tenacious

Today's word is "tenacious." I just heard from D's room in reference to the cat (in this case Alice) who was doing who knows what.

Living in our house is always a day full of words. I think that will be tomorrow's word for school as well. I'll see how many of my high school students know what the word means.

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The President's speech

I usually don't make public comments about my political views, but after spending the last several days listening/reading about people complaining that President Obama would turn this speech into a piece of propaganda I felt that I had to post something.

If you didn't watch the speech, which I did, you can find the transcript released by the White House here. I am always amazed at how ignorant my students are when it comes to politics. I don't know why, but I probably will never stop being surprised at their lack of knowledge. After the speech, as a class we spent the last twenty minutes discussing what the President had to say. Some of the students maintained that he had told them that he was black, which he didn't. There were several other comments made that said basically "he said x" but he hadn't. It's been a few hours and I didn't take notes of the discussion. Some had no idea that the stimulus money had gone for jobs. I have no idea what they thought the stimulus was for, but jobs wasn't on their lists. All of the road projects here in Sanpete were brought about through stimulus moneys.

I actually took some notes during the speech. There were several key points he made— students have a responsibility to self; there is no excuse to drop out; being successful is hard work; don't give up on yourself; and what is your contribution going to be? I didn't find anything negative, just cold common sense and facts. Some people will only find the storm cloud in the bright sunny day and I think that they feel that way about the President.

This is my rant for today—before you talk about the President's speech to students (and he is not the first to do so, both President Reagan and President George H.W. Bush did as well), read the speech. Find out what he said. Then you can hold an intelligent conversation.

Okay back to your regularly scheduled programming.

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3.7 G.P.A.

Well, I have two A-'s: one was a 93% and the other was because I missed two classes and the second miss lowered my grade automatically to an A-. This means a G.P.A. of 3.7.

A much better start of graduate school than I did the last time or when I started as an undergraduate. Grad school last time back in the fall of 1991 started with both classes as incompletes. One because I asked for it and the other because Professor Wine insisted I rewrite my final paper. As an undergraduate I started in the summer of 1987 with one class and received a B. In the fall of '87 I had 3 classes: Anthropology 150, Geography 1??, and Geology 102. I also had a wonderful personal trauma that quarter in November that messed up the end of the quarter. I received 2 C's and one B. So clearly two A-'s is a better start. I'm not thrilled with spending money to earn A-'s, but I can handle it. When I told a former student, who is currently a senior, what my grades were. She commented that I had stated earlier in the semester that I wasn't paying for college only to earn something lower than an A. I changed my tune. I also have had to get used to minuses and pluses. UIC didn't give those—only straight grades. So, if I had been attending UIC instead of the U, I would have received two A's. Ooh, that thought makes me feel even better about my grades.

I must have been really tired last night when I posted, because I just had to edit several spelling errors in it.

And the countdown continues—one week from today is the last day of teaching. My juniors should be handing in research papers today. So far I have nine out of the 63 I should have. I have already warned them that they should plan on signing up for summer school.

Tonight is D's orchestra concert. It's the final event of the year. The orchestras, bands, and choir all perform. Plus the students in the art class show off their work. Yesterday, the orchestra anand advanced band played for the fifth graders from Ephraim and Manti as a recruitment event. One of my Scouts, Samantha, will be in advanced band next year as a seventh grader. Josh, the band instructor, has beginning, intermediate, and advanced band instead by grade as the orchestra is. This means that students are at their ability level instead of grade level. Of course Josh has as many students in beginning band as there are in all of the seventh and eighth grade orchestras.

This is a busy week for us—orthodontist and dentist on Monday, Scouts and a game on Tuesday, Arts night today, a game tomorrow, free on Friday, and "Innovations" at Ballet West on Saturday.

Mother's Day and more

If you are reading this, then you noticed that I updated the header. I got tired of the same old same old and tried something new. While looking for quotes on writing I found a several that I really liked, but not enough to have permanently on my blog. So from a few of my favorite authors are the following:

"Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being." ~A. A. Milne

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any." ~Orson Scott Card

"I hated school. I don't trust anybody who looks back on the years from 14 to 18 with any enjoyment. If you liked being a teenager, there's something really wrong with you." ~Stephen King

I really have to agree with Stephen King. Mother's Day was a very relaxing day. I did nothing, but read. It was very nice. I called my mother, who is HOME! Yes that is right. She has been shipped home. She starts physically therapy today after a break. One of the things she wants them to do is teach her how to walk with a cane when she can't feel the ball of her foot. Jeff called his mother. See sometimes we are good children.

The first softball game is tomorrow! Unfortunately D slid during a baseball game at school and really scraped up her leg and knee. It's so nice to live in a small town. She called me at school, because Jeff wasn't home. I can't go get her, so the secretary who lives in our neighborhood took her home. Jeff came back just as they were going to go drive around Ephraim looking for him. He took her back to school after cleaning it up and bandaging it. Poor kid.

My freshmen and sophomores are writing alphabet books. "A is for Arthur who was king of the Celts." The sophomores are doing them for the Myths and Legends unit they are finishing. The freshmen are doing them for the books they just finished reading Literature Circles. I did this idea a few years ago with sophomores as a book report on the book they were reading. It takes a fair amount of work to do it right. I have these students working in groups (Lit. Cir.) or pairs (soph.) or for those who hate working with someone else they can work alone. I needed something to do for the last week of school in those classes and borrowed the idea from D's seventh grade lang. arts teacher who had them write alpha bios. They were due today, but I found out about last night at 7:30. URG save me from pre-teens. She stayed up and did it, while Jeff and I went to bed. I cut her paper for her and left her to it.

We are making scrunchies at Scouts tomorrow. They should be interesting to say the least. Cutting, pinning, sewing—what fun.

Wow we have a blog

4/29
News flash!
Kate no longer is the yearbook adviser starting in August 2008! Hallaluh!!! This has been an interesting Spring here in Central Utah. One day we have 70 degree weather followed by snow.

Jeff is coaching the city-league softball team this summer. The first practice is tomorrow. There are 17 girls on the team with 4 sixth graders and the rest are 5th grade.

Kate just spent Friday and Saturday with her Junior Girl Scout troop at Trefoil Ranch in Provo Canyon. After a night of not sleeping very well, and standing almost all day teaching classes or serving meals, it was no wonder that her back froze up on Sunday. Between the back (which has been a problem for years) and her knee (which probably need surgery this summer), it's amazing that she actually gets out of bed each day.

Deirdre is busy with testing at school and learning the May Pole dance at school. Ephraim Elementary is one of the few in the area that still has a may pole dance for the fifth graders. She gets her braces on May 5 and ironically enough is looking forward to it. She is quite tired of the retainer that she has been wearing for the last year and looks forward to not having to deal with one for 18 months.

Less than four weeks and D and Kate are out of school! Yipee!! Jeff is on finals week right now and graduation is Saturday. Lucky duck!