I never do this, but

I have 2 posts in one day. I just wanted to share a favorite website that I've recently rediscovered: I Am With You Always. This website makes me giggle uncontrollably-- especially the Golfer picture (where are Jesus' legs?!?). I think Erin A. may especially appreciate these *wink*wink*
If this speaks to you, please comment, since I'm trying to "witness" to y'all.
hee hee hee

Two Down, One to Go...

I have arrived home for a few days between trips 2 and 3.
As promised, here are some photos from my trips. Unfortunately, I can't share more from Jamaica since my students are in the pics, and that is a definite no-no. If I did this right, there are a couple boxes on the right side with my Flickr photos from the trip. I am new to the Flickr thing, so we'll have to see if my technical knowhow is satisfactory.

I am feeling much more tan, but I haven't seen anyone (except husband) since I got back, so I have yet to compare my bronze glory with any other pasty Minnesotans. Aside from the tanning, here are a couple points to share from my trips:
1. Cruzan Rum recently purchased Absolut vodka, so it's ridiculously cheap in the VI. Anyone want to come over for bloodys and cosmos? I have a fully-stocked bar for sure.
2. St. John is my favorite place in the Caribbean, and it was great to go back. I visited two places that I previously hadn't: Trunk Bay (which has an underwater snorkel trail through a huge reef), and the Annaberg Sugar Plantation Ruins. The snorkeling was great at Trunk, and the sand was so fine-- somewhere between sugar and flour. Annaberg was fascinating; what I find most compelling is the story of the slave revolt of 1633. The island had about 10 times more slaves than white people, so it was inevitable. Slaves held the island until 1634 when the military came in to restore order. Needless to say, it ended tragically: over 500 slaves committed suicide by jumping off the cliffs at Annaberg, rather than be taken alive.
3. In Jamaica, I loved the Bob Marley museum. It is housed in his former home; the recording studio is still used by his children.
4. When I asked my students what they would miss about Jamiaca, they said, "Everything!" I had a great group of kids with me, and the Kingston Rotarians and Interactors were incredibly hospitable. We all were homesick for Jamaica as soon as we landed in MN.

I'm going to sign out for now. My first glass of delicious homebrew is starting to get warm. It's an ESB, and although I would like it a little hoppier, it tastes pretty darn good, if I do say so...

Hello from Jamaica!

I'm currently on the first of my three June excursions. So far, Jamaica is pretty awesome. Apart from the strange silent mosquitos that are eating me alive while I sleep (and biting my inner thighs?), everything is copacetic-- I mean "irie."
Two students and I are staying with a Rotarian named Andre who is something of a local celebrity. For those of you who are from the TC, he's like the Denny Hecker of Kingston, but in his early 30's, and he also has a nightly radio show. We're staying in his house up in the Red Hills neighborhood, which we've been told is the Beverly Hills of Jamaica. The houses are beautiful, but the thing that makes Andre's house amazing is the outdoor living area. He has a huge bar/patio, pool and hot tub, and an upper lawn that provides an amazing view of the city of Kingston and the harbor. It has the same sort of flavor as the Playboy mansion, but without the debauchery.
Tomorrow is our beach day, which the girls are particularly excited about, and I can't say that I'm not eagerly anticipating a morning of tanning. We have also learned that the Rotarians have planned a night of clubbing, and my students are giddy about that, as well.
Well, I had better sign off. I'll be back to MN on Friday night, and on Tuesday, it's off to the VI. When I return home, I'll be sure to upload some photos.
Cheers!

Happy to be a teacher

Here's all the news from Sarah-land that's fit to print.
Just got a new laptop (MacBook to replace our iMac), and it's taking me a while to get used to this keyboard. Fortunately it's not like other laptop keyboards, which I despise. Now I'll be able to take notes with something other than my mass of legal pads when I go to educational conferences and events. Some departments in my school have laptops, but since English is pretty stationary with only a couple of us sharing classrooms, they decided to go with the crummy, gigantic Dell monstrosities we have in our classrooms. God, I hate PCs.

Anywho, I just had the most awesome day ever. A fellow English teacher and I had four of our students win a statewide essay contest. The 25 winning students and their teachers were invited to a private reception with Thomas Friedman since his book The World is Flat was the subject of the the contest. We also got to bring our principal and assistant principal, who were completely thrilled. In addition to the reception for the essay winners, we also attended the educational forum afterward, which was attended by about 900 business and education leaders from around the state, but primarily the TC area. It was a $300 a head event, so the food was pretty darn awesome.

So the students, my coworker, and I got to listen to Friedman speak for a while, and during this time he mostly answered the students' questions. Then we got our certificates and posed for our picture with him. At the big event, we were divided up among a few tables with various business and education people. There were people representing Century College, Winona State, MNSCU, and some businesses at my table. They were very cool people and obviously used to this kind of networking event.

Now to the Friedman speech. I have not always agreed with everything he has to say about globalization and such, but his speech was phenomenal. Although many think he just touts math and science and the idea that all American youth should become engineers, he had some amazing things to say about the need for liberal arts education. He stressed the importance of art and creativity, and the message was very positive. It was not doomsday prophesy like other highly-paid speakers I have heard...

I left the event inspired, and I will definitely view Friedman in a different light from now on. Just as awesome as the event was the ride home. These four teenagers didn't stop talking the whole way back about how much fun they had and how awesome everything was. There's nothing quite like excited teenagers. It reminds me that this is why I went into education in the first place.

The Sad State of Affairs

As a teacher, I know that it's impossible to tell students to do one thing if you're going to do another.  Example: it would not work if I told my students to sit quietly if I sat on the phone in the back of the room chatting with a friend.  So where am I going with this?

In pondering the ever-present dilemma of public education in our country (i.e. we say it's important and yet underfund it), I have come to a conclusion:  Our administration is full of hypocrites and liars.  Nothing new, I know, but case in point:

A friend and coworker recently was named as a recipient of a huge national award.  So he was flown out to D.C. with teachers from every other state, and they had this whole agenda planned: Smithsonian, monuments, etc.  But the climax of the week-long event was a private reception with President Bush and a tour of the White House.  Each award winner would also receive a signed commendation from Bush.  

So he sends me a text the other night.  The reception with the President was cancelled.  Why?  Did he have to fly to Iraq to call off the war?  Was hiding in a secret bunker because of a terrorist threat?  Did Laura have the flu? Not quite.

Nope.  He had to meet with Super Bowl XLII Champions, the New York Football Giants.  Weak.  Seriously weak.  Our whole country is like those schools where the jocks and the dropouts are the popular ones (or Presidents) and the ones who work hard and achieve in other areas are brushed aside and never celebrated.

So while teachers are getting laid off and schools are having their funding cut because of poor test scores, our president says thanks to those who are working hard every day by canceling on them and hanging out with the football team.

But it wasn't so bad for my friend.  At least he got to meet Dick Cheney.

Well, it's official...

I will be gone for nearly the entire month of June.  I got accepted to the NEH Conference in Florida, and then I have a service trip with students and a family vacation.  I don't especially love the idea of being gone so much, but when you have the chance for opportunities like this, it's kind of stupid to turn them down!

Although I just finished the most stressful week in a while, I am so in love with my job right now.  Our school is working on implementing a new engineering magnet program that will be slowly phased-in, starting next year.  What does that have to do with Language Arts?  Well, although some view it as a threat to our department (because if the students load up on STEM classes, then they're not taking English), I am seeing it as a pretty amazing opportunity to do something that hasn't been done before.  I met with a coworker and a professor from the U of M yesterday to develop projects in connection to literature that we teach.  The projects require students to use different engineering skills and they relate to different outcomes and models of engineering.  It was one of the most exciting things I have ever done in my teaching career!  By the end of the meeting, we were already planning future activities... Julius Caesar will never be the same.  I think this could easily translate into a paper.  Me-- a published author?  This professor will be in our building one day a week next year and I'm already excited to work with her.  She's using our high school as a model for a huge project she's working on, and she'll be working closely with us as we get this program up and running.  Sorry to bore those of you who aren't connected with the teaching profession...

Well, I had better get going.  I have a private sale event at a boutique in Stillwater to raise money for my service trip.  I hope we make tons of $$$!

Lazy Day

Since I did ALL my grading while administering the ACT yesterday morning, I have allowed myself to be completely lazy for the remainder of the weekend.  I finished the final season of Sex in the City (a bit behind on the times, I know); I watched Becoming Jane this morning while the spouse was at soccer (much better than expected); later today, I plan to resume reading The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell.  I love her.  If I would switch-hit for anyone, it might be her.  TMI?

It seems that spring is making a comeback after our snow and slush last week.  There will be some sort of meat cooking in our backyard in the next couple days.  We assembled the grill a few weekends back, and it enormous!  The husband bought it online (like he does with everything) because it was half off in December, so we had this massive box in the garage all winter.  After we unpacked all 7,000 parts and spent the entire day in the driveway, we emerged with a stainless steel beast that is as big as our love-seat.   It has a shelf, a cupboard, a side-burner... it's ridiculous.  There's even a griddle so you can cook pancakes and eggs on your grill.  Seriously.

In other recent news, we had hubby's art opening last weekend.  He was one of 30 artists asked to create a poster for Artcrank, an annual show at a bike store-coffee shop-art gallery downtown.  There was a line around the block all night, so we spent a bunch of the time on the sidewalk out front drinking the delicious free beer.  We saw some people buying the poster, so we'll see if they sell out by the end of the show.  It ended up being a pretty darn fun night, and any excuse to wear a dress is a good time for me.  At the beginning of last week, we also found out that Bizzle's nominated for a Webby which is basically the Oscars of web design.  Go online and vote for him!  It's the "Dinners Made Easy" email advertising for General Mills.  If he wins, we get to go to NY for the awards ceremony!  

And not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm up for Teacher of the Year in my district.  The nomination came completely as a surprise; in fact, when I was told, the first word out of my mouth was "Crap." Not a disappointed "Crap"-- a surprised "Crap."  I have no delusions that I will win, but it's cool to be nominated.  The other two nominees from the high school are two of my BTFs (Best Teacher Friends), so the three of us are having a bit of fun with it.  We joke about bringing in headshots for autograph signings and getting our heads carved out of butter and such.  They haven't formally announced the nominees yet, so it's like our little secret for now.

Now if the weather stays nice, everything will be copacetic.