Dracula hates Snapchat more than I do!

Fiiiiinally grading those Dracula tests.

Directions:  You are Dracula and have been a vampire for over 100 years.  Give some advice to a new vampire on what he or she should do or not do.  Write at least 5 sentences.

"Stay away from garlic, steak, and crosses.  Don't do an Instagram or Snapchat."


No red meat OR social media!  :)

No Edward Cullen here.

From my vampire-loving, Twilight-obsessed 10th grader:

"You live in Washington?"
"Yes.  Last year."
"You go to Forks?"
"What?" (Am I forgetting a suburb?  Fort something?  Those words do sound similar.)
"Forks."
"Ohhhh.  I lived in the capital, Washington, D.C.  That's where the President lives.  Washington state is on the other side of the United States, near California."
(Supreme disappointment.)  "Oh."
"There aren't any vampires in Washington, D.C.  But we do have monster politicians!"

Sorry to let you down.  Again.  Two weeks ago I refused to show Twilight as an addition to our Dracula unit.

Gothic/Horror Stories

My high school class is reading Dracula, and to accompany our reading, we are composing our own Gothic/horror stories.  My students have great ideas.  I don't actually like being scared, but they do, and they've taken to the task with great passion.  They might not be turning in their homework still, but all 16 students have a rough draft that creeps me out.  We are in the final phases of editing, and I've offered some help to students who've sought it.  There are the normal rounds of editing:
"'I' must be capitalized.  No exceptions."  "But Miss...  It's too hard."
"You do not need to hit enter for every sentence.  That does not count toward your minimum one page."
"A two-paged story should have more than one paragraph."
"You're in 9th grade.  Do you know how to use a period?  Obviously not." (Ok, ok. I was a bit more kind than that.)

But I also love the errors due to second language acquisition.
"Her stomach grumbled."  It was annoyed from a lack of food.
"It was a dark and stormy nighty."  This could get interesting.  Keep it PG-13, folks.
(fighting off the zombies) "yaa. im to good."  Where to start?  How does one gently critique that?
"Ultra mission ! Now his job is in hospital to bring “Mega medicine” back to company . Doctor ,nurse, security guard , FBI them all zombie ! " I love my Thai exchange student.

I hope one of them wins the Halloween story contest sponsored by our library. Can you win in spite of grammar?

"It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts."
— Corrie ten Boom

Summertime Snack

Shaun often teases me about my weird eating habits.  If he's not here and in need of a meal (MEAT!), I will just graze all day.  If I'm busy, sometimes I forget to eat, and them remember when I realize I'm really cranky.

Last week I threw together some of my fridge and discovered a delicious snack.  Baby peppers, string cheese, and fresh basil.

Slice the string cheese into small bites (I usually split it 4 ways), stuff into the peppers, and add basil.  Broil until the cheese gets soft but the peppers aren't burned (5-10 min.).

YUM.

Wait, what?

At the time of my last post, I was a 4th grade ESOL teacher in Northern Virginia, battling traffic and work stress, and trying to find my groove as a newlywed.

Lots has changed since then.  State, city, home, jobs, and daily life.  Just a couple of things.

Sometime last year we decided to high tail it out of DC before it's intensity and costliness broke us.  We made a list of places that might be fun to live and Shaun went job hunting.  We decided only one of us needed a job to make a move.  I figured I could probably find a teaching job in most cities, but Shaun's industry is more specialized, so we focused on him.

Fast forward to June.  I finished school on a Friday.  My parents drove up Saturday to lend their expertise in packing.  On Sunday I called in every moving debt I had (I think I've moved most of the Northern Virginia area in the last 5 years) and our awesome friends had us packed in just a few hours.  We crammed (I mean CRAMMED.  I wish I had a photo.) everything into a 16-foot truck and we hit the road west.  Shaun listened to the first Harry Potter twice, while I happily listened to my spy thrillers poking along behind the truck in my own car.

Four days and 1700 miles later we arrived in Denver.  Since then it's been a whirlwind of unpacking re-packing and moving apartments, job hunting, entertaining guests, and finally settling into a new life.  Stay posted!

Oh yeah. I have a blog.

Last week my sister re-entered the blogging world after a few months off.  And like any good little sister, I figured I should follow suit.  Why, you ask?  Well maybe you didn't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

I like having a place to write down my thoughts.  I don't journal, so a blog is a place to share some musings and funny teaching stories.  I regularly have an internal dialogue about sharing and over-sharing on social media.  So instead of continuing to judge all those people, I'm joining in and hoping that I can be wise with my words.  More on that later.

Also, I am a bit of a techie nerd.  Over the last couple of years I've had the opportunity to get geeky at school though an iPad and a teacher technology cohort.  My students made all kinds of videos, avatars, slideshows, and even a video game in an effort to help them get engaged in learning and become more computer literate.  I love exploring new websites and dreaming of ways to make them useful.  Technology as a means has great potential.  As an end, it is wasteful.  I don't really use this blog for educational purposes, but it keeps me connected to a broader world than my current circles.

Finally it's summer.  And I have time.  I will probably post a handful of posts and then go a little crazy when a new school year starts.  So enjoy it while you can!