things work out

Tonight I was going to have to leave class early in order to pick up Tam from the airport.

I just got an email saying class is canceled tonight. Hooray!

Tupperware

I use a lot of tupperware. Only, it's not tupperware, it the free plastic containers that you get at whole foods (near the bulk bar, usually with the peanut butter and honey bins). It's cheap (free) and I don't feel bad if I have to throw it away because I forgot about something in the fridge.

The downside is the dishwasher. Today was a glorious day because none of them tipped over. Usually at least half of them flip over and fill with dish water. I know it's a waste to have to rewash them several times until they don't flip.

Is there a solution to this? Will a wire cooling rack placed on top keep them down?

Otherwise I think I will have to move onto glass tupperware from the Container Store.

New Location

I told Josh we could just skip the engagement part and move straight into the good part: planning and the crafts that go along with it!

I found a new location that I am interested in: Cator Woolford gardens in Atlanta. It looks gorgeous based on the pictures that I googled...but their website is down so I have no way of finding out more information (ie pricing). I don't want to email them, but I'd like to know if it's something to keep in mind.

2 years

Last night I got up the nerves to bring up the 2 year thing. I always though of myself as confrontational, but I guess not. More along the lines of passive aggressive I guess.

Anyway, the boy's answer to "are we ever going to get married?" was...

"I probably wouldn't worry about it."

What does that even mean?! He is so cryptic. Then I tried to convince him that I don't need a fancy ring and he said that wasn't true. After that awesome yellow sapphire ring sold I haven't found on that I like as much though, so I would rather have something super simple than an expensive ring that I am not in love with. After the sewing machine present this Christmas, I know I'm not good at pulling off "I love it!" when I'm really not enthused.

Does not play well with others

Maybe teaching isn't for me...

In my program I have met quite a few idiots. People who have poor grammar and spelling, and whose ideas seem, well, undeveloped. 4 of these people are part of my group in a class. More on them in a minute

Now I'm not saying I'm perfect, or the smartest person, but I find that a lot of these people just don't have a high intelligence. They weren't the smartest in their classes, so when I get annoyed when the teachers espouse giving the smart students extra handouts and homework, they don't understand. They don't get that extra work does NOT motivate smart people to learn more. I don't care how challenging the handout is, knowing that you have to do more than the rest of the class is not good motivation. They seriously all believe that handouts are the best solution.

Of course, this is from a state and country that is doing away with the gifted program and honors classes. Yes, this is true, at least in New Mexico. All students are gifted. There is a wonderful program called inclusion where the mentally handicapped and the super intelligent are all put in the same class based on age. Ugh, I can't stand to talk about it.

So back to my group members then. They are all about my age, mid 20s. There is a married couple, and 2 other girls. Our project is to create a month of curriculum for a middle school class. We are covering Ancient Egypt. I suggested the Renaissance, but they all decided on Ancient Egypt. Fine. They want to mummify a chicken as part of our curriculum. This is a project that takes 40 days, but we only have 20 days. They want to do this in class as a presentation. When I expressed how much I hate chicken (don't eat it, won't touch it raw), they basically just ignored me and went ahead with the idea anyways. Even after they found out that WE will have to slaughter and defeather a chicken (OMG I am so not participating) they were like cool! I try to bring them back to Earth and explain the sanitation concerns and fill them in of the multiple errors they have been making on names of things, dates, etc that pertain to what we are supposed to teach and they don't care.

There is a method of teaching called Constructivism. It basically says that sitting in a class with the teacher at the front is not the best way to learn and that all lessons should be hands on and relate directly to real life. Yeah, I get it, but really, I think my group is taking this too far. They refuse to have ANY lessons based on concrete facts and instead think that teaching via "Txt Msg with Hieroglyphs" is a plausible and acceptable lesson plan.

And that, my friends, is the true problem with schools today.

Anyone still reading? I'm done. The boy has to hear about this every night.

photo recap - San Francisco

12 hour days

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I leave home at around 8:30 am and get back around 8:45 pm. Today I realized just how much food I bring with me:

- Carnation instant breakfast shake
- banana
- applesauce
- sandwich
- pea & yogurt salad thing
- mini sweet peppers filled with hummus
- Bobo's oat bar
- handful of chocolate covered almonds