artistic to put in my house (paint something, draw something, e.t.c.)
Take the bus to work
See Nickel Creek play at Bigtop Chatauqua
Have a bbq picnic
Skinny dip
Go bowling
Write a song
Help Day weed the Stogrow garden down in Northfield
Pick raspberries and make jam
Build a sandcastle
Have a sleepover with Megan like old times
Write a children's book (for the ever-growing stack of someday-to-be sent away work)
Refresh my guitar knowledge
Eat at Muffaletta
Hug Elliot
Canoe the chain of lakes in Minneapolis
Get sunburned
Drink too many cocktails

2006-06-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

Just because something isn't possible doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.
-William Powers, Blue Clay People

I just finished reading this incredible book. It is about Liberia and the daunting challenge to "fight poverty and save the rainforest."

I loved this book for many reasons. It helped me understand that my frustrations in the Peace Corps (and any non-profit work I've ever done) are not uncommon, and they're not actually all that life changing either. The above quote pretty much sums up how I live my life, and I am ecstatic to have finally found a motto of which I can throw myself behind wholeheartedly.

It also makes me think of Elliot, who, while not in Liberia, IS in Nigeria helping the type of people that are the enemies in this book. I am going to recommend that he read it-- and now that he will soon be "blissfully unemployed" he might actually have the time to read it.

I had an incredibly clarifying conversation with my friend Mike yesterday night (whom I visited in Buenos Aires recently). It was good in that it has helped me to see myself more objectively (seeing it all splayed out on the white "chat box" in gmail brings a whole lot of reality to thoughts you didn't know you had until you typed them in seconds before), but I am not quite sure where to head from here. It's all just a giant adventure, day by day, I suppose, but I want to move forward a changed person, at least a little. Ah, asi espero.

I am not so very sick to be home now-- I bawled, actually cried real tears when I had to get on the plane in Puerto Iguazu just a few days ago. The trip renewed my love of Latin Culture, of Spanish, and in all honesty, men in general. I so needed it.

Violet has been a big reason for me getting over my home-illness(the opposite of home-sickness really). She's so damn adorable and everything she does- every face she makes, every goofy little stumble, shines a little beam of pure joy down into the darkest of places within me. She is very literally my sunshine. She's just beautifully amazing. I continually strive to find such pure joy in the world as a one-year-old who is learning and experiencing everything for the first (or nearly first) time. Such joy, such enthusiasm. I love to think of the whole world living a life with even just a fraction of the joy in that little girl. She is my littlest best friend, and possibly one of the most inspiring-- and hells, she's still in diapers.

2006-06-13T20:56:00.000-05:00

I am currently in Buenos Aires. An incredible place. I here visiting my friend Mike Pursell, one of the "envirohotties" that I was friends with in college at Olaf.

I have seen a lot, but there is still so much to see. Im staying with Mike at his apartment in Palermo, Ive seen the Obelisco, the Casa Rosada (their version of the white house), Ive seen San Telmo, a neighborhood known for its Tango and Sunday markets. Ive been to la Fería de Mataderos where I bought my very own matté cup. Just today, in the morning, I found an excellent childrens book store, where I spent too much on Spanish childrens books, and then in the afternoon I took a tour of Teatro Colón, an opera house with some of the best acoustics in the world. I am also loving their coffee and their MEDIALUNAS (sweet a sticky croissants!).

Ive been using Mikes excellent sense of the city (and a great map that he bought for me) and Lonely Planets guide to Buenos Aires, and have overall been very pleased with it, but I wish that I would have brought one of the general guides to Argentina that is sitting on my kitchen table... duh.

2006-06-02T22:31:00.000-05:00

I just got back from Stillwater with my mom. We ate at The Dock. Delicious.

We both agreed that today is as beautiful as it gets in Minnesota-- as perfect as possible. It was sunny, with a slight breeze, and 75 degrees as we sat and watched the boats go under the lift bridge every half an hour. I love artichoke ramakin... and want to find a recipe for it. I also had scallops, which grossed mom out, of course.

Being in Stillwater made me think of Lee, and wonder how he is. I got a phone call from Ell in Europe. I should call him tomorrow.

I leave for Buenos Aires in exactly a week to visit Mike. I can hardly wait.

2006-05-27T22:13:00.000-05:00

I got another hair cut. I love it. I love having short hair. I don't know why I was so afraid of it for so long. Guess I had it drilled into me that I would somehow not be my own self if I cut off my hair, that, and men wouldn't like me as much. Not like they take much of an interest in me anyway... so, there. Though, the butcher that I buy Lily's bones from seems to notice it (my hair) and me... though I can't exactly see myself taking up with a high school educated butcher's assistant who likes WWE anytime soon... (mostly it's the WWE that bugs me) ...like, well, ever, so he can appreciate away, I guess.

There are officially less than two weeks before I leave for Argentina to visit Mike. This last week was hellish, but it will be worth it. I worked and worked and worked (almost 60 hours in ack, four days... how was that possible??). The kiddies out at the dorm are graduated, Violet is walking, Lily was vacationing at mom's, and I didn't get nearly enough sleep.

Today I went to a BBQ at my friend Paul's, and spent some quality time with my fellow master's edu. students (and Brandon, Jed and Erin's baby). Wanted to talk about my own personal baby scare the whole time, and how quick I was to just think about getting rid of it (but didn't talk about it... not actually all that much of a big deal to me, but I think some people would have thought that was a little bit too much information about me)... obviously, I'm still too young to have my own kids. Though, I do have the five-year-plan that ends with me and a baby, with, or sans a man. I know I can do it by myself... it will be hard, but I made it okay. I think I can be supermom just like my mom and be at least twice as happy about it. :)

There's lots of drama in the existing monogamous relationships that my friends have, and for some reason, all the unsureness makes me want to talk to Elliot... odd. I sent him an email. It's only 3am where he is... don't think he'd like to be awakened by some random romantic rant, even if it is me on the other end of the international call...

Well, I must turn in. I'm exhausted... and headed off to church tomorrow... yes, church. Check it out! My new Church!

2006-05-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

Kara and I have found the most wonderful place to live! It's in the seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, 1/2 a block from the clicquot club cafe. It is this funky old house (1900) with the incredibly classy and modern updates. It's the kind of place that I wish we could just buy and settle down into. We're evidentally in competition with some people who are moving here from New York (where the owners used to live), but I have a "doggie interview" on Friday evening, so I think Lily can woo them.

2006-05-08T22:48:00.000-05:00

Argentina Ho!
I'm going on an adventure.
My friend Mike is teaching English in Buenos Aires, and myself, being crazy (with very little money sense) is going to visit him. Yep. One month, and I'm there. I have been doing some crazy-fast researching, which is really fun.
Now I have time to plan and scheme because I finished my second full semester of grad school tonight. yeah.
So, if any of you (or anyone you know) wants to come to Argentina with me-- or has good tips, I'm eager to receive them.

2006-05-03T14:19:00.000-05:00

Procrastination station. It's so beautiful outside!
I am sitting in the station, waiting for the motivation to jump onto the train that will lead me to the end of my second full semester of graduate school (on Monday). The only problem is, it's about 25 pages of some serious self-reflection away. Man, what ever happened to b.s. without guilt? I suspect that it got lost somewhere in the 20k+ that Uncle Sam loaned to me for my undergraduate education (and it continues to rack up). Why marry rich when Uncle Sam can be your daddy?

Lost is on tonight. (I can't WAIT!) And then, it's the semesterly celebration with my grad-clique at O'Gara's Bar. But really I should buy some bones, take my puppy for a walk, take a shower, and go to sleep early. Tuesdays are nightmare-ish 15-hour work days that never end.

Ah, yes. The couch is calling my name and sweet sweet WALKING Violet is already in dreamland. I have the best jobs in the world!

2006-04-27T21:39:00.000-05:00

I can not get enough of The Wailin' Jennys - no, not Waylon Jennings, my friends. But, seriously. I love them. I wish they would marry me and we could have someone else's babies together.

On that front, I was watching Will and Grace this evening, and Grace was explaining to a cute six-year-old that most of us spend our entire lives looking for someone to love us, and most of us fail and then die... eeek. Talk about depressing. I think that all those people should get dogs (who love you unconditionally) and get over it-- or at least pretend to.

Random conversation from work the other night, I was chatting with Patty, this really conservative woman, and I told her that for me, kid(s) were the essential part of my future, that a husband was really the optional part. She was flabbergasted, and told me that I should find a good man to be my partner, and then see if I want kids after that. She went on and on about just how impossible it is for single mothers, and how all their kids are screwed up.... hee hee, I guess she didn't realize she was talking to the almost-successful (not outwardly screwed up) me, child of a single mother who did just fine, thank-you-very-much. Seriously, it made me almost mad.

Happy 1st Birthday, my sweet Violet!

2006-04-25T09:27:00.000-05:00

Mono-riffic.

When I was 19, I got mononucleosis from my boyfriend-at-the-time, now (obviously) ex-boyfriend. He thought it was comical. I was sick-sick-sick, throwing up every day before choir, miserable. Now, five years later, I have joined the sick-as-crap uncomfortable mono-riffic club again. It's terrible. Actually, it's not nearly as terrible as the first time around, but still pretty uncomfortable. But what is the most terrible thing about it, are the poor people whom I may have/might infect. It's not comical, it's a curse. I feel guilty about it. Though, professionals have assured me that the Epstein-Barr virus really isn't all that terribly contagious.

In other news, I am doing some clinical teaching hours at Ramsey International Fine Arts Center (k-8), and I'm loving it. I'm even working in a math classroom, which I thought I would hate, but I'm doing all right. The kids at the Arts High (PCAE) are terrific-as-ever and dramatic as all-get-out. Most of the dorm staff are looking forward to summer vacation, whereas I know that I will miss the students horribly.

2006-04-13T10:17:00.000-05:00

Hippity, hoppity, Easter's on its way.

Ah yes, Easter. A terrific excuse for little girls everywhere to get a hat with pastel colors or ribbons, or fuzzy things on it that they will wear for only one day and probably only for a few minutes. But alas, they do look adorable in the pictures.

This week has been crazy busy, I think Lily is ready to kick me out of the apartment because I'm never there. I have been working nights out at the Delta Dorm hanging out with my artsy high schoolers. Their company is downright addictive. Yesterday night (and Tuesday night) there was a music concert (as well as this evening as well). I got a funny pic of some guys who played in an 80's band and I will absolutely paste it on here later.

Because I've been working nights (until midnight), my absolutely wonderful mother has been letting my dog out to go potty. She's also been eating my food-- but I told her she could. Anyway, probably rewarding me for never being around, Tuesday night, Lily got up at 3am, walked into the living room, and promptly gagged up some stomach-pumping throw-up. I'd just fallen asleep a few hours before, but I got up, cleaned up the mess and tried to coax her into drinking some pepto bismol... but she wasn't going for it. I decided not to torture her, and I went back to sleep.
Ah, the joys of dog-ownership.

2006-04-10T14:40:00.000-05:00

Ah! Can it get any more beautiful? I challenge the weather to be any more terrific than it is today. I just can't get over it.

I was thinking today that the weather today is like San Francisco is all the time. My friend Elliot has just been accepted to Stanford for business school, and he once again has told me that I should move to California. It's a little tempting, but if we all move to California, Minnesota would be lonely, no? Not to mention a red state. That is my logic for staying-- at least for now.

Lily and I went for a walk, and she got so tired and hot that she plopped down on some lawn and rolled over (and accidently kinda slid down a hill). She is entertaining. Man-oh-man.

2006-04-08T00:46:00.000-05:00

Just a few pics from mom's yesterday. I love my puppy dog.

2006-04-08T00:14:00.000-05:00

Hot. How's this for follow through? Meg and I met up and split a s'lad and some 'zza at Punch-- an old standby and incredible incredible pizza. Then we caught some Denzel and some Jodie Foster at the Highland Theater. I give Inside Man an enthusiastic grade of B and definately an E for effort. Good, but a little even. Though, the "villian" is a hottie (and smart, humane, and did I mention smart??) and he should look me up. seriously.

2006-04-06T20:57:00.000-05:00

2006-04-06T20:13:00.000-05:00

If I can successfully nuture not only house plants, but also a dog, I should be able to remain faithful to a blog, no? I'm going to give it a go.

Today Violet did a weird thing when her dad came home from work with her uncle Matt. She was fine, happy, her own normal giddy-self, then when I helped her "walk" toward her uncle, she broke down-- melt-down style. She wouldn't even let her dad hold her. She was sobbing and shaking and she nestled her hot and flushed little face down into my neck and pant-breathed, you know the type, the kind of crying when you were little where it felt like you couldn't breathe. Very weird. Almost flattering, but something to worry about, as the little tot has never done this before. She was really tired, so hopefully that is the explanation.

In other employment news, I chatted with a guy from the US Fish and Wildlife Service today about getting a full-time, well-paying job working in environmental education near Jordan, Minnesota. It would be a dream job, but it would require me shuffling quite a bit of my life around, and it would mean leaving Violet. I don't know if I have the heart. My mother says I should make adult and career-oriented decisions-- but she's (Violet) just starting to get awesome--- and what will be more fun than spending the summer with a one-year-old?!? Okay, maybe not everyone thinks that would be fun, but I'm ecstatic.

We had a terrific thunderstorm here this evening-- all lightning and thunder rattling the loose window panes. It was great because it's still early enough for me not to non-sensically worry that we'll all be sucked away by horrendous a tornado. Ah, lilapsophobia.

School is good. I'm reading Punished By Rewards by the human-ephemeral-spring of refreshingly right-on educational ideas, Alfie Kohn. I'm also taking an online class and reading the decidedly more controversial Richard Louv's Last Child in the Woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. I'm not as impressed with this text-- wish I could be, he's such a raving hippie.