Monday, June 23, 2008

Klingenstein Summer Institute

So I'm in New Jersey working. Yes, working. In fact, working very hard. But loving every minute of it. I am in Lawrenceville, NJ, 5 miles from Princeton, 45 minutes from Philly, and an 1 and 1/2 hours from NYC. I am staying at The Lawrenceville School (http://www.lawrenceville.org/), an independent co-ed boarding school for 9-12 grade. It is a beautiful place, steeped in history and reminds me of our small alma mater in its size - meaning its BIG for a high school! It has green lawns speckled with clover and a library that is to be envied by anyone. Let's not even talk about the Science Building, I get choked up.

Anyway, I have been doing a lot of listening, reading, writing, reflecting, thinking, analyzing, planning and sharing. As someone told me today at dinner, it's kind of like "teacher camp." The cool part about it is we are all relatively new teachers (teaching 1-5 years) and we are mostly like-minded in that we aren't jaded, are optimistic about education, and are excited to take all this knowledge back to our schools.

We have two main groups, our curriculum group (Science for me) and a Diversity Group, made up of members of every curriculum group. I try each night to reflect on the days events because believe me, it all muddles together a bit. So here goes. (Sorry if it is so short, and not much reflection, usually there is, but my brain capacity is getting limited)

This morning I got up at 6:30 to get to breakfast by 7:15.
Breakfast from 7:15-8:00
Morning Meeting at 8:00
8:30-10:30 Lecture about Designing lessons. We talked about misconceptions in learning and watched a video calld "Minds of Our Own" (great video!)
10:30-11:00 Break
11:00-12:00 Curriculum Groups - we evaluated our comments by looking at praise and feedback from yesterday's discussion
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-3:00 Curriculum Groups - we learned about Inquiry based learning and its applications in our curriculum. We asked what it means to have Inquiry, How this looks in a classroom, what students look like that are doing inquiry and how we can assess what the student knows.
3:00-5:30 Finished my homework reading for tonight on Diversity and White Privilege
5:30-6:00 Checked my email
6:00-7:00 Dinner
7:00-8:30 Diversity Groups. We discussed the articles and talked about white privilege we see in our schools, in ourselves and how this relates to learning and educating all students. We asked whether we should sacrifice and if so, what because of this privilege afforded us. We talked about how to educate all of our students about the power structure in society and how we have to be able to talk and open to discuss our own place in this structure.
9:00 Called my parents
9:05-10:15 Read 3 articles for the Diversity session tomorrow on sexual orientation in schools
10:15-10:20 surfed the internet, began writin this blog
10:20-10:45 Talked to parents

Finishing this blog. Going to bed. It all starts again at 7:15 tomorrow.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Father's Day




Hi all,


Happy Father's Day! Today is a day to celebrate fathers everywhere and in every capacity. I have been thinking about fathers lately, I guess with the death of Tim Russert on Friday and the fact that several of my friends do not have fathers, or "traditional" fathers. It made me really appreciate my own dad.


I get emotional thinking about it because as I have grown up, I have come to realize how lucky I am to have the dad I have.


I love you, Dad.




Friday, June 6, 2008

The Moon


I took this picture of the moon tonight out my living room window! I thought it was cool! Unlike the temperatures! It is soooooo HOT! Thank goodness my Dad is coming tomorrow to put in my air conditioner - heat index is supposed to reach 110 F tomorrow! AH! Everybody stay cool.....

Well, it has been an interesting week. Wednesday I went to my parents because I had to get some grading done and I needed a place to actually be outside. I was missing some necessary Vitamin D and just needed to be in the "country." It was great! Instead of grading, I walked around all my mom's gardens, took note of how my clematis was doing, picked some peonies and took pictures of some of my favorites. I got a gorgeous picture of a big fat bumble bee on a bleeding heart! Anyway, so when I settled down to do some exam grading, I set myself up on the porch and commenced. 15 minutes later a massive storm erupted with lightning, gale-force winds and so much water it looked like it was power-washing the driveway! Of course, knowing me, I took my exams inside and went back outside to watch the storm blow through. I LOVE thunderstorms. There is something so exciting about never knowing when the next lighting will flash and the next thunder will boom. I analyze which direction the storm is coming from, take note of the fog lifting from the valley across the street, watch the bunnies scurry into the woods after being startled by a loud thunder crack.

Then I thought.....wait.

ALL MY WINDOWS IN MY APARTMENT ARE WIDE OPEN!!!! AHHHH!!!!

To my horror when I arrived home later that night, there was a wide swath of puddles and wet carpet about 4 feet under all my windows. I had to quickly get my carpet off my hardwood floors - this entailed moving furniture - and putting my only fan on the carpet to try to get it to dry. This is difficult I might add when it is 80 degrees with 90% humidity in your apartment (at 8pm at night and you have yet to make your gifts for the seniors that are graduating tomorrow!) Oh joy. After realizing there was nothing more I could do, I set to distraction, which I might add, I am pretty good at. I sat there in my kitchen with all my crafting tools - paper, scissors, ribbon, glue, glitter and stamps and made little jars for my seniors. Inside the jars were strips of paper that they had written to each other telling each girl how awesome they are. They loved it, and that is what counts....not that I got to bed at 1am. :-)

Oh, and I forgot to mention that my check engine soon light came on in my car on the way to my parents. I had that looked at today and for a low, conservative, just what absolutely has to get done price of $500, I got it fixed. FYI, there goes the credit card again. :-( and the money I was saving for a chair for the living room.

Oh yea, and because of the severe water damage, my cable box is broken...no TV, which I am actually happy about, besides the fact that I would like to get that fixed, its been good not to have it to distract me.....see, I am writing this blog at 9:45pm on a Friday instead of watching a made-for-TV-movie. Huh.

Needless to say, tomorrow I am getting the cable fixed, my Dad is coming to put in the air conditioner, my car is fixed (I think!...) and I still have grading to do. whew.

Wow, I feel better getting that off my chest. :-) Hope everybody else is doing just fine!
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Thursday, June 5, 2008

JK Rowling

So I was on Boston.com (my homepage) and it said that JK Rowling was the graduation speaker at Harvard. Here is a clip of her remarks....very good!!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Obama claims Democratic nomination - Decision '08- msnbc.com

Obama claims Democratic nomination - Decision '08- msnbc.com

Obama!

Well, the news came quickly today. Barack Obama has secured the Democratic Nomination for President of the United States.

Now. I have been thinking about this all afternoon and evening. I voted in the MD primary for Hillary. I voted for Hillary because I couldn't NOT vote for a woman when I had the chance in the voting booth. I will always remember the moment I cast my vote for a woman to be President. It's personal. And I think that every woman (or African American) can understand that this is what this campaign season has been about - Breaking those glass ceilings. That being said, I just have just finished watching Obama's speech and I have to tell you, I was moved. I am excited and energized by the notion of an African American man being President. This is history! This IS a moment. A new beginning. We as a country, as a society, have come so far over the last 40 years, it really is unbelievable and is a true testament to the hearts and minds of the people that make up this country. I am proud to be an American tonight and it has been a long time since I felt this kind of pride for our country. It is special to be witnessing this historical moment and hopefully the moments ahead in the next few months with the victory of Obama over John McCain. I felt inspired listening to him speak (Click here if you want to read his speech)because he reminds us of what is great about America. He reminds us that we can do wonderful things when we put our best hearts and minds forward. He reminds us that division amongst us only tears us down, pitting Democrats against Republicans and Republicans against Democrats. I am so tired of the right wing evangelical rhetoric that has been ruling our country because it is hypocritical and divisive. Obama gives me hope because he has done something tonight that I (in my pessimism) didn't think was possible. If he can do this, what can't he do???

So Hillary. Good fight. YOU ARE THE WOMAN! I have no doubts you will continue to lead this country in some capacity - VEEP? But I have to give it up to Obama tonight and throw my energy and support toward the nominee. It is time to move forward toward November. Let's re-focus. Let's come together. Let's prevent another 4 years of Bush rule!

These are the closing thoughts for tonight....feels good to get it out there. :-)

Sunday, June 1, 2008

Good news!


So this weekend has been absolutely wonderful. On Friday I went with Jami to the Orioles v. Red Sox game at Camden Yards. It was so much fun, we had great seats and a wonderful view! I was sincerely hoping Manny Ramirez would hit his 500th homerun while were there (so did the other Red Sox fans!), but he didn't and we left disappointed in that area. But the game went into extra innings and we left in the 12th. The Red Sox finally pulled it out in the 13th. It was so much fun!!! I love my Red Sox.

Yesterday I had Ubah, Katie and Stephanie over for dinner and then Katie and Ubah stayed over night. We had a good time catching up and hearing all of Ubah's stories of Copenhagen and her trip. They got to see my apartment and I was so happy for them all to be there.

This afternoon, I am trying to motivate finishing up grading and getting ready for next week.

On Friday some exciting news! My friend Mandy and her husband just a baby on Friday. So exciting! I can't wait to see him. I think that is the last of the babies for now. Three in three months. Whew! :-)