And the freewriting begins...

It's the first day of the Summer Orientation. We are sitting in the new Collaboration Classroom at Missouri State. It's the first time I've heard this many fingers pecking the keyboards in the orientation. Normally, it's one or two with personal computers. I see four people handwriting and I wonder how this will affect freewriting by composing at the computer. Will people Fellows write, unhibited, like in the passage Keri read from Write to Learn? Will they write without assessment? Without heed to structure and content, but simply write, whether right or wrong.

Will they write without assessment?

I do not know if my student will ever write without assessment. Well, I know they will write, but they will write for feedback. It's hard, it's really hard, to think about not writing for the grade, and that's what I'm talking about when I talk assessment. My students hardly write for any audience but the teacher. I don't want to write about work...and I feel like that's where this is headed. I want to write about the first day of the Summer Institute and this orientation, and how in less than three months the 16 new faces in this room will be my friend, my colleague, and part of my professional learning community. And I think back to the past summers and all the teachers since the mid-1970's who have participated in a summer institute and who's classrooms have been changed because of it. I think about this network of people who make teaching professional. And here I go again--back to the loop of writing about work.

Priorities

We start classes in our new high school tomorrow. If I were on top of things, I could post a few pictures or add some audio or video to this post. But I'm not on top of things and I find myself being pretty low on the motivation scale when it comes to using technology in my work these days--not because I don't want to, but because it simply doesn't exist.

But, that's okay. The soda machines are full and the snack machines are stocked. We do have priorities at Republic High School.

Granny's Birthday

Today is Granny's birthday. When I mentioned this to my class this morning, they insisted we call to sing her "Happy Birthday." I thought what a great idea. So I grabbed my cell phone, dialed, and pushed the speaker button. After four rings she answered with a drowsy hello.

"HI, Granny!" I piped, as loud as I could into the phone.

"What." was her reply. And not "what?", which ends in a question mark and has the tone of curiousity regarding "what did you say?" but "What." as in a statement. A monotone, drab word that really said "why are you calling at such an ungodly hour and waking me up on my birthday!"

"Granny, I'm in my classroom and you're on speaker phone."

"You're kidding."
And then a giggle.

"No, granny, I'm not kidding. I told my class it's your birthday and they want to sing Happy Birthday to you."

And then she laughed again.

And Caleb and Luke led the chorus of the masses in the Happy Birthday song, even with the endearing "Dear Granny" in the middle.

"Well, thank you, thank you. Aren't you boys and girls good singers!?" she replied.

And then asked if we wanted her to give us some advice on living life? We said yes, but off the cuff, all she could think of was "keep up the good voices!"

I hope we do.

CRASH...

So I definitely need a new porch cover for the spring. :)

I'm not sure there's any fixing this one.

Shopping for a Winter Storm

I needed the $70 in groceries I bought yesterday before the ice storm. Like I need a hole in my head.

I was talking to Mitchell at the grocery store last week and he said if the weathermen would just mention that we might get some type of weather, it would sure give the store a boost. We were joking about the influx of shoppers before the big moment hits. And there I was yesterday, just like the other 60 shoppers at G & W. (And yes, 60 shoppers in G & W is SUPER CROWDED!)

I didn't have a list. I just felt like I needed to go. I must be the most unorganized shopper in the universe. I don't go in with a list, but am thinking of a few things I know I need, like milk, egges, and, well, that's all I could think of at the moment. But I scour each row as if I'm buying my last set of groceries ever!

Ohmygosh...condensed milk. Do I need condensed milk? Do I have any at home? Will I be cooking something that calls for canned milk? What if I don't have it and I need it? Should I get it? I don't need it. When's the last time I used condensed milk? Pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving? Please, I'm not going to make a pumpkin pie on a snow day.

So I bypass condensed milk. But then I get to the Ragu.

Do I need spaghetti sauce? Should I get some just in case? I could make spaghetti, cacciatori, lasagna...oh so many things with Ragu. But, really, a bad choice. What if my electric goes out? Hmmm. Where's my dutch oven? I could heat Ragu up in the dutch oven on my grill. (And now this gets me thinking I should be buying things I can grill just in case my electric goes out. Which then puts me into a panic to get home and get some wood out of the weather just in case I need to build a fire outside.)

Down the aisle is hot chocolate. And can't find my favorite brand. Shoot. They are out. Oh, but I could make it with milk, which I've already bypassed that aisle and will have to go back. Three trips later to the dairy case and I finally get what I came in for.

Betty checks me out, as usual. She combs through my basket and starts asking me what I'm cooking for dinner. I have no idea. All I know is I have 70 dollars invested in things like extra mayonaise, corn starch, and sesame ginger salad dressing. I can't remember the last time I bought any of these items.