The first two weeks of school are always interesting. The kids are getting to know you and you are getting to know them. Each period has a personality that shows itself pretty early on. Some kids seem to show their personalities pretty early too. I realized that after having a total of about 1,600 students, many seem very similar to each other. Here are some kid categories I've noticed:
1) The inappropriate question/timing kid - this is the kid who blurts out questions in the middle of the teacher talking and usually those questions are of a personal nature. This year, I have a couple of those and here are some example questions, "Where did you get your shoes?", "What's your favorite band?", or my favorite, "Will you tell us stories about your ex-boyfriends? Our last teacher did." My response to these kinds of questions is usually, "you can ask me that after school, but this is not the appropriate time." For the last one I just said, "NO!" in a disgusted voice.
2) The eager to pleaser kid - this kid just loves his or her teacher and wants his/her teacher to love him/her back. They will offer to clean the board, pass out papers, give complements and smile a lot.
3) The too cool for school kid - this kid just wants to sit back and be quiet and not be disturbed. They are too cool for anything as babyish as enjoying class or participating.
4) The straight A kid - they have studied the book over the summer, they panic over every test and usually must have everything be known. Any unknowns cause the student to panic and rapid fire questions to their teacher. "What are we learning today? The board says we're learning about equations. Are we solving equations or writing equations? Will we need to know exponents? Are we graphing them?"
5) The blurter - this kid is so excited to know the answer that he must shout it out at any time. Sometimes he'll raise his hand as he is shouting, in an effort to follow the rules.
6) The tapper - Oh, the joys of hearing 30 pencils tapped rhythmically on 30 separate desks to 30 separate beats - simultaneously. This kid is often also the can't sit in your seat kid. They can be found wandering the classroom for who knows what reason. Sometimes it's to sharpen the pencil that they will then use to start tapping again.
There are too many more to list. I can't keep them all straight.
What I love about Jr. High is the diversity of maturity levels. I have kids who speak like adults and have deep thoughts about deep concepts. I have students who are in the middle and one day will be playing with toys and the next discussing who said what about whom. I have students who still tell their teachers they love them and want to hold their hand.
This year my kids are full of love and kindness. I have students who thank me daily for teaching them and not in a kissy way. I have kids who ask great questions and are polite to each other. They seem to be full of kindness for me and for each other. They are also full of energy, so I'm just done at the end of each day. And yet, I have time each day to pause and just be thankful for a job where I can do what I love and meet such interesting people.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Grocery shopping: Day 1 of new foods
So now that I've invested in this whole food adventure, I had to shop for food that I could actually eat. I have three favorite stores in my life. These are places that bring me joy even as I drive past them. In reverse order they are :
3)Barnes and Noble
2)Ann Taylor Loft
1) VONS
That's right. I love VONS more than the LOFT. Really. I love the checkers, especially Doris and Charlie. I love the flowers and produce and seeing people I know. I love that I can buy food and cleaning supplies and deodorant and videos all at the same place. Rick, my favorite neighborhood homeless man, and I have our best interactions there.
But now I cannot go to VONS. I must go to places farther away with checkers who don't know me and with aisles that I don't have memorized. It is Trader Joe's, which is an exceptional store that I do love to go to on Sundays and also Whole Foods which is featured on "Top Chef" so it has to be cool.
One of my favorite shows is "What Not to Wear". It's a show about people who don't dress well who are then given a set of rules by fashion experts which they must follow on their first day of shopping alone. Halfway through the shopping trip I realized that this is what it must feel like to be one of those shoppers. I would pick up a box and ask myself, "does this have wheat? gluten? corn?" and sometimes I would have no idea if it was ok or not.
I was able to come up with alternatives for a couple of my favorite food choices, including the idea for a mac and cheese made out of raw cheese (non-pasteurized). I just needed to find raw cream and some macaroni that was gluten free. Both of which I did not find at Trader Joe's. We did find a lot there and some other benefits included:
1) friendly workers
2) really great and inexspensive flowers
3) lots of options for our newly restricted diet
4) some prices that were comparable to what we were used to
We went to Whole Foods next to pick up some things on our list: a specific brand of lunch meat, raw milk, raw cream, gluten free pasta, and maybe some more cheese. The place is sure beautiful. It is spacious and fancy and has prices to match. I found the prettiest mushrooms I've ever seen that were also $29 a pound (which I did not buy).
We found the raw milk and cream and almost died from shock and the prices. They did come in a glass bottle and the cream was so beautiful looking. I felt like a cow named Bessie, wandering the English countryside, had relinquished this milk to a nice, lanky farmer straight into this jar. So beautiful. And now I can make ice cream and whipped cream and mac and cheese...except that one pint of the stuff is $11.99!!!
So I think that the cream needed for ice cream would be basically $36. That would be some ice cream. Maybe I should just buy a cow, does that fit in our housing rules? The milk was good and did taste a little like grass as the surfer dude in front of us in line mentioned...what kind of grass did he mean?
I cooked two meals today from our newly acquired food. The first was a tangerine chicken on a bed of whole brown rice with a side of green beans. The second was steak fajitas with my own fajita seasoning, black beans, two kinds of cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and carmelized onions, on a brown rice tortilla. I did kind of miss the sour cream and the tortilla's should have been heated so they could fold better, but all in all, not too bad.
I did also go to a wedding today where I had to search each little table to try to find things I could eat. I ended up with a plate of berries, snap peas, and a tomato and olive. It was good, but I really wanted one of those little quiches or some sherbet punch! Cake is easy for me to resist, so that wasn't a problem.
So here are the lessons I've learned today:
1) I have a newfound respect for anyone who has dieted. It is stinking hard to do and I've only been doing it for a day!
2) I will not be restricted in my creativity in some ways. Yes, I must read labels now and be more aware of what I'm putting in my body. So although I did think that some sugar in the beans would taste pretty good and I resisted and couldn't try that, I have a whole new field of ingredients to work with and understand.
3) Eating healthy is exspensive.
4) 38 pills a day is a whole lot
5) I'm hungry more often, but maybe that's because my body is actually able to digest the food I'm eating.
I'm excited about breakfast. We'll see how the shakes go tomorrow.
3)Barnes and Noble
2)Ann Taylor Loft
1) VONS
That's right. I love VONS more than the LOFT. Really. I love the checkers, especially Doris and Charlie. I love the flowers and produce and seeing people I know. I love that I can buy food and cleaning supplies and deodorant and videos all at the same place. Rick, my favorite neighborhood homeless man, and I have our best interactions there.
But now I cannot go to VONS. I must go to places farther away with checkers who don't know me and with aisles that I don't have memorized. It is Trader Joe's, which is an exceptional store that I do love to go to on Sundays and also Whole Foods which is featured on "Top Chef" so it has to be cool.
One of my favorite shows is "What Not to Wear". It's a show about people who don't dress well who are then given a set of rules by fashion experts which they must follow on their first day of shopping alone. Halfway through the shopping trip I realized that this is what it must feel like to be one of those shoppers. I would pick up a box and ask myself, "does this have wheat? gluten? corn?" and sometimes I would have no idea if it was ok or not.
I was able to come up with alternatives for a couple of my favorite food choices, including the idea for a mac and cheese made out of raw cheese (non-pasteurized). I just needed to find raw cream and some macaroni that was gluten free. Both of which I did not find at Trader Joe's. We did find a lot there and some other benefits included:
1) friendly workers
2) really great and inexspensive flowers
3) lots of options for our newly restricted diet
4) some prices that were comparable to what we were used to
We went to Whole Foods next to pick up some things on our list: a specific brand of lunch meat, raw milk, raw cream, gluten free pasta, and maybe some more cheese. The place is sure beautiful. It is spacious and fancy and has prices to match. I found the prettiest mushrooms I've ever seen that were also $29 a pound (which I did not buy).
We found the raw milk and cream and almost died from shock and the prices. They did come in a glass bottle and the cream was so beautiful looking. I felt like a cow named Bessie, wandering the English countryside, had relinquished this milk to a nice, lanky farmer straight into this jar. So beautiful. And now I can make ice cream and whipped cream and mac and cheese...except that one pint of the stuff is $11.99!!!
So I think that the cream needed for ice cream would be basically $36. That would be some ice cream. Maybe I should just buy a cow, does that fit in our housing rules? The milk was good and did taste a little like grass as the surfer dude in front of us in line mentioned...what kind of grass did he mean?
I cooked two meals today from our newly acquired food. The first was a tangerine chicken on a bed of whole brown rice with a side of green beans. The second was steak fajitas with my own fajita seasoning, black beans, two kinds of cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and carmelized onions, on a brown rice tortilla. I did kind of miss the sour cream and the tortilla's should have been heated so they could fold better, but all in all, not too bad.
I did also go to a wedding today where I had to search each little table to try to find things I could eat. I ended up with a plate of berries, snap peas, and a tomato and olive. It was good, but I really wanted one of those little quiches or some sherbet punch! Cake is easy for me to resist, so that wasn't a problem.
So here are the lessons I've learned today:
1) I have a newfound respect for anyone who has dieted. It is stinking hard to do and I've only been doing it for a day!
2) I will not be restricted in my creativity in some ways. Yes, I must read labels now and be more aware of what I'm putting in my body. So although I did think that some sugar in the beans would taste pretty good and I resisted and couldn't try that, I have a whole new field of ingredients to work with and understand.
3) Eating healthy is exspensive.
4) 38 pills a day is a whole lot
5) I'm hungry more often, but maybe that's because my body is actually able to digest the food I'm eating.
I'm excited about breakfast. We'll see how the shakes go tomorrow.
I'm still digesting (the pun is grossly intended)
I eat like a two year old. I eat whatever I want whenever I want for as long as I want. I give very little consideration to how what I eat affects my body and how I feel afterward. I don't overeat, but I certainly don't eat well. There is one exception that I've always felt a sense of pride over. I don't drink caffeine because it messes with my heart. That is probably the only time in my life I have ever denied myself food. I don't even know if I have self control because I've never tried to have self control. I want another helping of ice cream, so I get it. I want a snickers for lunch - done. I'm addicted to sugar and cheese and I could probably be satisfied with both of those (and an occasional pizza) for the rest of my life.
My roommate, Julie, has been sleepy for 2 years. She's gone to doctors, taken vitamins, and exercises diligently (while I sit on the couch eating desserts). Nothing has helped. We've joked that it's actually radon poisoning or she's been bitten by a Tsi-Tsi fly that came back with me from Africa. Deep down, we've both suspected that it might have something to do with her food choices.
So one of my coworkers has been going to a nutritionist for a long time now. She loves this woman. Despite some of the interesting, less traditional methods, my coworker has seen amazing changes in her life because of this woman. So Julie and I decided to go.
The week of the appointment I was getting very nervous. I knew that she would tell me that I couldn't have sugar and probably that I couldn't have dairy. I was trying to picture something I eat that doesn't have either of those, and I came to one conclusion - I was going to starve.
Julie's appointment was first and she came home with a bag full of supplements and a list of food she couldn't eat for a while. I started to panic. I didn't realize how much I love my horrible eating practices until they were going to be taken from me. Years I have spent learning how to bake the best chocolate chip cookies I could. I have made dessert after dessert and I've gotten pretty good at them. I also love experimenting with foods. I make Italian dinners and fill them with the best kinds of cheeses I can find. I've put lots of time and effort into learning how to be a decent cook and now it was over.
My appointment was a mixture of trepidation on my part and extreme interest. A woman in the lobby complimented my ridiculously small purse and we started a conversation. Turns out, she's the doctor's sister and they haven't seen each other in a year. Well, I just love family reunions - so good so far.
Next was some test using pressure points on my hands and feet and some electric machine. I was looking at the screen and questioning the aptitude of the girl running it when I realized that she was on the wrong finger, twice. I pointed out this possibility and she sort of fixed it. I was not so sure...
Then I went into the next room and the doctor's sister asked if she could sit in on my appointment because she hadn't seen her sister work. I honestly had no problem with this, so I said sure. I went through a series of Western and Eastern tests. Most seemed logical and some seemed a little kooky, but the most interesting one was the muscle test.
I lay on the table with my right arm perpendicular to my body. She would push down on that arm and I would try to resist it. Not too bad so far. Then she pushed on different organs and pressure points while pushing on my arm. Sometimes I was able to resist and sometimes not. Apparently, my spleen is inflamed.
Then she put vials of extracts of different foods and would continue the process. Sometimes my arm went down and sometimes I could resist. This determined my food sensitivities which include: wheat, gluten, sugar, and pasteurized milk products. Basically no more ice cream and string cheese.
She did at one point ask me if I was a smoker or did dope. I was offended at the accusation because I am such the anti-drug person. I am like a red ribbon week freak. I tell strangers to stop smoking, for goodness sake. Then she told me she asked because my heart was beating so fast (and not from frustration at her asking the question). I told her that was normal for me. So she said she would take care of that too.
Then she put a collection of pills in bottles on my stomach. She did the arm test and started taken bottles and putting them back on depending on if my arm was able to resist or not. After that she put some pills in my hand to determine dosage. She would add or take away until my arm was able to resist. This led to me taking 38 "whole food supplements" a day! Not to mention the powdered whey that I'll be taking to help with protein and calcium intake.
So at the end of the day I was wondering a few things: 1) Is she a kook that I just paid a lot of money to for no real reason? 2) Will I really be able to stick with this drastic change? 3) Will it actually improve my quality of life enough to justify all of this work?
I went through one day of adjusted eating and the answers felt like: 1)maybe 2)not more than one day 3) probably not. Of course that was trying to eat without grocery shopping for new food. 10:00 was the hardest because all I wanted was to pig out on my midnight snack usuals: string cheese, granola bar, yoplait orange creme, ice cream...all of which are now verboten.
I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
My roommate, Julie, has been sleepy for 2 years. She's gone to doctors, taken vitamins, and exercises diligently (while I sit on the couch eating desserts). Nothing has helped. We've joked that it's actually radon poisoning or she's been bitten by a Tsi-Tsi fly that came back with me from Africa. Deep down, we've both suspected that it might have something to do with her food choices.
So one of my coworkers has been going to a nutritionist for a long time now. She loves this woman. Despite some of the interesting, less traditional methods, my coworker has seen amazing changes in her life because of this woman. So Julie and I decided to go.
The week of the appointment I was getting very nervous. I knew that she would tell me that I couldn't have sugar and probably that I couldn't have dairy. I was trying to picture something I eat that doesn't have either of those, and I came to one conclusion - I was going to starve.
Julie's appointment was first and she came home with a bag full of supplements and a list of food she couldn't eat for a while. I started to panic. I didn't realize how much I love my horrible eating practices until they were going to be taken from me. Years I have spent learning how to bake the best chocolate chip cookies I could. I have made dessert after dessert and I've gotten pretty good at them. I also love experimenting with foods. I make Italian dinners and fill them with the best kinds of cheeses I can find. I've put lots of time and effort into learning how to be a decent cook and now it was over.
My appointment was a mixture of trepidation on my part and extreme interest. A woman in the lobby complimented my ridiculously small purse and we started a conversation. Turns out, she's the doctor's sister and they haven't seen each other in a year. Well, I just love family reunions - so good so far.
Next was some test using pressure points on my hands and feet and some electric machine. I was looking at the screen and questioning the aptitude of the girl running it when I realized that she was on the wrong finger, twice. I pointed out this possibility and she sort of fixed it. I was not so sure...
Then I went into the next room and the doctor's sister asked if she could sit in on my appointment because she hadn't seen her sister work. I honestly had no problem with this, so I said sure. I went through a series of Western and Eastern tests. Most seemed logical and some seemed a little kooky, but the most interesting one was the muscle test.
I lay on the table with my right arm perpendicular to my body. She would push down on that arm and I would try to resist it. Not too bad so far. Then she pushed on different organs and pressure points while pushing on my arm. Sometimes I was able to resist and sometimes not. Apparently, my spleen is inflamed.
Then she put vials of extracts of different foods and would continue the process. Sometimes my arm went down and sometimes I could resist. This determined my food sensitivities which include: wheat, gluten, sugar, and pasteurized milk products. Basically no more ice cream and string cheese.
She did at one point ask me if I was a smoker or did dope. I was offended at the accusation because I am such the anti-drug person. I am like a red ribbon week freak. I tell strangers to stop smoking, for goodness sake. Then she told me she asked because my heart was beating so fast (and not from frustration at her asking the question). I told her that was normal for me. So she said she would take care of that too.
Then she put a collection of pills in bottles on my stomach. She did the arm test and started taken bottles and putting them back on depending on if my arm was able to resist or not. After that she put some pills in my hand to determine dosage. She would add or take away until my arm was able to resist. This led to me taking 38 "whole food supplements" a day! Not to mention the powdered whey that I'll be taking to help with protein and calcium intake.
So at the end of the day I was wondering a few things: 1) Is she a kook that I just paid a lot of money to for no real reason? 2) Will I really be able to stick with this drastic change? 3) Will it actually improve my quality of life enough to justify all of this work?
I went through one day of adjusted eating and the answers felt like: 1)maybe 2)not more than one day 3) probably not. Of course that was trying to eat without grocery shopping for new food. 10:00 was the hardest because all I wanted was to pig out on my midnight snack usuals: string cheese, granola bar, yoplait orange creme, ice cream...all of which are now verboten.
I'll keep you posted on how it goes.
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