Sunday, January 24, 2010

Letter writing an obsolete skill?



I caused quite a stir in the teacher's lounge the other day when I shared the light bulb of inspiration that had illuminated my poor little archaic brain earlier in the day in the classroom.  One of our most worked on and most emphasized writing standards in second grade is writing a friendly (as opposed to business) letter.  You know, that piece of writing from one person to another on a carefully chosen stationery,  then slipped into an envelope, stamped, driven to the post office and personally delivered by postman to the cherished friend.  The students I am teaching, I realized, would probably never use this skill of writing a letter.  They don't need to know the five parts: date, greeting, body, closing and signature.  Because they call, they email, they text, they twitter and they, yes, blog! But they don't write on paper.  I used to love roaming the aisles of the local stationery store, thoughtfully considering the choice of stationery, sealing wax, and pens.  But now the kids wallpaper their cell phones, and put badges and widgets on their social networking pages.  Teaching them to write letters is like teaching them how to look up information in an encyclopedia.  Obsolete!  But we do still teach it, and we teach them how to look things up in an encyclopedia, even though no one even owns an encyclopedia (how proud I was to be able to spell that word in second grade!)  We should be teaching them about privacy settings and how to edit in html and all kinds of other things that I don't even know that I should be teaching them.  Maybe it's me that is obsolete...

Friday, January 1, 2010

Thanks, Marc!

I finally got to see Marc's pictures from Spain and Portugal. I love this picture he took of the three of us in Seville from 2007.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Pictures from Sunnyvale


Aiden enjoyed visiting with "my Grannie".

Pay attention! she said to herself.

Once again I posted on Outrage when I meant to post on Orange. So if you are curious about what I spent my afternoon doing, you'll have to go to Daily Outrage.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!


This is what one of the first grade classes said about turkey. Sam of the turkey feathers is our Sam. And what is that red berry stuff anyway?

Maxwell: Eat turkey with pancakes. You can use pancakes if you’re out of biscuits. You pick up both sides of the pancake and
eat it when it’s only a few minutes old that way it’s still hot. The turkey can be older though.

Melissa: I like to eat turkey with gel. My mom cooks it. It takes a bunch of time, then it’s time to eat. First, put some water and a little milk and shake it with the turkey, and it’s all done.

Lilia: I just like it normal. My dad makes dumpling soup, that’s good, too. But I usually just like normal turkey.

Ariana: I just use one hand. It’s ok to eat the turkey with your hands, but not the other stuff.

Jakob: You can eat turkey legs with a side of stuffing. You have to open the legs and stick the stuffing inside. There’s a hole there for that. It gets messy. Mashed potatoes and corn go good with turkey, but they shouldn’t go in the stuffing hole.

Dylan: First, you cram stuffing inside the turkey while the turkey is still pink and soft. When it comes out of the oven, it will be hard and brown. That’s when it’s OK to eat it without throwing up.

Valerie: I like to slice it and give it lots of gravy. Make sure the dog hair is picked off before you put it on the table. SPAM is good with turkey, too. You can make sandwiches. Leave it cold and use lettuce. (Yes, she said SPAM ).

Robyn: Put lots of gravy on it, but don’t spill it on the good tablecloth. That’s a good way to make your turkey not good. I don’t like the good tablecloth.

Victoria: Make your potatoes like a volcano. Make them like a mountain with a hole in the top, then put the turkey and gravy inside the volcano hole. You can decorate it with corn if you’re really good, if not, you just pour the corn into the volcano, too.

Yasmine: You get a little bit of gravy and a little bit of corn. If you get too much, they will touch each other. It’s not good if it touches each other, but you have to eat it anyway.

Sam: Kill it, bake it, eat it with a fork. Save the feathers so you can play turkey chase with them. The turkeys will think you are a real turkey if you wear them, until you get close enough to scare them.

Matthew: First, I cut my turkey open and shove an onion in its hole. Grandma can put pineapple rings on it so it will taste good. When the house smells good, it’s time to eat it, but take the onion out first. You don’t want to eat it, it looks all brown,

Eric: Cut off their legs and eat them with gravy and mashed potatoes. You can make a bowl out of the mashed potatoes to hold the gravy and then dip the turkey legs inside before eating them. They have handles.

Miguel: Get a knife and kill the head. Bake it in the oven for 10 minutes. Eat it with red berry stuff. If you wear a white shirt they make you wear a bib like a baby, so DON’T wear that. What is that berry stuff made of?

Madison: My mom cuts off his arms – puts it in the oven- pours hot butter on it, and lots of pepper. The pepper looks like the turkey has freckles. Cranberry sauce makes your turkey look pink. Pink turkey is good.

Brianna: Put it in a pan, but only after it doesn’t have feathers. Take it out and put it on a big plate. Cut it. Take out the neck thing first. It looks like a snake. Daddy chases mommy with it. It’s sick.

Tony: Put it in the microwave. Wait for it to cool off. Eat it.

Damaris: Bake it without the bag of gooey stuff. Wait ‘til it’s hot, then eat it. Dogs can have the gooey stuff bag, unless your uncle is there. He likes that stuff. He said it puts hair on his chest. I will never eat that. I don’t want to have hair on my chest. He has lots. I think he should stop eating it, too.

Carla: Cook the turkey until it’s brown. If you wait too long, the house will get filled up with smoke and the alarms goes off. You can use lots of gravy on black turkey, but you don’t need as much if it’s only brown.

Sean: Mommy makes a hole with a butter knife and shoves the stuffing inside of it wither hands. It makes funny noises. Sometimes she gags. Stuffing is made of stuff. Set it out on the table, but you have to cook it first. It takes about a hundred hours. Then you have to dig the stuffing out of the turkey holes. It looks gray, but it tastes good.

Maria: What’s turkey?

Chris: First, they have to chop off its head. Then they stick it in a baggie, then in a pan. If there’s any feathers on it, they didn’t do it right and you should take it back to the store. If it has a head, you should take it back, too.

Jazen: Turkey is best when you smash it up with all the other stuff on your plate. You need a lot of gravy to make it all stick together.

Amy: If you are lucky, and don’t have any brothers, you can get the drumstick. If you lick it before they cut it off the turkey they will give it to you.

Daniel: If you just put the turkey in the oven and leave it there, it will be ready when you are ready for it. They take a long time to be ready. You have to start with the kind that doesn’t have a head. I don’t know where those come from. The turkeys I saw at the pumpkin patch all had heads and eyes and feet.

Stephanie: I like turkey best when I get to have corn and potatoes. I don’t like that green stuff my aunt makes. It has chunks in it.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Happy birthday, Mickey!

This is what Savannah wrote in her journal today. It made me smile, so I thought it might make you smile too! The spelling is hers...and it really is Mickey's birthday!


"11-18-2009
Today is Mickey Mouse’s birthday. I will invite Mickey and Ploodoe and Dolnold and the girll duck. The food I will bring is nochos and sodu and sallid and dip. The party is going to be at Disneyland. The games we are going to play is molpoly and ckendey land. The decorations is going to be sporkoles and flowyers and a sing said Happy Buirthday!"