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!

The Amazing Adventures of Snakewoman

Transcription (because the handwriting hasn't improved much from his loin project last year):
The Amazing Adventures of Snakewomen (Part 1)
On summer vacation Mrs. Malik went to the rainforest.  She saw amazing animals but one night she went to sleep in the rain forest.  In the tent a scaly slithery thing slithered in.  A viper pit bited Mrs. Malik.  On the morning she didn't notice anything, but in school everyone saw Mrs. Malik differently.  She had a scaly body.  Then she noticed she was half snake and half human.

to be continued


(Part 2/2)
When Mrs. Malik got home that day she used everything to get rid of the scales but nothing worked.  So after that she was [watching] the news then she saw a villen (villain) destroying the city.  When she went downtown she saw the guy.  He was faster than a speeding waistband more powerful than boxer shorts (a nod to the Captain Underpants series).  He tired to stop her but Mrs. Malik was faster than a speeding scooter more powerful than metal.  After she stopped the bad guy, she called herself Snake Women.  She had two jobs now: an ELL teacher and a hero.  She was happy.

THE END.

Oh THAT meaning

Once upon a time a fellow fourth grade teacher was approached by a new, VERY limited English student.

He said, "Give me rubbers!"  His teacher's eyes bugged out, and she hollered for an Amharic-speaking classmate.  "WHAT does he want?!?!," always fearing the worst of 4th grade boys.  Translation from Amharic to English.  "Um, he needs an eraser."

British English.  Gets ya every time.

p.s.  Brownie points if you knew Amharic was the official language of Ethiopia.  Bonus brownie points if you can name the country (and/or language) directly to the north that gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1991.  WITHOUT using Wikipedia or Google!  (I have several students from this country too.)