A Thursday Thirteen Meme

Thirteen Mishaps That Happened Yesterday in a Three Hour Period of Time!

1) A student was walking by the front table of the classroom and hit the cord to the projector attached to the document camera. The projector hit the floor.
2) He picked it up and I tried it again... it seemed to work... but no light.
3)The tech guy came and couldn't fix it so he took it away.
4) He said it will be at least a week before a new bulb comes.
5) I got out my old overhead projector, dug out my dusty overhead transparencies, and tried to get ready to teach the sixth graders. They came in and one said ," I haven't seen one of those since fourth grade! "( two years ago.... we are talking "old school" here)
6) A few minutes into the lesson on writing color poems the bulb burned out.
7) I went to get the treats I had for two birthday students. For the life of me I swear those gummy bears grew legs and walked. They were nowhere to be found and I still haven't found them!
8) After class I went down the hall and picked up another older overhead projector. The glass on the top had come loose and it fell and shattered all over the floor. At this point another teacher backed away and said, " I don't want to stand next to you."
9) Some girls decided to use a bit more glitter than required to decorate their creative writing. As they were ready to head out the door before conferences I noticed glitter in their hair and on their cheeks, and also watched a trail form as they skipped down the hall.
10) Another overhead was found, but in setting it up the electric pencil sharpener fell off the table right before parent conferences were to begin and spilled shaving everywhere.
11) Juice was delivered to our room for refreshments and we were told " the container may leak a little" . Everyone barred me from going near the juice.
12) I went to hang up a few of the "glittery" papers and ended up covering myself with a sparkly mess also.
13) As I swept up glass, wiped off glitter and moved away from the juice three parents with children showed up a half hour early for their conferences. I tried to hide the dust pan and get the last of the glitter out of my eye as I smiled and greeted them.
What else could go wrong? From the corner of my eye I saw a student through the window that stayed after school to wait for his mom. He was aiming a handmade arrow held in a handmade bow he had made from a willow branch. I could only hope he was out there by himself.

Of What Surrounds Me

Priest Lake in northern Idaho

Of What Surrounds Me

Whatever it is I am saying, I always
need a leaf or a flower, if not an
entire field. As for sky, I am so wildly
in love with each day’s inventions, cool blue
or cat gray or full
of the ships of clouds, I simply can’t
say whatever it is I am saying without
at least one skyful. That leaves water, a
creek or a well, river or ocean, it has to be
there. For the heart to be there. For the pen
to be poised. For the idea to come.
-Mary Oliver
New and Selected Poems, Part 2

Facing the Facts

Facing the Facts

-Judith Viorst

I'm facing the fact that
I'll never write Dante's Inferno
Or paint a Picasso
Or transplant a kidney
Or build an empire,
Nor will I ever run Israel or Harvard,
Appear on the cover of Time,
Star on Broadway,
Be killed by a firing squad for some noble ideal,
Find the answer
To racial injustice or whether God's dead
Or the source
Of human unhappiness
Alter the theories of Drs.
S. Freud, C.G Jung, or A. Einstein
Or maybe the course
Of history.
In addition to which
I am facing the fact that
I'll never compose Bach cantatas,
Design Saint Laurents,
Advise presidents, head U.S. Steel,
Resolve the Mideast,
Be the hostess of some major talk show,
Or cure the cold.
And although future years may reveal
Some hidden potential,
Some truly magnificent act that
I've yet to perform,
Or some glorious song to be sung
For which I'll win prizes and praise,
I must still face the fact that
They'll never be able to say,
"And she did it so young".

from How Did I Get To Be Forty and Other Atrocities by Judith Viorst

This poem stayed with me long after I read it. Of course I know that God isn't dead, but sometimes I wonder about hidden potential and magnificent acts.... not just for me, but for many. Since people in my generation are going to live to at least 100... we are just beginning our adulthood! There is much to do and so much time.

Sibling Assignment #91: Spring Break

Wow! Spring break. How far away is it? Raymond Pert gave us the simple assignment of writing about spring break. I will post my siblings' recounts of trips to exotic places when they are posted.

When I was a child we never had a whole week off for spring break. I think it was usually three days and it seemed like those times were spent spring cleaning or sitting in the house looking at the gray weather northern Idaho usually brought in late March and early April. Many years as an adult I used spring break as a catch-up time in the school year to begin gardening, organize house projects, and visit family.

In recent years we have tried to actually leave home for at least part of the week so I could really rest and not look around at what I should and could do. One year we had a marvelous time on a trip to Steamboat Rock State Park. It was before my digital camera, but I can't believe I couldn't find other pictures. I remember that trip because it had been so cold and wet and there along Banks Lake spring had arrived. People were out playing Frisbee, fishing, and hiking. It was a breath of fresh air after a long winter. It is a spectacular location for camping, walking, and hiking and even though the campground was full, it was quiet and relaxing.
My most memorable spring break was our trip last year to Lake Chelan. I know I have written about it numerous times, but it was a week to remember. When we started to leave that early April day a big snowstorm arrived and had to postpone the trip a day. Once we got over Sherman Pass heading west the next day, the snow left us. JEJ was eager to find a place he had lived as a child, so we found the road close to Chelan which led us to the land. The fence was still standing, but the area had really changed. He had lots of stories about people he remembered from the area. Of course, he never dreamed he would ever arrive in Chelan and see a WalMart!

The campground was serene, very picturesque,and almost void of other people. We found we had wireless so I could blog every day from our camp destination. We did a fun day trip to Cashmere and relived childhood memories of selling Aplets and Cotlets with Camp Fire mints to earn a trip to camp. Now there are numerous fruit candies to sample, which of course we couldn't turn down.We had made plans to stay in a hotel one night in Wenatchee, but decided we liked our quiet, rustic set-up at Lake Chelan so we stayed there the whole time. What a perfect place for capturing memorable photos, watching Annie develop a new obsession with squirrels, taking time to read and rest, and sit around a campfire in the late afternoon.As we plan our trip this year there is a part of me that wants to return to Lake Chelan, but we know there are more places we want to explore in the Inland Empire.

Teacher Time and Spokane Sites

Spokane at sunset Thursday evening.

I just returned from the Northwest Inland Writing Project's annual spring teacher conference in Spokane. Learning new ideas for teaching, seeing old friends, making new friends, and getting a chance to do some poetry writing all contributed to a successful two days.I had the privilege of learning great teaching strategies from author and teacher Jeff Anderson on Friday. Anderson is the author of Mechanically Inclined and Everyday Editing, both excellent resources for building grammar, usage, and style with students in the writing classroom . Jeff led us on an entertaining journey into the creative world of parts of speech, apostrophes, and even punctuation! All of us were busy looking for punctuation in the most unexpected places by the end of the day! I also presented a workshop on using poetry and was inspired by the thoughts and poetry the participants shared.

To top off a full day a group of us took our guest Jeff to dinner at P.F. Chang's in downtown Spokane. You can never have too many lettuce wraps from P.F. Chang's! B (below) wanted Jeff to see the Spokane River falls so we took an unforgettable, brisk walk after dinner down trails and snow covered steps to a spectacular view of the falls close to the Monroe Street bridge. I can't believe I left my camera in the car!It is always a treat to spend time with my friends C and B . They were ready with their Starbucks, paper, and pens to do some serious writing this morning! For me the highlight today was to spend time in a workshop with Marti Mihalyi. Marti is a talented poet, inspiring teacher, and good friend. Each time I am back in a workshop with Marti I leave with more inspiration for putting words to paper and motivation to keep going with my own writing. I hope to polish some of my pieces I started and post them later.

I am energized when I attend conferences, but it is always nice to turn off the highway and find the long driveway home. I was told the dogs wore themselves out watching for me! It was comforting to feel a warm fire, pet the animals, and catch up on life with JEJ.

Looking Up

"The sky is the part of creation in which nature has done for the sake of pleasing man. "John Ruskin

Here are a few of my favorite sky pictures from the photo file. When the snow is dirty and gray, and mud has replaced ice in the driveway, there is always hope of finding beauty by looking up. Even if the skies are gray, there is a sense of calm as the gray envelopes you. Neutral shades have a beauty also.