I spent all day baking Chocolate Chip Walnut and Oatmeal White Chocolate Cranberry Nut cookies. And pumpkin bread. Oh yum. I make the best pumpkin bread ever. I mean that. Tomorrow I'm making Mint Cherry Shortbread Cookies that are dipped in white chocolate and so so good. And Coconut macaroons.
I made my grandma's Almond Rocca today too. It's my specialty. Adrienne wants orange peel candy, but I'm not sure I'll have the time or stamina to make it in time for Christmas. Kevin's birthday is tomorrow. We're going to dinner and to see the new National Treasure movie. We have one movie theater here, with one screen, and the movie sometimes doesn't change for two or three weeks. Lucky there's a good one for Kevin's birthday!
His folks are coming to town tomorrow and staying through the day after Christmas. They're taking the baby back to Vegas with them for a few days and Adrienne and Nick are going to visit their dad for their winter break.
That means I have ten days, no kids, no work. I'm going to miss them. I'm going to love being able to write with out anyone pulling on my sleeve. Ten days, ya'll. That's 240 hours.
Showing posts with label Adrienne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adrienne. Show all posts
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
More about teaching
I had my last "strategies for substitute teaching" class yesterday afternoon. I signed up for this two-weekend, one-credit class before I knew that I was going to be a sub. Turned out to be excellent timing.
I'd like to share with you an example of why I'm having a hard time to committing to being a teacher. Today we got copies of two actual sub plans from two high school teachers in Elko. One of them had an entire paragraph about "if the student asks to go to the nurse, the bathroom, or the their locker the answer is NO" and "don't be afraid to be mean." The other wasn't much better, with explicit directions not to lend out pencils or pens (so I guess a kid who forgot just gets to sit there for almost two hours??) and against the ban against bathroom use.
I learned a lot of good information in that class about graphic organizers and how to engage students in learning. But for Jesus. The teacher's are talking about kids who are at least 14 and some 18 or even 19. They can't go to the bathroom? Why are teachers so obsessed with student's bodily functions?
I don't want to be that teacher. I promised myself yesterday that if I ever become a teacher, I will not ever deny a kid access to the damn bathroom.
I'm still reading that book by John Taylor Gatto. He has an essay in there where he talks about the difference between school and libraries. In libraries every one has equal access to resources, the librarian never dumbs anyone down or makes decisions about what they can and can't read certain books or learn certain things. Librarians make no judgment calls about a person or their abilities based on what they read. Libraries are completely free, equally to all people. Librarians are available and usually eager to help when asked, but don't force help on a person unsolicited. People of varying ages and abilities can all use the library at the same time with great success. Library's have bathrooms available with no restriction on them what so ever. As a result, even "bad" kids respect the library. You never hear about escalating library violence or library shootings. Vandalism in libraries is very rare.
One of the reasons Gatto points to, to explain the differences between school and library behavior, is that librarians dispense real books and schools dispense textbooks. He calls textbooks pre-thought thoughts. The questions in them have the adverse consequence of making sure that kids don't learn much more than what the questions are asking.
On another note, Adrienne found the website for Phillips Exeter Academy yesterday. Exeter is an exclusive, top-level boarding school in New Hampshire. And they offer free tuition and room and board to students who are accepted and have a family income of less than $75,000. She got excited and spent the whole afternoon talking about what it would be like to go to boarding school, and to take really hard classes that challenged her.
I told her she could apply after her sophomore year if she still wants to. She'll have to study over the next year because her PSAT scores will play a huge part. And also work on building a resume of extracurriculars and community service. But when she goes into the eleventh grade she'll be 17, less than six months younger than I was when I graduated from high school. If she wants to go to a school on the East Coast and can make it happen she'll be old enough to do it then.
There's a book called Guerrilla Learning by Amy Silver and Grace Llewellyn that talks about how important it is for families to not think of school as the kids only, or even main, source of learning. And it talks about giving kids freedom to do what is important to them. Something that is important to Adrienne is good teachers. Exeter teachers are passionate about their work because they are teaching what they love. Mathematicians teach math, scientists teach science. There will be no teachers at Exeter who are there because they couldn't find a job in the subject they were trained to teach. That's exciting.
Adrienne might not get into Exeter. The competition is stiff. But she's excited about the work that will go into trying.
I'd like to share with you an example of why I'm having a hard time to committing to being a teacher. Today we got copies of two actual sub plans from two high school teachers in Elko. One of them had an entire paragraph about "if the student asks to go to the nurse, the bathroom, or the their locker the answer is NO" and "don't be afraid to be mean." The other wasn't much better, with explicit directions not to lend out pencils or pens (so I guess a kid who forgot just gets to sit there for almost two hours??) and against the ban against bathroom use.
I learned a lot of good information in that class about graphic organizers and how to engage students in learning. But for Jesus. The teacher's are talking about kids who are at least 14 and some 18 or even 19. They can't go to the bathroom? Why are teachers so obsessed with student's bodily functions?
I don't want to be that teacher. I promised myself yesterday that if I ever become a teacher, I will not ever deny a kid access to the damn bathroom.
I'm still reading that book by John Taylor Gatto. He has an essay in there where he talks about the difference between school and libraries. In libraries every one has equal access to resources, the librarian never dumbs anyone down or makes decisions about what they can and can't read certain books or learn certain things. Librarians make no judgment calls about a person or their abilities based on what they read. Libraries are completely free, equally to all people. Librarians are available and usually eager to help when asked, but don't force help on a person unsolicited. People of varying ages and abilities can all use the library at the same time with great success. Library's have bathrooms available with no restriction on them what so ever. As a result, even "bad" kids respect the library. You never hear about escalating library violence or library shootings. Vandalism in libraries is very rare.
One of the reasons Gatto points to, to explain the differences between school and library behavior, is that librarians dispense real books and schools dispense textbooks. He calls textbooks pre-thought thoughts. The questions in them have the adverse consequence of making sure that kids don't learn much more than what the questions are asking.
On another note, Adrienne found the website for Phillips Exeter Academy yesterday. Exeter is an exclusive, top-level boarding school in New Hampshire. And they offer free tuition and room and board to students who are accepted and have a family income of less than $75,000. She got excited and spent the whole afternoon talking about what it would be like to go to boarding school, and to take really hard classes that challenged her.
I told her she could apply after her sophomore year if she still wants to. She'll have to study over the next year because her PSAT scores will play a huge part. And also work on building a resume of extracurriculars and community service. But when she goes into the eleventh grade she'll be 17, less than six months younger than I was when I graduated from high school. If she wants to go to a school on the East Coast and can make it happen she'll be old enough to do it then.
There's a book called Guerrilla Learning by Amy Silver and Grace Llewellyn that talks about how important it is for families to not think of school as the kids only, or even main, source of learning. And it talks about giving kids freedom to do what is important to them. Something that is important to Adrienne is good teachers. Exeter teachers are passionate about their work because they are teaching what they love. Mathematicians teach math, scientists teach science. There will be no teachers at Exeter who are there because they couldn't find a job in the subject they were trained to teach. That's exciting.
Adrienne might not get into Exeter. The competition is stiff. But she's excited about the work that will go into trying.
Friday, November 16, 2007
It's Morning Now
I've been thinking about why Adrienne seems to be able to take what works for her about high school and leave the rest behind. I really believe it is because school isn't compulsory for her. She knows that if it ever stops working for her, she can leave. She changed classes five times in the first week of school, because she wasn't willing to settle for classes that didn't work for her. She's learning French, because she wants to and would not be persuaded to study Spanish. She's learning woodworking because it's a skill she wanted to have. She's learning the drums because she's willing to wake up early and go to school for an hour before the other kids and study it.
She's there, literally, because she wants to be. I would be surprised if any of her peers at this school can say the same thing.
I have talked to a ton of students whose opinion of school is "I hate it, it sucks, it's a waste of my time." They're marking time until they graduate or are old enough to drop out. They aren't there because they want to be, they're there because they're parents say they have to be.
Maybe if the compulsory part of education were dropped, more kids would want to be there. If they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they could leave if school ever really did become useless, or too miserable of an experience to deal with, then maybe they'd be more open minded about learning.
My goal with all my kids is to raise learners. Not regurgitators of information that's been doctored to be essentially American propaganda. I want my kids to be questioners. I want them to be critical thinkers to whom the Triple A Approach (Ask questions, Assess the data, Assert an opinion) is second nature. I don't want them to take anyone's word for things, but to have a desire to form their own informed opinions.
I want them to say screw you to someone who tries to tell them they can't take a piss because they don't have the right piece of paper in their pocket.
She's there, literally, because she wants to be. I would be surprised if any of her peers at this school can say the same thing.
I have talked to a ton of students whose opinion of school is "I hate it, it sucks, it's a waste of my time." They're marking time until they graduate or are old enough to drop out. They aren't there because they want to be, they're there because they're parents say they have to be.
Maybe if the compulsory part of education were dropped, more kids would want to be there. If they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they could leave if school ever really did become useless, or too miserable of an experience to deal with, then maybe they'd be more open minded about learning.
My goal with all my kids is to raise learners. Not regurgitators of information that's been doctored to be essentially American propaganda. I want my kids to be questioners. I want them to be critical thinkers to whom the Triple A Approach (Ask questions, Assess the data, Assert an opinion) is second nature. I don't want them to take anyone's word for things, but to have a desire to form their own informed opinions.
I want them to say screw you to someone who tries to tell them they can't take a piss because they don't have the right piece of paper in their pocket.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Casey Junior
One of Ely's MANY (tongue firmly in cheek) claims to fame is the Ghost Train. At the tail end of the summer we took the kids in the summer youth program I was the director of to ride the train and my kids got to come along (Adrienne and Nick were too old to join the program and Ruby was too young.)
The train is a really awesome part of living out here. Twice a day you can hear the whistles blowing and the train making it's way slowly (SLOWLY) down the track. The steam engine goes from Ely to Ruth and the diesel engine goes from Ely to McGill. We saw a little herd of Antelope in one the bottoms that you can't see from the highway, that was real cool.
Every Christmas the steam engine gets dressed up like the Polar Express. I can hardly wait!
The train is a really awesome part of living out here. Twice a day you can hear the whistles blowing and the train making it's way slowly (SLOWLY) down the track. The steam engine goes from Ely to Ruth and the diesel engine goes from Ely to McGill. We saw a little herd of Antelope in one the bottoms that you can't see from the highway, that was real cool.
Every Christmas the steam engine gets dressed up like the Polar Express. I can hardly wait!
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