Another One? Holy Crap!

In the Abel World we are working outside often.  The front yard is in need of repair, as are the garden beds there.  The back garden bed is getting a fence to keep out the canines, lest the trample.  They’ve already succeeded in ruining and attempt to aerate the soil.  Pack pack pack they go.

The front is getting water and grass seed.  I’ve done intensive raking.  Were the house under our ownership, I would probably nix such attempts and create a waterless landscape about the trees, involving rocks and cacti/shrubs.  It would be very nice.  The front is sporting some beautiful tulips at present, and will soon contain tomato, cucumber, and pepper plants.

The back is the main garden area.  Garden stuff.  We’ll be throwing down some rye grass seed and watering periodically, but not often.  Mowing is about it for intensive work.  I can’t wait until we’re back in Michigan.  The grass grows a bit easier there.

Mediawise, I have been playing Super Mario Galaxy.  Meh.  It’s okay.  There’s a few challenges best described as minigames that are a bit fun, but overall I’m not that excited.  It’s a good story for a Mario game, and it’s nice to see Luigi get some face time, but I’m fairly underwhelmed by the Wii.  Perhaps if we ever get WiiFit as we’ve promised things will change.

Tomorrow is my first WGU test in Health and Fitness, which I will probably rock hard.  I scored quite well on the preassessment.  That was without reading any of the class materials.  Now that I’ve browsed them somewhat, I think I’ll do quite well.  I am still at a loss as to why such a class is necessary, but whatever.  I suppose I could have checked into some sort of appealling, but after my financial aid debacle, I didn’t have the energy.

Don’t know that I’ve mentioned it, but I’m getting an Alphasmart Neo.  All you can do on it is write.  Which I like.  I’ll write more about it another time.

Saw “Monsters Vs. Aliens” last night.  I kept thinking about this image. Which is a little off base, as Dreamworks does make some nice flicks.  I will agree Pixar has the better batting average.  MVA was pretty funny, but not overwhelming.  I think it could have been a lot better, but can’t think of how.

Rogue has been “fixed.”  Not that she was broken.  It requires the dreaded cone, and I’ll take pictures later on.

Just had to let her out.  Dead grass from spray.  I hate spraying and still don’t know why I did it.  I was remined of the Lorax, as I often am when I am outside.  The very ending when the Onceler says something like “And all that was left beneath the sour smelling sky, was my thneed factory, the Lorax, and I.”  It’s pretty much one of the greatest things I’ve ever written and I should probably look it up.  Ah-Ha!:

Now all that was left ‘neath the bad smelling-sky
was my big empty factory…
the Lorax…
and I.

And that’s one of the most beautifully written passages ever.  About the end of oxygen, no less.

 

Thoughts On Things

I was listening to NPR the other day and they were talking about schools.  I beleive it was the new Secretary of Education talking about education and No Child Left Behind.  He was saying the good thing about NCLB was that it brought to the fore-front the disparity in education these days.  One point he made was how silly it is to compare a 4th grade class with the last year’s 4th grade class.  Instead, we should keep with the same class and measure how the 5th graders are doing compared with how well they did as 4th graders.

Well, it got me thinking.  Why do we do things the way we do?  I’m sure there are schools that do this, but perhaps teachers should stick with the same class for more than one year.  Perhaps have the same teacher for K-1, 2-3, and 4-5 or even k-2, 3-5.  Wouldn’t that allow teachers to better guage student success and teach better to them?  All you would need to do is rotate teachers through grades – you wouldn’t need to switch classrooms or anything.  To offset the lack of scenery change, you would have to get the kids outside more often.

I would think this would work well.  Of course, in my dream outdoor school, there wouldn’t be traditional grades.  I don’t think so anyway.

I, by the way, am finally enrolled in school to start working toward my teaching certification.  Hooray!

 

The Life of the Role Model

Well, it happened again.  I was none to excited to head in for subbing today.  This morning I had pretty much written off the idea of becoming a teacher and was going to focus on writing full time.  But then I went and had a very fun day at school.  Lots of students said hello with big smiles, I got a few hugs from many who know me, and it was very fun.

You just don’t have that happen as a grad student.  I’m really good at teaching, but I don’t know that I want to do it for a very long time.  The teaching degree would certainly help me those times I want to work with kids, though.  Maybe the answer is right in front of me.  I would be quite content to be a sub – but without a certificate, my pay is lousy.  That makes me grouchy.

There are other ways, of course, to make a difference for the kiddies.  Few really have the punch that working at Skyline has had.  I see kids I know and these kids love me.  I have seen positive differences in their behavior because of my interaction with them.

And that’s where my life gets confusing.  I get so caught up in whether I should do one thing or the other, that I do neither.  I get distracted and change my mind.  There’s no real reason I can’t be a teacher and a writer.  The hardest thing is the lack of a Graduate Teaching Certificate here in OK.  I was talking to another teacher from Virginia and she mentioned it, too.

A Graduate Teaching Certification program allows you to spend and intensive one year program earning your teaching certification.  It is designed for those of us who already have a degree in something or another.  The lack of one here is very frustrating.  They do have alternative teacher certification, but it is useless out of the state.

I suppose I could always try Teach for America.

Of course, as a normal teacher the love is not as present.  Working day in and day out with the same kids grates on everyone.  Part of the reason kids are so excited to see me is that I am someone different.  I am a very strict teacher, as far as I can tell, and yet the kids respond quite well.  I do listen to them.  That helps.

It is a hot day today.  That’s all I know.