While I do not have a strict goal like last year, I've decided to keep up with keeping a list of the books I read just for good measure.
1. Ham on Rye by Bukowski
2.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Monday, May 23, 2011
Everything in Moderation
Cook Cook Cook...
Life has been terribly busy lately, and I haven't been cooking very much. But the few things that I have had time to cook lately have been rather adventurous!
Zach and I rarely eat shrimp... I used to make a very rich (and delicious) shrimp pasta that was full of butter, oil and garlic. Now I have made a revamped version of this dish...
Oooohh.... Israeli Cous Cous with shrimp, mushrooms and grape tomatoes. No butter, No oil. Unbelievably good, less than 350 calories per serving. BOOYA!
Instead of using any butter or oil I sauteed the shrimp and mushrooms in Butter flavored PAM spray. I added lots of garlic powder, salt, and pepper for flavor, and a good chunk of low fat grated Parmesan cheese. yum yum yum.
On the other end of the healthy spectrum we have: party food. Some friends of ours had quite the big hurray a few weekends ago as their last party in their fratty apartment. I, per usual, was not planning on showing up to this even empty handed. So Zach and I showed up, with beer and snacks in tow! I made... drum roll.... home made SOFT PRETZELS. Oh my goodness. How amazing. They were just so delicious. Slightly difficult to make- but absolutely scrumptious and extremely cheap!! Some of the pretzels were a little on the ugly side- the old ladies at
Auntie Ann's make making that signature pretzel shape look far more easy than it is! These were not low calorie- low fat - low carb or low anything- just a wonderful party snack. I most certainly plan to make these again!
Let me know if you want recipes!
Life has been terribly busy lately, and I haven't been cooking very much. But the few things that I have had time to cook lately have been rather adventurous!
Zach and I rarely eat shrimp... I used to make a very rich (and delicious) shrimp pasta that was full of butter, oil and garlic. Now I have made a revamped version of this dish...
Oooohh.... Israeli Cous Cous with shrimp, mushrooms and grape tomatoes. No butter, No oil. Unbelievably good, less than 350 calories per serving. BOOYA!
Instead of using any butter or oil I sauteed the shrimp and mushrooms in Butter flavored PAM spray. I added lots of garlic powder, salt, and pepper for flavor, and a good chunk of low fat grated Parmesan cheese. yum yum yum.
On the other end of the healthy spectrum we have: party food. Some friends of ours had quite the big hurray a few weekends ago as their last party in their fratty apartment. I, per usual, was not planning on showing up to this even empty handed. So Zach and I showed up, with beer and snacks in tow! I made... drum roll.... home made SOFT PRETZELS. Oh my goodness. How amazing. They were just so delicious. Slightly difficult to make- but absolutely scrumptious and extremely cheap!! Some of the pretzels were a little on the ugly side- the old ladies at
Auntie Ann's make making that signature pretzel shape look far more easy than it is! These were not low calorie- low fat - low carb or low anything- just a wonderful party snack. I most certainly plan to make these again! Let me know if you want recipes!
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
There once was a little pup named MURPHY!
WE GOT A DOG, WE GOT A DOG, PRAISE THE LORD, WE GOT A DOG.
After years of pinning at every little pooch we see dolled up in designer sweaters with matching booties being pranced around the city, Zach and I are finally proud DOG OWNERS!
Oh what an adventure it has been!
The process started a few months ago when I (in a moment of extreme wanting) googled "dog adoption" and came across adoptapet.com. The website is kind of like a facebook for pets that need adoption, including a picture and short description. I looked through profiles for weeks, even sending initial emails on some, but not following through. Until the week after my birthday, when we came across a very special little pup. The description was for a small beagle-chihuahua mix 12 week old puppy currently in foster care in Tennessee. He already had his shots, but wasn't big enough to be fixed yet and had the cutest little face! Zach and I acted fast! We filled out an online application and a few days later had a phone interview with someone from the company and with the little pup's foster mom. After a few questions and a quick paypal transaction we were the proud owners of a little dog! The next issue was getting him to us.
The adoption agency uses a pet delivery service (how funnny is that!) that would bring us our little puppy from Tennessee to a town about an hour outside of the city on the last friday of April. But since they were driving the entire way and making other stops, he wouldn't be getting in until about 1 or 2 AM Friday night. What a conundrum! We decided to rent a car for the night, go out to dinner (and drive 2 hours to the nearest walmart ) before driving up to the pup deliver location.
Around 11:30 pm we received a call saying that the van o' pups was about 2 hours away from the delivery point, so we headed out! We were to meet the van in EAST parking lot of Exit 14 off some highway a little over an hour north of the city. We drove up there, we got off of the exit saw the NORTH parking lot, the WEST parking lot and the SOUTH parking lot- but the EAST parking lot was no where to be found! Zach and I drove around for a little thinking that we were crazy in our attempts to find the missing lot- but to no avail. We finally chose one of the other lots to wait in. We waited and waited inspecting every car that drove past. Finally, at about 1:30 AM on April 30th 2011, a large, white van drove into the parking lot and pulled up next to us. We got out of the car and walked over. A large woman asked us what dog was ours while a scruffy man went in to the back of the truck then opened the side door and produced a small dog. The woman handed us a manilla envelope with some papers in it and told us to have a good night. We walked away, pup in hand, and got into our car as the big white van disappeared into the night. Although this interaction was the closest thing that Zach or I had ever experienced to a late night drug buy, we left he parking lot with a little puppy all of own! This is the first picture we have of him. He looks so small and scared with his ears back!
The past two weeks have been full of many adorable moments, a lot a little accidents, attempting to get him to walk on a leash, a few visits the the vet, a first visit to a dog park, a lot of snuggles, a little barking, one shower (murphy did not like that) and a lot of fun. One of our first discoveries was that he is definitely not part chihuahua. We, and the vet, think that he is some sort of beagle -lab mix. Right now he is 17 weeks old and weighs about 18 lbs. Originally we thought he was going to be about 20-25 lbs fully grown but it's actually going to be closer to 50 lbs! So no little annoying yappy citty dog for us, we have ourselves a full sized pup! Although this limits up with regards to travel (can't have a 50lb dog on the subway or train!) we are still so excited to have him!
Zach has been working very hard to train the little guy, he's pretty good with sit already! And we start puppy classes tomorrow! He is still a little shy when we are at the park, but he is much more comfortable with us and is showing us his personality! Here are some wonderful pictures of our little pup:
Look at that smirk!
Murph is a nap connoisseur...
He also enjoys lounging on the couch.
Murph is already an excellent fetcher. Particularly with Mr. Squirrel, or Mr. Beaver.
Look at those eyes...
After years of pinning at every little pooch we see dolled up in designer sweaters with matching booties being pranced around the city, Zach and I are finally proud DOG OWNERS!
Oh what an adventure it has been!
The process started a few months ago when I (in a moment of extreme wanting) googled "dog adoption" and came across adoptapet.com. The website is kind of like a facebook for pets that need adoption, including a picture and short description. I looked through profiles for weeks, even sending initial emails on some, but not following through. Until the week after my birthday, when we came across a very special little pup. The description was for a small beagle-chihuahua mix 12 week old puppy currently in foster care in Tennessee. He already had his shots, but wasn't big enough to be fixed yet and had the cutest little face! Zach and I acted fast! We filled out an online application and a few days later had a phone interview with someone from the company and with the little pup's foster mom. After a few questions and a quick paypal transaction we were the proud owners of a little dog! The next issue was getting him to us.
The adoption agency uses a pet delivery service (how funnny is that!) that would bring us our little puppy from Tennessee to a town about an hour outside of the city on the last friday of April. But since they were driving the entire way and making other stops, he wouldn't be getting in until about 1 or 2 AM Friday night. What a conundrum! We decided to rent a car for the night, go out to dinner (and drive 2 hours to the nearest walmart ) before driving up to the pup deliver location.
Around 11:30 pm we received a call saying that the van o' pups was about 2 hours away from the delivery point, so we headed out! We were to meet the van in EAST parking lot of Exit 14 off some highway a little over an hour north of the city. We drove up there, we got off of the exit saw the NORTH parking lot, the WEST parking lot and the SOUTH parking lot- but the EAST parking lot was no where to be found! Zach and I drove around for a little thinking that we were crazy in our attempts to find the missing lot- but to no avail. We finally chose one of the other lots to wait in. We waited and waited inspecting every car that drove past. Finally, at about 1:30 AM on April 30th 2011, a large, white van drove into the parking lot and pulled up next to us. We got out of the car and walked over. A large woman asked us what dog was ours while a scruffy man went in to the back of the truck then opened the side door and produced a small dog. The woman handed us a manilla envelope with some papers in it and told us to have a good night. We walked away, pup in hand, and got into our car as the big white van disappeared into the night. Although this interaction was the closest thing that Zach or I had ever experienced to a late night drug buy, we left he parking lot with a little puppy all of own! This is the first picture we have of him. He looks so small and scared with his ears back!
The past two weeks have been full of many adorable moments, a lot a little accidents, attempting to get him to walk on a leash, a few visits the the vet, a first visit to a dog park, a lot of snuggles, a little barking, one shower (murphy did not like that) and a lot of fun. One of our first discoveries was that he is definitely not part chihuahua. We, and the vet, think that he is some sort of beagle -lab mix. Right now he is 17 weeks old and weighs about 18 lbs. Originally we thought he was going to be about 20-25 lbs fully grown but it's actually going to be closer to 50 lbs! So no little annoying yappy citty dog for us, we have ourselves a full sized pup! Although this limits up with regards to travel (can't have a 50lb dog on the subway or train!) we are still so excited to have him!
Zach has been working very hard to train the little guy, he's pretty good with sit already! And we start puppy classes tomorrow! He is still a little shy when we are at the park, but he is much more comfortable with us and is showing us his personality! Here are some wonderful pictures of our little pup:
Look at that smirk! 
Murph is a nap connoisseur... 
He also enjoys lounging on the couch.
Murph is already an excellent fetcher. Particularly with Mr. Squirrel, or Mr. Beaver.
Look at those eyes...Sunday, May 1, 2011
2011 GOAL
This year I decided to make a real New Year's resolution: Read at least 50 books.
So far, I've been a reading machine! Here is a list of the books I've read so far and my rating out of 10. I'm rating on how much I personally enjoyed reading each book, not how well it was written or the content, just how much I liked it!
I DID IT! :)
So far, I've been a reading machine! Here is a list of the books I've read so far and my rating out of 10. I'm rating on how much I personally enjoyed reading each book, not how well it was written or the content, just how much I liked it!
- This is Where I Leave You. - 7
- Sarah - 8
- Politics - 3
- Pretty Little Mistakes - 3
- Ender's Game - 8
- The Sparrow - 9.5
- Kissing in Manhattan - 6
- An Invisible Sign for Me - 4
- Squirrel Seeking Chipmunk - 9
- Names my Sister's Call Me - 8
- Water for Elephants - 7.5
- Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest - 10
- The Imperfectionists - 6
- I am the Cheese - 7
- Stone Virgin - 7
- Choke - 7
- Walks with Men - 5
- A Father's Words - 7
- The Brightest Ring of Angels Around Heaven - 6
- True Colors - 9
- Something Borrowed - 9
- Her Fearful Symmetry - 7.5
- Cat's Cradle - 8
- The Things We do for Love - 6
- ZERO - 8
- Good In Bed - 9
- The Reliable Wife - 7
- Something Blue -8
- Not Another Bad Date - 8
- The Solitude of Prime Numbers - 8
- Commencement - 9
- Fire Fly Lane Girls - 9
- The Sunflower - 6
- In Her Shoes - 9
- Half Broke Horses - 8
- The Handmaidens Tale - 9
- Drinking Closer to Home - 9
- The Dive from Clausen's Pier-9
- The Empress of the World -7
- Bound -3
- My Meloncholy Whores - 5
- St Patrick's Day Murder-7
- My F-ing Birthday-7
- Ghost - 6
- Tabitha at Midnight-3
- Tell All-5
- The Cinderella Deal - 9
- P.S. Your Cat is Dead -8
- Rush - 9
- I'm Not Myself These Days - 7
I DID IT! :)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Spring is Here!
Spring is slowly start to inch its way into New York City. With it comes three types of days:
The Algebra Regents (New York's state-wide exams that all high-schoolers must pass to graduate) are 7 weeks away. That is an utterly terrifying thought. In a mere seven weeks I need to finish the algebra curriculum and some how review enough so that my students are able to pass the exam.
The exam is weighted drastically, so much that in order to 'pass' a student only needs to answer half (15) of the multiple choice questions correctly. Yet, there are a hand full of students who struggle severely as they prepare to take the exam for the third or fourth time.
The school I work at treats the exams differently than most schools. Our philosophy is to 'get the exams out of the way asap so that as upperclassmen, students can take more interesting, less straight forward classes' I agree with this mentality, most of the time. The tricky thing is that the students still need to take the tests (some schools are exempt) and really do need to know the material to gain access and be successful in a college or university. Moreover, if a student finishes his or her science regents early, then they can take a class like "Forensics" where they solve a murder mystery using science (each quarter a teacher is killed!) or "Special Effects Science" where they study the chemistry behind special effects stuff used in movies. But, if a student finishes his math regents early he just takes more advanced math as we do not yet have any math electives offered at my school. I would love to teach a math elective on Algebraic Proof, or The History of Math, or maybe Diet Home Economics (heavy on the real life econ, light on the cookies and sewing).
Although I find myself wanting to teach more interesting classes in the math department I feel as if I should most certainly not be complaining. I have such a large amount of freedom at my school in what and how I teach! I listen to horror stories from other MfA fellows and feel bad for them. I am so very lucky to be at my school. The students are great, the administration and support is great and I love what and how I teach. I would never want to leave or do anything else in new york city. (I suppose if they put an elevator into the building- it would be the best school in the world!)
On the topic of teaching, I have started to teach Sex Ed to a small group of 9th grade girls. So far it's going really well, but we only just begun a few weeks ago... more to come.
- Super rainy, thunder storms
- Grayish blah days
- The random BEAUTIFUL day that makes everyone want to go outside!
The Algebra Regents (New York's state-wide exams that all high-schoolers must pass to graduate) are 7 weeks away. That is an utterly terrifying thought. In a mere seven weeks I need to finish the algebra curriculum and some how review enough so that my students are able to pass the exam.
The exam is weighted drastically, so much that in order to 'pass' a student only needs to answer half (15) of the multiple choice questions correctly. Yet, there are a hand full of students who struggle severely as they prepare to take the exam for the third or fourth time.
The school I work at treats the exams differently than most schools. Our philosophy is to 'get the exams out of the way asap so that as upperclassmen, students can take more interesting, less straight forward classes' I agree with this mentality, most of the time. The tricky thing is that the students still need to take the tests (some schools are exempt) and really do need to know the material to gain access and be successful in a college or university. Moreover, if a student finishes his or her science regents early, then they can take a class like "Forensics" where they solve a murder mystery using science (each quarter a teacher is killed!) or "Special Effects Science" where they study the chemistry behind special effects stuff used in movies. But, if a student finishes his math regents early he just takes more advanced math as we do not yet have any math electives offered at my school. I would love to teach a math elective on Algebraic Proof, or The History of Math, or maybe Diet Home Economics (heavy on the real life econ, light on the cookies and sewing).
Although I find myself wanting to teach more interesting classes in the math department I feel as if I should most certainly not be complaining. I have such a large amount of freedom at my school in what and how I teach! I listen to horror stories from other MfA fellows and feel bad for them. I am so very lucky to be at my school. The students are great, the administration and support is great and I love what and how I teach. I would never want to leave or do anything else in new york city. (I suppose if they put an elevator into the building- it would be the best school in the world!)
On the topic of teaching, I have started to teach Sex Ed to a small group of 9th grade girls. So far it's going really well, but we only just begun a few weeks ago... more to come.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Mmmm... Dinner
Here is a little game called 'how many pots can we use at once'
We got a new pan as a house warming present from my dad. It's beautiful! Very heave and just asking to be used. We made some salmon on it, it wasn't terribly successful, but it was still delicious. We have since used it to make some extremely yummy panini sandwiches!
We also made some Israeli Cous Cous with sauteed mushrooms and onions and fresh tomatoes in seasoned garlic olive oil and some ooey, gooey, cheesey, bubbly garlic toast. Yum!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Zach and Sarah go to the Zoo
Zach and I love the zoo. We've been to many zoos together, each time collecting a pressed penny with some adorable animal on it. We have quite the collection.
Two weekends ago, when march weather was being nice to us, we went on an adventure! The adventures started off with a walk through Prospect Park and led us to the Prospect Park Zoo! It was larger than the Central Park Zoo, but smaller than the Bronx Zoo- and it was cheap! We were there for about 2-3 hours and saw all that it had to offer.
Next on our list were the sea-lions. We timed our trip well and were able to watch them perform! They are quite the little swimmers!
Two weekends ago, when march weather was being nice to us, we went on an adventure! The adventures started off with a walk through Prospect Park and led us to the Prospect Park Zoo! It was larger than the Central Park Zoo, but smaller than the Bronx Zoo- and it was cheap! We were there for about 2-3 hours and saw all that it had to offer.
Our first stop was at the Barn- we saw turtles, llamas (they may have been alpachas), sheep, goats, ponies and a cow. We bought some animal food from a vending machine and were able to feed them too!
Next on our list were the sea-lions. We timed our trip well and were able to watch them perform! They are quite the little swimmers!
Did you know that sea lions have ears and seals do not?!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
who woulda thought...
Who woulda thought that low-calorie food could be so delicious! As I've mentioned we've started to cook and eat much healthier! We have 3 'diet' cookbooks that have great recopies all under 500 calories. So far it's going great! I have found that the recipes are for food we love, and aren't difficult to make at all! The issue with staying below the calorie mark isn't finding yummy low calorie items, it's serving size.
interesting facts about servings:
1 serving of fish or chicken is about the size of a deck of cards.
1 serving of pasta should fit in the palm of your hand
1 serving of fruit or veggies is a baseball
1 serving of cheese is a domino
1 serving of bread is ... haha who are we kidding?! eating bread!?
Think about it, the last time you were having a healthy meal of broiled chicken and steamed veggies, did you eat 1/3 of a chicken breast? Did you only have less than a handfull of veggies?? Actual servings sizes are TINY.
Although we having been making very yummy, low calorie food, most of the times I eat about 1.25 servings. Which isn't too bad considering we are making meals that have about 300 calories in one serving.
To the right is a Chicken Caprese Salad. We used 1 serving of broiled chicken, 1/2 large tomato, 2.5 slices of low-fat, part skim, fresh mozzarella, chopped basil on top of romaine lettuce with a calorie free (YUP ZERO CALORIES!) balsamic vinaigrette. Yumm Yumm Yumm- total: about 270 calories.
interesting facts about servings:
1 serving of fish or chicken is about the size of a deck of cards.
1 serving of pasta should fit in the palm of your hand
1 serving of fruit or veggies is a baseball
1 serving of cheese is a domino
1 serving of bread is ... haha who are we kidding?! eating bread!?
Think about it, the last time you were having a healthy meal of broiled chicken and steamed veggies, did you eat 1/3 of a chicken breast? Did you only have less than a handfull of veggies?? Actual servings sizes are TINY.
Although we having been making very yummy, low calorie food, most of the times I eat about 1.25 servings. Which isn't too bad considering we are making meals that have about 300 calories in one serving.
To the right is a Chicken Caprese Salad. We used 1 serving of broiled chicken, 1/2 large tomato, 2.5 slices of low-fat, part skim, fresh mozzarella, chopped basil on top of romaine lettuce with a calorie free (YUP ZERO CALORIES!) balsamic vinaigrette. Yumm Yumm Yumm- total: about 270 calories.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Something to think about...
I found this little shpeel while wandering around the internet... Definately puts the argument into perspective:
Are you sick of high paid teachers?
Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do – baby sit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage. That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school.
That would be $19.50 a day (7:45to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan — that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children.
Now how many do they teach in day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
LET’S SEE…. That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here!
There sure is! The average teacher’s salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student –a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) Then they even have to pay taxes on that buck-fourty-two!
WHAT A DEAL….
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Pi Day- every math nerd's favorite day of the year!
My first Pi Day as a math teacher has come and gone. And oh what a day it was! As my overly nerdy, math-dork, bubbly self, I became the 'pi day committee' at my school and organized quite the event!
For those of you who do not know Pi Day is always March 14th (3 -14) for the amazing mathematical number that is π = 3.1415926535... And the joke to the right plays on the fact that π is not a rational number and i is not a real number. In my opinion, it's the most classic math joke and I love it.
Many schools do a digits of Pi memorization contest. Considering π has infinitely many digits the opportunity for kids to compete to memorize the most is endless! I took our pi day celebration to the next level! Not only did we do a digits contest, but we also did a pi- joke or comic contest. And to top it all off I organized a fundraiser to raise money for St. Jude's Cancer Research Hospital's Math-a-thon. Students could buy tickets for $1 from their advisory, they wrote their names on the tickets and entered them into a pool. The two advisories that raised the most money won a pizza party and the students who bought tickets were entered into a drawing to win the opportunity to PIE A TEACHER IN THE FACE! :)
We had about 150 students (half of the student body) show up to the celebration, which was after school on March 14th. About 15 students participated in the memorization contest- the winner had over 100 digits memorized! Wowzers! And the winning joke is above... pretty funny huh?! The winner of the digit contest won a large pie, the top 3 along with the writer of the joke won a medium pie and anyone who memorized at least 15 digits won a little pie. We ended up having a lot of the mini pies left over (maybe because I made a million of them!) and we raffled them off at the end. Yummm... Pie....
Our students ended up raising over $320 and pie-ing all 13 teachers who participated in the face with whip cream pies! We even pied the principal! I made an iSchool smock and brought in a shower cap to protest ourselves, but it was to no avail, the whip cream got EVERYWHERE. The two pictures below are of me getting pied in the face by one of my students, Kevin...
I had whip cream in my ears, in my hair and even after rinsing off at school, when I got home Zach kissed me on the check and told me i tasted sweet! Overall it was extremely fun and successful!!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Rather Overdue...
Apparently it has been over two months since I last posted anything. I had no idea that I'd been so neglectful. Things are going very well. The second semester of school is over and I'm counting down the days until mid-winter recess which means a wonderful week off of school.
But going back to where I left off, christmas has come and gone. Zachary and I hosted our first christmas this year. Complete with live a tree, turkey and gravy, presents an
d stockings too, and a whole lot of family in our little brooklyn apartment. Christmas vacation started off with the arrival of my family; my dad, brother and sister. We went on a light tour of the city, which we lasted a grand total of 1 stop for a 'photo op' to turn into a 'drink op'. We quickly ditched the tour and found our selves focused on an entirely different holiday entirely; Halloween! We went to Jeckyl and Hyde's for dinner- a themed restaurant filled with decapitated heads, wearwolf specimens and an over all creepy vibe that my little brother thoroughly enjoyed (obviously). After a fun first day in the city (and a very early plane ride from ohio), the day ended with Daddy and Sam falling dead asleep on the train.
The next day was christmas eve and started with a trip to The Met. Colleen of course was in her element rushing around the decked halls chirping tid bits of information. Sam followed in her foot steps when we entered the mythological statue section of the museum. I knew that Sam was interested in Mythology and had a few books on the topic, but I did not know that he was so informed and able to recall the names and stories of each mythological figure trapped in marble on display. I was rather impressed. After a quick stop in times square (for a needed trip to toys r us, which lasted all of 3 minutes before we were over whelmed by the last minute shoppers) we headed back to Brooklyn.
Sam was enjoying our Xbox, but mostly using large alien vehicles to run over colleen's character. Needless to say, Sam is now a Halo professional. Zach made a yummy Christmas Eve dinner- seared flank steak with a red wine shallot reduction, roasted potatoes and green beans with mushrooms and onions. It was excellent. We opened up our regular one christmas eve present and all donned our new pajamas. We watched the Polar Express while enjoying some Hot Chocolate when the song called for it and went to bed excited for the morning.
Christmas was wonderful! We opened all of our presents in the morning and zach made his families christmas eggs. We went to the movies in the afternoon (tron- terrible movie) and hurried home so I could start the turkey!
It was a small bird- only 12 lbs but it turned out perfect. I was terrified that I would over cook it, or that it would be dry. I thawed it with love, brined it with a little salt and rubbed and caressed the turkey with butter before putting it into the oven. A few hours later th
e little red button/thermometer had not yet popped, but I was getting nervous... it should have been done by then! I was so worried about my bird i sat on the floor of my kitchen (with my beverage of course) and watched through the window of my oven, waiting for the button to pop! And soon enough, it did! It looked good, it was golden brown and the veggies were nice and soft, but I was still terrified that it was going to be dry and I was going to ruin christmas. But I
was wrong! Some how, on my first try, I made the most amazing, glorious turkey the world has ever seen. Even my father, a turkey snob, was impressed and commented on its greatness. We served the turkey with mashed potatoes, gravy and carrots. For my first attempt at a turkey I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome!
The next day we ventured into the city for pizza and went to Sam's dream store - Evolution. A store completely devoted to all things gross. Sam got a allosaurus finger and fell in love with it. We trekked back to brooklyn in what was becoming the crazy new york snow storm. We got snowed in and what was supposed to be a peter luger's steak dinner turned into us ordering chinese delivery and having a die hard marathon with all 5 of us (and sam's dino finger) snuggling on the couch.
The snow storm ended up pu
shing dad and sam's travel plans back a day, but a few head aches and a 4am gypsy cab ride later they found themselves on a plane back to Ohio. Colleen stayed the rest of the week through new years, on which we both got dolled up in red. Overall and A+ holiday.
I went on a creative adventure on one of the walls in our apartment with
the help of Ikea's super cheap frames and Kodak's online print center. The large fraame into the city after work and we took a shuttle from Port Authority over to Jersey to go to some giant ass japanese market. me in the middle has pictures from kenyon, and the ones around the outside are pictures of zach and my families and friends from home. There are also a few of us when we were little (zach and his brothers were adorable little blond babies!)
Changing topics to Zach and I's most adventurous cooking extravaganza yet. For christmas, Zach got me a 'make your own sushi at home' kit from Barnes and Noble and I got him a nice dark blue porcelain sushi set complete with little soy sauce plates and chop sticks! On a rainy friday afternoon he cIt was ridiculous, we went fr
om being in a large parking lot right across the hudson to feeling as if we were in the middle of tokyo- yikes. We bought a variety of ingredients and took a few minutes to walk up the 'home isle' of this asian market to snicker at all of the strange asian items. We then ventured back to brookyn (a trip that took us over ninety minutes) to begin our sushi making spectacular!
It began with us preparing the rice, a rather difficult feat! "use this much water, don't stir it, fold it, don't open the lid, listen for boiling bubbles ,spend 45 minutes making the damn rice, add this special seasoning, spend $12 on a bottle you will use 2 drops of, etc etc etc..." When it was finally done we had the rice, the fish, the seaweed, the tobiko, the spicy mayonaise, the yummy eel sauce, the avocado, the cucumber (for zach, I hate the stuff), and our super special saran wrapped bamboo sushi roller things. Home made sushi: attempt 1 was a go.
We started with simple rolls- a califor
nia for myself and a tuna avocado for zach, that were mildly successful. We were both using too much rice to start and zach was having trouble rolling it up. We then tried things a bit more complicated, experimenting with the tobiko and the mayo. We tried to use different types of fish and less rice. We made right side in rolls and inside out rolls. I made one with the avocado on the outside of the roll (not recommended for amateurs) but it wasn't nearly as pretty as i wanted.
About an hour and a half after we began cooking the rice we had a giant platter full of sushi- far too much for the two of us! We sat down on our fantastic red couch and dove in! It was our first try- we expected it to be edible, but not so great. But we were wrong! It was actually pretty good! The first few rolls that we made were way too ricey, but the ones that we made towards the end were delicious! It was an extremely fun and delicious at home date and I think that anyone who likes going out for sushi should definitely try to do it at home!
School is going very well. Some of the students are becoming harder to deal with considering the whole 'i'm a scared little freshmen and I will do what you tell me to' thing is wearing off. Some of the boys are getting tougher and the attitude on some of the girls is alarming at times. But overall I am so thankful to be at such a wonderful school. When I talk to my MfA friends and they tell me their woes from the schools that they teach at, I sympathetically nod along while I'm thanking god that I was so lucky to be hired at my school. Pi Day is coming up next month, I'm trying to figure out how we are going to celebrate... I have a few ideas- it's going to be exciting!!!
Also, we have a little friend staying with us for a few weeks! Charlie is making his Brooklyn debut!
But going back to where I left off, christmas has come and gone. Zachary and I hosted our first christmas this year. Complete with live a tree, turkey and gravy, presents an
d stockings too, and a whole lot of family in our little brooklyn apartment. Christmas vacation started off with the arrival of my family; my dad, brother and sister. We went on a light tour of the city, which we lasted a grand total of 1 stop for a 'photo op' to turn into a 'drink op'. We quickly ditched the tour and found our selves focused on an entirely different holiday entirely; Halloween! We went to Jeckyl and Hyde's for dinner- a themed restaurant filled with decapitated heads, wearwolf specimens and an over all creepy vibe that my little brother thoroughly enjoyed (obviously). After a fun first day in the city (and a very early plane ride from ohio), the day ended with Daddy and Sam falling dead asleep on the train.The next day was christmas eve and started with a trip to The Met. Colleen of course was in her element rushing around the decked halls chirping tid bits of information. Sam followed in her foot steps when we entered the mythological statue section of the museum. I knew that Sam was interested in Mythology and had a few books on the topic, but I did not know that he was so informed and able to recall the names and stories of each mythological figure trapped in marble on display. I was rather impressed. After a quick stop in times square (for a needed trip to toys r us, which lasted all of 3 minutes before we were over whelmed by the last minute shoppers) we headed back to Brooklyn.
Sam was enjoying our Xbox, but mostly using large alien vehicles to run over colleen's character. Needless to say, Sam is now a Halo professional. Zach made a yummy Christmas Eve dinner- seared flank steak with a red wine shallot reduction, roasted potatoes and green beans with mushrooms and onions. It was excellent. We opened up our regular one christmas eve present and all donned our new pajamas. We watched the Polar Express while enjoying some Hot Chocolate when the song called for it and went to bed excited for the morning.
Christmas was wonderful! We opened all of our presents in the morning and zach made his families christmas eggs. We went to the movies in the afternoon (tron- terrible movie) and hurried home so I could start the turkey!
It was a small bird- only 12 lbs but it turned out perfect. I was terrified that I would over cook it, or that it would be dry. I thawed it with love, brined it with a little salt and rubbed and caressed the turkey with butter before putting it into the oven. A few hours later th
e little red button/thermometer had not yet popped, but I was getting nervous... it should have been done by then! I was so worried about my bird i sat on the floor of my kitchen (with my beverage of course) and watched through the window of my oven, waiting for the button to pop! And soon enough, it did! It looked good, it was golden brown and the veggies were nice and soft, but I was still terrified that it was going to be dry and I was going to ruin christmas. But I
was wrong! Some how, on my first try, I made the most amazing, glorious turkey the world has ever seen. Even my father, a turkey snob, was impressed and commented on its greatness. We served the turkey with mashed potatoes, gravy and carrots. For my first attempt at a turkey I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome!The next day we ventured into the city for pizza and went to Sam's dream store - Evolution. A store completely devoted to all things gross. Sam got a allosaurus finger and fell in love with it. We trekked back to brooklyn in what was becoming the crazy new york snow storm. We got snowed in and what was supposed to be a peter luger's steak dinner turned into us ordering chinese delivery and having a die hard marathon with all 5 of us (and sam's dino finger) snuggling on the couch.
The snow storm ended up pu
shing dad and sam's travel plans back a day, but a few head aches and a 4am gypsy cab ride later they found themselves on a plane back to Ohio. Colleen stayed the rest of the week through new years, on which we both got dolled up in red. Overall and A+ holiday.I went on a creative adventure on one of the walls in our apartment with
the help of Ikea's super cheap frames and Kodak's online print center. The large fraame into the city after work and we took a shuttle from Port Authority over to Jersey to go to some giant ass japanese market. me in the middle has pictures from kenyon, and the ones around the outside are pictures of zach and my families and friends from home. There are also a few of us when we were little (zach and his brothers were adorable little blond babies!)Changing topics to Zach and I's most adventurous cooking extravaganza yet. For christmas, Zach got me a 'make your own sushi at home' kit from Barnes and Noble and I got him a nice dark blue porcelain sushi set complete with little soy sauce plates and chop sticks! On a rainy friday afternoon he cIt was ridiculous, we went fr
om being in a large parking lot right across the hudson to feeling as if we were in the middle of tokyo- yikes. We bought a variety of ingredients and took a few minutes to walk up the 'home isle' of this asian market to snicker at all of the strange asian items. We then ventured back to brookyn (a trip that took us over ninety minutes) to begin our sushi making spectacular!
It began with us preparing the rice, a rather difficult feat! "use this much water, don't stir it, fold it, don't open the lid, listen for boiling bubbles ,spend 45 minutes making the damn rice, add this special seasoning, spend $12 on a bottle you will use 2 drops of, etc etc etc..." When it was finally done we had the rice, the fish, the seaweed, the tobiko, the spicy mayonaise, the yummy eel sauce, the avocado, the cucumber (for zach, I hate the stuff), and our super special saran wrapped bamboo sushi roller things. Home made sushi: attempt 1 was a go.
We started with simple rolls- a califor
nia for myself and a tuna avocado for zach, that were mildly successful. We were both using too much rice to start and zach was having trouble rolling it up. We then tried things a bit more complicated, experimenting with the tobiko and the mayo. We tried to use different types of fish and less rice. We made right side in rolls and inside out rolls. I made one with the avocado on the outside of the roll (not recommended for amateurs) but it wasn't nearly as pretty as i wanted.About an hour and a half after we began cooking the rice we had a giant platter full of sushi- far too much for the two of us! We sat down on our fantastic red couch and dove in! It was our first try- we expected it to be edible, but not so great. But we were wrong! It was actually pretty good! The first few rolls that we made were way too ricey, but the ones that we made towards the end were delicious! It was an extremely fun and delicious at home date and I think that anyone who likes going out for sushi should definitely try to do it at home!
School is going very well. Some of the students are becoming harder to deal with considering the whole 'i'm a scared little freshmen and I will do what you tell me to' thing is wearing off. Some of the boys are getting tougher and the attitude on some of the girls is alarming at times. But overall I am so thankful to be at such a wonderful school. When I talk to my MfA friends and they tell me their woes from the schools that they teach at, I sympathetically nod along while I'm thanking god that I was so lucky to be hired at my school. Pi Day is coming up next month, I'm trying to figure out how we are going to celebrate... I have a few ideas- it's going to be exciting!!!
Also, we have a little friend staying with us for a few weeks! Charlie is making his Brooklyn debut!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Home Sweet Brooklyn
We are no longer wandering nomads! After a month of subletting in various locations around Manhattan we have finally moved into our own home! We have a great 2 bedroom apartment in Brooklyn! We moved in 3 weeks ago and are still settling in. We bought a nice bright red corner sofa and we even have room for a dining table! In the second bedroom we put a little fold out couch, 3 big book shelves and a desk- so it's a library/ guest room/ office / sitting room/ fish area- we really can't decide what to call it... The whole apartment has been completely renovated so new walls, floors, fixtures and appliances. It's so nice- come visit and see it!
Our new kitchen is fantastic. It's an alley kitchen, but a BIG one! We have a nice big gas stove (one of the burners has a 'power boil' setting that really does the trick!), a large dishwasher and a new fridge- all stainless steel. We have a ton of counter space- it's some sort of fake granite looking material- dark gray. It's been really fun cooking and baking in our new kitchen! I've become obsessed with sweet potatoes! Who knew those little orange taters were so delicious! I've been dicing them up with some red skins, tossing them in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and roasting them in the oven for about an hour. So delicious!- they get a little crunchy but still soft and sweet. I also ha
ve been baking a lot. I made some cute little cupcakes for my students (even though my mom tried to eat them all...), mini banana muffins with brown sugar crunch and some fantastic sticky buns for an early morning math department meeting. I looked a few different recipes for cinnamon rolls that called for white icing before I remembered the gooey goodness of sticky buns like the ones Paige used to make. I found a recipe that sounded good and just kinda winged it. They were fantastic. I used crescent roll dough instead of bread dough and made the gooooo from brown sugar and butter. Wow- there were so good. Zach thought they were too sweet- not too surprising given his opinion of desserts and sweet things- but that was okay- more for the math teachers!
School is going really well. The first quarter is already over- it just flew by! I had to do
report cards a few weeks ago and this upcoming week we have our version of parent-teacher conferences. We do conferences a bit different then other schools- instead of it being a meeting between parents and teachers about kids its a meeting led by the student where the child explains to their parent or guardian how they did in the first quarter. A lot of work goes into the meetings so the studen
ts are prepared for them- so fingers crossed that my advisees do well! Before we started all the conference preparation we had a little fun around halloween! We made little pumpkins out of construction paper and hung them on my door! They were all so cute- and so different. They really brought some smiles to the hallway. I hung a sign on the top of my door that said "Miss P's Pumpkin Patch"
Even better than pumpkins on the door- the whole math department dressed up for halloween! My dorky enthusiasm for the holiday spread throughout the department as I strongly suggested costumes to the other teachers until we became a wonderfully festive foursome! Nora is on the far left- she teaches geometry and has an X ax and a Y ax around her neck (get it... x and y axes... ? ) I am next, with a box necklace and whiskers drawn on my face (I'm a box and whisker plot!) Julie is to my right, she also teaches geometry. She is a Google ( a one followed by a hundred zeros)- she's wearing a one necklace with a chain link of 100 zeros! And Lauriann is on the right- she teachers Algebra II and Pre-Calculus. She has a script i on her tummy- she is the number i , the rest of her costume is imaginary (math dorks who get this joke can giggle now). It was really great.
Oh, we also made duck-tape wallets in advisory a few weeks ago. All of the kids got really into it. I bought duck tape in red, black, blue, purple, silver, camo and zebra and they went to town! We had one day where I showed them how to do it and then they spent the next few days making their own wallets. Some are really intense- with change pockets and id windows. I was really impressed!
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it is time to start thinking about the winter holidays! I can't believe it's almost time for christmas- it feels like we just started school! Zach and I are hosting Christmas at our apartment year- quite the grown up feat! I'm excited - but nervous about it! Fingers crossed I can figure out the turkey situation...
Our new kitchen is fantastic. It's an alley kitchen, but a BIG one! We have a nice big gas stove (one of the burners has a 'power boil' setting that really does the trick!), a large dishwasher and a new fridge- all stainless steel. We have a ton of counter space- it's some sort of fake granite looking material- dark gray. It's been really fun cooking and baking in our new kitchen! I've become obsessed with sweet potatoes! Who knew those little orange taters were so delicious! I've been dicing them up with some red skins, tossing them in olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and roasting them in the oven for about an hour. So delicious!- they get a little crunchy but still soft and sweet. I also ha
ve been baking a lot. I made some cute little cupcakes for my students (even though my mom tried to eat them all...), mini banana muffins with brown sugar crunch and some fantastic sticky buns for an early morning math department meeting. I looked a few different recipes for cinnamon rolls that called for white icing before I remembered the gooey goodness of sticky buns like the ones Paige used to make. I found a recipe that sounded good and just kinda winged it. They were fantastic. I used crescent roll dough instead of bread dough and made the gooooo from brown sugar and butter. Wow- there were so good. Zach thought they were too sweet- not too surprising given his opinion of desserts and sweet things- but that was okay- more for the math teachers!School is going really well. The first quarter is already over- it just flew by! I had to do
report cards a few weeks ago and this upcoming week we have our version of parent-teacher conferences. We do conferences a bit different then other schools- instead of it being a meeting between parents and teachers about kids its a meeting led by the student where the child explains to their parent or guardian how they did in the first quarter. A lot of work goes into the meetings so the studen
ts are prepared for them- so fingers crossed that my advisees do well! Before we started all the conference preparation we had a little fun around halloween! We made little pumpkins out of construction paper and hung them on my door! They were all so cute- and so different. They really brought some smiles to the hallway. I hung a sign on the top of my door that said "Miss P's Pumpkin Patch"Even better than pumpkins on the door- the whole math department dressed up for halloween! My dorky enthusiasm for the holiday spread throughout the department as I strongly suggested costumes to the other teachers until we became a wonderfully festive foursome! Nora is on the far left- she teaches geometry and has an X ax and a Y ax around her neck (get it... x and y axes... ? ) I am next, with a box necklace and whiskers drawn on my face (I'm a box and whisker plot!) Julie is to my right, she also teaches geometry. She is a Google ( a one followed by a hundred zeros)- she's wearing a one necklace with a chain link of 100 zeros! And Lauriann is on the right- she teachers Algebra II and Pre-Calculus. She has a script i on her tummy- she is the number i , the rest of her costume is imaginary (math dorks who get this joke can giggle now). It was really great.
Oh, we also made duck-tape wallets in advisory a few weeks ago. All of the kids got really into it. I bought duck tape in red, black, blue, purple, silver, camo and zebra and they went to town! We had one day where I showed them how to do it and then they spent the next few days making their own wallets. Some are really intense- with change pockets and id windows. I was really impressed!
Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone it is time to start thinking about the winter holidays! I can't believe it's almost time for christmas- it feels like we just started school! Zach and I are hosting Christmas at our apartment year- quite the grown up feat! I'm excited - but nervous about it! Fingers crossed I can figure out the turkey situation...
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Yoda and a Field Trip
It's been over a month of actual teaching- real lessons every day, real homework assignments to grade every night! I have to say that I think that things are going pretty well so far! *Knock on Wood!* I haven't had any terrible days that I feel like the whole world is going to collapse, I haven't cried or screamed, I haven't even stayed at school past 6 pm! Thankfully, everything has been going pretty smoothly! I'm not saying it's been perfect, but I'm not complaining either!
There have been a few days that after my lesson is over I say to myself "well, that sucked". I think that most of the lessons that I think don't go well are the ones that I just have the students practice the math procedure individually. I know that I shouldn't have them doing activities or playing math games everyday and sometimes the best to learn something is just to practice it, but those days are awfully boring. Earlier this week the principal of the school and the head of the math department wandered into my room for an informal observation. They just happen to choose my strongest class (the classes are separated by mathematical ability- but one of my classes just turned out to be the smallest and the most advanced by far). This class is full of students who are comfortable and confident in math and thus they like to just put their heads down and work most of the time. So when the principal walked in to my class it was supposed to be during the work time- where the students work together with the people around them on the given problems. But instead this particular class was sitting quietly at their desks completely their work silently. I was mortified. I wanted them to talk! (I'm sure I'll regret saying that sooner or later) I wanted them to ask questions and be checking answers with each other. But- nope! They just wanted to sit quietly and work. Ugh. I late spoke to the head of the math department about it and apologized for them walking into the class during the quiet boring part. I told her that they were the smart ones who just like to work and she quickly told me not to apologize and that it was quite impressive that all the students were on task and knew exactly what they should be doing. I suppose she's right- can't be all fun and games all the time. And the last time that they were in my room the students were doing group work on a 'top secret data analyst project for the government' - so now they've seen some fun group work and some serious practice time.
Yoda has become part of the Miss P Algebra experience. As my students display 'mastery' (they show me on a test or quiz that they really understand a topic) they earn checks. If a student earns a check on a quiz then their name (written on a brightly colored, 4 inch light sabor) is pinned up on the Math Masters bulletin board- right next a nice 3 foot cut out of Yoda. Thus as they earn more checks and become math masters they earn their place on the board next to Yoda- the ultimate Jedi Master. I'm very very proud of this board! Some of the kids think it's cool, some think it's lame. Many of my students from last year have commented on how they think it's great and how I make math fun and how they miss me (which is very nice to hear!)
I gave my first quiz a few weeks ago, unfortunately I made it way to easy! Most of my students earned As on the quiz and finished in half the allotted time. I'm giving another, longer quiz next week which should be a bit more challenging. The students also have a big project due tomorrow. They have to come up and perform 3 surveys and report their results in tables and graphs (1 histogram, 1 scatterplot and 1 box and whisker plot). I paired them up and gave them a week to do the project. Needless to say, today after school I had more people in my room asking questions and wanting to work than I have all year and I've received about 10 emails in the past 5 hours asking questions. It will most certainly be interesting to see how they do on the project. I think most of them will do alright- the ones who put forth a little effort and time into the project, while the students who just started today after school may not be so successful.
I went on my f
irst field trip as a teacher this week! It was quite the adventure! Consider this: it's 9 am on a wednesday. You're in charge of 40 13-14 year olds. You're going to a park in New York city so the students can complete a wor
ksheet about green spaces. BUT before you can get this 40 rowdy students to the park you have to take them on the... dun. dun. dun... SUBWAY! Oy! We had to get special forms so that we could take 43 people on the subway (we got let in through the door, not the turn style), then we all had to get down there- that was the easy part. Then we had to ALL get on the same subway car and try to ignore the evil eyes and bad looks from the other adults on the train saying 'oh god- look at all these damn kids' as all the students were talking and bumping into everyone else. Then we had to make sure they all got off the car at the right stop and get back to street level. Then we did a head count- AND drumroll... we didn't lose anyone! We had a close call though- one of the students had foun
d his way into another group accidentally, so when we should have counted 41 we counted 40 and almost died. But, the missing boy was found shortly and our heart rates returned to normal. The time at the park was nice. It was a nice day and the kids weren't too annoying. They mostly just complained about the worksheet they had to do while wandering up and down the park. I told them it was better than doing the worksheet in school- right? After about 2 hours we had to pack them all up and headed back down to school- with all 41 kids in tow.
On a non-educational note: Zach and I are currently homeless nomads wandering around new york city... Our lease ended on our old apartment at the end of september which was okay when our new apartment was supposed to be ready on October 1st. But then it got pushed back to October 15ht... THEN it got pushed back to November 1st. UGH. So we sublet a place on the upper west side for two weeks now we're subletting a place in the far west village for two more weeks. Fingers crossed the new place is ready November 1st... this living out a suit case thing in one small room with no kitchen to cook in is no fun at all.
There have been a few days that after my lesson is over I say to myself "well, that sucked". I think that most of the lessons that I think don't go well are the ones that I just have the students practice the math procedure individually. I know that I shouldn't have them doing activities or playing math games everyday and sometimes the best to learn something is just to practice it, but those days are awfully boring. Earlier this week the principal of the school and the head of the math department wandered into my room for an informal observation. They just happen to choose my strongest class (the classes are separated by mathematical ability- but one of my classes just turned out to be the smallest and the most advanced by far). This class is full of students who are comfortable and confident in math and thus they like to just put their heads down and work most of the time. So when the principal walked in to my class it was supposed to be during the work time- where the students work together with the people around them on the given problems. But instead this particular class was sitting quietly at their desks completely their work silently. I was mortified. I wanted them to talk! (I'm sure I'll regret saying that sooner or later) I wanted them to ask questions and be checking answers with each other. But- nope! They just wanted to sit quietly and work. Ugh. I late spoke to the head of the math department about it and apologized for them walking into the class during the quiet boring part. I told her that they were the smart ones who just like to work and she quickly told me not to apologize and that it was quite impressive that all the students were on task and knew exactly what they should be doing. I suppose she's right- can't be all fun and games all the time. And the last time that they were in my room the students were doing group work on a 'top secret data analyst project for the government' - so now they've seen some fun group work and some serious practice time.
Yoda has become part of the Miss P Algebra experience. As my students display 'mastery' (they show me on a test or quiz that they really understand a topic) they earn checks. If a student earns a check on a quiz then their name (written on a brightly colored, 4 inch light sabor) is pinned up on the Math Masters bulletin board- right next a nice 3 foot cut out of Yoda. Thus as they earn more checks and become math masters they earn their place on the board next to Yoda- the ultimate Jedi Master. I'm very very proud of this board! Some of the kids think it's cool, some think it's lame. Many of my students from last year have commented on how they think it's great and how I make math fun and how they miss me (which is very nice to hear!)
I gave my first quiz a few weeks ago, unfortunately I made it way to easy! Most of my students earned As on the quiz and finished in half the allotted time. I'm giving another, longer quiz next week which should be a bit more challenging. The students also have a big project due tomorrow. They have to come up and perform 3 surveys and report their results in tables and graphs (1 histogram, 1 scatterplot and 1 box and whisker plot). I paired them up and gave them a week to do the project. Needless to say, today after school I had more people in my room asking questions and wanting to work than I have all year and I've received about 10 emails in the past 5 hours asking questions. It will most certainly be interesting to see how they do on the project. I think most of them will do alright- the ones who put forth a little effort and time into the project, while the students who just started today after school may not be so successful.
I went on my f
irst field trip as a teacher this week! It was quite the adventure! Consider this: it's 9 am on a wednesday. You're in charge of 40 13-14 year olds. You're going to a park in New York city so the students can complete a wor
ksheet about green spaces. BUT before you can get this 40 rowdy students to the park you have to take them on the... dun. dun. dun... SUBWAY! Oy! We had to get special forms so that we could take 43 people on the subway (we got let in through the door, not the turn style), then we all had to get down there- that was the easy part. Then we had to ALL get on the same subway car and try to ignore the evil eyes and bad looks from the other adults on the train saying 'oh god- look at all these damn kids' as all the students were talking and bumping into everyone else. Then we had to make sure they all got off the car at the right stop and get back to street level. Then we did a head count- AND drumroll... we didn't lose anyone! We had a close call though- one of the students had foun
d his way into another group accidentally, so when we should have counted 41 we counted 40 and almost died. But, the missing boy was found shortly and our heart rates returned to normal. The time at the park was nice. It was a nice day and the kids weren't too annoying. They mostly just complained about the worksheet they had to do while wandering up and down the park. I told them it was better than doing the worksheet in school- right? After about 2 hours we had to pack them all up and headed back down to school- with all 41 kids in tow.On a non-educational note: Zach and I are currently homeless nomads wandering around new york city... Our lease ended on our old apartment at the end of september which was okay when our new apartment was supposed to be ready on October 1st. But then it got pushed back to October 15ht... THEN it got pushed back to November 1st. UGH. So we sublet a place on the upper west side for two weeks now we're subletting a place in the far west village for two more weeks. Fingers crossed the new place is ready November 1st... this living out a suit case thing in one small room with no kitchen to cook in is no fun at all.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
I need to learn 90 names!
My first full week as a real- all grown up- teacher has come and gone! And I have to say- it was exhausting! It was quite the first week! On Monday and Tuesday the stud
ents spent their day either going on a trip (a scavenger hunt for freshmen, an obstacle course for sophomores and a college visit for juniors) or taking diagnostic testing. So on Monday I spent my day proctoring exams and setting up my new computer! It's a Dell Tablet, I really like it. It has a swivel and touch screen. I'm not sure how or when I will make use of those features, but they're pretty nifty nonetheless. On Tuesday I went on a scavenger hunt adventure with my advisory! We were given a digital camera and a list of pictures we had to try to take. We ran around Soho for about two hours in attempts to take as many pictures as we could: a picture of the whole team with a horse, a picture of a team mate with a milk mustache, a picture with the whole team under water, a picture of a team member taking candy from a baby ( I thought that one was a bit over the line), a picture of the whole team with the statue of liberty (this one is featured below) and lots others. I was with my group of advisees running around like crazy- I have to say it was quite the experience- soho with 10 14 year olds.
Wednesday was technically the first day of classes but since my school focuses on an individual course program for each and every student- and we follow block scheduling ( which means that each class does not meet every day, so each day's schedule is different), the scheduling process is very very complicated. Even though the school has yet to grow to a full four year school ( we only have freshmen, sophomores and juniors this year), scheduling 320 students is a very difficult process. The school uses some sort of scheduling software program that is supposed to make the entire process worry free- but of course, it didn't work for all of the students. Therefore most of the students- at least most of the freshmen- didn't have complete schedules on Wednesday. Some of them didn't have enough credits- some had two math classes, some had lunch first period, or no lunch at all! Needless to say- there was still a lot of work to be done on the student schedules.
In my math classes on Wednesday we read through the class syllabus and played a little game. I told the students about quantagories and we solved some of the puzzles for a while. An example of a quantagory is 24 H in a D. Do you know what the H and the D stand for? Give up? It's 24 Hours in a Day. Here are some more puzzles if you want to play around with them!
It's a fun little game- not completely math related, but not totally void of any logical reasoning.
ents spent their day either going on a trip (a scavenger hunt for freshmen, an obstacle course for sophomores and a college visit for juniors) or taking diagnostic testing. So on Monday I spent my day proctoring exams and setting up my new computer! It's a Dell Tablet, I really like it. It has a swivel and touch screen. I'm not sure how or when I will make use of those features, but they're pretty nifty nonetheless. On Tuesday I went on a scavenger hunt adventure with my advisory! We were given a digital camera and a list of pictures we had to try to take. We ran around Soho for about two hours in attempts to take as many pictures as we could: a picture of the whole team with a horse, a picture of a team mate with a milk mustache, a picture with the whole team under water, a picture of a team member taking candy from a baby ( I thought that one was a bit over the line), a picture of the whole team with the statue of liberty (this one is featured below) and lots others. I was with my group of advisees running around like crazy- I have to say it was quite the experience- soho with 10 14 year olds.Wednesday was technically the first day of classes but since my school focuses on an individual course program for each and every student- and we follow block scheduling ( which means that each class does not meet every day, so each day's schedule is different), the scheduling process is very very complicated. Even though the school has yet to grow to a full four year school ( we only have freshmen, sophomores and juniors this year), scheduling 320 students is a very difficult process. The school uses some sort of scheduling software program that is supposed to make the entire process worry free- but of course, it didn't work for all of the students. Therefore most of the students- at least most of the freshmen- didn't have complete schedules on Wednesday. Some of them didn't have enough credits- some had two math classes, some had lunch first period, or no lunch at all! Needless to say- there was still a lot of work to be done on the student schedules.
In my math classes on Wednesday we read through the class syllabus and played a little game. I told the students about quantagories and we solved some of the puzzles for a while. An example of a quantagory is 24 H in a D. Do you know what the H and the D stand for? Give up? It's 24 Hours in a Day. Here are some more puzzles if you want to play around with them!
- 6 O in a BI
- 3 W on a T
- 5 T on a F
- 13 S on the USF
- 52 C in a D
- 3 BMSHTR
- 88 K on a P
- 9 L of a C
- 100 C in a D
It's a fun little game- not completely math related, but not totally void of any logical reasoning.
On Thursday and Friday depending on if I'd seen that class or not, we played around with The Four Numbers Game- the topic of my senior exercise at Kenyon and played some more math games online. I wanted to show the students how to access the online course system we use and how they will use it for math, but unfortunately the freshmen don't yet have access to the system. This is particularly annoying to me- if they can't get online then I have to print out a copy of the homework for each and every one of them (
90 kids!).
So the combination of the incomplete and wrong schedules with the lack of system access left me very frustrated. I'm sure it will all be worked out by the end of this week- but it is still frustrating now. But tomorrow should be better- I'm planning on teaching my first real lesson! Fingers crossed it goes well- the topic is data and data tables. Woohooo!
Here the picture of me with my advisory with the statue of liberty. Aren't they cute!?
90 kids!). So the combination of the incomplete and wrong schedules with the lack of system access left me very frustrated. I'm sure it will all be worked out by the end of this week- but it is still frustrating now. But tomorrow should be better- I'm planning on teaching my first real lesson! Fingers crossed it goes well- the topic is data and data tables. Woohooo!
Here the picture of me with my advisory with the statue of liberty. Aren't they cute!?
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
One day down, about 40 years to go.
Today was my first day as a real teacher with students. Although no instruction happened, it still counted as my first-first day. And I think it went pretty well! My day started at 6:15 when my alarm sounded, even though I'd woken up many times throughout the night thinking that I had overslept my alarm and would be late! I got to school (venit espresso beverage in hand) at a little before 8 am and did a few things before the school day began. The freshmen arrived at 9am to a class meeting and then I took my advisory down to my classroom. What was once assumed to be an all girl advisory turned out to be 5 girls and 5 boys. They were a bit awkward and quiet, but I guess that's expected for their first day of highschool. We did the boring administrative tasks of passing out metrocards and going on a tour of the building's facilities. Then it was off to a math test for them! I proctored an exam for a bit and that was the end of my official responsibilities for the day.
While I was with my advisory, the 10th graders arrived at school at 10 am for their class meeting before heading to their own math assessments. The principals constructed a small presentation that included pictures and names of new faculty. I was not at the meeting, but was told by 6 different teachers that the sophomores cheered loudly when they were told that they were no longer freshmen and cheered even louder when my picture was shown in the slide show. It is definitely nice to feel welcomed and missed by the students I had last year as a student teacher. Hopefully the new freshmen will like me as well!
The entire experience was a bit surreal, as I think many of these first weeks will be. I can't believe I'm really here- being a teacher- and in New York City no less. I thought back to some of my earlier 'first days' when my mom would take a picture of my sister and me in the morning on each first day of school. Some pictures are really cute- while the ones when we are in high school are of us being annoyed and just wanting to go!
Due to the Jewish holidays our school year started with a very strange schedule. After just one day we now have a four day weekend! A bit odd, but okay with me. I'm going home! Back to Ohio for the first time in 9 months. I have a very busy 3 days ahead of me- many many friends including
my best friend- shannon- who i don't plan on spending a minute without! I can't wait to spend time with my family! I miss my (not so) little brother! I'm also getting my hair professionally done for the first time since January of 2009. And the best part of all- I'm going to The Ohio State University football game! And spending a night at Kenyon! I honestly don't know what more I could ask to do in a trip home! I'm sure it will be exhausting and amazing.
Friday, September 3, 2010
I"M A TEACHER!!!
The first day of school is in less than one week. The summer just flew by! I think I'm as ready as I can be. I almost have the entire first quarter planned out, including homework assignments, which was quite the task.
So I'm going to be teaching 4 classes- 3 sections of Algebra 1 and 1 section of an Algebra/Pre-Algebra. My school als
o has a strong advisory program that all of the teachers take part in. I will have an advisory of between 12 and 14 students- mine will all be ninth graders. I was able to choose the theme of my advisory, and I picked 'iCraft'. So we are going to do lots of crafting projects. My advisory will mostly likely be all girls, but I'm okay with that. Hopefully I will be able to teach all of the students how to knit-if they don't know already- and we can all knit as many scarves as possible that we can donate to a shelter of some sort around the holidays.
I was able to get into my classroom this past week and set up! It was by far the most fun I've ever had at work! Here are some of the 'before' pictures of my classroom on the left. It's a huge room. It is almost twice as big as the room I was in last semester, but with only two more desks. It's quite the upgrade! The room already has a Smartboard in it - for those of you who are unfamiliar with Smart Boards here is a little video to watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U05WeXPGlk
I create all of my lesson plans using Notebook software and then use my Smart Board in class. When I first started student teaching, I thought that the smart board was silly and unnecessary, but after a semester of using it everyday, I honestly have no idea how I could teach without one! It's an amazing tool that has the potential to improve education. Anyway, my room also has a full wall of white boards and it had a small and really gross old chalk board. The chalk board was written on and scratched up, so I covered it up with poster paper and turned it into a bulletin board. One of the walls in the room has built in closets and shelves.
I covered the old chalk board and the cork boards with poster paper to create fun bulletin boards. I put up posters and hung up all of the math jokes that I collected over the summer. I also printed
out and laminated pictures of the top twenty mathematicians of all time to hang up in my room. I hung up mountain climbing guys and a cool wall pocket system. I also bought a big calendar and laminated it too. Here are some of the 'after' pictures! What do you think?
I set up the desks in a flying V like pattern angled towards the smartboard (it's black int he pictures because it is covered up with a fabric cover. There are 20 desks in the room in little rows of either 3 or 4.
So, I have a few days left until I become a real-live teacher. I've been preparing for this for years. Since I was a little girl torturing my sister and our neighborhood friends to 'play school' which for me was a very fun game, but to them was hours of school work which they considered painful. After years of working hard in school to get the grades to go to college and grad school, after many hours spent tutoring and summers sacrificed to math camp and after certification tests, student teaching and a master's degree- it's finally here. In just a few days I'm going to be a math teacher. Life Goal: Achieved!
On another note, our attempts to find a new apartment are proving annoying. Zach went to look at a place yesterday that he liked, but it's such a complicated process. Hopefully, we will find a place soon and have the whole or
deal done with before school gets in full swing. We made a delicious home-made mac and cheese the other night. It was so creamy with a nice crunchy backed top. It was great!
So I'm going to be teaching 4 classes- 3 sections of Algebra 1 and 1 section of an Algebra/Pre-Algebra. My school als
o has a strong advisory program that all of the teachers take part in. I will have an advisory of between 12 and 14 students- mine will all be ninth graders. I was able to choose the theme of my advisory, and I picked 'iCraft'. So we are going to do lots of crafting projects. My advisory will mostly likely be all girls, but I'm okay with that. Hopefully I will be able to teach all of the students how to knit-if they don't know already- and we can all knit as many scarves as possible that we can donate to a shelter of some sort around the holidays.
I was able to get into my classroom this past week and set up! It was by far the most fun I've ever had at work! Here are some of the 'before' pictures of my classroom on the left. It's a huge room. It is almost twice as big as the room I was in last semester, but with only two more desks. It's quite the upgrade! The room already has a Smartboard in it - for those of you who are unfamiliar with Smart Boards here is a little video to watch:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U05WeXPGlk
I create all of my lesson plans using Notebook software and then use my Smart Board in class. When I first started student teaching, I thought that the smart board was silly and unnecessary, but after a semester of using it everyday, I honestly have no idea how I could teach without one! It's an amazing tool that has the potential to improve education. Anyway, my room also has a full wall of white boards and it had a small and really gross old chalk board. The chalk board was written on and scratched up, so I covered it up with poster paper and turned it into a bulletin board. One of the walls in the room has built in closets and shelves.
I covered the old chalk board and the cork boards with poster paper to create fun bulletin boards. I put up posters and hung up all of the math jokes that I collected over the summer. I also printed
out and laminated pictures of the top twenty mathematicians of all time to hang up in my room. I hung up mountain climbing guys and a cool wall pocket system. I also bought a big calendar and laminated it too. Here are some of the 'after' pictures! What do you think?
I set up the desks in a flying V like pattern angled towards the smartboard (it's black int he pictures because it is covered up with a fabric cover. There are 20 desks in the room in little rows of either 3 or 4.
So, I have a few days left until I become a real-live teacher. I've been preparing for this for years. Since I was a little girl torturing my sister and our neighborhood friends to 'play school' which for me was a very fun game, but to them was hours of school work which they considered painful. After years of working hard in school to get the grades to go to college and grad school, after many hours spent tutoring and summers sacrificed to math camp and after certification tests, student teaching and a master's degree- it's finally here. In just a few days I'm going to be a math teacher. Life Goal: Achieved!
On another note, our attempts to find a new apartment are proving annoying. Zach went to look at a place yesterday that he liked, but it's such a complicated process. Hopefully, we will find a place soon and have the whole or
deal done with before school gets in full swing. We made a delicious home-made mac and cheese the other night. It was so creamy with a nice crunchy backed top. It was great!
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