Saturday, October 30, 2004

Let the Feasting Begin!


Let the Feasting Begin!
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

















The Dark Becomes Us


The Dark Becomes Us
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
We just got home from the pumpkin carving party at Liz and Eric's house. The scary 'Jack' in the middle is the same pumpkin you saw growing on the vine in my backyard in August. He is big and incredibly heavy even now that he is carved. And I did the carving this year! Not terribly original but I think he has a touch of the fierce, 'don't mess with me' attitude that I wanted.

Saturday, October 23, 2004

2 Months Down

Anna Rae has been gone 2 months now. For the most part, time has passed quickly for her dad and I. The business of ordinary life, the work-a-day world, keeps our minds occupied. Twice last week I was at school organizing and cleaning up until 7:00 at night. How is it that the principal can go home at 4:30 or 5:00 and at least 1 or 2 of us peon teachers are there till 6:00 and beyond? I wouldn't mind so much but this year he wants to practically 'sit in our laps' as we teach. I really don't get it. Granted, he is going to be starting to teach one of our reading groups as of next week. What I resent is his attitude towards planning. He sits down and basically says "Ok, What will you be teaching in literacy next week? And then he tries to 'DIFFERENTIATE' (teacher lingo for 'jack it up' or 'rachet it down' depending on the ability of the students). Manolive! He's got the highest ability group, nothing but joy, the easiest of easy to teach and feel rewarded. I sure hope he plans on bringing more to the 'planning table' as weeks go on or I may blow a gasket and tell him just what he can do with all this 'extra' planning time he is giving us. It is NOT saving me any time! Instead of having to explain lessons to just my teaching partner, I have 2 tutors, 1 Instructional Assistant and now a Principal to tell what to do. Give me back a half hour of prep time and a closed door...I am ready to take it! OK. I have vented. Now in spite of all this I must say that I like Mr. N. as a person and there is no denying that he has been a boon to the publicity for our school. He is energetic, constantly looking for 'cutting edge' curriculum training, relates well to children and parents, listens, and is improving at hearing the viewpoints of teachers, and of course being a fellow 'cheesehead' he has a cultural background I can sort of understand. I do normally, love my job. I think that having an unusually tough class as well as several schedule changes are taking their toll on me. On Monday my 28th student joins our class and that will 'cap it off'. On a lighter note: 5 year old 'L' clutched his stomach on Thurs. and told me in his broken English that "A crab is in my belly doing this" (he made pinching movements with his hand) It only got worse and when he went to the nurse's office he told the health care assistant that "Two crabs are fighting in my belly." The two crabs complaint was enough to warrant a phone call home suggesting a day of bed rest!
On the home front...This morning I went to Spinning Class; my third one this week! In the afternoon I raked moss out the lawn, pulled lots of dandelions, pruned a few bushes, and hunted around till I found 'premium' grass seed as suggested by the natural lawn care program put on by King County. It is a blend of fescue grass seed and I found it at Herr Garden Care Center in Normandy Park. As I went on the search for the seed I stopped at Kirk's Feed Store in Burien. Old Burien is definitely going upscale although when you step into Kirk's you still feel like the guy behind the counter has got to be a 'hayseed' who knows everything there is to know about livestock, poultry, feed and fertilizer. Just across the way is a new shop that sells European ceramics and gift items. They have lots of beautiful dinnerware from
Tuscany and jewelry from outside Florence. They also have a variety of Italian olive oils and wines. Seeing these things made me all the more resolute in my endeavors to save money for a possible trip to Europe this summer!

Thursday, October 14, 2004

In The Mail


In The Mail
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
After much deliberation and a couple of exchanges, the 'Birthday Box' was put together. It actually came out to a reasonable weight of about 4 and half pounds. We hope you enjoy the surprises
inside, Anna Rae!

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Where is Anna Rae?


Where is Anna Rae?
Originally uploaded by mtnester.
Pei Pei misses Anna Rae. He has been with her for every birthday since her original
Birth Day. Time to do some shoping he says. Birthday 17 is only 31 days away!

Monday, October 04, 2004

What is a turnip?

School is just breezing along. This is a fun group of 5 year olds. There are a few feisty ones and they all need to work on the social things that most kindergarten need to work on: sharing, using respectful language towards each other, walking in the classroom, keeping their hands to themselves in lines, sneezing into the 'crook' of their arm or a tissue instead of blowing snot and a bazillion germs all over the unfortunate person across from them BUT they are good at discussions, lots of eager hands raised and pretty articulate vocabularies from the English speaking children.
Yet there is always at least one funny story a week where they didn't quite hit the mark on understanding a word. Last week's was turnip. I was preparing to read The Enormous Turnip and asked if anyone knew what a turnip was. One little boy, in his most authoritative tone told us "It's a bug like an ant that eats wood." At first I was totally puzzled at how he could possible be so far off the mark because we had been talking about foods prior to when I asked the question. Then it dawned on me, he was thinking termite instead of turnip. Fortunately we had a real turnip to look at and taste (not a favorite food for any of them) after the story! Now we have a turnip rooting in a jar of water in the classroom window. Hopefully by watching and commenting on it's growth over the next couple weeks they will all know what a turnip
is. Fall is definitely here. Many of the yellow leaves in the neighborhood have already fluttered to the ground. Every morning for a week now we have awakened to thick fog and the sound of the foghorns. By afternoon it burns off and the rest of the day is lovely. I picked the big pumpkin and planted a few perennials that I bought on sale as well as 150 tulips. I have 50 more yet to plant.
On Saturday I walked in the 3rd annual walk for Hospitality House, a shelter in Burien for homeless women. We think that a total of 5,700 dollars was made.
Well, I am at work writing and I see the clock says 5:10. I had best head home because the electrician will be there to do some work in the stairwell of our basement. All of you friends and relatives have a wonderful week!
Hey did you notice...I fixed that link to Teaching In Thailand. I have to brag, I did it without anyone's advice!