Maybe it's not fair to imitate students, but it's so tempting sometimes

Dear Person,

All I want for Christmas is students who want to learn. It'd be even better if they have basic skills, like how to address a letter; how to spell words like "juss," "cud," and "divid" correctly; how to multiply 2 times 4 without looking at a multiplication table or needing to correct themselves; "and how to sit in a little, uncomfortable desk for nearly half a day." I'm not asking that they even know the stuff I tried to teach this semester, just that they're at a point where they can learn it (and everything else) next semester. That'll be a miracle enough.

If you're feeling extra generous, toss in some extra organization for my school. Make the scheduling nightmares be fixed. Pull something out of your bag of tricks that will help the administration gain the staff's trust. Because the chaotic, all-day registration where no one knows what's going on or what's really required for graduation just made everyone grouchy.

Could you also give the resource room aides the background knowledge to be able to tutor the students in whatever we're teaching them? Provide them with lots of extra examples (worked out because the students can't seem to copy them from the board) of problems like 7/10 + 3/5. Because I don't have the time or patience to teach the adults who interrupt me as I'm trying to do something with the rest of my class. It'd be a great present, really.

Any extra materials you have for teaching could be amazing too. I have the new computer waiting at home, but an LCD projector with wireless remote sounds powerful. Textbooks for Algebra, I'm not even sure I can dream that far. Posters for my room, because I'm not an interior decorator (and if they're the ones students do for extra credit, all the better).

Finally, lots of strength for my fellow teachers and myself. Physical. Mental. Emotional. Spiritual. Psychological. And any other aspect that I'm too tired to think of right now. Book deals for our stories when we come out of here (at least for those who have time to write). And some extra entertainment in the meantime.

Thanks!

~Me

Christmas time's a'coming and I know I'm going home

Opening with a sidebar: It's surprisingly difficult to find the lyrics to Raffi's Christmas album online. Especially given that I know the original LP has the lyrics on it.

A week from right now, I should be home. *Smiles* I tell my students that I have my home where I went to college and my home where my parents are (only, I just refer to them by the different states). I haven't been to the latter since moving out here in August. This is my first Advent away from family and I can tell I'm homesick. But one week. (4 days of school.) My cell phone's working again, so that should cut down on the bahness. I hope.

Since my last post, I've continued with the downs and ups. I really need to get better at separating myself from my job. I need to be able to cut down on my prep time so that I can maintain sanity. But it's hard when you don't have a good textbook. Or when you want worksheets to look right. And when I don't have pretty teacher handwriting. By next year this should be easier, right?

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3

Today was quiz day in my class. And I had to be mean.

You're talking to others around you? This is your warning. Move away if you need to. Talking again? That's a 0 on that part of your test.

You weren't here yesterday, here's a progress report as of this weekend. Yeah, it's still failing, that's rough. But look at how much you've improved. Where were you before? Like 12%? 56 is so much better. What was that? Your life would be easier if I quit? Yeah, but then you wouldn't learn anything in this class. Though I'm not always sure what you are learning as it is. Even if you don't care, I still do.


And we're only halfway through the day.

hunkering down with tofu

The "wintry mix" outside meant that I stayed home today instead of going grocery shopping and baking Christmas cookies with a friend who lives near the store. It's been a lovely, non-school productive but gotten things cleaned, day. I haven't actually curled up with hot chocolate and a book (neither one actually), but still managed to wear PJs all day.

Wasn't really in the soup mood and I'm running "low" on groceries (enough to make it through Wednesday, no problem, could probably go a full week if necessary), so I looked online for recipes. Recently I've been looking at vegan blogs, so maybe it's not a surprise that I ended up looking at Spinach Tofu Stuffed Shells.

I had frozen spinach, because I always have frozen spinach (except I'm out now, yikes!). I had tofu, because I wanted to try cooking with it (never had before). I had canned tomatoes to make sauce. I didn't have the shells, nor do I keep rice cheese, but I decided to try it anyway. It's not pretty enough to take a picture, but, definitely worth noting for the future. My annotated adaption is below. Tofu is something that I'm learning to like. The texture of it scared me for so long. I don't like it when it's rubbery, which it can be way to often. In this dish though, it was smooth and creamy. Happy, not scary.

Tomato Sauce. Any sauce would work. This was just tonight's incarnation.
1 32 oz can crushed tomatoes
Generous shaking of basil
Sprinkling of oregano
Sprinkling of pepper
Half a dash of salt
2 cloves chopped garlic

Simmer sauce while pasta cooks and preparing noodles.

Noodles.
Half a bag of multi-colored whole wheat nugget pasta
1 package frozen spinach
1 package tofu
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
Dash of salt
Sprinkling basil

Boil water and cook pasta. Drain when done.

Defrost spinach in microwave. (I suppose it'd be nice if you knew you were doing this to just let it thaw during the day.) Squeeze extra water out.

Blend tofu, olive oil, and salt in food processor. Should be smooth.

In medium mixing bowl, stir tofu mixture, spinach, and basil together. Stir pasta in.

The Casserole
Oh gosh, start preheating the oven now. (Unless you read ahead and remembered to do this earlier.) 350 F.

Tomato Sauce
Noodle Yumminess
Cheese (I used three handfuls of grated mozzarella)

Pour tomato sauce into 9 by 13 casserole dish. Cover bottom of pan half-inch to inch thick. No, you won't use all the sauce.

Spoon out the noodle yumminess, distributing it evenly across the casserole.

Sprinkle on cheese.

Put in oven. The original recipe calls for covering for the first 15 minutes, taking the cover off and then cooking 20 more minutes. I just put it in the oven, washed dishes, remembered something about covering it, put some aluminum on, kept on cooking. I'm not really sure how long it was in. Longer than 35 minutes though. Enough time to wash all my dishes from today.


Take out and enjoy.