Twilight

This is a really quirky and well-written article about men and women and how we may be steered towards certain books and steered away from others. At the center of the article is this man's love of the book Twilight. Go to the link below and read the article and provide me with a response. This is Monday's "work" on top of the question of the day. Cool.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104347311

Oh, and will someone please lend me a copy of the Twilight series? I want to read them this summer. Thanks!

Entertaining Website to Check Out

runpee.com is a site designed to help people know when they can leave a movie theater during a new flick. How entertaining! It's based on contributions from people who have seen the film's and can say what parts are non-essential to seeing the film as a whole. Very fun. Check it out!

My ears are ringing

I have a congenital hearing loss. My left ear is much worse than my right and yet I insist on using my left to talk on the phone. I think I may have lost some of the right ear's capacity to function tonight. Here I sit, outside of the theater, and the noise is excruciatingly loud. I'm not sure how the people in the room are enduring. But, perhaps it's all a generational thing. Wait, no. There were definately people my age when in high school that blasted things like Guns and Roses; I was just wasn't one of them. For instance, after last fall's New Kids on the Block concert (I was in the third row) I couldn't hear properly for at least a week. Is that the same for others? Do you accept the deafness as a benefit to the musical experience? Larry says that he can't hear high frequencies.

So, what it is? What volume do you like to hear your music at and why? Do you feel like listening to music loudly is a worthy sacrifice or some bands are better louder? What about concerts? Ever gone to one with ear plugs?

Movies in Literature Recent Work

Hello folks,

If you've been absent from Movies in Literature, I may have recommended you head to my blog and read the work you must complete. Please also remember that Wednesday is the last day to post blogs on your book (I'm seeking five per book) and that Friday is the last day to turn in your movie paper with your planned activity for the class. Unless you've spoken with me about an extension please do your very best to observe these deadlines.

Today's task: Come up with a list of 10 movies that include sex between consenting partners. Then, star those movies that include discussions about protection and individual's sexual histories. Circle the movies where sex occurs between two people in a loving committed relationship. What do the results of your quick film study say to you? What message do film's send about sex that is contrary to the sex education school's or families try to provide to young adults?

Then, take one of your starred movies and re-write or craft the scene so that the two individuals HAVE a smart, thoughtful discussion about sex.

Yesterday's discussion: Inspired by Casino Royale. Compose a tale where you are a secret agent. What are your means of intellect and skill? What adventures do you go on? Are you hardened, like Bond, to love and trust? Why have you been recruited and why did you choose the life of a spy?

For High Fidelity:
Create a top 5 list for the following topics- Songs, Friends, Learning experiences, lessons from High Fidelity, and go-to foods.

For post Fight Club
To your way of thinking, what is more damaging, physical or emotional violence and why? Which results in the longest lasting scars?

Friday, May 29th

I have a hectic weekend ahead of me and it begins with the Band Show tonight. I am hoping for a major turn out because we still need to try and cover the cost of the busses to Valleyfair. It also seems there's some lingering invoice for dinner theater which I didn't think existed. Nurts.

Well, I had some good fun reading blogs this morning, though it is mildly intriguing that someone not actually in class is blogging more than those present in school. Hmm. Odd. Anywho, here's another memoir from Becky... though I think I just heard Quinn move upstairs... wait for it...

The garage sale is tomorrow, by the way, so people should stop by Grace's place for some fun shopping.

Becky's Memoir for the day
He eats his cereal with water. That's right. Water. When he and Chris were younger, my Mom would mix up something gross made from powder because they were both allergic to milk. Nowadays, kids have soy milk and whatnot to substitute the cow's best, but in the 80's, that wasn't the case-- or at least my Mom wasn't in the loop. I've been more fortunate in the dairy dept and can pretty much eat and drink what I want, save the trip to Germany in high school where I consumed far too much ice cream and catapulted my body into lactose intolerance.

So his bowl is sitting in the sink. Cereal shards are floating in slightly brown water. Next to that bowl is a macaroni and cheese encrusted bowl that I have dutifully filled with water so it will appear to Luke like Matt was making an attempt to clean his dish. My brother has lived with Luke and I for the past 4 years. Before that, he also resided with us for a year or so. And then of course, there's the 16 of so years we shared a family home in Apple Valley before I bounced off to college and he remained home to finish high school. Oh, and there was also a 6 month stint where we shared a posh apartment in Apple Valley. I had this enormous room and we each had our own bathroom. Who knows why we picked that spot-- it's certainly wasn't budget friendly. Thankfully, that was only 6 month lease and once finished, Luke and I found a place in Burnsville.

Back to the bowls. My brother normally eats his cereal out of mixing bowls. He has a gigantic appetite and this insane metabolism that allows him to consume at will. As he's now 29, I don't know that it will ever slow down. In addition to consuming cereal in this fashion, he'll also eat ice cream this way. In my family, my mother makes this very delicious chocolate sauce for ice cream and she does this at every family event. She announces it like it is special, even though we all have come to expect it. Matt's technique with ice cream and the sauce is to generously pour sauce over the ice cream and then to whip and stir it until the ice cream is a smooth light brown color, evenly distributing the chocolate. He never fails to do this.

Matt's closet is 90% empty and still, outside of his bedroom there are two laundry baskets, his school bag, his bike rack and some other small basket or hamper. His room is remarkably messy and chances are his sheets are mangled on his bed. Somehow, he is a sleeper who wrenches sheets from a bed. For 5 months, a comforter I bought him for his birthday remained in it's sterile plastic packaging while he tried to fit in 6'2 frame under a single throw blanket. For the whole of his life, Matt has bounced his head to put himself to sleep. Once, when I was feeling rather evil and approximately 10 years old in age, I put my fist below his head while he was doing this. Not nice. As he aged, he switched to a single leg kicking the bed (him laying on his stomach). Something about the rhythm of the movement puts him to sleep.

Matt is the third child in our family. He is the only biological child. Chris and I were adopted first because my parents didn't think they could conceive and then, MAGIC, here comes Matt:) We all look very different from one another and my Mom's line has always been, "Don't my kids have an excellent family resemblance". At this point, we all roll our eyes with one another. Since last week afforded my mother a new crowd to work this line on- at Chris' wedding- there was a healthy amount of rolling of the eyes.

Alright... must end this for now. Must get ready for the school day. So, by the end of today, people should have posted the equivalent to 3-4 days of memoir writing or I think I said something like 700 words?? Right?

Question of the day: What kind and good thing will you do for the world and for yourself this weekend and what motivates that choice?

Back to School...err, Valleyfair

Well, I'm nearly back. After a wonderfully exhausting and busy weekend, capped off by a relaxing birthday and trip to the dentist, I have returned to Creative Arts for the final stretch. Yesterday, Caleb sent me a text to ask if I would sign student's forms today and I said yes, but then I realized that many students are NOT passing their English class with me. Sigh. And that filled my body with dread. For example, in this class, some students have gone a full week without posting anything- zilch, zippo, nothing. Not a response to a daily question, not the first memoir entry, not any of the Wikipedia work assigned last week and in some cases, no Flickr work at all. I am aghast, dismayed and sad for those students. To those students who actively choose not to work: I am worried for you. For those who are under duress or experiencing difficult times, I am hear to listen to help. For anyone in between, a conversation is absolutely necessary if you haven't been blogging. Today is day two of memoir writing. For those who remain at school, may it be fruitful and productive.

There are three blogs to read for today. Here is a pic from my weekend at my brother's wedding. Quinn is dapper in his tux! The wedding was outdoors at Weddings of Wayzata and was a lovely affair! For more wedding pics, you can check out my flickr account

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beckyteaches/

See you tomorrow! Don't forget your Valleyfair money!

Oh, and tomorrow at midnight is the last moment I will accept Flickr projects.

Tuesday's Question of the Day

Who in your life who has passed away is most memorable or meaningful to you?

For me, it's a package deal. I miss having grandparents. While one grandmother remains alive, her dementia is so severe that the woman I recall from growing up is lost. I remember griping about my grandparents as a teen because they were behind the times and not culturally competent, but nowadays I see them with a softer lens. Was it my grandfather's job to see the world the way I did? Nope. But he did his best to be loving, a wonderful husband and a great father to my mother. Both sets of my grandparents were shaped by the depression and were meticulous savers. On my mom's side, they pre-paid for their funerals and bought their way into an assisted living home so they would never be a "burden" to my mother and uncle. I admire them for their strength, love and well-planned life. Now, why do you think those traits didn't make it to my Mom? (Insert smile).

In Memorial- This week's task!

How fitting that the day after Memorial Day when we take time to think about the lives lost and sacrificed for our country that we also begin to compose selections for our personal memoirs. First, a bit of clarification. A biography or autobiography means to tell the whole of a person's life from beginning to end, or as much as the author knows. In a memoir, the author has the discretion to write about certain segments or moments in one's life, as opposed to the whole. For example, Augusten Burroughs, "Running With Scissors" is a memoir based on his childhood and adolescence. Susanna Kaysen writes in "Girl Interrupted" about her time in a mental institution. Furthermore, in memoir writing, there's an element of storytelling and description that- to my way of thinking- makes the writing more vivid and fiction-like.

Assignment- Compose a series of memoir moments (or one of greater length) that invite readers into your world. Your goal is to compose somewhere between 600-750 words.

Here's a sampling of what I might write:
"My brother's and I sat perched on the couch, while my Dad took his customary spot on "his" chair, a textured brown creation with a foot stool. The fabric on the chair was far from soft and I would never sit on it if I had shorts on, or back in that part of my life, a nightgown, Still, the gruff chair matched my father's personality to a T. While my father assumed his position of power in his chair, my mother sat on the stair that led from the dining room to the family room. Our rambler style home featured the bowling alley look that contained in one long space, a kitchen, the dining room and the family room. Separating the dining room from the family room was a hideous and enormous macrame hanging my Pop's had made and the lone stair my mother sat upon. The conversation began with my father's voice, but instinctively, my brother's and I looked to my mother for clarification and a more soothing voice. Surely, this irked our father, but our response to his voice was the result of too many scoldings and his irrational anger. My mother explain in calm tones that she and my father were separating and that it was only for a trial 6 months. At what point in a child's life do they begin to distinguish between truth and lies? For how long do we avoid having that critical thinking process so we can maintain our ignorance and innocence?

I knew that 6 months would turn into years, just as I knew the timing of this announcement- the day before my 10th birthday- was poor timing for such an announcement. There were no tears during the announcement or at least none that I can recall. It may be because even Matt, the youngest of us all at just 6, had already asked my mom over lunch one day when Mom and Dad were going to get a divorce. Years later, Matt's instinct would be right on about yet another major announcement from our father. The only words I managed to ask my parents as they described my father moving out and how we'd still see him (another lie) were, "Who is going to take what car?". Why I decided to be practical and pragmatic in that moment, I will never know. Perhaps I just needed to know what was "ours" and what was his because I certainly didn't feel like "his", at least not in the way that I saw my friends with their Dad's.

OK- So, there's what you want to do. I'm doing my best to get in the moment, but I'm also allowing for some present-day reflection. I'm being as detailed as possible about environment because it adds that element of, "she's an expert on her life". You may find that as you write, your first inspiration will take you far. Other times you will find that a different moment is better material for this kind of writing. Experiment, play and have fun!

Expenses

So the wedding weekend is over and I am feeling like myself again. Well, sort of. Right now I have a headache that is sitting at the back of my head vexing my severely. It's a really localized pain so it makes me feel like it shouldn't bother me so much, but it does. As I type, I mentally wince because my manicured nails are slowly being chipped away. My up-do is gone forever and all I have to show for it are a bunch of bobby pins left over. My checking account is also much smaller since the weekend included a plethora of costs. To be clear, I don't mind spending money on an occasion like my brother's wedding. What I find astonishing, is how much some people make in their respective positions. For example, the stylist who curled and sprayed by hair, earned $75 plus tip for something that took her less than an hour. That's one incredible wage. For Tuesday's blogging, I'd like you to select a series of professions and write down what you think they should make. Be playful and have fun with it.

Cool.

Question of the Day

What is the best and worst thing about summer coming?

Best: lilacs
Worst: mosquitos

I'd write more, but Quinn is calling. More in the am.

Ok, I'm back.
I love the smell of lilacs in the spring. Normally, I don't like perfumes and dislike most scented products because they smell more like the chemicals that produced them than the real thing. Lilacs in the early part of summer are exquisite though and make beautiful tree/bushes. Another thing I like about summer is that it makes it "logical" to eat ice cream everyday. Mmm.

I am allergic to mosquitos and when I get one bite, it's like a weird shot of adrenaline through my body that makes me anxious and itchy. They swell up and last for a week. Ick. If or when Quinn participates in outdoor sports, I'll be the Mom wearing a mosquito net because I despise the bugs so much. Currently, another icky aspect to summer is that I need a job because Luke was laid off and all I really want to do is take classes on teaching and play with Quinn. Note: I did not say my masters paper even though I absolutely need to do that.

Hello, hello

So I know I've been crazy busy with the show and now I'm off on a mini-vacation for my brother's wedding this weekend BUT, I want you to know that I'm doing my best to read your posts and stay in the loop. When I go a few days without reading or writing, it's always so addicting to get back to the computer and type. I love the zeal of fingers moving swiftly across the keyboard. It's pretty darn sweet. Learning to type well has been a god-send as a writer. And yet, for me, writing on a computer makes me a little bit of a compulsive editor. With blogging though, everything is time stamped and so I know that what I write is only a snap shot of who I am and how I feel, just as what you post is a moment to moment kind of reality. Or sometimes not. Sometimes you all eloquently and achingly write of the ebbs and flows in your life and how that pain, strife and joy moves and confuses you. I feel remarkably blessed to be on the receiving end of such marvelous composition and I hope that I honor your words with thoughtful responses.

Today is your last day of the Wiki project. My intent with this work was for each of you to explore your own store of knowledge. For example, the other day, a student posted something about a musician, I think, and the connectedness between that artist and others and the dynamics within the whole music genre. Gracious. That's a whole lot of very cool knowledge that was layered and expert and I knew none of what she was talking about. That's the thing... sometimes we are simply brilliant in ways that we don't realize or recognize. All of you have wisdom and strength beyond belief. When adding to the Wiki, consider how your voice should always be a part of important dialogues- if and when you choose to engage. Your voice is powerful and smart, educated and learning. Do not be afraid to talk with people about any number of topics and to teach any number of topics.

As we close out the term, I would like us to do a couple different thing. One, to compose some memoir passage that draw from specific recollections from our life. I would also like you to choose a creative writing venture, whether it be to write a short story, a series of poems, a play or more. On Tuesday, look for my first prompt that will be a memoir sample. Then, think hard and write spontaneously about your life:) My son is calling. I know this Wikipedia project is complex and got a late start because of the accounts being blocked by school but I fully trust that you have knowledge seeping from your brain that can contribute to the way others think, believe and act.

I'll be back Wednesday, which is Valleyfair Day, but checking in on the blog. The rehearsal dinner and such is tomorrow and then the wedding Saturday. There's a post wedding brunch on Sunday, but then I'll be chilling:) My birthday is Tuesday so I'm going to hang with the family-- and take Quinn to the dentist. I'll miss you, but I know my words are always with you!

Pretties, Uglies and Specials

I just finished the young adult novel Specials and before that, I read the two other books in the series- Pretties and Uglies. When I started the series, I thought for sure that they were going to be tired and lame, but it turns out that I was totally sucked in. Though I didn't necessarily love the ending to the series, I think it did a good job of creating some critical thinking in readers, while dishing out plenty of adventure, some romance and introduction to the utopia/dystopia genre. I would recommend them for summer reading.

I have a head ache tonight. I think while correcting some papers I had my neck at a funny angle and now my head aches. Bleh. Anyways, I wanted to tell you about the books in case you're planning ahead for beach reads:)

Keep reading. There's a bunch of posts for today.

A Life in Progress

I know I've talked about this before on the blog, this notion of always being in progress, but this week seems so ideal to revisit it. This is the third year that I've done the dinner theater. The first year was pure chaos- delightful and funny- but marvelous and wild. The second was much the same- hilarious, stressful, wonderful stress and hard work. This year, I did all I could to create a system that helped to lighten the load for everyone. We started writing the script way earlier, had a script done weeks before the show and I added a tech class to help with some of the many things that need to get done. In the past, the light or sound person was the student who wasn't going to memorize lines and so they may not have been reliable and I had to cobble together people to move the set at the last minute. This was the most organized I have ever been and still there are things that need to be done and MUCH work to accomplish. Do I feel stressed? Yes. Do I also feel really amazed by what we have accomplished this year? Yes. The students have done incredibly well, responding to the challenge of this show more maturely and beautifully than ever before. I celebrate all of that and at the same time, look to the future for what I can do better. With that said, part of designing a schedule that would work, involved creating courses I could teach that allowed me to place special time on the show. Thank you for being in this interactive course that allows me to have a voice, give you loads of feedback, teach you some cool stuff and also gives me space to be in more than one place at a time. I thank you for your patience and your investment in this class. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Wiki Help

Hello, hello,

So yesterday/today we ran into some Wiki problems. Wikipedia seems to have been "attacked" by our school's IP address so thank you for your patience while I brainstormed ways to circumvent their system. I was onto something terrific when I started making accounts for everyone last night/right now from my home computer but I ran into a glitch when I hit my "maximum" number of accounts. So, most of you have accounts you can now access and I can give you both your login and password- both of my creation. David and Sidney, your names were on the bottom of my list for no particular reason and you are without accounts- for now. Once the 24 hour window is up, I will create two more new accounts. For now, work on make-up work and plan what you will add to the Wiki pages once you get to them. You can even go to Wikipedia and so all the legwork. You'll just have to wait to add your own two cents.

Have loved the Flickr inspiration photostreams. If you haven't finished, get to it!

Anxiety & Wiki's

I have issues with anxiety. Have I mentioned this before? The anxiety attacks started back at my first teaching job. I was teaching full-time, advising 4 groups after school and commuting to Iowa to maintain my relationship with Quinn's Dad, Luke. I had a lot on my plate and I have always maintained the highest expectations or hopes for myself. I've nearly always felt I had something to prove. So, it all started getting to me and Sunday nights I could hardly get to sleep, even though I had to get up around 5:30 to get ready to get to school by 6:45. Gracious. It's weird to think back about those days.

Nowadays, I regulate things better and so my best not to overload myself nearly so often, except, for weeks like this. With the dinner theater this week, there are hundreds of details to achieve. Not only that, but I will be gone this Friday and next Tuesday for my brother's wedding and birthday and I need to get Valleyfair squared away before I go-- and leave lesson plans for the nice fellow who will be here in my stead. Whew! That's quite a bit to do!

Now, to this week of work. I would like you to experiment with Wikipedia. For a long time, I had personal misgivings about Wikipedia and assumed that knowledge created by thousands of people had to be unreliable and yet, the more I investigated Wikipedia, the more I came to respect what it is. Many mechanisms are in place to triple check Wikipedia and it evolves faster than your typical encyclopedia, which means it is always current.

What to do?
First, I want you all to find out what WIKI means. Then, I want you to register with Wikipedia. You are going to add to the store of information that Wikipedia houses with your own knowledge and expertise. From the following categories, you are going to select a topic or idea, person or place, to research on Wikipedia and then, after submitting to me a short summary of what you found, I want you to ADD something to that page.

Here are the categories for each day of the week. You need to summarize and add to one page per day.

Monday- Something or someone you admired from your childhood
Tuesday- A career path or subject you want to pursue professionally
Wednesday- Some kind of spirituality, school of thought or religion that has influenced your thinking
Thursday- A beloved author, musician or artist
Friday- Your choice

Each day you will submit to me a summary of the page that currently exists and also note what you added and why. I will check the Wiki pages to confirm your work. Note: plagiarism means recounting information given to you by others without crediting their work. Be mindful of re-wording and crediting Wiki.

Remember: you have two flickr projects that- for some- are still not complete. Be sure this work is done SOON!

Imitation is the Sweetest

My son has a cabbage patch doll that Luke's grandmother bought him. For a long time, "Xavier" as his butt tattoo names him, just sat around the closet unused. Nowadays, Quinn takes very good care of him. He kisses his head sweetly and is often putting little Xavier to bed. For a while now, Quinn has pretended that one of his diaper packs was Xavier's bed. It brought Quinn to tears when I had to tear that sucker open to get a fresh diaper for him:) Last night, Quinn and I went to Target to get more diapers and also to get a baby bed. Happily, the baby bed was only $10 (the diapers $20). Quinn immediately put a stuffed animal that he refers to as the baby pillow in the bed and then got a blanket to cover his baby. Then, he wanted me to lay down and go to bed. He instructed me to lay on the couch. Then, he came over to me and I thought he was going to give me a kiss on the lips. Instead, his hand gently caressed my forehead and he leaned over and gave me a kiss there. Then, he patted my shoulder and told me "night, night".

There are many things that I am going to screw up as a parent and the moment I hear condescension mixed with pedantic sarcasm out of his mouth, I'll know Quinn has been taking active notes, but in that dear moment last night, I knew that I was also modeling love and tenderness and that my son may pass that on. Did I tell you the other cool thing related to this? Luke and I got an anonymous note from one of our neighbors that said they had watched us from their upstairs window playing baseball and that we clapped and cheered equally for when Quinn hit the ball and when he tried his best. Pretty cool.

I used to say that the people I chose to be my friends, at their very core, would parent in a way that I respect. So, for example, if I had a new friend and I thought to myself, "Wow. I would not let me kids play with their kids" it created a sort of reality for me about my perception of this new friend. What are the essential things we model and teach others? How does that speak to our core selves? Intriguing questions. Curious to hear your thoughts on all this. What is the greatest thing your parents taught you- consciously or not?

What a day!

Today was a madhouse of meetings! I was in one meeting in the morning for nearly 2 hours and then an emergency of sorts took place and I had to speak with someone from the district office. From there, I had lunch. Then, I had another meeting during 4th hour. Gracious!

So, I am very sorry dear bloggers and students for being so absent. You ARE my priority. Unfortunately, meeting your needs sometimes means stepping outside of the classroom to better attend to your learning needs. Wild, eh?

One of the fantastic things about this school is that I have the wickedly cool opportunity to get to know students really well. At the same time, I sometimes feel like we are short on adults in the building to really attend to all of our student's mental, chemical, health and academic needs. Do you agree? I do my best to help where I can but I often feel pulled in different directions. Do you agree? How are you affected by our school's staffing? Is it just right?

How are you all? Ready for prom. For extra credit today, write a short story about prom:)

VExing

I was up really early this morning perseverating over details of the the dinner theater. Even though this is the most prepared we've ever been, I'm still stressing like crazy over the show. For someone who has never been in a show herself, I sure have enough stage fright for the cast as a whole. The thing is, the thing that was really stressing me out is that I need/want to share my opinion with some students about their work and I'm worried it will be discouraging or will fail to express how much I appreciate them-- but need them to maybe consider doing something over. Uggh. After ten years in a classroom, I trust my voice and my ability to express myself pretty clearly-- or kindly. But, there are times when my inner candor and honesty wants to eeek out and that voice isn't as gentle or censored. When I was a teen, I had quite the wicked voice and temper and could be downright mean to my family. It's taken my many years to trap that "animal" inside, but occasionally, flavors of that precise but possibly painful honesty ache to emerge. What to do?

On a regular basis, people tell me that they don't have homework or some other similarly disappointing statement and then they couch that remark with, "Well, at least I'm being honest". I don't know that honesty excuses poor behavior. I also don't know if honesty is always the best policy.... Do I want you to plagiarize? No. Do I want you to walk down the hall critiquing everyone's outfit? Also no. What is the best plan? And, how equipped are young people to hearing critique and feedback? How do you hear feedback differently from friends, family or teachers? Where did you learn your response to constructive criticism or compliments, for that matter?

Inspiration

Well, the Flickr projects that have come in are wonderful! I love the pictures people found and also how their infused their interests into their trips. Excellent! If you haven't finished this project, please do so ASAP! If you want to see some people's work, check out Twiggy's and David's blogs.

Looking at their work, I would like you to create a second folder or batch in your Flickr account. For this small task, I would like you to assemble a series of pictures that serve as your artistic inspiration and that motivate your work forward. What artists inspire you? What images or pieces are underpinnings of your art? Please include narration and a defense of your choices, as relates to your art. For some of you who are poets and writers, you do not need to include photos if you so choose. Instead, you can choose to include written works that move you.

Please complete this for Monday:) Excellent!

It's not a diet, it's a healthy way to live

For the past month, I've been on Weight Watchers. Gracious. It all started back in March when I had to take my measurements for a bridesmaid dress for my brother's wedding. My sister-in-law to be told me to go to David's Bridal or some shop to get my measurements taken. Since I wasn't going to actually purchase anything at the store, I didn't feel comfortable asking them a favor. So, I went on-line and figured out roughly where to measure. I called the shop that had the dresses the bride (Sheryl) had ordered, and they have me my size... at the bust line it was 8, at the waist, a 20, and at the butt, 4. How odd. After a number of phone calls and re-measurement, I ordered a size 10 dress instead of 20. Then, that wouldn't zip up when it came in and so I ended up in a 14 that was taken in a bit. In an attempt to fit into my dress, I've been using the online weight watchers. At first, it was alright and I liked entering my food each day. It gave me a task, something to monitor and control. Nowaadays, I would just like to eat what I want when I want--- without the guilt. Unfortunately, the guilt is a given now that I know how much I should actually eat each day, as opposed to what I usually consumed. What's the message to this rant or point? How do you feel about body image in our culture? How has weight impacted your life or thinking? How important to you is size?

I know that the majority of you are still completing your flickr project. Please comment to this message and let me know when you will be complete. I will extend the deadline only for people who will deliver excellent projects. Otherwise, your next task is before you!

Conferences and Slick Nails

I love typing with freshly trimmed and filed nails. I can type with such new efficiency. I love it. What grooming that you do makes you feel totally awesome? The funny thing is, I used to be long nail girl. My nails have always grown fast and are hard to boot so it was my thing, but nowadays it's just one more thing to maintain- or not.

Tonight are conferences and I'm excited to visit with parents, especially now that I have an online gradebook. It's funny. I usually have notes all over my red gradebook but it's barely used this term because I'm popping grades right into the computer and not bothering with doing things twice. Let's hope there's no meltdown at engrade.com. Next year our school will be on Campus so that will be righteously sweet.

Prom is this week and Asha is my date. Hoa Bien is one of her favorite restaurants and I enjoy it too so it should be a fun night. Funny friendship memory: I don't know how old we were but Asha, our friend Jenny and I decided we had some "notes" to burn. How romantic and silly to burn them over a coffee can fire, but that's what we did. While we watched them burn? We tried to smoke some of Asha's father's stolen Marlboro Reds. Uggh. To this day, that's not a cigarette I've ever smoked socially and I was a casual smoker for some years. Strangely enough, this wasn't my first cigarette experience, but that is for another day. What's an interesting "first" story in your life?

Read the blog below for more class specifics and notes about your Flickr project. Have a terrific day!

Oh, and feeling like you need to advance your grade? I'm a huge supporter of Freerice.com, a link on my blog. For every 500 grains of rice you can make up an absence and I can also award you some extra credit. Be sure to print out the page that verifies your achievement and donation to the UN World Food Bank. Awesome.

Hello 5/12

Hello dear bloggers,

My apologies for not posting yesterday. It was such a hectic weekend and I simply didn't have the mental ummphh to write. With that said, I'll give each of you on one of the daily questions you are expected to answer. Sounds like a fair trade, eh?

So, how was every one's Mother's Day celebrations? It was once busy weekend for me, but much was spent honoring the generation before me. I suppose that is as it should be since I'm a relatively new Mom. Still, a little down time would have been swell. In a month, we'll all have a little down time and that will make us pretty chipper:)

I'm so excited to see how everyone is doing on their Flickr projects. Yesterday I showed some students how to add in-picture notes and annotations so please ask if you don't know how. The narration or note that runs below the picture is really self-explanatory, but the notes are somewhat less obvious. I would like you to complete this project by the end of the day. Please see me if you will need a deadline and be ready to justify that extension.

Conferences are tonight and I hope to see you all! I have progress reports printed out so take some time this hour and meet with me to discuss your grade.

Cool.

Friday, 5/8

Hmm....

I hope that all is going swimmingly well with your projects and that you are energetically assembling your trip! For some of you, that trip might become a reality if you sign up for Rich's trip next spring.

I didn't see many daily response posts yesterday. Please remember that conferences are literally around the corner and that mid-terms are mailed Wednesday morning. Please also remember that your blog should include at least 2-3 misc. posts per week that can be about anything and everything.

Have a wonderful weekend and I hope you're donating some blood today at the blood drive!

Morning Writers 5/7

Quote from last night with Quinn.

"Hey Quinn, what are you doing?

"Scratching my butt, Mommy."

Nice. It was true, he was. More and more, my son is talkative and expressive with his words and I love that, but I also need to be aware of all that I say and how I say it all. My inflections, tone and attitude are all things he has observed from Day 1. Will he grow up talking like a teacher?

I digress. Mother's Day is right around the corner. What have all of you planned for the significant women in your life? You know it doesn't have to be a gift. It could be art, a letter, a homemade breakfast, or even time with you. What are your plans?

So, the more I work through this Travel Project in my head, the more exciting it gets. Yesterday I was thinking about how you could post photos and images of traditional clothing in the country, food you might eat, gifts you might purchase and more. I don't think the 15-20 photos I originally thought of will be nearly enough! Also, someone in class yesterday was creating images to post and I thought that was fabulous! Let the pictures tell your story as creatively as possible. If you know how to use Photoshop, by all means, put yourself in front of the Taj Majal. Or, if you've seen Amelie you know about the gnome that is in all of the photos. You could do something like that. I'm so excited to see what people come up with!

Last but not least, conferences are Tuesday. Please be sure that you have all your ducks in a row with work done prior to this project by Friday-- if not before. One of the great things about blogging and technology is that you can always post, expending the same amount of energy writing an assignment today as any other day and you don't have to go and search for the assignment from me-- you can just scroll down my posts!

I hear Quinn stirring upstairs. See you in class!

Sleepless Night

For whatever reason, last night was restless and without much sleep. I always know that when I sleep less, I will dream more, like my body knows it needs to go into deep sleep with the little time it has. Last time- in my dreams- I managed to push a bear down a flight of steps and that bear crushed some live chickens. How upsetting and strange!

So, today I have some of that make-up on I mentioned and no joke, at least 8 people have said something to me about it. Surreal. Being noticed is awfully uncomfortable for me, at least when it comes to my physical appearance. Rave to me about my parenting or poetry because those are things I have some say over-- but my face, goodness, that wasn't my choice:)

I digress. If you haven't already, please post or comment to me about your destination choice. I am so excited about this project! I can't wait to see what you mind and discover and how you choose to narrate those visuals. Another note about the in-photo notes: say that you're visiting a temple or famous site. The photo you choose may need additional detail and so the in-photo picture allows me to roll my mouse over the picture and glean additional details.

As your project grows, please send me or post your flickr account so I can check it out.

Question of the day: What do you dream about? How do you interpret those dreams? Or, how do you tackle insomnia and sleepless nights? I ended up getting up and finishing a book:) but I'll pay for that later today when all I want is a nap.

Have a terrific day!

Our next project

Good morning.

Note: a blog precedes this that you should read and respond to.

Ok, so the next endeavor I have for you is part research, part photography and part the manipulation of a popular online photo tool.

Step 1: Go to 43places.com and embark on a journey into places in this world that you would like to visit and travel to.

Step 2: Decide on a destination that you must see/visit in your lifetime.

Step 3: Research that place extensively, finding hot spots, little known about beautiful places and more.

Step 4: Plan a trip. Where will you stay? How long? What will you visit? It should be realistically planned, meaning you can't be on one end of the country one day and the other side the next.

Step 5: Locate photos and images of all the places you will stay at or view during your glorious vacation. Please make sure your trip is at least 10 days in length.

Step 6: Upload those images to Flickr.com in the sequence you will travel. For each photo, please add notes and descriptions to the image. Notes work two ways and I'd like you to use both of them. One way is to create a description or caption that sits below the picture. The other way to add notes is to highlight a section of the image so that when a mouse travels over that spot, a question or writing appears for viewers. You can see this on my Flickr site at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beckyteaches/

If you go to the Labels and Critical Thinking Batch/Group (includes a juice box, etc.) you can roll your mouse over my images and see how the notes work.

For a 10 day stay on your trip, I would like you to include 15-20 images (or more!). The writing that accompanies your images should be descriptive and detailed enough so that I understand the history of the spots you are visiting or the importance of those sites. So, for example, if I choose to tour Korea, all of the images I provide for you need to be narrated well enough so that it makes sense that I'm going there. Should you just include images of tourist spots? Nope. It can be the truly cool hotel you would stay, the beach you would walk along or restaurants you would try.

When is this due? Tuesday, May 12th. Worth: 75 points!

Make-Up

Last night I went to the MAC counter at Rosedale with my sister-in-law to be. We were getting our make-up done as a preview (or potential one) for the wedding on 5/23. All of the preparation for the event is a little bit surreal. This is my brother Chris' wedding. He was married maybe 5 or 6 years ago. His first wife was named Beth (still is, I suppose). For the first wedding, I was asked to be a bridesmaid but after a wicked fight with my brother I was kicked out the wedding and ceremoniously told not to attend the event. My mother intervened and I was allowed to attend, but I wasn't in the wedding party as planned. Now, years later, here I am again on the brink of wearing a bright pink strapless gown and I'm thoughtful about it all.

For instance, Luke and I have been together for 11 some years. We've never had a wedding or gotten married. Of course, it's been on the table, tabled and the like. We've never been a financially well-to- do couple and so the wedding always seemed like a major investment for us to attempt. Luke proposed once while we were snuggling, but it turns out I said "yes" in my sleep. We laughed about it and then went on with our lives. We also believe that all people should be able to be legally married and we don't necessarily want to be a party to something that only the "privileged" can access.

So, with all of my thoughts about marriage and being raised by a single mother, staring at my made-up face last night was a little surreal. I want my brother to be happy, I do. Do I think he and his wife to be are meant for ever after? I don't know. Who knows? what a random post. I meant to write about the phenomenon of make-up and why only women are encouraged to cover up what we look like. Strange. I ended up musing about marriage.

Take your pick. Write about your thoughts and beliefs about marriage OR the giant mega-industry that is make-up. I mean seriously, I look VERY different with make-up on and it's unsettling, but my mind or trained conscience says, "Oh, you look pretty" but then I think, why is THIS look pretty, when it isn't really me? Wild.

Achilles Heel

What is an achilles heel, you ask? From Wikipedia:

An Achilles’ heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength, actually or potentially leading to downfall. While the mythological origin refers to a physical vulnerability, metaphorical references to other attributes or qualities that can lead to their downfall are common.


My entry below refers to my Achilles heel.

Do you ever feel...

Like you just can't do something? And it turns out that the truth is that you just don't want to? Or, that you fear you will fail and so you use anything and everything to avoid trying at 100%?

In 2001, I started my graduate work at Hamline University. I enjoyed my coursework and liked meeting new educators who I could learn from and socialize with. In order to earn my master's degree I needed (and still need) to finish a capstone- Hamline's work for the master's thesis/paper. For years, I have procrastinated and tried, avoided and tried again and here I am, AGAIN, working on it so that I can FINALLY finish it and here I sit at my friend's house, trying to write without the added interference of Quinn wanting my attention... and I don't want to do it. I've not planned or researched as well as I should have and I hate writing bogus stuff. I don't want other people to have to read my crappy paper, but I also don't want to have a crappy paper. The thing is-- to write a superb paper means taking oodles of time to do so and I neither have the time nor want to give the time to this purpose. Uggh. So, I'm overeating and seriously wanting a nap. Terrific. My capstone is my achille's heal, the giant thing hanging over me that I need and want to achieve, but feel nearly incapable of doing.

What is your achille's heel? How can you help me to complete my paper? Help!