fridays!

Out for a night on the town! That gets an exclamation mark as it is a rather rare event. I do noy have a husband who likes to go out. Oh in his younger days we could go out dancing every once in a while. In his provincial job he certainly went out to listen to music when he eas with his boss. But to go as a "date" with his wife? Forget it!! So off i go on my own whenever an occasion arises or i have a group of women friends to go with. Poop on boring old men!!

beach trip 2014

6k walk today--not bad for an out of shape old lady. Goal is to get to the far end of this stretch of beach. That's about 8 or 9 k away-- easy (?) but i'll have to crawl back!

So wonderful to be out on a clean beach-- i saw almost NO trash, no broken glass-- and the only footprints in the sand were my own,plys the group of dogs cavorting on the beach. Watching them dig for sandcrabs was hysterical. I only wish i had brought my camera along on the walk.

if i can ever manage to log into this blog from my ipad, i'll post a pic of the gorgeous sunrise.

Annual Post?

Here it is -- June--a year since my last post! Is this summer post to be the only one i make?
Part of it this year is a frustration with devices. I have grown to love sitting around wherever
typing on my ipad mini so much more than being chained to my desktop pc. But i cannot get into this blog. On my ipad i get defaulted to my school google apps account and lovked out of my lovely blog! I have gone to help and followed all the instructions. Under my progile, both my accounts are listed as options but my ipad won't believe it. Oh it will let meseitch back and forth with ease on gmail, but for anything else, it tries to force me into work mode..........sigh.....

So, i wsd thinking to use some of my summer downtime creatively, but only if i can get my ipad to cooperate.

That's my excuse, and i'm sticking to it!

Such a long time since I posted here!
I still get a few comments from the "Why buy the cow" reading challenge.  I'm now using Goodreads to keep track of my reading and for my challenge.  My 2013 reading challenge is 100 books-- I'm  already 53 books into the challenge :)

HOOKED ON READING!!

2013 Reading Challenge

I see it has been over a year since my last post!  The last "Why Buy the Cow" reading challenge was a bust-- I do NOT read well online.  I am an excellent online skimmer and scanner but find it nigh impossible to get down to serious reading on an electronic device.  Could be I'm a tactile person, but I think it more likely I am a creature of habit.  After a several-decade-long love affair with books, how could I make the switch to reading on a screen?  I see the advantages of course-- faster access to more books, ability to easily carry a library with me wherever I go...but still.....  books-- the feel of the covers, the smell of the pages, the act of turning one over to slowly view words on the next page, the sheer pleasure of going into bookstores and coming out with new treasures........ there is no substitute!

Goodreads.com-- finally one of my 'resolutions' has been carried through on.  I have kept up my reading lists on this sight faithfully for the past 6 months.  i read too many books to remember titles of some for long and just seeing the book cover or title in the list on my 'shelf' helps keep them in accessible memory.  And hopefully it will help prevent me from buying the same books twice.
There is a yearly reading challenge through the site.  last year I did not make it through successfully  (well, I think I did but the problem was I couldn't remember  most of the titles I read while on holiday in the US in order to record them on Goodreads). This year my goal is to read 100 books.  I have a good start already.  The only thing that could slow me down is a really GOOD book. Some books are so well-written I just want to savor every sentence, roll the words across my tongue and let their tang linger.  These I read slowly.  The general novel I breeze through like a story junkie.  No matter how busy my schedule gets, I can't NOT read every day.

I've also discovered that a former student has opened a coffee business-- he imports, procures, and roasts his own beans.  Ahhhhhhhhh...... I have had a taste of the REAL Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica (absolute heaven!) and beans from other parts of the world as well.  Each time I go, my student educates me on another piece of the process of coffee and the art of coffee.  So this past month as I sit to read, I have by my side an aromatic cup of Costa Rican freshly ground coffee from beans roasted while i watched.  I could read (and sip my java) all day long.

2012 Reading Challenge: Why Buy the Cow

This is a challenge to read a certain number of totally free downloaded books. May be difficult for me since I have no kindle or nook and no iphone or ipad, but I've got me free kindle for PC app
(and a Nook for PC) so I am ready to go.
Perhaps this will spur me to purchasing one of the readers for myself.....maybe Santa will provide for me?????
Anyone game to join the challenge? Link to Why Buy the Cow reading Challenge

Since I've usually read only in print format I'm going to start off with the minimum:
Coupon Clipper = 12 books

Maybe I'll be able to upgrade to penny pincher (24 books!)
Who wants to take me on?

2011-12 academic year start up

Well my resolve to keep up my blog has failed yet again. This school year is another heavy one for me-- 5 preps, 2 of which have no set text. I seem to spend half my life looking for things for these 2 lower level text-less classes to read!

Weekends are filled with essay correction and all that stuff. It's impossible to finish 5 classes worth of papers and other assignments during the paltry "prep" periods! Then there's all the housework to catch up on and the errands................sigh. I WANT A LIFE!!

Freshly Brewed: Valentine's Day

Freshly Brewed: Valentine's Day: "Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Valentine's Day is a big thing at my little international school. The kids all come prepared with roses a..."

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Valentine's Day is a big thing at my little international school. The kids all come prepared with roses and chocolates or heart-shaped candies for each other and their teachers. (Yes, I'm talking about high school kids!) The Student council does a big fund-raiser by selling and delivering hand-made cards and candies (even singing valentine's!) and running a chocolate fountain at lunch. Everyone is encouraged to dress up in red or pink and white (rather than our school uniform). Teachers had better be prepared to have something slightly special to hold their students' attention!

Grade 9: Just by luck we were doing the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet-- how perfect was that! My students are mostly not native speakers of English, and Shakespeare can be hard going for them. I found a wonderful set of support activities for lower ability students at teachit.co.uk-- some matching things and other activities that get the kids looking critically at sections of the text. Today, after a bit of eye rolling at the "Romeo, Romeo" one students asked "Just why is Romeo and Juliet so popular anyway?" Good question, which since it came from one of them rather than from me, will be an excellent one for them to formulate an answer to as we continue through the play.

My AP English kids, who are currently working on argument, were rolling on the floor at "Love is a Fallacy" This is a great little story and good review for logical fallacies. We watched a modernized video version from Mutlimedia-NY which is available as a free download. then looked at the original 1951 text, discussed the fallacies and answered some questions.

My other groups read NY Times articles about love accompanied with "My Perfect Mate" or other pre-reading surveys. There's a nice NYTimes lesson plan using My Coy Mistress which fit in with the group doing poetry.

Don't you just love the Internet and wonderful resources like New York Times among others!

All in all a satisfying day. Too bad there is no romantic evening for me. I spent the weekend working on curriculum documents and now I have a stack of essays to be graded and another set of drafts to be commented on before tomorrow comes. :-(

Teaching

My school is not the strongest academically; we're not the most organized or the most established. Things don't work line clockwork here-- chaos and frustration sometimes spice our days. That said, the students are marvelous! What are the the "creme de la creme" of academia? Heavens no, far from it in fact! Rather there is a bond between students and teachers and between the students that I have seen at only few schools. We are a unit; we are "in it together."


Thailand has a traditional "teacher respecting" day (Called "Wai Kru" in Thai). It's a formal ceremony of some traditional chants and speeches about respecting and honoring teachers. Our students had the main role in organizing our school's first formal version of the ceremony this year. After the formal speeche3s and presentations of flower arrangements, the seniors sought out the teachers of their subjects and did some special more private presentations. Pictured here are one of the group shots and one shot of the seniors presenting garlands to their Social Studies teacher.