Parent Teacher Conferences

Today is Parent Teacher conference. It's not really a parent teacher conference, though. It's a "Celebration of Learning!" (don't forget the exclamation point). What this means to me as a teacher is that a. I don't have to talk to parents if I don't want to, b. we don't actually talk about the kid at all, the kid has to just go around and show-and-tell his projects etc. to his mom/dad and explained what he learned this year, and c. nobody shows up because of a. and b. In the past 2 hours 6 parents have shown up- Denzel's mom, Leo's mom, Chandler's mom, Brenda's parents, and Brandan's dad. Usually by now I've had at least 15-20 conferences. The other difference is that due to the nature of the PTC tonight we are not meeting together as a team. Normally all the other teachers on my 7th grade team get together and meet in one teacher's classroom. That means that Social Studies, Art, Math, ESL, and English are all grouped together in one convenient place- usually on the first floor. This also increases our attendance. Since I am in a VERY obscure back corner room on the 2nd floor, my attendance is down even more so than originally planned.
So I have taken the opportunity to clean up my stink hole of a room and I have photographed it here for your viewing pleasure. Welcome to room 212, Mrs. Farias's ESL classroom. Feel free to stay a while. People usually do. While you're here, pick up an interesting looking book or get on line and do some research. Perhaps you'll even be inspired to write a poem or a newspaper article. You never know what will happen inside these walls...

Hi! I'm Mrs. Farias. You might remember me from that time I stopped you in the hall and told you to stop pushing that other kid into the drinking fountain. I'll be your teacher for ESL this year. If you're lucky, you might get to be in my Spanish Language Journalism class. We get a little rowdy, but you'll learn a lot of cool stuff.

This is the vestibule to our classroom. I am somewhat obsessed with having a vestibule (ever since I saw the Seinfeld episode about the vestibule in his apartment building). Don't forget to get your writer's notebooks out of the shelf by the door because you have to write something in here every day. Also, don't be messing around over here when the bell rings, or else I'll count you tardy because I am a really mean teacher. Probably the meanest teacher in the school.


This is a 360 degree tour of the room. You'll notice that there are lots of books to read and things to look at in here. This is very different from most of the teacher's classrooms in this building (except for the art teachers, one of the science teachers, and the Spanish teacher most of the rooms are pretty bare except for that one stupid picture of the cat saying "Hang in there!" and a really old dusty map of the world that very likely still has the USSR if not Rhodesia on it). Even the ceiling has pictures and quotes on it, because there's nothing worse than being in the middle of a PowerPoint lecture and having nothing to do except stare at a boring old ceiling with no pictures or quotes on it.

Here's a close up of some of the art in my room. The Periodic Table of World Literature is one of my fave's. It has famous authors listed by genre and interesting facts about them. The Johnny Depp poster is a personal joke between myself and the French teacher who was here my first year. My old room had really lame looking cartoon pirates permanently painted on the walls. I couldn't really hang anything over them because the walls were cinderblock which is IMPOSSIBLE to stick anything to, so I tried to play them down by puting up awesome pirate stuff, such as this cool treasure map I drew on a drop cloth with a magic marker and my beloved Johnny. The French teacher suggested I turn Johnny into something more literate so as to not encourage my students to speak in bad pirate-y grammar, so he has now wised up to the importance of correct syntax. Syntax is cool.


Here are a few of the books you might read while you're sitting in my classroom. Don't think you're getting out of it either because if you don't read, you don't pass. Period. See? I wasn't kidding when I said that I am mean.


This is my personal bulletin board. If you really suck up to me and give me something pretty, you might get extra credit. If not, your cool artwork and gifts will probably end up here anyways along with my GIANT quote from Ulysses.


This is the door to my office. The "No Parking" and "Keep Out" signs are not there because I am afraid of people disturbing my personal space. They are actually warning signs for your own protection. What dwells behind that door is truly disturbing and somewhat terrifying. Let's put it this way- I suck at filing stuff. I teach English. I pass out and pick up about 100 sheets of paper a day. Sprinkle in a cart for the overhead and the video projectors, about a million and a half official memos, the kids' posters from our classroom presentations, dioramas, hastily stashed art supplies, a mini fridge and a microwave, and I'll let you fill in the rest with your imagination...

Anyway, thanks for taking the tour. See you later. Stay out of trouble in the meantime.

Little Growing Things

Aside from my family (both biological and other) I have few obsessions in my life- things that if were removed from my world would absolutely make it so that life would lose all meaning and purpose for me. There are not many because as I get older I think I'm starting to understand the difference between what I "like" and what I truly love. For instance, I am totally and completely obsessed with religion- not just mine, but all different theologies fascinate me. If I could go back to school for a Doctorate it would probably be either in Theology or Ancient English Literature. Or better yet, some bizarre combination of the two. I am also totally and completely obsessed with hand made and OOAK stuff. This goes back to when I was a kid- my mom taught me to crochet, garden, and sew (thanks mom!) and my step-mom taught me how to preserve, cook, and craft (thanks other mom!). More recently I have discovered that I am totally obsessed with gardening. I think it kind of goes along with the hand-made thing. I love creating something, and there is nothing more powerful than creating life. Not quite on the level of human reproduction, I am sure, but there's something so amazing about putting little seeds in the ground and watching them turn into something life-sustaining and beautiful.

Thanks to Luis (who patiently and sweetly endures all of my obsessions), I have quite an impressive grow-op this year. We've just got herbs and veggies going on, but in a couple of months I have a feeling that the results will be phenomenal. Check out the before photos and then come back in a month or so to see the afters.

These are our deck pre-container gardening madness. I have taken a cue from Gayla Trail at www.yougrowgirl.com and have supplemented my growing spaces with large containers that will very shortly (after the last frost which is sure to occur sometime this next week or so) contain vast quantities of delicious home-grown veggies and some pretty potted plants (petunias- lots and LOTS of petunias!!)

Here are some close ups of my sweet babies. There are sugar snap peas which are just starting to wind their way up the trellis I put in for them, my beautiful little radishes which are just starting to poke up in between the shallots and onions (French Onion Soup anyone? Yum yum!), as well as my puny little hot peppers who are currently taking a sunny vacation under my newly installed grow-lamp (we have 6 varieties pictured here- Poblano, Anaheim, Serrano, Habanero, Jalapeno, and Hungarian Wax peppers). The last photo is of my soon-to-be herb garden. Top to bottom, left to right we have rosemary, more rosemary (it's like my favorite plant of all time!), Anise, chives, Black Opal Basil, parsley, chamomile, Mammoth Dill (which isn't exactly mammoth yet but which is hanging in there like a champ!), oregano, cilantro, sage, and garlic chives. Not pictured are Cantaloupes, Cucumbers, Celery, Tomatillos, Tomatoes, Eggplant (for eggplant parmesean which will feature a sauce made from the herbs, onions, and tomatoes!!!), thyme, lemon creeping tyme, mesclun, cress, spinach, and a few other herbs. Oh the heavenly concoctions that we will prepare this summer!

Don't worry- you are all invited. Just make sure that you call 15 minutes in advance to warn me so I can stop digging in the dirt long enough to wash my hands and put on some shoes. :)

It's finally gone!

We had a garage sale last weekend. I was selling a bunch of left-over stuff from my store and a lot of old junk I've just been packing around forever (like stuffed animals from when I was a kid). Didn't sell anything big except for an old patio set I got at Big Lots like 3 years ago (bought it for $60, sold it for $45!). All told, however, we pulled in like $200 something dollars. Not bad for nick-nacks home decoration stuff. The big thing I wanted to sell, however, was the dining room table from our old house.

That table is cursed.

We got it for $1oo because it was all scratched up. We bought some cheap bar stools from Target for like $30 each because Luis was way to freaked out by the fact that dining room chairs sell for like $80 a piece. Our plan was to sand and re-stain the top and eventually save up to buy the chairs. Well, the dog started chewing on the leg and the staining idea didn't work and the stools started to fall apart (you get what you pay for, I guess), and before you know it, the whole thing looked really run-down. The table got so wobbly we had to prop it up against the wall to keep it from falling over.
Fast forward a few years and we moved the table to my store to use as a cutting table because of the size and the glass sheet we had cut to go over the top. It is a good height for a cutting table, too. We bought our new set from KSL.com (Utah's version of Craigslist) for like $500- a huge table and eight non-wobbly micro-fiber covered chairs. I thought the table was finally out of my house forever, which made me happy because it was a huge disappointment- just another project that we couldn't agree on and which never got completed.
I was wrong. In December and I had to move the damn thing BACK to my house when we moved out of the store. I would have abandoned it, but it seemed too valuable to just abandon.

It never sold when I listed everything I was selling from the store on KSL. Even really random stuff like my curtain rods have sold, but the table appeared to be stuck to us like glue, which is sad because at this point I had really started to hate that thing.
Finally, in desperation I cut the price in half and stuck it out at the garage sale last week. Lots of lookers- still no takers.
So I stuck it up on KSL for like the 10th time this week hoping against hope that some young married couple who don't care about some dumb scratch on the top would take it. At last, last night I got a few phone calls from interested parties. Today I FINALLY unloaded the set on some unlucky couple who wanted it for a small apartment kitchen. Boo-yah!
Good riddance, I say. I don't know. I guess I am making a bigger deal out of it than I should- but to me that table symbolizes everything in my life that's gone wrong over the past 5 years (failed fertility treatments, failed businesses, all the years at Life-Skills, my poor little starter home, etc., my dog that died, all the problems we've had with Andrei). All my failures and all the disappointments in my life since 2004 have happened sitting around that ugly piece of furniture. I'm pretty sure there is some sort of voodoo hex on it. Who knows... But I feel like watching that couple drive away with the table in tow was like a huge weight being lifted from my shoulders. Like an albatross has flown away or something. I guess it sounds kind of stupid, but getting rid of that table is such a tremendous relief to me.
Plus... now I have a bunch of moolah to go out and buy a grow light for my little plants. Money put to good use, I think.

The PRAXIS II PLT

I have to take a test in the morning. I've been avoiding this test for going on 5 years now. No. Make that 6 years. This is the test I have to pass in order to officially be labeled "highly qualified" to teach in the state of Utah. I resent this test because it symbolizes to me everything that is wrong with education in the United States. It is not good enough that I have a college degree. It is not good enough that I have stellar reviews from my students, their parents, my administrators, and the University and District supervisors I have to deal with. It is not good enough that I have nearly 50 post graduate credit hours under my belt. No. I have to take a test to be qualified for my permanent teaching license. If it were a good test, I might not mind, but it is a stupid test. It consists of 24 multiple choice questions and 12 essay questions. I have 2 hours to complete it. The questions deal with educational theory and teaching methodology. So I have been rebelling and avoiding this test as long as is humanly possible. Most people take a training/prep class and study for about 2 months to take it. I will be taking about 32 ounces of Diet Coke and studying until about 2 a.m. tonight (don't worry- test doesn't start until 10:45 a.m.).
Why the Diet Coke? Because A. I will be up late studying and B. I am fully ADHD and cannot concentrate on anything unless my brain is given a high dosage of stimulants. I tried ritalin in college for like 2 weeks and hated it because I was too focused. Since then, Coke is my drug of choice. That's actually why I got addicted to the stuff in the first place- I used it to fuel all-night cram sessions when I was taking Anatomy and Physiology in my pre-med days.
Anyway- off topic.
So this test is lame, stupid, and completely necessary to keep my job. As usual- I've put something terribly life-altering off until the absolute last second, so wish me luck. I just have to remember Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. I have ot memorize the names/dates of like 10 pieces of important educational legislation and thow in some buzz words like metacognition and alternative assessments and I'll be golden.
For now, though, it's time for a Diet Coke run.
Update: Ounces of Diet Coke consumed to fuel all-night cram session: 28 (pretty low for me). Hours of sleep: 5 and a half. Minutes spent cramming on useless information that was not on the test while standing in line to register: 15. Minutes spent cramming on information that formed the basis of 3 of my essays while standing in line to register: 5. Minutes spent filling in paperwork: 23. Time spent taking exam: 1 hour and 57 minutes. Pencils used up while writing essay questions: 5. Pages of essay questions written: 11 and a half. Number of mult choice questions (out of 24) that I had to totally guess on: 1. Number of mult. choice questions I was kind of unsure on: 5. Number of essay questions that I totally already knew the answer to: 18.
Overall I feel like I did pretty good. Won't find out the results, though, until May. Hope I did ok or else I'll have to cut the England vacay short by about 3 days to come back and take the test again in June.

Because I'm a total dead beat...

I have been a real bum lately about posting pictures. I blame it on Blogger's less-than-user-friendly picture uploader. But here are a lot of pictures from spring break for your viewing pleasure. Don't ever say I don't love you.

Dinner at Great-Grandma Nihart's house. Grandma is looking down in the first picture because she insisted that the photo be "candid." Ha ha ha. BTW the stunning brunette in the picture here is my Mom's older sister Barbara. Can you believe she's in her 60's? Most people can't, because she looks at least 10 years younger than she is. Incidentally, I think she looks more like my mom than my actual mom, and that her girls (my cousins Amy and Heather) look more like my sisters than my actual sisters, but I'll let you be the judge of that.

We had a record-breaking snow storm on Wed. night and ended up with about 5 inches of snow on the lawn. Yikes! What can you do with all of that snow? Built the world's largest snow-penguin. Please note how it's about the same height as Andy boy here. Mom started to stress about the feasability of making such a large snow-creature with Utah's crappy powdery snow. We showed her how Team Farias rolls. (P.S. Team Farias rules!)

This is a plethora of photos from the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum, which is allegedly the largest Dino museum in the world. It's a blast. They have cool activities for kids like playing in sand and water to demonstrate the process of erosion and building your own life-sized dino out of giant felt and velcro pieces. I especially love the picture of Andrei digging in their excavation room (they have "fossils" buried in a giant sandbox and you have to uncover them). How do you get a tired, hungry, cranky six-year-old who is sick of posing for pictures to smile for the camera? BRIBE THEM!!!! P.S. I am an awesome mom.

Friday (or possibly Sat. I lost track) we went and bought my mama some new cabinets at McCoy's for the bathroom/laundry room they're currently building on to her house in Fresno. She was mentioning to me that she needed to buy the cabinets, and I suggested to her that we go check out all of my usual haunts, since they would probably be cheaper than anything she could find in Cali. Good thing she drove her SUV because I was right. The Lego creation was Andy's and my contribution to the cabinet shopping experience. Being a Utah based company, McCoy's has wised up to the fact that most of their clients have kids so they put in a toy area in the back to keep the little kidlets from destroying their showroom. BRILLIANT. Please note the criss-crossing arches and flying butresses. When Team Farias builds a lego tower, we build it right. The kids pictured on the right here are Andy's cousins (actually 2nd cousins once removed, but who's counting). Whenever they come over they like to play dress-up with my giant bag of costumes (which includes a huge sack of real treasure a.k.a. marbles and fake gold coins). This time they were playing super heros using the Peter Pan/Pirate costumes. I think it was pretty cool and creative, if I do say so myself.

This last picture is of my dog Leyla, whom we affectionately call Leyla Mama. Leyla is a little teeny tiny poodle with a big personality. She only weighs like 7 pounds but she is pretty sure she's an actual human child. I do all of her grooming myself because a. I'm too cheap to pay a professional and b. it's kind of fun. I gave her a haircut last night and as an extra measure of torture dressed her in a trailer-park fabulous outfit. I mean that literally. The shirt actually says "Fabulous" in rhinestones. All that's missing is a pair of short shorts that say "Juicy" on the rear end. Don't think I'm needlessly cruel, though. I took the bow out of her hair as soon as the picture was taken, so now she's sporting a dog mullet. Wait. I think maybe the bow was less cruel. Ha ha. She kills me. Ana saw her this morning dressed up with her new "do" and laughed for about 5 minutes solid. Sweet!

So there you go, because I love you. I wouldn't have put this many pictures up for anyone else. Hope you enjoyed!

I wish every day was a state exam...

So those of you who have talked shop with me know how I feel about No Child Left Behind and the disastrous fall-out that it has had in public education. I'm not going to get going on that because it's an entire dissertation I've been writing in my head, complete with statistics and research to back up my feelings. You also can probably guess how I feel about the emergence of "Charter" schools as an alternative to public schooling and sub-standard test scores. I won't go into that much, but let me throw this out there- just because a school doesn't have to take the test doesn't mean that it's superior. It just means that it operates by a different standard and set of rules (often inferior) to the schools being labeled by NCLB. 

Anyway, I hate NCLB, I hate state mandated exams, and I HATE HATE HATE pretentious charter schools and the snobby holier-than-thou parents who put their kids in those schools because they think the cute little polos and dockers the kids wear to school somehow make them better than public school kids. 

HOWEVER... there is one thing I do like about the state-mandated-exam-a-thon that goes on in public schools 'round the country every April and May. For the past 3 days my kids have had to sit silently in their little chairs staring at a computer screen and answering an 84 question english literature exam. Bwa ha ha ha ha! I'm a really hands-on teacher. I am assigned to teach the lowest functioning students in the school. I'd say a good 85%-90% of my students tell me they hate reading at least once during the first term of school and about 65%-80% of them tell me they've never completed a chapter book. I deal with kids who are functionally illiterate in both their fist languages as well as their second languages. I also deal with students who are gifted thinkers but whom have lost so much content instruction during the process of being pulled out of class to learn English that they are a grade or 2 behind in Math, Reading, Writing, Science, and History. How do you think a child genius (especially a male) would feel if they were placed in all remedial classes because they didn't understand the language? Well, if you want to know, pick up a copy of the Book of Mormon in Italian and try to read it without taking any breaks for 45 minutes straight and see how you feel. 

Anyway, in order to reactivate those angry, frustrated little minds I use a lot of alternative teaching techniques and assessments. My kids get loud, they get crazy, they get moving, and somewhere along the line I can usually get them to read a book or two and to reclaim their little voices that have been silent for so long. Because of this, my class is usually teetering between chaos and some sort of violent creative process. It is LOUD and by the end of the day I'm usually so burnt out that I need an hour or 2 of silence just to regroup.

So the one thing I love about the test is that for an entire week they have to sit still and be silent. It's a nice break from the mental and physical exhaustion that my job usually entails. Don't worry, though. Next week they'll be back and better than ever. 

Spring Break!

So we've been having an interesting Spring Break. My mom came in to town on Sunday night to visit family here and spent Sunday night at our house. She went over to her mom's house in Springville for Monday and Tuesday. We were pretty busy on Monday, but Tuesday we drove down and had dinner with Grandma and mom. I was happy because Tuesday was our last day of school before "Spring Break," which in Provo means "Wed-Fri." Not much of a break, but last year we only had Friday and they called it "Spring Recess," which I think is possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. I think they do it to mirror BYU's "Spring Recess," which is only a long weekend to keep the good little LDS kids there from ending up in Cancun and taking part in the debauchery there. BYU claims it's because of Women's Week, but I think that's just a thin cover.
Anyway, yesterday was our first day of Spring Break. Mom was back over at our house around noon and took us around to the pet store (to get some tubing I need for some gardening projects I'm doing) and Lowe's (to get some pea gravel I need for planters). Then we came home and relaxed for the rest of the evening. Luis went to "boy's night" and mom and I stayed up with Andrei and watched Harry Potter #1.
Today was a bit more eventful. Luis and I worked on getting the huge planter box I constructed yesterday up on the deck, and mom helped me put in the tubing and pea gravel for drainage. I think it'll work out great and will provide our deck with some much needed greenery for the summer months. I'm planning on planting herbs, greens, radishes, and eggplant in there. I also have some large pots I got at Ikea which will house cucumbers, peppers, tomatillos, and a small melon vine that I got. I'm planning on spending most of June after our London trip on my deck watering and then eating home-grown produce. FYI for those of you who don't know me well, that's actually how I imagine heaven- good food, sunshine, and lots of little growing things everywhere.
Last night we had a mammoth spring storm that dropped about 4-5 inches of snow on Provo. We spent about an hour in the morning making a killer snow penguin. It didn't look much like a man and the carrot ended up looking more like a beak than a nose, so mom added the gloves she'd been wearing to the mound of snow as feet and voila'! More spring-break awesomeness was born.
I also spray-painted Andrei's bunk-bed white. I've had half of the set for years now, since the bunk beds can split into twin beds. I had one twin and Emily had the other in her apartment in L.A., but it just went into storage when she left so mom trucked it all the way out here. The only problem is that it was the original late 80's "golde oak" color, which I think is clearly the ugliest color of wood ever invented. Now it has a nice crisp coat of white, which will blend in nicely with his dresser and the trim in his room.
Anyway, tomorrow we're planning on planting in the containers on the deck, making a trip to Thanksgiving Point to see the dinosaur museum, and possibly going shopping with mom for some bathroom fixtures for her newly remodeled master suite in Fresno. There aren't nearly as many cabinetry shops in Fresno as there are here, so I promised her I'd take her to all of my usual haunts and see if we can get her some good deals. BTW, if you're ever looking to decorate/remodel a house for cheap in Utah, ring me up. I have A LOT of connections and can help you find awesome stuff at prices you can't believe.
Tomorrow evening we're having a carne asada at our house so Luis's family can meet my mom. It'll be interesting b/c mom speaks no Spanish, but she's not shy and neither are my in-laws, so I'm sure they'll all be best friends by the end of the evening. Plus I've recently converted her to homemade salsa and chipotle flavored frijoles, so I'm sure she'll enjoy the food.
So in conclusion, Spring-Break is in full swing, most of the snow is melted, I've checked several projects off of my list that were in dire need of completion, and we're having a garage sale on Saturday to get rid of all the junk that was cluttering our crawl-space. Life is good. To prove it to you, here is my MIL's recipe for refried beans.

Ingredients: one bag of Pinto or Peruvian beans, 1/2-1 cup mayonaise, 1 can of chipotle red chiles, salt, pepper and garlic to taste.
Soak the beans in a large crock pot on high for about 1 hour. Throw the water away. Rinse the beans and then refill the crock pot. Cook the beans on high for about 4-5 hours (or until soft). Drain all but about 1/2-1 cup of the leftover liquid (unless you want to make sopa Azteca, which is possibly the most delicious substance on the planet!). Put the drained beans and the liquid in a large frying pan. Smoosh the beans up (I use a hand mixer for this- like the kind that you use to make smoothies, but you can use any other smooshing device you have on hand, too). Add the mayo, garlic (1 tsp. or less), salt, and pepper. Heat until the beans start to bubble. Remove from heat. Open up the can of chipotles. Take 1-3 Tbsp. of the chipotle liquid (not the chiles themselves) and throw them in to the beans mixture. If you want it extra hot, throw in one of the chiles, too, but don't crush it or you'll regret it. Stir it all up. Eat with hot flour or corn tortillas.

Recipe for the world's greatest salsa:
4-5 large roma tomatoes, 1 medium to large bunch cilantro, one large white onion, salt, pepper to taste, 2 large limes, green chiles (if you want some heat- I use about 3 smaller serranos and 1 medium anaheim).
Roast the tomatoes and chiles on the stove (if you're brave) or in the broiler (if you're not), turning occasionally to evenly cook them. You'll know they're ready when the skin starts to turn brown and peel away from the flesh. Put the chiles in a sealed plastic bag to sweat for at least 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, throw the whole tomato (cut off the woody stem part first), half of the onion, and the rinsed cilantro leaves (twist them off the stems first) into a large blender or food processer. Add approx. 1/4-1/2 cup water, a lot of salt (to tastep- I use large grain sea salt and I throw in about 3 large pinches of it) and some pepper. Blend until the entire mixture is pretty runny.
Take the chiles out of the bag and CAREFULLY rinse them under the tap to peel off the skins (which are hard and chewy). Be careful to avoid the seeds, which depending on the chile can burn your skin. Throw the chiles into the blender and then squeeze the juice from the limes into the mix. Blend again, leaving slightly larger pieces of the chiles. Serve with tacos, chips, etc.
If you want a green salsa you can make this the same way, only substitute tomatillos (husked and roasted) for the tomatoes- you can use the green salsa as the base for chile verde if you like that dish.

Happy eating!!

Popularity Contest

So they announced the winner of the Golden Apple Award yesterday. The Golden Apple is the popularity contest that the PTA has for teachers at the school- the students vote on which teacher they like the most. This is a good idea in principle, but lame in application. It's nice because the students get to honor the teachers that they feel are doing a good job. It is stupid because every year they undoubtedly pick the P.E. teacher, the Music teachers, or the Science teachers because their classes are more fun. There will never be an English teacher selected for this award because we actually teach challenging material that involves sitting still and paying attention. I'm sorry, but you cannot read a book if you are running around, working on projects, or listening to music. I try to incorporate as much hands-on as possible in my class, but I also am wary of English teachers who do too much "artsy" stuff because I feel like it waters down the curriculum. 

So the Golden Apple will, alas, never be mine.

We also honored the School District's choice today, which is also a bunch of bologna. The only teachers who get that award are the ones who know the district higher-ups personally, which usually means they have been assigned to special programs or have been around long enough that they knew the district personnel when they were still in the schools as administrators or teachers. Not a huge surprise. The teacher they picked this year is a hard-working leader in the school, but there are so many other hard-working leaders who never get recognized because they do not carry the name recognition.

The final award they recognized today was the Crystal Apple award winner, which is the teacher's choice popularity contest. The stupid thing about this award is that another teacher has to nominate you for the award, or you have to nominate yourself. That means the teachers with agendas to push select themselves or ask a friend to select them, and the top 5 with the most nominations make it on to the ballot. For the past 3 years the technology teacher at our school has been nominated and I can't figure out why. I'm sure he's a great teacher, but outstanding? Don't really get that vibe. He has, however, been around for long enough that everyone knows his name. The winner this year is the P.E. teacher. Explain that to me, will you? He's a nice guy and all, but how much effort do you have to put in to motivate kids to want to play sports? Where are the subtle nuances to be taught in running around the track 5 times in 45 minutes? 

Anyway, for those of who think that teaching is a nice neat little career packed into tidy 9 month blocks, you're wrong. Yes, there are a lot of perks involved in being a teacher, but there are also late nights, troubled kids, and a general lack of acknowledgement  from the establishment for the successes you have- unless you've been around long enough that everyone knows who you are, or unless you float around the school offering "sagely" advice to the first year teachers in a know-it-all tone of voice.

Lame!

Decade Dance

Today was our school's decade dance. For those of you living in Texas, schools here out west have dances regularly starting in middle school. They're not really dances- all the kiddos do is just jump around and make congo-lines at inappropriate times. The boys try to push each other down, the girls cluster together on the sidelines and giggle. During the slow songs the dance floor clears out and some of the girls dance with each other, while the boys elbow each other and shove one another out on the dance floor. Basically it's awesome, non-stopped hilarity.
The theme of the dance was "decades." They played a mix of music from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, and the past decade. It was fun, but made me feel old to realize that such timeless classics as "Hit me baby" and "If you wanna be my lover" are now considered oldies. Was I really in high school that long ago? Yikes. This also was a blaring reminder of my 10 year KHS reunion which I am purposefully avoiding due to the fact that I am not willing to admit that 10 years of my life have slipped by without my consent. Instead I will be spending the first 2 weeks of June in Europe. This might sound pretentious, but remember- I don't have kids. This is a fact that usually frustrates me and makes me very angry or sad, but on the rare occasion actually makes me a tiny bit happy- such as when I was shopping for Paris tours and had to decide between a day trip to Versaille or Normandy and realized I could never take a 15 mile biking tour of Versailles if I had to lug around a little one.
Anyway, I love everyone I went to KHS with, but I am still in touch with most of my good friends (thanks to the miracle of blogger.com and facebook), and I'll never have a chance to have free lodging in England again.
So here's to growing older and growing up. In the theme of decades, here's the highlights of my last 10 years. It's kind of long, but this is mostly just for my personal records so don't feel obligated to read this all.
1999- first serious relationship, graduated from high school, started BYU, worked for a toy store, a drug store, and 8 a.m. custodial in the Desperate Towers. Learned to drive in my first car, a 1987 black Ford Escort hatchback named Gigolo McBean aka Jiggy.
2000- turned 18, got my first credit card, enjoyed being young and irresponsible, worked for BYU's Eyring Science Center Custodial at 4 am, The BYU book store at 7 am, and BYU catering services. Road trip to Vegas with college roommates. Started taking anti-depressants and going to counseling.
2001- regretted some of the choices I made in 2000 and took a 6 month haitus from BYU to sort some things out in California. Worked as a courier for an Ad agency, BYU's Creamery, took art classes (planning on pursuing a degree in studio art), but felt spiritually prompted to do English Teaching instead thus fulfilling a prophecy made by my step-mom when I was 17. In Sept. I started working at BYU's law building doing custodial from 10pm-2 am. To date my favorite job. Dyed my hair bottle blond and discovered fashion. Got approved as one of 50 out 375 candidates to BYU's English teaching program.
2002- Got friendly with one of the custodial staff who hooked me up on a blind date with his buddy from church, a VERY handsome latino named Luis. Took a trip in the summer to visit home (Texas) for the first time since summer 2000's disasterous vacation. Shared an apartment with my friend Shasta and enjoyed being young and in love (Luis and I spent an hour on the phone every night for 2 months). Returned to Utah in July just in time for the birth of my step-son. Rocked the socks off of my professors and discovered I wanted to teach ESL instead of G/T English. Broke up with Luis. Got to gether with Luis. Broke up with Luis again. Briefly entertained the idea of reuniting with an old flame but thought better of it.
2003- turned 21. Spent the first 4 months of the year trying to convince myself I was no longer in love with Luis. Unsuccessful. Miraculously instructed through divine intervention to reconsider our relationship. Reunited with Luis on April 12th (or 14th). Got engaged to Luis on May 12th after he returned from a 3 week visit to Mexico (in case you didn't catch that, we were dating for a week before he left. He proposed the night he got back). Got married in the Salt Lake Temple on August 19th- a Tuesday. Started student teaching on Sept. 9th. Barely survived the remainder of the year commuting to West Jordan daily on 5 hours of sleep in blizzards.
2004, turned 22. Graduated. Took a "temporary" job at Life Skills to earn some money while Luis finished school. Started taking Andrei during the week (Th-Sun) to help with bills. Decided to "try" for a little one of our own. Luis graduated in Dec. Sold Jiggy in Nov.
2005- Luis hired at Wells Fargo, bought our first house on 300 West in Provo (800 square feet of marital bliss!), got our first dog Bella, started a coop day care with some other young mom's in the ward, got called to my first leadership position (in RS presidency). Briefly quit Life Skills but couldn't handle the monotony of staying home with nothing to do on Andrei's days with his mom.
2006- Got promoted to be the Programming Director of Life Skills (over 12 other employees who were more senior in age and experience... gulp!). Started attending the Spanish language ward. Quit Life Skills and went to work for Dixon Middle School. Got called to be Primary Music Leader. Nearly lost my mind due to late nights at work and never ending professional development meetings.
2007- Started Clomid. 6 failed cycles later vowed I would never take Clomid again! Took the world's longest and most traumatic road trip ever to Mexico. Finished my first year of teaching. Started my second year of teaching in my vastly superior class-room. Rented house number 1 and purchased house number 2. Enjoyed using the hot tub during the winter months. Spent Christmas with my family for the first time in my married life. Started 2 years of ESL certification classes at night.
2008- welcomed Andrei into our home full-time while his mom filmed a t.v. show in P.R. from January through June. Finished year number 2 of teaching. Started my own Wedding Gown company. Opened my store. Spent most of the summer decorating, designing and sewing. Learned how to work a trade show. Learned to not trust a business partner. Started year number 3 of teaching.Got called to Primary Presidency of new ward. Got called to cub scouts (as wolf leader) in new ward. Grew the world's most fertile tomato bushes. Welcomed my sister-in-law Ana into our home as a semi-permanent resident. Welcomed my MIL into our home from January through March and again from July through October. No comment. Threw a ginormous b-day party for Andrei. Welcomed my niece Kenley in Sept. Visited Disneyland in October. Got officially assigned to sing in the choir in the new ward. Got REALLY tired. Closed the store in December due to problems with my partner, lack of sleep, and general stress. Taught Andrei to read and write, tie his shoes, and helped him pull out his first tooth.
2009- Finished my ESL certification, rocked the socks off of the ESL students at my school, struggled as the only fully-functioning member of the Primary Presidency through most of March, got labeled as the vocal soloist for the Spanish Speaking ward in our stake and asked to sing multiple musical numbers at church. Finishing up my 3rd year teaching and working on my permanent license and my etsy shop (debuting in July).
Somewhere along the line I learned to speak Spanish, learned how to oil paint, learned how to type and care for babies, install drywall, change a tire, and how to wear REALLY high heels. So I guess I've been really busy for the past 10 years and that's why I didn't notice they passed so quick. Huh. I'm guessing that the large ammounts of caffeine I've consumed probably fueled most of this.
Anyway, congrats to you if you read all of that. And here's to decades. May we all be able to look back in another 10 years and find ourselves happier and more prosperous.

Me at 8 with Curtis 8th grade dance (13 yrs.) High School Grad (17 yrs)

College Junior (19 yrs.) Engaged (21) Aug. 19th, 2003 The Fam, 2006 (24)

Older and Wiser (27) Self Portrait Mar. (27)

Moving Day

So I have some relatives here who are having their house repo'd today. It's very sad, but I guess that's what happens when you don't pay your mortgage bill for 11 months. Not really a surprise. The surprising thing is that I have been given permission to go in and dig out as many plants from their yard (which I landscaped 2 summers ago) as I can carry in a day. That's pretty sweet, although really sad also. Regardless, I spent about a month breaking my back to put them all in 2 years ago, so it'll be interesting to see if we can get them all out in a day.
Update: Left behind most of the irises and half of the lilac and 2 dwarf spruce trees as well as all of the landscaping rock (I couldn't afford to kill my back lifting them), but I did get about 5 rose bushes, all of the tulips, some irises, 4 lilac stems, and assorted herbs as well as the Japanese Maple. I think it turned out as well as it could have under the circumstances. I tried to leave enough behind that the house wouldn't looked scarred, although I'm not sure that means much considering the looting that was going on indoors by the relatives of the husband. Utah Housing will be getting a house with no light fixtures, bathroom cabinets, blinds, or interior doors. I kind of think that's a little shameful to leave the house in that condition, but I guess I can't judge seeing as I did the same thing, although in fairness I only took what I planted in the first place from our 2007 IHC raids.
Such a twisted situation.

Observation Update

So I got an email today at like 8:45 saying that the Vice Principal who was supposed to observe me couldn't because of a last minute meeting and that he was sending the Principal instead. This was good in some ways because as I mentioned in my previous post I have historically better rapport with her than with him. This, however, was also disastrous because she looks for totally different things from a teacher than he. I had designed a very elaborate and complicated matrix of group work assignments with multiple diverse rotations (meaning that every 7 minutes the kids get up and form a completely separate group. It's awesome, and scary at the same time. This also involves a lot of noise and confusion from everyone, which is why I selected it because the group I was having him observe is inherently noisy and likes to move around a lot. I figured this way they'd have an excuse for always talking and walking around the room. The reason I selected this class is because the VP is always on my case about not making things culturally relevant, and this is my Bilingual culture class, so I figured he couldn't complain about that under these circumstances.
The lesson was brilliant. We've been learning about famous bilingual or Latino authors. Monday we had a PPT presentation about the top 10 most influential/important Latino authors (did you know that there's like 7 Nobel Prize winners from Spanish speaking countries?). Yesterday we did an enrichment project in the computer lab to let them explore some of their favorites from the PPT in depth. Today I had them rotating between 4 stations, each representing one of the authors we spoke about (Cervantes, Garcia Marquez, Cisneros, and Neruda- diverse group, huh?) reading a sample of their writing and doing either an analysis or a creative writing project with the reading sample. Each assignment was short- only 7 minutes, so as soon as the kids got started they had to finish- smart, huh?
The problem is, that the Principal prefers having students sit quietly in their desks and read. I think that overall they did a pretty good job, however, and there were a few rough spots but basically the kids behaved and did as they were told. I mentioned my content and language objectives at the beginning of the class and had a fun follow-up assignment for homework (Mrs. U LOVES it when we assign enrichment homework). I think the kids had a good introduction to the authors of Latin America in a positive, upbeat, inclusive setting. We'll see how it went down with her this afternoon when I go before the firing squad for the follow-up interview.
Stay tuned for the official synopsis.
UPDATE: I met with the principal in her office after school today. It's funny how going to the Principal's office is scary even for teachers. We had a really nice talk, though, and the majority of what she had to say was really positive. She told me she thought the lesson was great and that my classroom management was great. She said she was amazed at how well the students responded to me and that she was surprised to see them so excited and engaged in a lesson about world literature. She thanked me for my hard work, gave me some good ideas that I could use in future classes, and we had a nice conversation about what I'm teaching and what I'll be teaching next year- which is nice because that implies that I'll be back next year and that I'll have tenure. Overall it was a challenging experience, but I'm glad that she reviewed me because 1. her input counts for more and 2. I really do get along with her better.
Yay!