Re-Reading

Another quarter, another reading of "What Was I Scared Of?"

As usual, I did my this-is-so-weird-and-silly schtick, riffing on the nocturnal bear, the creepy pants, the Grin-itch spinach, and so on. BUT today, I noticed a new flaw in the book. "Look at that moon!" I cried. "The text says it's a week later, but the PHASE OF THE MOON HASN'T CHANGED!" I threw my hands up in mock exasperation. "I'm sorry! I don't even think this story takes place on earth!"

The students laughed good-naturedly, and one boy raised his hand. "How many times did you read that story before you noticed the moon?" he wanted to know.

I paused and shrugged. "This is the first time I saw that," I confessed. "So, considering I first read this book when I was seven or eight?"

I looked out at the class; their eyes were wide.

"Let's just say, Several," I told them with a nod.

The Multitudinous Story

Oh! The Oscar-nominated documentary shorts!

Each year I eagerly look forward to that curated and concentrated glimpse into some other realities than my own. The movies can be joyful, but more commonly are hard to watch, and this year was heavy on the latter.

Three of the five were centered around the war in Syria and its catastrophic fallout. Although the indomitable spirit of many Syrians was front and center, so was the devastating scope of the tragedy that has been unfolding for the last six years. It made the grave subjects of the other two films-- end of life care choices and the path of a violin from the Holocaust to the poorest county in the US-- seem almost, almost, minor, although of course that could never be true.

And, that is why I love them so.

Worth It

I have to admit that I'd never considered a sous vide setup for my kitchen until the other night when a friend mentioned that her husband had one. The stars must have aligned, because a day or two after that, I saw an online deal-of-the-day for one at one-third its usual price. Compact and easy to use, a new toy was clearly in my future.

For those who are unfamiliar, sous vide involves cooking food sealed in a vacuum packed bag in a precisely heated water bath so that whatever you are preparing cooks to that temperature and no higher. Such a technique yields food that is cooked evenly throughout.

And it is fun to play with! So far I've cooked salmon, ribeye, and eggs with varying degrees of success. The steak was perfectly medium rare and a quick sear in a hot skillet made it gorgeous, too. The water temperature for the salmon should have been a few degrees cooler-- I can fix that next time-- it was still pretty good though, and the eggs were the coolest texture ever, almost like custardy melted cheese.

I'll keep you posted about what I cook next!

Context is Everything

As always, at our International Baccalaureate school, the activity ended with a reflection.

Today, the whole school had viewed the moving documentary, He Called me Malala, and the students were asked to name their favorite part. Later, after they were gone, another teacher on the team came to my room to share one of her student's responses:

My favorite part was when she took one right to the forehead.

I gasped. And then laughed, because he has obviously been influenced by popular media, and his phrasing was (excuse the pun) right on target.

Fortunately, the students were also asked to explain their answers, and so he continued:

I couldn't believe she survived to tell us how important school is.

Snow Hole

January 7, 2017:

Washington: trace
Richmond: 8"
Yorktown: 12"
Virginia Beach 10"

February 9, 2017:

Washington: trace
Baltimore: <1 p="">Philadelphia: 4"
New York: 10"

All my teacher friends are beginning to despair!

Clean Your Ears, Lassie

I was only listening with half an ear this morning when I heard a school announcement that made me take notice.

The NJHS is sponsoring a kilt drive. If you have any lightly worn kilts that you no longer need please bring them to school. All kilts will be cleaned before being offered to students and families who may need them.

A bonny parade of tartan capes, bagpipes and Glengarry and Balmoral bonnets whirled through my imagination as I considered who might have a few extra kilts around and better yet, who might want them?

And then I realized with more than a wee twinge of disappointment that I had misunderstood the student announcer. We were having a plain old coat drive.

I'd Like to Buy a Vowel

Each quarter we give a "predictor" assessment for the high stakes test which lies ahead. The kids know the routine; there is even a special app on their iPads so that they can access the test that much more conveniently.

As the teacher it is my role to "green light" the test, and in doing so I have a few options. One is to put a download password on the assessment. I have the sense that the creators meant for this feature to prevent students from taking the test outside of class where, presumably, they could get unauthorized assistance.

That concern is not very relevant to me. I've found that 6th graders don't really want to take the test in class, much less anywhere else, nor do they care enough about the results to bother cheating. I personally like the password because it forces everyone to stop and perhaps even listen to me for a moment before they plunge into multiple choice land, and I try to make my passwords somewhat amusing.

A few years ago, a student actually guessed the download key before I could give it, and ever since then it's been my practice to challenge the kids to guess what it might be. Today was no exception, and after a few hollered-out inaccurate predictions, one of the students suggested we play hangman for the answer.

It was brilliant!

Analyzing the word cues and clues and employing other strategies to decipher the password was a perfect warmup for the test. And? Although I can't prove any causal correlation, as a group, they didn't do too bad at all.