Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Responsibilities are scary.

What am I doing right now, you ask? I'm grading things! How strange. It is an odd feeling to know you have some control over a child's success (only some! They're the ones doing or not doing the work, after all...). Right now I'm grading the packets my classes have completed over the past few weeks for the novel they just read. It's a lot to go through, and I take about twice as long as my mentor teacher, although I take twice as long as him in anything we are grading, really. But that's just thanks to experience.

I also have to finish planning for a lesson on cyber bullying I'm giving tomorrow. This stuff is so serious and the kids know it, but it's hard to really know if they're prepared to fight against it. I did an activity today with my group where I split them based on the kind of shirt they were wearing, and then had them compete against each other in a trivia game. Only I made one group stand in the back and ignored them, or gave them 1 point for a correct answer, and gave the other group 500 points every time they got an answer right. About half way through the group in the back realized I was "bullying" them. And only at the end when we discussed how the activity made everyone feel did the praised group realize they could have stood up for the group in the back, and refused to play until the rules were fair. I guess you could say that happens a lot in real life too.

In other news, this weekend was full of music, food, and football, which was lovely, until the Patriots lost the Superbowl. Sigh.

But on Friday, Amanda came over and we saw Jack's Mannequin with Randi, which was great (minus the standing for hours and dancing girls in front of us).


Amanda and I proceeded to consume Thai food, JP Licks ice cream, brunch, free Burger King onion rings (what a brilliant idea, BK), and Pinkburry fro yo all in a 24 hour period. Yum yum yum. Life is good. And delicious.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

PB&J and cake

Whoa, today was long. At school from 7:15 to 2:45, then in class from 3:50 to 5:50. But now I am done. My next task is dinner. I have already perused the dining hall selection, and ended up leaving with nothing but fruit: three apples, two bananas, and one orange. I'll probably make myself a sandwich. I have rediscovered my love of peanut butter and jelly now that I pack my own lunch every day. Thank god I love this sandwich. I suppose one day I will branch out and buy lunch meats. I'm still getting the hang of Roche Bros. I go in there and wander around like a lost lamb because I don't know where anything is. Plus the entrance leads you right into the bakery, and I find myself slowing down as I walk by the cake counter.

For now, I live life on pb&j.

Today was a good day. Lots of laughs with my other team teachers (the science, social studies, and math teachers). Had some good discussions with small groups. Every day I'm impressed with the students' ability to have class discussions, because I know that longer discussions on novels aren't always successful until later in high school or even college. But the kids impress me with their insights, and especially with the engagement they show with the story. Many a debate has sparked in these classes. It's fun to listen to.

I'm starting to work more one on one with various students, especially those who are behind in work. It is nice to get to know particular students, especially the students who might cause more frustration because of how behind they are. As a teacher I am determined not to hold grudges against any student, and I am learning that you cannot judge the students on only one aspect of their work ability. It has been quite interesting and eye opening to be on the other side of education (other than being a student or hearing my parents' opinions), because I have seen already how hard these teachers work to help every student succeed, and I have also come to know many of the more personal reasons as to why certain students are missing work. It's been tough realizing that as a teacher, there is only so much you can do during the day with the student. But as my mentor teacher has told me, despite anything going on at home with these kids, the best we can do for them is give them a good education.


On a different note, this past weekend Amanda, Julie, and I made butterbeer cupcakes! The recipe was inspired by the butterbeer drink from Harry Potter World, which essentially tastes like butterscotch soda. Very sweet. The cupcake batter actually smelled more like frosting. Although the cake itself did not come out too sweetly. The frosting definitely tasted very sweet, so it was a nice balance. And on top of all that goodness (literally), we drizzled butterscotch ganache, as well as attempted to add butterscotch ganache filling. Next time we'll get that technique down a little better. But they were DELICIOUS! I want another.

Julie drizzling the butterscotch ganache.


I also figured since I never got around to blogging my way through my choir Portugal tour, I will give you little pictures or stories of the day. Or something. Who knows. In any case, since I'm talking about food, here's a shot of a delicious Portuguese pastry:

Yum. So good. It was a crispy crust with custard inside and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. And warm from the ovens. We ate these tasty treats at a very famous cake shop called Pasteis de Belem. Here's a great video about the cafe (in English!): Check it out!

And in case you miss it in the video, they sell TEN THOUSAND of those custard tarts daily.