October 21, 2009
Compliments for Me-Actual Learning for Them
I could easily give my students an article or something to read as a class to teach them the skill of outlining. But I don't. Finding an article they would all find interesting, something they could all relate to, is practically impossible. So I do the same thing every year. I write this on the board. . .
"Mrs. BBM is SO awesome."
They chuckle and share some private jokes for a couple seconds. Then I ask them to fill in the details in the form of a graphic organizer. Last year, they were very funny details. This year they were super flattering!
The kids told me I was a "snazzy dresser," and that I had "great hair," and perhaps the best compliments of all were the ones they placed under "great personality," and "funny." They added details under each category like "cute shoes," and "bombshell blonde," and "stylish haircut." When we were finished I had an entire chalkboard full of compliments that any girl would love.
Then we turned our graphic organizer of Mrs. BBM awesomeness into an outline. And I could hear the light bulbs clicking on. They get it now. They really get it.
When I was finished getting flattered, we had a rough draft workshop. I was making the rounds and sitting in on groups, and adding my two cents here and there. And then I got to this one particular girl and her paper on the abuse of animals in the entertainment industry. It absolutely blew me away. I've been telling them that in this argumentative essay, they need to find their voices. But still, I see what they've written and it is usually straight-forward and informational. It doesn't jump off the paper. This girl totally got it. I was so excited about her opening paragraph that I asked her to read it out loud. She blushed the whole time, but you could tell she was super proud of herself. The other kids were silent when she was finished. It was powerful. I knew I had gotten through to at least one person in the class during the past two weeks when I've been pounding it into their heads about developing voice in their writing.
In my speech class I also read her paragraph out loud. My speech class delivers persuasive speeches next week and I've been stressing the need for passion in their speeches and appeals to emotions. I read it and they were, for once, speechless. It feels so good to even reach one student; and my hope is that many others will strive for what she accomplished in just her introductory paragraph.
It is unconventional days like this in the classroom that make me love teaching. Despite the fact that I woke up yesterday feeling horrible, I left campus happy with a boatload of cool compliments AND the knowledge that I had really taught them something.
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October 17, 2009
Eleven Years: Then and Now
It's 6:05 p.m. on my 11th wedding anniversary. Eleven years ago, I was just arriving at my reception. The weather had been in the 70's all day long and it had been an amazing day.
Today, I've just emerged from the shower. Instead of getting dressed to go to a nice restaurant for a quiet dinner, I put my pajamas back on, along with the robe with the two drops of coffee stain on it too, from when I almost spit out my entire mouthful this morning after reading a horrendous student paper and thesis statement that made no sense. It has rained all day long and tonight, we might get snow.
Eleven years ago, I spent hours getting my hair done and doing my make-up, getting in my dress and having hundreds of pictures taken. I was excited and nervous all at the same time.
Today, I spent hours grading papers and chasing after a little girl with a very runny nose and pleading with her to please put her dirty tissues in the trash and to please just sit down and rest. I've been nervous today too, but it's a completely different feeling when it involves your daughters.
Eleven years ago, I was getting ready to have a nice dinner. . . chicken marsala, one of my favorites.
Today, Mr. BBM ordered sandwiches from the local pizza shop. They'll probably arrive while he's retrieving diet coke from the store so I'll have to answer the door wearing my stained robe, flannel pants and slippers with wet hair and no make-up.
Eleven years ago, I was gearing up for a fun night of dancing with friends and family. And man was it fun!
Tonight, I'll curl up on the sofa and probably watch Food Network while I continuously check on the girls while they sleep and pray that their fevers don't come back. Mr. BBM will probably fall asleep on the loveseat. He'll also probably snore.
Eleven years ago, Mr. BBM and I were dressed to kill.
Today, I wear pajamas and Mr. BBM wears homemade "man-pri's" or what I call "pirate pants," which are cut off mens sweatpants that I used to wear post-ACL surgery because they were the only comfortable piece of clothing that I could fit over my obligatory knee brace. They were too short for him when I was done with them, so he cut the bottoms off and wears them despite the fact that I make fun of him each time he does.
Eleven years ago, Mr. BBM gave me beautiful diamond and pearl earrings and a necklace to wear for our wedding.
Last night, Mr. BBM and I exchanged anniversary gifts. I bought him a Steelers sweatshirt that he has to exchange because it is too small and the Polamalu Steelers jersey that I bought him hasn't even arrived in the mail yet. I just didn't have time to order it this week with all the grading and sickness happening. He bought me an outfit from Ann Taylor Loft, the store that seems to forget that they used to make shirts and sweaters with long enough sleeves for me and pants that didn't look like I was preparing for a flood. What happened Loft?
And more importantly, what happened to us?
Oh yeah, it's called a marriage, a marriage with kids. It's not your typical Cinderella story, but for now it's our story.
I'll just pretend my cheese steak tonight is filet; and Mr. BBM can pretend I spent more than three seconds combing my hair today.
Ah, marital bliss.
October 16, 2009
Inventions, Well Wishes and Free Cash
Last night, Lil C came into our room four times. That's in addition to the five times she came out of her room before she fell asleep. I know she's stuffed up and is having trouble breathing but enough already. Between Mr. BBM snoring and Lil C visiting, I am getting next to no sleep. Lil C then crawled into bed with me this morning and spent two hours touching my face and arm and driving me absolutely insane. Finally, she fell back asleep and is now snoring louder than Mr. BBM has ever snored (Ok, maybe not quite that loud). Clearly she gets that trait from his side of the family.
Big I is looking and feeling much better today. However, she still has a low-grade fever that just won't quit and she says her headache is better but still lingering. I know she's feeling better because she "invented" a white board made out of a piece of notebook paper and a plastic storage bag. Now she's working on creating an eraser. Once she's done that, it's on to the 10 page packet that came home from school yesterday. I feel like I've been homeschooling her the entire week. Now I know why I don't do that. I'd like to state for the record that I personally despise "New Math." It's just wrong. I spent much of this week teaching Big I to check her answers with "old math" which worked just fine for me growing up. Funny that now she gets it. Grr.
I spent last night camped out on the sofa watching DVR'd episodes of "Flash Forward" which is an absolutely brilliant show. If you haven't watched it yet, I strongly recommend you find it online and get caught up. If you're a "Lost" addict like I am, you will love it. I also watched last night's episode of "Project Runway" and I would just like to warn Irina that if she ever runs into me on the street, I'm probably going to slap her or step on her foot or possibly trip her. She is such a jerk. Whatever happened to being so confident that you didn't have to insult other people? Ugh, she's just awful. I hope Carol Hannah wins, just to spite her.
In other news, my karate instructor had hand surgery yesterday for the second time. I know she's at home right now, probably trying to breathe away the pain and doing wonderfully at it, so please send positive thoughts to Mrs. H for tolerable pain and a quick recovery. We will miss you in the dojo Mrs. H! Actually I miss myself in the dojo too. Next week I'm going to try to work on actually getting there twice in one week.
Finally, a bit of good news to share. I'm giving away a $100 Visa card over at The BBM Review. Go check out the Sonicare review and follow the directions for a chance to win the card or a Sonicare Prize package. If you twitter about it or blog about it and leave a link in the comments, you get an extra entry too and who couldn't use an extra $100 these days?
Finally, if you haven't checked out my latest fantasy football column, that's where the laughs are located. Go visit Bulls N Balls and see for yourself.
Have a wonderful, swine flu free, weekend!
October 15, 2009
The Most Craptastic Week of All
Big I has been home sick all week with suspected H1N1. It can't be confirmed though because her doctor won't even see her.
Lil C seemed to be fine, but this afternoon she broke out in a fever and is now sound asleep on the loveseat, snoring away.
Today on campus, I was scolded for breaking the projector that is attached to the ceiling. I turned it on, off and then back on and apparently doing that breaks them. I got scolded by the IT lady in front of the class and then she sent reinforcements who told me it wasn't my fault and that she is indeed, insane. However, I couldn't help feeling guilty considering the guy had to put a chair on top of a table in order to get up high enough. I took on personal responsibility for his well-being, teaching my class while keeping a death grip on the chair, and figured I could handle being held responsible for killing a projector, but add a media/IT guy to the death count and well, a girl could get a reputation.
This whole week has been complete crap as far as I'm concerned; and now I have a headache which is how Big I started. I will probably spend my weekend, which is also my 11th wedding anniversary, sick.
I'm also really ticked off at my fantasy football team and have written some "love letter" to my players over at Bulls N Balls. I don't know who I'm more angry at right now, the crazy person who accused me of breaking the projector, the stupid swine flu, or the San Fran D/ST.
Just saying their name makes me seethe right now. Argh, just make this week end already.
October 14, 2009
All the Answers or Not
After the day I had yesterday, I knew I had to go to karate last night. I needed to punch and kick and get my frustrations at the world out. I tried to tell myself I should stay home and take care of Big I, who is home sick for the second day in a row; but then I realized that Mr. BBM is perfectly capable and I had no excuse to not get my butt to the dojo.
Off I went.
Last night, I was the only black belt besides the instructor. At our school, we have so many talented black belts that a new one like me is sort of like being in 13th grade. When people have questions, they go to the higher ranked black belts who have been there forever. They don't come to the newbie with questions; but last night that changed because none of the ones with the answers were there.
Our instructor was going around the dojo and asking each person to do a different waza. A green and brown belt made their way over to me and whispered, "What's mine?" I had to know ten of them for black belt testing. Back in June, someone could pick one and I could do it without a problem. But we don't do waza that often in class. Ask me any kata up to Shodan and I can show you; waza is a different story.
I started with one and mentally made my way up to around six. If I do them in order, I can get them sometimes. If someone shows me the first move, I can usually let my muscle-memory do the rest. Last night, unfortunately, the poor brown belt was pretty much on his own. So was I though, because when my instructor asked me to do ten, I had to ask him to get me started. I don't know why waza are so difficult to remember, but they are so slippery in my brain. They just don't stick around long before sliding off into oblivion. I need to fix that.
With dojo testing coming up this weekend, the white belts were preparing their testing materials. My instructor asked me to take any white belts who wanted to do their material in front of me downstairs. Two little girls showed me their stuff and did a great job. It was nice to teach them little things without having them roll their eyes at me like some of my university students do, when I simply ask them to take out a sheet of paper. I had a good time going over things with them and then went upstairs to practice some of the higher waza.
There are some green belts getting ready to test as well, so we did much of their material which is always good review for me. As the end of class was nearing, my instructor asked me to run the green belts through the first bo kata. We went through it a couple times and it felt weird to be up front, teaching someone else. I'm just never really in the position to do that at my dojo. It felt weird, but it definitely felt good that my instructor handed things off to me a few times. I take that as a huge compliment.
When the class was over, one of the Mom's of one of our green belts congratulated me on my black belt. I haven't seen her since before I tested. This particular Mom and I used to hang out on the sidelines when I was injured. She had ACL reconstruction when she was in college and we used to compare notes. We frequently talked about whether or not it was worth it to come back and risk re-injuring the knee. During the time when I was sidelined, I must admit that I often thought about not going back. ACL reconstruction just sucked so badly that I didn't want to ever risk going through that again.
But last night, as I drove home from the dojo, I gave myself a mental pat on the back. I'm so proud of my comeback; and it's exciting that I am now in a position where I am being asked to help other people reach their goals. There is nothing better than doing that.
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