Sarcastic commentary on my students

These children are awful this year. All of them.

If it weren't for their (the sarcasm sets in . . .) bright sunny dispositions, happy compliant demeanor, jubilant enthusiasm, positive attitudes, and quiet independent study skills, they'd be perfect little angels.

Fuzzy wooly skeins as pleasurable alternative to the more traditional stress balls

Thursday night wasn't so good for me. I was totally stressed out.
School.
Teens.
Overwork.
Underpay.
Lack of appreciation.
Lack of human contact/interaction.
Dearth of nice co-workers.
An unknown future.
Housemates having babies.
Lack of Krista-empathy and an understanding smile and sometimes unheeded advice. (Yes, this is very selfish. She's probably in labor right now. She has a few other things to worry about than my problems.)
sigh.

Friday was a lot better. Last night was good. I had dinner with my family. Chris is good.

Now it's Saturday and I'm going to clean! Yay!! Then do some crafting YAY!!

Autumn, ala Goldsworthy

Last weekend I had some artsy fun in the foothills with the beautiful Autumn colors. A serene walk amongst the oaks is a much needed getaway from the stress and activity of the school week. I wish weekends came more often. In fact, I wish the weekend was 5 days and the work week was just 2. Think of how much fabric, glitter, paper, calendars, feathers, rocks, sticks, leaves we'd need to fill our time! And don't forget the sheep! We'd need quite a few of those too.

The Donut That Tried to Kill Me

I don't remember the sugar high, but the crash was HARD!
I almost couldn't dance on Tuesday night. I never fully awoke from my 45 min nap that afternoon.
By Wednesday evening, I was back to normal.
I need to stay away from donuts.
This must be what it's like when you quit caffeine.

Cal Acad Opening

On Sunday we went to the opening weekend of the Cal Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. It was fabulous! So many wonderful things to see and do and learn about and play with.

Highlights for me were the 4 story indoor rain forest, the living roof, the penguins, the live dissection viewing room, and all the beautiful photography of sciency things.

Here are a few photos.

Bad Seeds?

OK, so 8th graders are getting better, and left the field open for the 7th graders to fill in in their theoretical absence.

An example, on Thursday last week, I tried to do a hands-on "Food Web" activity with a ball of string and animal and plant cards. After a bit of a struggle the activity sort of worked. The bad part came at the end when some brilliant 7th grader announced, "Hey, let's all jump in and get tangled up!!" So all of a sudden, there were 17 arguing/shouting voices (16 kids' and one of mine), 32 arms moving around rapidly, 32 kicking legs, one chair, and 50 yds of yarn all jumbled up in the middle of the room. A huge mess, and dangerous too. They lost their lab privileges for a week because of that.

The week before, we were unable to play a running around game outside because it kept turning into an argument and fight.

Today they were a lot better, especially the instigators (yes, there are 3 or 4 who usually are the ones to start the problems. But at age 12, it's better to follow the herd than to do as the teacher says.). But I bet that as the week progresses, their halos will tarnish and fall apart, revealing a few kids who get to do FUN book work and worksheets while the rest of the class gets to do a lab.

Aggghhh

8th


graders



already



driving


me


crazy

Aaaaahhhh, school's back in session!

School started again last week, and it's going well! The kids are fresh and happy to be back with their friends. And they're still content to DO their work, mostly on time! We'll see how long that practice continues!

The 7th graders are wonderful. Smart and curious and excited about science. Oooohhh, what do we GET to do this year in science??!! The 8th graders, not quite as excited, but at least their summer break seems to have slightly diminished their raging hormone induced apathy towards anything that involved brain energy exertion.

I'm also teaching an Advisory class, where I'm the teacher advisor. It's like a homeroom. As long as we can justify it as "community building" or "academically relevant" we can do interesting things like take a trip tot he beach, go to the nearby cafe, go to the park . . . It's fun so far.

I am also enjoying being back at work, using my own mind. And all the hours and hours of work that I put in last year, creating pretty much everything from scratch, is starting to pay off. I don't have to start all over again! Yay! But, of course, there's still much to do. Back to work . . .

Back in the Land of High Gas Prices

Our holiday was fantastic. Mr. Hummingbird and I traveled very well together, only getting slightly annoyed with each other a few times!

In our travels, we visited 3 different national parks, saw lots of interesting birds and frogs (though only one snake, that strangely enough happened to be eating a frog), ate tropical fruits including gargantuan avocados, drank tasty milky sweet espressos, and indulged in the local fried bread delicacies (all of which were stuffed with different combinations of ham and salty cheese).

We hiked up close to the world's tallest waterfall deep in the jungle and fought off voracious gnats that left itchy welts on parts of my leg, where when in public it's a bit too indecent to scratch.

We met some really interesting Venezueleans who were eager to discuss politics, local customs, and to point out EVERY bird that happened to fly by.

We took blasphemous photos of Hugo Chavez murals and religious altars (we didn't move TOO many offerings in the process!) Though I did stop myself from one photo opportunity that might have been over the top. Picture one of those statues where Jesus is holding the big cross over his shoulder while looking a bit bedraggled. In the cemetery, there happenend to be a loose cross lying on the ground next to a nearby grave. I'm pretty good at posing like statues . . .

We played the game "Real or Falso?" The number of unnaturally large and firm boobs keyed us into the fact that Venezuela is known for it's frequency of plastic surgery.

Although our gas may be quite a bit pricier, Venezuela wasn't any more car-centric than the U.S.

Now we're back. Time to get ready for the first days of school. There's so much to do before next week!

All Natural Birth Control

There's nothing like watching an all natural (read: NO drugs) home birth as an all-natural birth control method! I think I will likely opt for drugs when in the long term future my time comes to birth a baby.

Wow, what an absolutely INCREDIBLE experience to see someone being born. It's difficult to describe, and probably not something that others want to read, so I'll spare the details, but it was beautiful and I think I cried during the experience. The 4 year old was perfect, wasn't scared. He watched his sister being born, then got to cut her umbilical cord. A pretty neat story that he can tell the kids at preschool today, I'd say.

The baby doesn't have a name yet. Right now she's "baby sister." The 4 year old tried to make helpful suggestions like "Telephone," "Banana," "French Toast," and "Orange Juice." Can you tell what was on HIS mind after the 5:30am birth?

I'd say that 8-8-08 is a birthday that I won't forget! Congratulations to parents Ilil and Bryce and brother Lyell.

A life of Leisure

My summer of leisure is soon to come to an end. I could quite possibly do this for a longer while. Sleeping in until 8am, crafting the day away, reading into the wee hours of the night, going to the beach to collect rocks with friends, organizing (!), baking and all the little things that I now have some time to do. I almost got bored last week, but have now gotten into the groove. Hmm, I WOULD probably get bored sooner rather than later, with nothing to do, but for now, it's kind of nice!

But this is the last week, then it's travels (yay!) and back to school upon my return. I suppose I should start to get my mind back on school soon.

How to Make a Thai Dinner in a Box care package

Yesterday over a yummy breakfast of blueberry oatcakes, Mr. Hummingbird and I were discussing the care packages that his mom used to send him when he was in college. I LOVE care packages, both giving and receiving them. So I decided to make one for each of his 2 younger sisters. The idea is born!

Then you have to come up with a theme. Thai food. Who doesn't love it?

Hmmm, now how do you send Thai food to Arizona and Washington without it getting cold, or the greasy bits soaking through the paper? Recipes and ingredients to make it yourself. We came up with 3 recipe ideas, Pad Thai, Tom Yum Soup, and Thai Iced Tea. I bought some of the less-easily found-in-places-that-are-not-the-Bay-Area ingredients (lemon grass, Thai curry paste, galangal, rice noodles). I made a little drawstring pouch for each, and included recipe cards and a "puzzle card." (Thanks for teaching me how to make those fabulous little folding cards Abigail!!)

Viola! Two ready made Thai Dinner in a Box care packages.

Yay!

A baby gift machine

Hmmm, I'm starting to feel like a baby gift machine.
In the past 18 months, I've made (calculations going on in head with help from trusty Sierra Club calendar and various random items spread across room . . .)
7 baby hats
2 baby quilts (sewn)
2 baby blankets (knit or crochet)
1 baby sweater
3 baby toys

I just finished the 2nd quilt this morning (started it yesterday--it's very simple). I think Sock Monkeys should be on ALL baby items from now on!

The last hat I made was a little untraditional for baby. The soon-to-be parents love the Simpsons' character Jimbo the Bully, so I knit a hat with Jimbo's emblematic skull. I wonder what the other baby shower-goers will think of that?!

Itching to get back

The mosquitoes were pretty bad last week, but it didn't distract too much from the beauty of the Eastern Sierras. Not much can take away from the jagged peaks and bouldery slopes, snowy mountain tips, glassy lakes, and blue skies.

Weather was great. We had rain for about 4 minutes, and hail for maybe 2. The rest of the time was sunny and beautiful.

The group was a very slow hiking collective as a whole. But that way, we had a much more leisurely walk (at least I did!). And we didn't get to many of the places we had originally planned to reach. The length of the walk was about half the distance as planned. We had 2 layover days at pretty lakes along the way, where we swam and climbed and read.

The group dynamics were much better than originally hoped for. My fears were slightly unfounded, and I feel like I rekindled a friendship that had been on the fritz.

Last week, I definitely got some much-needed relaxation time. We practiced morris tunes on tin whistle for hours each day (until we were asked to stop). I actually finished an entire novel in a week! Yay! I swam and collected 5 lbs. of lovely rocks (replacing the weight of the food that I'd eaten during the week so my pack weighed just about the same going in as it did on the way out!).

And I got lots of rock time. One of my housemates and I climbed Mount Merriam (or got within about 25 feet elevation of the peak). We couldn't figure out a safe way to traverse the last 200 feet of sheer cliff. With 2000 foot drop on one side and 3000 on the other, we decided to be satisfied with the first "peak" instead of the real summit. We also did a few excursions of bouldering and rock scrambling (climbing up large boulders piled precariously on steep mountainsides, and jumping from boulder to boulder to boulder). That's one of my favorite things to do!

It was a fun trip, and certainly nice to get away for a whole week. Next year I'll have to figure out another backpacking excursion.

Into the Wild

Even though I get to go backpacking many times throughout each year, I'm somehow really excited about this one in particular.
Maybe it's because I haven't been on a week-long trip for 3 or 4 years.
Maybe it's because my housemates are going, and I really enjoy spending time with them.
Maybe it's because we've been madly preparing fabulous-sounding meals for the past couple of weeks (dehydrating veggies, measuring out, pre-mixing, packaging things like Tom Yum soup, spicy brown rice salad, Sambar stew), and I can't wait to eat!
Maybe it's because school is finally out and I have something fun to do with my free time!
Maybe it's because this is the first summer since high school that I've had enough time to go away for a week AND not have to rush back to a summer job. (well, besides traveling around Europe for 3 months after college which, in itself, was a job.)
Maybe it's because I get to go play in the granite for a whole week! Collecting rocks, sleeping under the stars, watching the bees buzz and the flowers sway in the breeze. I love granite. I love being waaaaaaaay up high above everything and looking down on the tiny little sparkly blue dots we call lakes and across at the jagged snowy peaks. I love being higher than the trees. I love that at any moment a bear might come by and eat my lunch. I love swimming in small icy lakes. I don't love the mosquitoes, but with enough DEET, I can tolerate them.

I'm off this afternoon, and will be back just in time to do, um, NOTHING productive for a couple of weeks before more adventures and then school again. Yay!

Frustrated

I'm a little frustrated and disappointed about some of the issues related to next week's 7-day backpacking trip we've been planning for months. Holidays are supposed to be fun and something you look forward to, not stress you out. Yeesh. I'll enjoy the granite and cool mountain lakes no matter who IS or IS NOT on the trip.

McGee Creek Backpacking

We had a gorgeous 3 day backpacking trip over the 4th of July ("Go America" day) holiday. I love being away from the Red White and Blue hoopla. But I especially love being out in the mountains.

The group was 7, and I was happy to get to know some of the participants better. I wasn't very happy to become so intimate with the hordes of hungry mosquitoes. DEET is really really nice!
The trail was lovely from the start, with huge amounts of wildflowers of a whole palette of colors. We climbed about 3,000 feet in 8 miles and set up camp by Big McGee Lake. The next day's day hike was up nearby Red Slate Mountain, offering beautiful views down into the Convict Lake basin.

I limited myself to collecting rocks on the way DOWN the mountain. I only brought home 4 this time! It's so hard to stop. I have a rock addiction. Wonder if there's a rockaholics anonymous group around?

With school out (yay!!!) I may finally have time to organize photos of this and other trips, as well as get to work on gifts for various people I've neglected horribly over the past 11 months.

Poor Bitey

You've heard of the bad student who takes the class hamster home for the holidays, it dies and the student tries to replace it? Well, I won't be replacing the snake anytime soon. Poor thing never had a chance. My housemate is happy though, she hates snakes, and the bright side is I won't have to go out each week to purchase a pet store mouse. I do feel very awful about it. She was a good snake, and now will live on as a specimen in the UC Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Go science!

Inadequate supervision

This really pissed me off. I got a written warning from my director for "inadequate supervision" of the students. It was 4 days before the end of school, and grades were closing. Half the class was still missing labs, projects and other assignments. Other teachers said to send students to the assembly room to finish, if I needed to. On Wednesday I did. It worked out well. On Thursday, I did the same thing, but I hadn't been informed that the room to send students to was across the hall from the assembly room, and there wasn't an adult in the AR to supervise.

What really pisses me off is that this whole school year, the whole school, they don't bother to ever tell you when you do things right, only when it's wrong. In fact, I've been left completely to my own devices to figure things out and learn how the system works because they never bother to tell me things until after I've done them incorrectly.

Communication is the key

Yikes. Keeping up with friends and keeping friends is hard work. Especially with poor communication techniques such as e-mail, language barriers, an innate inability to actually make decisions (not me), stubbornness, sanctimoniousness, and timidity.
Oooohhh, nice words!

Things have settled down mostly, and people seem to be satisfied for the most part. But a completely unexpected and uncharacteristic raging outburst and passive aggressiveness, followed by an almost apology has brought things back to the somewhat tenuous trust that is the friendship. Hmmm.

Bad smells bother me.

Put your hands on the wheel

So today the new hands-free cell phone law went into effect. I hope they start giving out lots and lots of tickets! But I wish they also would have make the law a bit stricter. Apparently, it's still OK to text message, and play games, and surf the web, and prepare elaborate meals, and whatever else people do on cell bananas these days.

The real problem is that people on phones are thinking about what they're hearing and not what they're seeing. I know I do that. If I'm on the phone and I have a computer open in front of me or a knitting project or a book, I can't really concentrate on either. Reaction time is slower. I guess I'm from a different generation. I guess I'm old!

The end is near . . .

The end of school, anyway. And if it weren't I'd be going crazy right now. All I want to do right now is craft. I don't WANT to go teach. I want to be done! I don't want to see 7th graders. I don't want to tell them to be quiet every 3 minutes. There are many many things I don't want to deal with right now, that I will save the reader from having to endure. Use your imagination as to how obnoxious and loud a class of 13 year olds can be. It might be more entertaining than real life!

I'm excited about my up coming backpacking trip. High Sierras. Granite. Sunrises. Mountain air. Silence! And beauty! And time to relax.

Hummingbirds and waterfalls

I had kind of a crazy afternoon at school today.
Last period, a woman from Admin comes running into my room asking if I had a net to catch the hummingbird that is loose in their office. Good guess, since science may involve catching butterflies or such. But, no, I don't have a net bigger than the mini fish net. So I run upstairs with some impromptu hummer catching supplies--cheese cloth, a strawberry basket and a large plastic pitcher. After a bit of finagling, I use the cheese cloth taped to a broom handle to net the bird. Poor thing was exhausted and probably hungry. I let her go outside and went back to my classroom to prep for tomorrow.
Then the rain starts. Not rain exactly, but a deluge of water from the upstairs flooded little boy's room. Good thing I was there to rescue my computer cause the waterfall was right above where I keep some important non-waterproof items like my computer.
After all the excitement, I called it a day.
The funny part about this afternoon was that the new English teacher was visiting. I haven't actually met her yet. While I was upstairs chasing the bird, the principal was touring the building with the new teacher. I saw them, stuck my head out the door and said, "you can't come in now, I'm catching a hummingbird!" Then later when the waterfall started, I ran by the principal's office saying, "crisis in the science room!". Guess who was having a meeting in there? She must think I'm the crazy science teacher. funny first impressions.

New to the blog-o-sphere

Online journaling. Hmmmm, well, let's give it a try!
I just finished reading a fabulous book yesterday. "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. Circus freaks, clandestine love, smiling elephants that speak Polish, speak easy rolicking, toothless tigers, and sleazy side shows -- what isn't to like?

And, YAY! it's 2 weeks and 2 days until the end of school. I'll be happy to have 2 months away from my hormone-laden 7th graders. Maybe they'll mature in the summer months . . . hmmm, maybe not.

So much to do before then.