Teaching: A study in contrasts

I love being a teacher. There are so many wonderful things about this job. Usually this is where people laugh and say..."Yea, you never work weekends, you get summers and all major holidays off. Of course you love your job! What's not to love about your job?" Mostly I agree with all those people who say that.

Here's what I do love: I love my students and each class is different every year. All those personalities combine in a magical way. Sometimes that magic tends to be a bit black or maybe dark gray, but it can be magical. I love when the lights go on and they understand some new concept I've taught or we read a truly wonderful book that makes us laugh or cry together. I love discovering each of my students' strengths and cry sometimes over their weaknesses. I love being part of a classroom of learners. I love when we create poetry or art that is fabulous. I especially love when I find some new aspect of one of my students: perhaps they are the poorest reader in the class, but the art they create is beautiful. I do love not working weekends or holidays or during the summer, although summer is getting shorter and shorter as they extend the school year. I love being with my own children. Except for a few days here and there when they aren't in school, neither am I.

Here's what I don't love though.... I hate having to make CPS reports. I hate spending 30 minutes filling out the form and then spending 30 more minutes on the phone, recounting exactly what I put on the form, only to have them never to investigate what I report or find that the allegations of abuse, neglect, etc are unfounded because they waited too long to come out to see the bruises on the child's body. I hate the standardized testing. I can almost see these people in rooms maniacally rubbing their hands together cackling about how to fool 7 and 8 year olds. Approximately 6 hours of testing is far too much for children, even spreading it out over a six day period is insane. Another thing I hate having to deal with a system called, "No Child Left Behind". How can a child that has had severe brain trauma either at birth or born with some sort of problem be expected to pass a test so insanely hard that most "normal" kids struggle with.

So being a teacher isn't all its cracked up to be. There are wonderful aspects to this job, and like all jobs frustrating ones too.

The Thoughtful Men In My Life

One of Mike's friends from work who is in one of the Twenty-nine Palms wards invited Mike and the kids to go camping. It is a camp out sponsored by the Cub Scouts for families. I was gearing up to go, not feeling very happy about it, because I love sleeping in a tent, on the ground, with a bunch of people I don't know, but I wanted to make my family happy so I was going to grin and bear it.

Last night, Mike, bless his heart said, "How about I take the kids and you get to be all by yourself for a night." So he and the kids started planning our their menu of the food they would eat and Alyssa was getting really excited about this. She has never been camping in the tent, unless you count our front yard.

A few minutes later I heard Curtis softly talking to her saying, "Alyssa I think you should stay home with Mom. She'll be all by herself." I overheard this and said that I would be fine. I told Curtis that it would be fine if they both went camping. Alyssa looked at me and said, "You can be in charge and you will be not scared. Right?" I assured her that I would be just fine and since she put me in charge I wouldn't be scared.

I appreciate Curtis for thinking of me, but think it is really interesting that while he was not ready to throw himself on the sword and stay home with me, he was willing to sacrifice his sister for the cause.

You Can't Be Afraid If You're In Charge!

A few weeks ago when Mike and I went away for our anniversary, Christy spent the night here with the kids. It was very windy and Alyssa is terrified of wind. The kids didn't want to sleep in their own beds, so at first they decided they would sleep in our bed. That lasted just a few minutes. It ended up with Christy sleeping on the couch, Curtis on the love seat, and Alyssa on a bean bag. When the lights were out and they were all laying there, with the wind blowing loudly, Alyssa asked, "Who's in charge?" Christy who was probably very tired said, "Why don't you be in charge Alyssa." Christy said it got very quiet and they all went to sleep. The next morning Christy complemented Alyssa on sleeping so well. Alyssa said, "You can't be afraid if you're in charge." I thought it was wonderful that she made that connection.

Happy Aniversary

On April 8th, we celebrated 15 years of marriage. There have been wonderful experiences, two beautiful children and a wonderful new home. I am thankful for my husband and what a good man he is. He's a great dad and does so many great things for our family. I appreciate him.


The weekend before our anniversary my sisters, Christy and Maury watched the kids, so Mike and I could go away. We just went down to Palm Desert and stayed at a Marriott there. (Thank you Priceline! We got a hotel room for $65.) Mike took me to my favorite restaurant, Kobe's. It is a Japanese steak house that I love. It is kind of like Benihana where they cook the food in front of you. We also went to see, Monsters and Aliens in 3D. We had a fun night away and I know the kids enjoyed the spoiling they got from their beloved aunties!


Our actual anniversary was on a Wednesday. It was spring break for the kids and I, but not for Mike. So we decided to make it a family celebration. I made a special dinner of Mike's choosing: homemade egg rolls, vegetable fried rice, sparkling cider, and my special chocolate cake. Mike loves this cake more than anything else. I agree it is pretty good. You should make it as soon as possible and taste it!

Chocolate Brownie Torte

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 10 inch spring form pan and lightly coat pan with cocoa powder (you can also use the Pam spray for baking with flour in it.)

2. Combine 1 3/4 C. flour, 3/4 C. unsweetened cocoa, and 1/2 tsp salt in a bowl and set aside.

3. Beat 1 C. softened butter with 1 3/4 Cup sugar with the mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in 2/3 C. light corn syrup. Add 3 large eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. At low speed beat in dry ingredients, alternately with 1/2 C. milk.

5. If you want, at this point you can add 2 C. chopped pecans. I usually leave this out, because my kids hate nuts.

6. Spread batter into pan. Bake in a preheated oven for 55 -60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted 1 inch from the edge comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

7. For ganache bring 1 C heavy cream to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and add 1 8 oz. package semi sweet chocolate squares, shopped. Stir until melted. Cool completely.

8. Remove ring from pan and remove cake from bottom. Place on cake platter and tuck strips of waxed paper under the cake. Pour ganache over tope and spread with a metal spatula to cover top and side of cake. Let stand until set. Serve cake with either whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Happy Easter!

We had big, big plans for our Easter. We were going to have Mike's sister and her family over for a 9 A.M. Easter egg hunt and breakfast. I was going to make Norwegian waffles with strawberries, bacon and sausage. Then we were going to frost the Easter sugar cookies Alyssa and I had made Saturday afternoon. Then in the evening Mike's parents and my sister, Christy were coming over for Easter dinner. We have church in the afternoon, so we were going to eat at 6:00.

About 7:30 Saturday evening plans changed. We were just about to color eggs when Alyssa yelled, "Come quick the potty is filling up." Mike got the plunger and started plunging. Then he started pulling every single towel we own out of the closet and swearing like a sailor. Then he went and got some tools and took the toilet off the floor and swore some more. Then he went outside, still swearing and started messing with the septic tank valve thing. Then he went and got a shovel, informed us that we were not to turn on any water. He proceeded to dig until 9:30 that night. He said the septic tank was totally plugged. Yea! There went all of our Easter plans out the window. Luckily our showers are hooked up to a gray water system to water our trees, so we could shower. But that was all! We had to use our travel trailer to go to the bathroom. Thank goodness we had the travel trailer.

We called everyone in the morning to cancel and he kept digging. I was feeling really sorry for myself while I got ready for church. While I was drying my hair and feeling sorry for myself it hit me that Easter isn't about Easter egg hunts and Easter breakfasts or dinners. It is about the Savior and the great gift he gave us. I felt really bad that I had been thinking about me when I should have been thinking about Jesus's great sacrifice. I started going over in my mind the pains he had and the blood he shed on my behalf. I began to feel very grateful.

Right before the children and I left for church Mike told me that he had gotten the septic system unplugged. So at least Easter dinner was back on. Yea! The children and I were in the car on the way to church and Curtis expressed his displeasure. He told me that his Easter had been ruined. At that moment I felt grateful for the experience I had had earlier. I started recounting to Curtis the events that led up to the Savior's crucifixion. It was a very sweet experience to share with my children.

Yummy chicken minestrone soup

Yesterday I was thinking and thinking about what to make for dinner. Nothing sounded good. I started looking through this recipe book, Rotisserie Chickens to the Rescue. I bought it a few years ago and had never made anything from it. I looked through it and found this recipe for chicken minestrone soup. I had all the ingredients, except for the rotisserie chicken and it was cold outside. It felt like soup weather, so I thought what the heck, I'll improvise. I pulled two frozen chicken breasts out of the freezer, thawed them, cut them up and sauteed them in a frying pan.

Here's what I did:

In a soup pot I put in 2-3 Tbsp of olive oil. Heated it and added 1 chopped onion. I cooked it until it was limp and transparent. Then I added 1 cup of sliced baby carrots and cooked that for a couple of minutes. Then I added 1 sliced zucchini, 2 cloves of garlic, crushed, and 2 tsp. of Italian seasoning crushed with fingers. Stir fry for a few minutes. Next add 2 cans of chicken broth, 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes with Italian spices, 1 bay leaf, 1 can drained canalinni ( don't know how to spell this!)beans, the chicken, 2 Tbsp. tomato paste and 1 cup of water. Let cook for 5 minutes or so. Then add 1 tsp salt, 3 cups coleslaw mix with carrots (basically cut up cabbage and carrots. This is sold in the produce section) and 1 cup small pasta. Cover and cook until pasta is done. You might need to add more water. Season this to taste with salt and pepper.

I would have been really yummy served with french bread, but then I would have had to go to the store. My family loved this. It didn't take a ton of time. Curtis even asked for some for lunch today.

David

I love my job, I love my job, I love my job. Most of the time. One unfortunate aspect of it is occasionally having to write referrals. I don't write them very often, but sometimes they are needed. They are for students who break the rules big time. Not talking in class rule breaking, but bigger issues. I have a young man who I will refer to as David, (as in Goliath). He has gotten 3 referrals in less than a month.

#1 March 10th - The yard duty lady brought him to me and informed me that he and another student had been throwing rocks at each other. David got hit in the head. The other student got hit in the leg. I asked, "Why shouldn't we throw rocks, David?" He looked at me and said, "Because it is nature." Really nature? What does that have to with anything? I calmly explained again (we had already had a discussion in class) why we shouldn't throw rocks and told the duty lady to write him up. He lost a couple days worth of recesses.

#2 March 25th - The class came in from P.E. and I was told that David was throwing rocks at a student from our class. Me: "David why did you throw rocks?" David: "I don't know. I forgot." Me: "Ok David I have to write another referral." He got in-house suspension for a day.

#3 March 31 - During our math test yesterday he was throwing crayons at another student. Me: "Why are you doing that?" David: "I don't know." I wrote a behavior report instead of a referral.

#4 April 1 - After P.E. (again) the class came in and someone told me that David was throwing rocks at a student from our class. I asked the victim if he got hit and yes he did. Right under the eye. So again I wrote another referral and took him to the principal. The VP had been dealing with this before and it keeps happening. So I took him to the Big Guy. My principal suspended him and really talked turkey to him. So I hope this will be our final incident, because I'm tired of writing referrals and being the mean one.