I found recipe cards recently that said that, and I had to buy them for myself. I am not a good cook. I don't enjoy cooking, which means I don't do much to get better. I like to bake, but only if I am in the mood. Mostly because I hate to clean up.
I am a substitute teacher for the rest of this school year, which means I generally only work a couple of days a week. However in November and December I worked several weeks for one teacher, and for the first time in about 13 years, I was working a forty hour week. I hate to cook under normal circumstances. Exhausted after teaching kindergarten all day? I did NOT want to cook! I think I spent half of my subbing salary on the take out we ate that month. I managed a few good meals, most from the crock pot.
Next school year, I hope to be teaching full-time. This means I need a plan to keep away from the take out, or I will weigh 700 pounds in short order. I need to figure out some resources for freezer cooking and crock pot cooking to keep us eating in a fairly healthy way.
I like A Year of Slow Cooking, and I own the first cookbook. In visiting the site to get the link for this blog post, I noticed there is a second book out. Somewhere, buried deep in my Iomega storage drive is a file a friend sent me a couple of years ago with tips and recipes for freezer cooking. I think I'm going to need more than that. What tips do you have or resources can you point me to that will help me get a handle on simplifying the dreaded chore of cooking dinner?
"It's New Year's Eve, and hopes are high Dance one year in, kiss one good-bye Another chance, another start So many dreams to tease the heart..."
-The Perfect Year (Sunset Blvd.)
August. That was the last time I posted anything here. And the last few posts are nothing impressive. I think it's fairly safe to say I have few followers at this point. I think I can hear an iECHO. For B's birthday in late December, I took him to see Sunset Boulevard at Signature. Signature is a marvelous theater just outside D.C. in Arlington. The first show we went to together was Sondheim's "Company" at their old location in a renovated auto garage. They have a gorgeous new facility in the heart of Shirlington, and I strongly encourage you to go see something there. But I digress...as I begin a post about a new year, the song from Act I of Sunset Boulevard played in my head.
We were just recovering from a nasty stomach bug, and didn't travel to visit family for New Year's Eve as we traditionally do. So we stayed home with nothing much to do. I opened up MS Publisher and whipped up a couple of worksheets with some cute clip art to get us thinking and writing about the "Top 10 Events from 2010" and "11 Things I Want to do in 2011". I couldn't quite come up with eleven things (I fizzled around 6), but the first thing on my list was to read at least 25 books for pleasure in 2011. Not only do I have about a dozen sitting on the bookshelf by my bed waiting to be read, but I have the Kindle app for my new iPad (received for my birthday in September), and another dozen or so waiting there.
I finished my first book of the year on the 3rd. A stellar start. It was nothing wonderful, only 2/5 stars, but I love being able to make a check on a list! I have also updated my activity on GoodReads and added some new friends. I discovered their book swap feature, and I have sent my first book, and have one on the way. I hit up Amazon's $5 sale on Kindle editions and a frugal friend led me to 4 free titles to add to my list. This bibliophile is quite happy.
But wait! There's more! I added Flipboard to my iPad and that got me back into the blogs I follow, namely The Literate Housewife. She directed me to the 2011 Where Are You Reading Challenge at Book Journey. So I messed around a little on Google Maps tonight, and I have gotten my map started.
It's pretty small so far, I'm in the middle of my second book of the year, so just New Jersey and Wisconsin are represented so far. Click the icon below to learn more about the challenge and join in!
It was just a few months ago that a friend posted a link on Facebook to a talk on TED by Sir Ken Robinson about how schools kill creativity. At the time it was contributing to the decision I was struggling to make about whether my daughter was ready for middle school, or whether I should home school her. She applied for - and was admitted to - the arts magnet program for her school. That quelled some of my concerns, and we decided that the middle school would work for our family at this time.
Since then, I have started the process of renewing my teaching license. My goal is to be licensed to teach and actively job searching for the 2011-12 school year. I have registered for my first online course through PBS TeacherLine, and it begins in June. Now I view that video and the one I link to below as a teaching professional, rather than as a parent. I want to understand the way that people think the school system is failing children and strive to overcome that in my own classroom.
Yesterday, my friend Erica posted a link to this video on TED about how "Math Class Needs a Makeover."
I will admit my first reactions to this talk were as a parent of a 10 year old who struggles with math. When Mr. Meyer describes students that look for the formula or think they don't have the math comprehension to participate in a discussion of a math problem, I immediately think of my daughter. She is not what Meyer calls a "patient problem solver." That's why I love his idea of taking the details out of a textbook problem and make it into a life problem. He examines a word problem for a high school math class where they are to calculate how long it will take to fill an octagonal beverage dispenser with water. The textbook provides a 2 dimensional diagram with measurements and numbers and symbols. Even I look at it and think, "Jeez, I have no idea." Then Meyer removes elements of the word problem. He removes the question and multiple choice answers. He removes the dimensions noted on the diagram. He changes the line drawing to a photograph of a beverage dispenser like the one described. He makes it a video of said beverage dispenser being filled by a hose.
He took a problem that high schoolers, and even I as an adult, think that they have no expertise to answer and he turned it into a real life situation that everyone has experience with. Even my 10 year old would look at this new version of the problem and have an idea about it. Everyone has experience with filling a container with liquid. Whether or not they can then get the correct answer, Meyer is recommending that we at least get students to join the discussion and feel like they have a contribution to make by first, making it relevant to their experiences, and second, not feeding them the details to plug into a formula, but to enlist their help in developing the problem.
A couple of weeks ago I was subbing in an elementary school. I was a subbing for a paraprofessional who assists in the classroom. The teacher was also absent that day, and the other substitute was introducing a lesson on capacity to third graders. The textbook included clip art of items to represent a cup, pint, quart, and gallon. That was very abstract though, and I saw some students struggle on the classwork comparing these capacities.
The next day I was in for the same paraprofessional, and the regular classroom teacher was back in the classroom. They moved on to metric capacity and were talking about milliliters, liters, and the like. The classroom teacher walked around the room with a dropper and water and placed a milliliter of water in her hand at each group of student desks to allow them to see what a milliliter looked like. I noticed a difference in student comprehension that day as they completed the classwork. Just that small amount of concrete experience with the capacity increased their understanding and ability to compare capacities.
Math in classrooms of early learners (PK-1) is most often full of manipulatives and hands on math experiences for concrete understanding of math concepts. As children progress, math becomes more and more abstract in the classroom. It becomes more worksheets and line art, and strays further and further from real experiences. Mr. Meyer reminds us to keep math within the realm of real life experiences, to engage the students in developing the problem, and get everyone involved in the conversation to build confident math students who can perform patient problem solving.
I have had this blog up for about 5 years now. I was still living in Japan when I started it. I had packed up my scrapbooking supplies to prepare to move back to the states, but I didn't want to fall behind. So I posted stories and some photos while they were fresh in my mind so that I could turn them into pages for my scrapbook when we were settled, and my sea freight had arrived.
In the past five years since I started blogging, it has changed so much. People seem to blog for one of three audiences. Some blog for the general public. They try to increase web traffic, they put ads on their blogs, they go to conferences to learn how to blog more effectively. They blog about current events, tips and tricks, or informative topics. They seek to educate and build a community. Some even try to make it a part time job.
Others use their blog to bridge the distance between them and long-distance friends and family. They post photos of the kids, or their latest craft project, or their fabulous vacation to an exotic locale. They aren't interested in attracting the attention of strangers, and may even use a password-protected site.
Still others blog just for themselves. They use their blog to record their feelings, opinions, or perhaps creative writing. They don't care if anyone reads it. If they permit the voyeur, it may be a public blog. They don't watch stats or see where their readers (if any) are coming from. Their blog is the modern version of a Holly Hobby Diary with a cheap silver plate lock on the front that anyone can open with a paper clip or bobby pin.
I do not know where I fall in on this spectrum of bloggers. My audience changes from post to post. Sometimes I share information gleaned from the web or my personal experience, like when I post movie trailers, or write about my struggles with a pre-teen girl. Other days I post photos of a personal event, like the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, to share that with my friends and family that support me. I even occasionally write a blog post that is just for me. Just because I feel like typing something, or I feel like I haven't blogged in a while, so I should type up something.
I probably could do a blog post of some sort about every day. What keeps me from doing so is my perpetual struggle with the purpose of this blog. Who is my audience? After my sporadic posting habits for the past year is there even anyone left who reads this thing?!? Why am I writing here and who am I writing for? Do I need to do this writing in a public forum? I enjoy writing; should I choose a topic or two and try to make this into a community? So I want to open myself up to public scrutiny of my writing and opinions?
In any case, that is what I am pondering today. With whom am I pondering?
Today I was folding the laundry and I came across Em's shirt from the Broadway show Wicked. It is pink and simply says "Popular" across the front. That prompted some humming of this catchy tune. Here are some excerpts:
Popular! You're gonna be popular! I'll teach you the proper ploys When you talk to boys Little ways to flirt and flounce I'll show you what shoes to wear How to fix your hair Everything that really counts
When I see depressing creatures With unprepossessing features I remind them on their own behalf To think of Celebrated heads of state or Specially great communicators Did they have brains or knowledge? Don't make me laugh! They were popular! Please - It's all about popular! It's not about aptitude It's the way you're viewed So it's very shrewd to be Very very popular Like me!
Now, my daughter is 10, and in the dreaded fifth grade. The year the drama begins. The year it starts to mean more and more to be "popular." My kid is well-liked, and she's a pip, but I'm not sure that she's popular. And I can't decided if that bothers me or not.
I was an unpopular kid in school. I got good grades, I liked school and my Grandmother sewed most of my clothes. Actually, it's a wonder I didn't eat dirt more on the playground. I recently turned 40 and I still claim that eighth grade was the WORST year of my LIFE. I ticked off the wrong person, and she made it her mission to hurt and humiliate me every chance she could. As soon as I hit puberty I chunked up big time, and never slimmed down again. When you go through that experience, you think you want it different for your daughter. You hope upon hope that your daughter will be popular and not experience the same moments that crushed your fragile self-esteem when you were younger.
Yet I look around at the popular kids in her grade and I am unimpressed by some of them! Some are growing up way too fast and they have "boyfriends" and they are holding hands. They are TEN! Others are snobby and cliquey, and the stereotypical popular girls. If that is what it takes to be popular, then I don't want that for her either!
