Good Golly, Ms. Molly!

This may be a record for me on this old blog. It's a bit dusty, yes? Well, gentleman #3 and I did date for a brief little while. Things got pretty serious fairly quickly. And, as many things do when they develop quickly, once I was able to catch up to what was really happening around me, I realized this was not the relationship for me. I hope he finds what he wants, unfortunately, that was not me. So, I am still on the hunt for my Betty (as in Betty Crocker Brownie - you can credit Lisa with that one!)

School started almost four weeks ago and it's so crazy to think that! We're slowly coming out of the honeymoon phase and starting to show our true colors to each other. My 8th period somehow managed to get me to teach for almost 45 minutes using a ridiculous southern accent. Okay, let's be honest, it didn't take too much convincing. I'm surprised by how well they actually listened. My 3rd and 7th periods are a trial. I am doing my best to be kind yet firm. It's hard when you just want to knock their heads together.

Creative writing has been fun, but I think the novelty is wearing off for some of them and they're ready to be done with it. Unfortunately for them, they still have half a year of the class before they're done with me. It's a mixed grade class, so it's given me a chance to get to know students that aren't in 9th grade. I've been with the 9th graders since I started and they were in 7th grade. Each year I've changed what grade I teach. I think, I hope, I've settled on 9th grade. I'm really enjoying it. For the most part, I love my students and haven't had any serious dust-ups.

I've gotten some wonderful feedback from admins and district level folks that have popped into our school for various reasons. It balances out how horrible I feel after I leave my ESL class. The class itself isn't the most interesting or engaging but it covers a myriad of strategies for English Language Learners in my classroom. Considering how the vast majority of my students fall into this category on some level, these are strategies I should be using. Suffice to say, I need to do better.

In other random tidbits...

• One of my students insists I look like UFC Fighter Miesha Tate. If you're like me and had no idea who she is, here's a visual. Other than the fact that we're both women and have long hair, I don't see it. (And yes, that is super red carpet in my classroom)

• Lisa came for a quick weekend visit. Yay! I love it when Lisa comes. We saw Austenland and The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Both were a lot of fun in completely different ways. I read Austenland after I had my surgery in 2007-ish (?). I don't remember it being as funny. It also doesn't hurt that this manly hunk of beauty plays one of the heroes. Go see it!
  
• I'm so happy that it's finally cooling down a bit! No A/C 90+ weather and no windows/outside doors, makes for a very hot, hot, hot classroom!

Dating...the dessert buffet of life

Being a single twenty-something (almost 30), I've met and dated my fair share of men. This most recent bout has got me thinking about the type of man that I would like to date. There are currently three guys...well, now two, but at the time of this metaphor there were three...that I was talking to and possibly going on dates with. Each one of them fits neatly into a different dessert. I shared this with Shannon and she thought it quite fitting.

Gentleman #1 is Vanilla ice cream. He's dependable yet unexciting. Vanilla ice cream is nice on a brownie or with lots of chocolate sauce or whipped cream. Yet, alone vanilla ice cream is a tad on the boring side. Vanilla (the gentleman in question) doesn't inspire excitement. We've actually been talking on and off for almost six months and we're just now getting around to going on a date. And let me tell you, it has taken far more logistical planning to get this date together than it typically does for me to get ready for the school year. And I think part of what makes him Vanilla ice cream is that he, himself, doesn't seem too excited about our date.

Gentleman #2 is a decadent, fancy bakery brownie. He is, incidentally, not in the picture anymore. At first you are dazzled by this brownie. It's got a fancy wrapper with a frilly edge! It maybe has a chocolate shaving garnish or a fancy gold leaf decoration. It invariably comes wrapped in a shiny cellophane wrapper with a ribbon. You pay a ridiculous amount of money for said brownie because you think, "Anything that fancy or expensive has GOT to be delicious". Unfortunately, after you've eaten the entire brownie because "dang it! You spent $10 on that sucker!", you sit back and think: "Did I really just spend all those calories on that?" I think that's enough said about gentleman #2.

I haven't quite classified gentleman #3 just yet. I have a sneaking suspicion about what he will be, but the jury's still out.

I know the kind of guy I'm looking for is a Betty Crocker Brownie mix brownie. These brownies are deceptively delicious. I have been known to just go at them with a fork. This beauty of this brownie is, you can find it in any grocery store. It's in an unassuming box. It's nothing fancy, but it never fails to put a smile on my face. 

You know you're a nerd when...

I uploaded a few educational apps to my phone and was probably a little too excited about them. I mean, who wouldn't be excited to have the Utah State Core on their phone? Or an app that will tell you the reading level and difficulty of any book simply by scanning the bar code?

I discovered itunes U and decided to take a course on the French Revolution. Why not? It's always fascinated me.

List Mania!

This summer I have...

1. Started violin lessons. I absolutely adore it! I always wanted to take the violin growing up, but thought my short, pudgy fingers weren't appropriately long and graceful enough to play the violin. So, I never mentioned it and stuck with the piano (which I still love). Many told me I would sound like a screeching cat for the first few months. I am happy to report, no cat-like sounds have come from my violin...yet.

2. discovered the addictive joy of jewelry making. It's a slightly expensive hobby, but it keeps my hands busy and I've got something cute at the end of it. I have several gift ideas for people and I'm excited to put the plans into action.

3. attended Utah Core Academy. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the new education standards for Utah. I'm not 100% sure why people are up in arms about it, but I support it. I haven't had a conversation with anyone that is really anti, but I've read what's in the newspaper and I just don't understand the argument. From where I sit, we're challenging our students and trying to insure they are competitive nationally and globally. What's so bad about that? Additionally, society is much more mobile. The patchwork quilt of education standards across the country is a disservice to our students. By having a national standard, we are insuring that students are taught the skills needed to, not only succeed, but be competitive in a global economy. We all want that, don't we? But enough of my soapbox. I left the workshop exhausted and yet energized to plan out my curriculum and implement some of the strategies we talked about this past week.

4. will spend the 4th in small-town Idaho. I'm excited to experience the small town patriotism that is stereotypically American. It will be great. AANNNNDD.....I'll get to spend some time with Lisa. It's been a difficult adjustment for me and I'm totally psyched to see her again!

5. gotten more involved with family history. I spent some time at my Stake (local LDS congregation) Family History center and I got the bug. It was fun to go back and see where my ancestors came from and read some of the documents about them. I'm going to be reading my Grandma and Grandpa's (mom's side) personal history and synthesizing it a bit to then be uploaded to familysearch.org. I'm also going to work on getting pictures scanned and uploaded too. I figure, I've got tons of time, why not put it to good use.

6. I'm hoping to get out to Denver as some point to see the Denver Buies. My older brother, Conor, and I have been talking more the past six months or so. Growing up we always just kind of missed out on getting to know each other. By the time I was old enough to not be quite so obnoxious, he was out on his mission, then college. When he moved back to Utah, I was in California. When I moved back, he was married, in school and working. It's been great to spend more time just talking. Even though he's in Denver, I know that I can call him with any problem and he'll help, or I can call to just chat. It's great. I have an awesome older brother. You all wish you were so lucky.

7. I was made Language Arts Department Chair at my junior high. It isn't as cool as it sounds. It's just the middle rung of the ladder that needed to be filled when our previous department chair took another job.

Happy Summer Vacation!

Perks of being a teacher

1. (and the most obvious, in my opinion) Summer break. Three months with a steady paycheck, but I don't work. It's pretty great.

2. discounts at various stores, you'd be surprised the placed I get a discount!

3. I can claim quite a few legitimate work-related expenses on my taxes each year.

4. Incredible incentives for buying a home...as in 50% off list price of HUD homes. No, you didn't read that wrong and no, I didn't add in a 0 where I shouldn't have. Under the Good Neighbor Next Door program, police officers, TEACHERS, firefighters, first responders and other qualifying public employees, are eligible for a discount of 50% off the list price of qualifying homes.

Now, I'm not quite ready, at least I don't think I am quite ready, to purchase a home. But, I do on occasion peruse what's out there and this morning I found this one. I've only ever seen the pictures, so for all I know, it could a complete disaster and a dump, but doesn't it look cute??

My world...

Here's what's been happening in my world:

1. It all really started to get funky with this.

2. Which lead to this situation.

3. This one didn't even get a vote and all it required was a grant signature.

4. And this one happened on Friday.

In a conversation with my fellow teachers someone said something along the lines of "The district is being run like a business and you cannot run public education like a business. You can't QC the end result. You can't just throw out a bad batch".

There's been so many other, smaller issues that have popped up. Needless to say, we're all a little on edge. It seems like every time I look at the Standard Examiner there is another story about my school district and the Superintendent has done something else.

I had a dream last night that I was fired from my job....let's just say I didn't take it well.

Best Friends

You just wish you were so lucky...