Hee.
I haven't posted for a week or so, being so busy with Christmas preparations. Our first holiday-related company may arrive today, on their way west to Vancouver. Christmas eve will be spent in Chicago (that's our big meal and gathering). Probably on Christmas day itself we will work on slightly overdue Christmas greeting cards.
- 12:30 Grabbed some @ChinaGlaze. No Wizard collection. Boo! (@ Sally's Beauty Supply) 4sq.com/7PVnp3 #
- 12:32 I just unlocked the "Explorer" badge on @foursquare! 4sq.com/4v6E3K #
- 13:41 I think I've managed to lose my insurance card. Fuckola. #
- 13:57 Insurance card DID fall out of my purse, but it's been located, so I'll go get it tomorrow. So annoying that I dropped it! #
- 14:31 Holy shit! Amazon mp3 Deal of the Day is Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon for only $1.99! bit.ly/7cUM1j #
- 16:48 Kid gets revenge on sister by posting her list of all the guys she wants to sex. FB comments are awesome. ow.ly/OIbD (via @jeffbalke) #
- 17:13 Annoyed that my stupid prescription is not covered by my insurance ($50!). Waiting to hear back from the doctor if there are alternatives. #
- 19:19 Going to go try & play through the @RockBand Endless Set List with no pauses or failings so wish me luck. Will be back when done in 6 hours! #
- 01:51 Finished the 6 hour & 10 minute @RockBand Endless Setlist 2 with no pausing or failing. Got 5 stars on every song on Medium. My hand hurts. #
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I was watching a show on Hawaii with my parents tonight on the Smithsonian Channel (they get waaayy cooler channels than I do), and watching a surfer catch a wave, thinking, “That’s physics in action.” The way the surfer has to understand the physical motion of the wave, calculating for speed and force, adding in the importance of placement for the perfect balance at the point where the wave crests and the barrel is just beginning. It was utterly beautiful.
My students believe that physics is something in a classroom lab. It doesn’t exist outside the walls of the school. Neither do the reading strategies I offer them, the scientific process, the history lessons they learn, or the books they read. They kind of understand that they’ll have to do math in the “real world”, but since they have calculators, even that is beginning to show a real loss of importance. I have no way of showing them the applications of what we learn in school because of the very fact that we are in school.
Upon reflection, I am beginning to realize just how important a field trip really is. Not only is it a way to emphasize a lesson’s worth outside the classroom walls, it is ideal for information synthesis. One of the things I really think we are missing in schools is the ability to show the students that nothing is in isolation. It’s like all of the lessons are in a vacuum, and I think there is a great importance in showing how the idea of physics meets surfing or shipbuilding, how history is related to literature and psychology and politics, how chemistry is related to art and music.
I wonder if the idea of field trips was no longer considered a 4-letter word would our students begin to naturally acquire the skills and thoughts we find so important? That real world application seems to be lacking in the current model – and I think to the students’ disadvantage.
What's your favorite holiday memory?
When I was still living in Syracuse, my uncle, who lived outside of DC (who passed away two years ago), would come up to Syracuse on 23 December and stay with my grandparents. Then he would come and visit at our house early enough for coffee on Christmas Eve, and he and I would take off for the mall to take care of any remaining Christmas shopping.
I would take care of the outer reaches of the family with his help, and I helped him to figure out what to get my parents and brother. Also, some kind of gag gift was required between him and my mom, so we had to find something repulsive or jumpy/scary. By the afternoon, we'd have a late lunch and head back to the ranch.
We carried that tradition on the few times he came to Florida after we moved here, but he tended to head north to my aunt's up in the Tug HIll Plateau so he could visit other friends, too. It's the thing I miss the most, and I never really got why people got "blue" at Christmas until he passed and I didn't get that special time with him anymore.
The picture here is the last one I have of us, after several rounds of chemo on his part and being stuck in a wheelchair from this point forward. He didn't like photos being taken of him in that state, but he did it for me.
- 15:20 I hate how any time anything at all is wrong with me I immediately go into "OMG I HAVE A FATAL DISEASE AND AM GOING TO DIE!" mode. So crazy. #
- 17:42 @RG_Studios: Do you have to have an Xbox to do testing or can PS3 users participate? #
- 17:46 @RG_Studios: Bummer! I submitted a QA application anyway but figured it wasn't open for PS3 users. Looking forward to it being PS3 too. :-) #
- 20:07 @jeffbalke @btruax @JenXer: I haven't been there in years, so I could be persuaded. Couldn't make it until 8ish, though, probably. #
- 20:49 Calling all peeps! It's #LubbFest Wednesday night at Absinthe! Join us! @JenXer @TheWynk @thisisnotapril @cybertoad @jeffbalke are in! #
- 23:00 @ComcastCares: Are you down in 77373? I can't get online. Have rebooted router and modem several times. #
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Some vile child got me sick the day before we left for winter break, and so I've been lying on the couch for the last three days with nothing to do but watch tv, surf the internet, read.... Okay, I haven't been bored. But I have been thinking of all the things that happened over the past year that seem like a lot when I put it all together:
January: I opened the New Year in Raleigh with family and found a lump on my breast that ended up sucking most of my time and energy for the next three months. I also began co-directing my first show at the school!
February: Between mammograms, ultrasounds and biopsies, I was busy trying to keep up with the show and rehearsals with no caffeine (part of the deal finding a lump...*snort* one of the hardest parts)
March: Was decided that I had fibrocystic breast disease; no surgury needed at this time (though almost certainly in the future). Our show, "All Shook Up", was a huge hit!
April: Quiet month...after the first 3, I needed it.
May: Graduated from USF with my MAT in English Ed. Signed up for the Breast Cancer 3-Day. Goal - raise $2500 for the Susan G Komen Foundation and walking 60 miles in 3 days.
June: All plans to move to NC were put on hold since NC had a hiring freeze for most school districts. Maybe next year. Travelled with my cousin: Raleigh to Birmingham to Dallas to Oklahoma City to Nashville to Asheville back to Raleigh. Found out that tough love is harder to dish than previously thought.
July: 2nd road trip, this time with Mom for other cousin's wedding in upstate NY. Went to the wedding, got to see all sorts of family, got my "home" fix, then Mom and I went down to VA to the Shenandoah National Park and camped for 3 days. Had my first panic attack in years on Skyline Drive. Embarrassing. Then went to Culpepper, VA to wander and pick up furniture from my late uncle's secretary. She has a beautiful little farm REALLY far off the beaten path.
August: Training for Springboard (sense my *ewww*), getting the worst start to a school year ever, and really beginning to realize I was stuck in this rotting hellhole for yet ANOTHER year.
September: Pretty low point. Just tried to make it through.
October: Breast Cancer 3-Day walk!!! Spent most free time training for the event.
November: Met Greg for our first NCTE Conference - which I loved- in Philadelphia - which I didn't. Travelled to Conneticuit, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and spent more hours than I ever thought I would at Mystic Seaport (do that, if you're in the area, even if you think you don't like ships). Then spent Thanksgiving in NYC with my brother and his new fiancee. That part was awesome :-) Also, bought my new car!
December: Went to my first district theatre competitions as the drama club co-sponser, where the kids rocked and began co-directing the second musical ("25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee") and our One Act piece, "Forbidden Broadway". Got my first illness of the year and will be spending my first break at home since 2004.
Not bad, eh? No wonder I'm tired. Thanks to all who helped to get me through it...I couldn't have made it through the first part, especially, without your support and prayers!!! Let's pray for a wonderful 2010...and just as eventful! :-)
