A Weekend of Rain

My new running shoes arrived yesterday. Friday night I fell asleep dreaming of my long run, the loop up hill and down from home, through Lincoln Park and back home. But I wanted to break my shoes in, not baptize them in puddles. So I waited till 10:00. The rain took a pause and I ran. North to Roxbury, then east to 19thSW and meandered south onto Shorewood Dr. watching the west view of small boats on the Sound and wisps of cloud decorating the trees on Vashon, turning north on 26th, a 5 mile run in all. I was hardly in the door and the rain began again and it has been consistent, filling the rain gauge to above the half inch mark.

The work week was full. Thursday was picture day honestly, this is the cutest bunch of 5 year olds I have ever seen. So many of them seem really small for their age and very naive or, quite honestly, are babied at home. I have 5 boys that I can think of off the top of my head, that are the youngest in their families and they sure do act it! Taking turns and cleaning up after themselves are totally foreign ideas and of course they think that wrestling on the carpet or playground is the only way to play. Yes this is definitely an immature group. They were all fancied up with party dresses on some girls and three fauxhawks on boys, one which was gold! They smiled adorably for the camera, but I always ask for a funny face photo:



On Thursday evening we had our curriculum night and a disappointing total of 11 families represented the 50 kindergartners. This, I think, was the poorest showing in my 18 years at this building. Why? I can only speculate; new boundaries were drawn for assigning attendance, parents are given less choice in where to send their children to school. When drawing from the immediate neighborhood of our school you get a lot more diversity, more bilingual families, and more low income families and they just don't read everything that goes home (I know this by looking at the untouched papers crammed into the bottoms of backpacks and homework folders). I have fewer responses to requests for volunteers this year too; there are less stay at home moms in this group. Fortunately there are two parents available to volunteer for Science which is a HUGE relief. There is no way an investigative program can work without breaking the students into small groups to encourage conversation. In addition to time in the classroom I had one IEP meeting and one SIT meeting before school. On Friday we had professional development in Writers Workshop (out of Columbia College). This is the second time for me...I love the program but there simply is not enough time in the school day to have 45 minutes to an hour of writing on top of the minutes or Math and Reading. We are going to adapt it to our schedule but we certainly won't be purists.

Now it is Saturday and yes, it is still raining. We passed the two inch mark on the rain gauge!
I am off to a presentation at church about Our Lady of Guadalupe. In a couple hours though, we have a Packer game to watch which I hope will be the best part of my Sunday!

More Rain

Good thing I did my yard work yesterday. Today was a perfect day for baking in my new Frigidaire Gallery oven. I made Zucchini Banana Tea Bread. By time I got the batter put together it was time for me to dash off to church so I used the 'time bake' feature and it worked perfectly. It is so nice to walk into a kitchen on a rainy day and smell something sweet coming from the oven. This afternoon I think I will roast a chicken. I thought I would miss my vintage electric range but apparently not. I am having fun relearning about cooking with gas. There me be a few sun breaks today but even so I had better stick inside and get my class assessment data organized and there is laundry to fold and dusting which is endless. But maybe I will let the dust sit and read a 30 or 40 pages in Freedom.

Fall Rain

The fall rain is already here. It poured and poured all last night, at least a half inch worth. But this morning we awoke to sunny skies and raindrops sparkling on every leaf and flower and on the multitude of spider webs. The amount of spiders in Seattle is ridiculous. Every morning we are dodging new webs. The one in the photo is a Garden Spider. Yes, that is it's name. They eat lots and lots of insects but they do bite too and the hard red welt lasts longer than a mosquito bite. I pruned and trimmed all afternoon and I managed to avoid getting bit. Now the rain has begun again; good thing I got my yard work (and a very pleasant 4 mile run) done today.

Fall Is...

Fall is back to school time. My 'back to school' bouquet is of zinnias and sunflowers and two delicate purple scabiosas. They were in my garden beds shouting "Pick me, pick me!" like the hands of so many new kindergartners waving in the air in my classroom. I am one short of being totally full in my classroom. (That is kind of like one short of a full deck.) 27 wiggly, sometimes teary, sometimes sleepy, kindergarten students are assigned to me. Every kindergarten class in Seattle is close to full or is overflowing this fall. Some schools have added an extra classroom of K students. My students are more diverse than ever. Nine receive ELL services: Oromo, Arabic, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Somali are the languages they speak at home. This does not include the Samoan, Cambodian, Filipino, and Japanese students who are at a reasonably proficient level of English but they use at least some of their mother tongue at home and most definitely their home culture is not like mine. There are 15 boys and 12 girls. Three of them heed directions given once, fifteen of them heed directions given twice, the nine remaining need a heap of practice. Eight school days are now tucked under our belts and I can say two things: They are working as a team more than on 'day one' and I have pinpointed exactly who is going to do their darnedest to drain me of every last bit of my time and energy. I won't be as stretched and stressed as last year but it won't be any 'walk in the park' either. My best back to school story: In the kindergarten assessment two items are: asking if the child knows his address and phone number. One little guy shook his head when asked if he knew his address, and once again, more disconsolately he said "no" to the query about his phone number. Then he perked up and exclaimed, "But I know my Facebook number!"

I Have Not...

done everything on my summer list. The garage could still use a good cleaning, I did not do all the professional reading I intended, the hedge between us and our neighbors to the east is still untrimmed, and I just may not get to hemming the western shirt that Chris recently bought.
But I did tidy the garden shed, I have been using the clothes line instead of the dryer, we picked oodles of blueberries and strawberries, our goal of converting to gas is halfway accomplished; in fact the range was ordered today, I went on nine home visits to incoming students, my classroom is set to go, plans are in place for days 1,2 and 3. On the personal improvement side I improved my Yoga practice; attending at least a dozen classes over the summer, I ran consistently (never a problem for me), I read books for pleasure; The Help, The Street, and The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I gardened for many hours and had lovely results in terms of flowers, not so much so with the vegetables; it was just too cool of a summer. Most importantly of all, I had time to visit family in Wisconsin and had friends visit me here.

People often tell me the old saw: " I know why you teach." then follow with the punch line "June, July and August." There is some truth to that but only some. The nine months in the classroom are very fulfilling to me too. I work hard, the kids do too and it is truly amazing all that they learn in the school year.

I have been intrigued by reviews of Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Freedom. Lev Grossman's Time magazine review of the novel says:

"There is something beyond freedom that people need: work, love, belief in something, commitment to something. Freedom is not enough. It's necessary but not sufficient. It's what you do with freedom — what you give it up for — that matters." Teaching is that thing beyond freedom that I need. That is why I will be less free, and quite frankly less motivated, to be writing posts. The challenges of the classroom are more consuming than ever (and I am more determined) so that is where I will put my energy and where I will sacrifice my freedom.

Kicking Back in Soap Lake

Visitors From Wisconsin

We were friends since first grade. Her last name began with M and mine with N so we always stood near each other in any alphabetical line. We had our first communions together, she went to every birthday party and we had sleepovers at the Y together and we were in the same swimming class. For a while we even thought we were mermaids and we took synchronized swimming classes. We got our first 'real' jobs at about the same time in the kitchen of a hospital, serving meals to patients and washing dishes in a monstrous, steamy dishwasher. I should have asked her if she remembered the time one of us threw a ball of mashed potatoes into the fan just to see what would happen, or the the times on hot days when we would take breaks in the walk in refrigerator and sneak bites of the cookie dough. We lived in different neighborhoods, went to different high schools and she went to Madison for college and I stayed in Green Bay. I always liked going to Madison for music and 'party times' with her and our other BF, Sue. When I moved to San Francisco, they visited me. She married and moved to the north woods of Wisconsin. And Chris and I chose the west coast and city life in Seattle to begin our life together. Sometimes the connections between friends becomes thin through distance and the passage of time. Those yearly Christmas cards and emails are that last little hook to keep us connected. But sometimes, if you are very lucky, the stars line up perfectly, and a visit happens. You get to laugh about old escapades, cook together in your kitchen, and share your home and city with with your childhood friend.

98.6 is Too Hot For Me

It may be normal body temperature but for air temperature, 98.6 is too hot for me. This is day two of 90+ weather in Seattle. It is challenging to be productive in weather like this. I did manage to rinse and freeze the last of the 29 pounds of berries that Chris and I picked on Thursday.

It was foggy on Thursday when we left for berry picking in North Bend. Note the nifty new signs that display the rate of speed in each lane. Not exactly correct though. We were going 15 in a lane that said 40.



New highway signs weren't the only signs of progress. McDonald's is now sorting it's garbage along with the rest of Seattle.



It was sunny and very busy with plenty of pickers. Mt Si was lovely as always. The berries were big and plentiful. It was easy work made twice as easy by having Chris along.




A perfect berry piking day always ends with lunch or at least ice cream from Scott's Dairy Freeze. Their blackberry shakes are my favorite!







Today it was beginning to smell like the inside of a pie when you walked into the kitchen. Speaking of pies, I did refrigerate enough berries and crush enough graham crackers, to put together a pie later tonight when hopefully, the kitchen cools down a bit. I washed a load of sheets and have them hanging on the lines under the deck. I am sure they are bone dry but it is just scorching out there so I will stay here in the cool retreat of the basement. It is cool and it is clean. I have vacuumed and washed the floors and scrubbed away every spider and web from the corners. This is no small feat in late summer when spiders and webs abound. I have no trouble believing that spiders make new webs daily. It is my mission to keep them outside where I consider them my garden friends instead of foes. The frenzy of cleaning is in preparation for a visit from a childhood friend Jeanne, and her husband Dan. It is good to get major cleaning out of the way before school starts and my life as a teacher eats away at most of my time. I am also finishing up the last of my pleasure reading (The Street by Ann Perry) for the summer, and overlapping with some professional reading (Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov.

Time to refill my tea glass and I think I'll get my book...guess which one!

A Taste of Summer

Now I can say I have had, at the least, a taste of summer. I escaped Seattle's cool gray weather and visited friends and relatives in Wisconsin. In addition to warmer weather I had more than my share of decadent food. Perch WITH BONES if you please, and a slice of onion on rye bread from Maricques. (Read the review. It describes the fried perch experience perfectly.)



And an award winning breakfast of cherry stuffed French Toast at the White Gull Inn in Door County.




Sweet Corn that was tender and so tasty with a slathering of real butter. This corn is at Green Bay's Broadway Farmer's Market, held every Wednesday in summer. It is probably delicious but my mom is insistent that we get our corn from the stand at Sunny Hill which is within 5 miles of home. You can't get much fresher than that.



Sharing a meal, reuniting with cousins; lovely ladies one and all.



More food around campfires up north with relatives:





And picnics at the beach between rounds of swimming and tubing:



Dinner at Legends Brew Pub with my childhood friend, Sue. It had been SO long; more years than I can recall since we last had time to sit at a table share food and talk, talk, talk!



Of course I had to stop at Renards to buy cheese.



And now, you guessed it, this post has left me hungry. I think I will go upstairs and eat just a few of those cheese curds.

More Proof...

...that SEX sells. I titled this photo 'Flowers Are Sexy' on my Flickr account and it got 15 views, which is a lot for me, in less than a day! It is a huge pumpkin blossom. Did you know that the blossoms on the long stems are male and the ones on short stems are female? This is the best site ever for information on growing pumpkins!

The Livin' Is Easy

It was a perfect day for dog walking and friends talking, and that is what I did. Emik, my friend Beth's husky, sure liked his shower and he was very popular with the kids on the beach.

July 23rd 2010, Alki

July 23rd 2010, Alki
Originally uploaded by mtnester.

Now THIS is the summer weather we have all been waiting for! Yesterday was a perfect day for a walk along Alki and today looks to be a carbon copy. But it will be a whole lot more crowded as it is a Saturday and the Art Walk is happening.

Hydrangeas Are Blooming

I know I take the same garden pictures every year and sometimes I think I should leave well enough alone and be happy with my pictures of last year's flowers. But the hydrangeas with their huge floppy heads that look like they should be on some 1950's Easter bonnet, just beg to be photoed. They are the perfect shade garden flower. They look cool, mature, and dignified; unlike the big blooms of spring, the rhododendrons, those rowdy show offs of vibrant color in April and May.


This climbing hydrangea smells wonderful when warmed by a bit of afternoon sun.



The Lady in Red has long red stems that flop to the ground in a tangle with the weight of its blooms. She is under the apple tree and this is really quite a sorry bed. I must rethink that area and get the 'lady' some more suitable companion plants.




Lime foliage always shows off blues and purples to perfection.

A Tidy Shed

Every summer 'Clean out the shed' is on my list of chores. This time I think it took 2 years before I tackled it. The day started out gray and cold. The sun did not appear till about 2:00. That was a relief. Cleaning the shed is like working in an attic; no fun on a hot day. So now you see the plastic pots are stacked and stored;

Implements are hung, sort of by highest or similar use.


And best of all, a shelf and the potting table are free of clutter. The shelf and table will hold plants that need to wintered over and seedlings that need an inside start in early spring. At least that is my plan.


I should have taken a 'before' photo. It was a mess! The other half that houses the mower, the the blower, the power saw and wheel barrow...that is Chris' responsibility. It's time to put my feet up!

The Elusive Summer

It is here one day and gone the next. Summer is not taking hold here like it usually does. None of those days on end of blue skies and 72 degree weather. I walked to the end of Seola beach Drive to see the fireworks on the 4th wearing my garden boots and a raincoat that fell to my knees AND I had a sweatshirt on underneath the raincoat. Then we had three days of glorious hot, HOT weather with windows open, shades down, and fans whirring: Anna Rae even decided it was easier to sleep in the basement one night, rather than toss and turn in her breeze less bedroom. Then back to clouds a drizzle or two in the morning and today it is noon and "Tadah!" the sun is out, so off we go, on a hike to Rattlesnake Ridge.

It was an easy hike and as always, well populated with people of every age and fitness level; from a baby in a front pack that looked to be no more than a month old, to aging men puffing along, their beer bellies shiny with sweat. At the ridge there were about 15 to 20 people. I always try not to watch the people. I get all nervous when I see someone getting close to the edge. Last year someone DID fall to their death from the ledgee (fortunately I was not there to see it). The hikers I was most impressed with were two little boys no more than 3 years old. Their parents were not carrying them and there they were; about a quarter mile left to get to the top. They were not moving fast but they did not seem daunted. Once we returned to the bottom of the trail Anna Rae took a swim. It was too cold for me!

Day 178

June 22nd marked the last day of the 2009-10 school year. Considering that the chemistry of personalities and learning abilities in this class made for a year of sturm und drang for me it was an easy ending. On Wednesday I dusted cabinets, put away books, took down posters, rolled the document camera into storage and cleared my desktop of every checklist, teacher's manual, pencil, eraser, coffee cup, band aid and love note (and the not so nice note in which boy A threatens to beat up boy B at recess). I think back on this year and shed no tears although I will be happy to greet more than one of them in the fall with a great big hug as they travel on to their first grade classroom. In many an end of year letter to the kindergarten families I say that I learn right alongside my students. I am sure I learned more about teaching 'special children' in this past year than in all my 26 previous years combined. When we looked at data at the end of the year, both kindergartens came out as "well above average" for the growth index of our classes. This means that while not every child has a high RIT score (Far from it!), as a class they showed huge gains over their fall scores on MAP.I also remember the unhappy first day of school for one little boy; he would not accept a sticker from me for some work he had done. He yelled "I don't want this sticker! I don't belong in this school! I belong in a jail school!" He then stomped over to the coat hooks, grabbed his coat and I had to get the principal because I thought he was going to bolt. How different he was on the last the day of school when he stood as close as he could to me asking, "Can I be here?" The rest of the class was seated on the carpet, festival style (which means wherever they wanted). Yes, he still has anxiety, and stands, wiggles and jiggles, more than he sits, but he loves school and he has not spoken disparagingly of himself in months. That is worth more than any data can tell me. The first grade teachers can thank their lucky stars because we split up the characters that were like oil and water with one another. Also, one autistic child has moved out of the district and another who should be tested because he certainly is 'on the spectrum' will be transferring to another school. I know I will be hearing from THEIR teachers! I told the Special Ed. teacher that if it were not for the fact that she, along with Instructional Assistants and my team teaching partner, had also witnessed and worked with the challenges of my 09-'10 class, I might think it was all a bad dream.