Nobody - Shel Silverstein

I'm still doing poetry with my Freshman class and I came across one of my favorite poems from when I was growing up from the works of Shel Silvestein.  Shel Silverstein was an extraordinary poet, singer-songwriter, musician, composer, cartoonist, screenwriter and children's author! And I just love his poetry.  I had to introduce my students to him.  A couple of them had already heard of him but overall he was new to them.  I'm posting one of my favorite poems from Shel.  Enjoy!

                               Nobody

Nobody loves me,
Nobody cares,
Nobody picks me peaches and pears.
Nobody offers me candy and Cokes,
Nobody listens and laughs at my jokes.
Nobody helps when I get in a fight,
Nobody does all my homework at night.
Nobody misses me,
Nobody cries,
Nobody thinks I'm a wonderful guy.
So if you ask me who's my best friend, in a whiz,
I'll stand up and tell you that Nobody is.
But yesterday night I got quite a scare,
I woke up and Nobody just wasn't there.
I called out and reached out for Nobody's hand,
In the darkness where Nobody usually stands.
Then I poked through the house, in each cranny and nook,
But I found somebody each place that I looked.
I searched till I'm tired, and now with the dawn,
There's no doubt about it-
Nobody's gone!

                         -Shel Silverstein (1930-1999)

Thank you, Shel, for giving me such amazing stories and poems which were such an important part of my childhood.  Rest in peace!

Chivalry is NOT Dead!

My faith in humankind has been restored!  Okay, that's an exaggeration, because it's not fully restored, but it is vastly improved.

Last night on my way home from Boston, my car decided to stall in the middle of bumper to bumper traffic on the Tobin Bridge at 9:30 at night.  <sigh>  Good timing!!  After a half dozen or so cars drove by me, with several upraised middle fingers [nice!], an amazing thing happened!  A lovely Jamaican man pulled up next to me and asked what had happened.  After I told him that my car stalled and I couldn't get it restarted, he immediately pulled in front of me and jumped out of his car in order to assist me.  He checked out my oil and battery (all fine), pushed my car (along with a couple of other do-gooders) to the right hand lane so I'd be out the way of the traffic, and kept me company - all the while trying to get my car started.  I think if it had gotten to the point where I needed to call AAA, he probably would have kept me company until they showed! How sweet is that?? Fortunately, 5 minutes later, the old girl started up.  I'm still not sure what he did to get it to start, but this lovely young man performed some incredible magic on the car and got me back on the road safe and sound.  Turns out, the cause of the car problem was a faulty starter.  Today as I attempted to escape from work, my car wouldn't start again. Long story short - 2 hours in a repair shop, $300 poorer and I now have a new starter.

So I give a great big THANK YOU to my knight in shining armor, Jermaine.  He was flying off to Jamaica today and I wish him the best and am so grateful that there are still kind people in the world.  I'm not entirely sure what I would have done last night if Sir Jermaine had not stopped to assist me!  Thank you again, Sir Knight! You are an amazing human being!

The Butter Wars!

Okay, I have a question: do you refrigerate your butter??  

I know, I know... it's a weird question, but I have a reason for this query.  I grew up in a household where we refrigerated our butter, but I have friends who grew up in houses where they didn't. To this day, those friends keep their butter out on the counter top and seem to suffer no ill effects over unrefrigerated butter. Now I personally would prefer to keep my butter on the counter as refrigerated butter is really hard to spread. But I'm worried about butter turning rancid... I don't use butter very often.  

I've looked this subject up on the internet and the opinions are all over the place on whether or not to refrigerate butter. The unrefrigerated butter lovers say you just need to purchase a butter bell (see photo above) and all your worries will be gone. Additionally, they say that the pasteurized milk and salt content keep the butter from going bad and, as long as your kitchen is not ridiculously hot, the butter should be fine when left out. The refrigeration side of the argument says that it's risky and the butter will turn rancid. Interestingly enough, the USDA is on the refrigerated side and recommends that people "freeze butter not intended for use within 2 or 3 days and for 'ready spreadability' keep a few days’ supply in the regular portion of the refrigerator - remove 10 to 15 minutes before use." Seriously? 10-15 minutes?? More like 10-15 hours before butter softens.  Okay, that's an exaggeration but still...

So what's your take on the butter wars? Did you grow up with refrigerated or unrefrigerated butter? Do you have a recommendation on the best way to store butter? I really am interested in people's experiences with butter storage solutions.

This is a pretty butter dish!

Career Change: The Daily Reset...

There are so many amazing things about teaching but being able to hit reset button on a daily basis is probably the best feature of them all. Anyone who teaches will recognize this facet.

One of the fantastic aspects about kids ... particularly teenagers ... is their resiliency.  It's most likely because teenagers are completely self-involved (as we all were at that age). Although as we know - some people grow of that, some do not. But this adolescent self-absorption does have an up side. When teaching teenagers, and you either: make a mistake, tell them something that you didn't mean to, or yell at them, by the next time you see them, they've forgotten all about it! How incredible is that?? After years of working with adults who hold onto grudges until the cows come home, it's a pleasant change to be able to hit that reset button every day. It seems like no matter how many mistakes I make during the day, by the next morning, I get a clean slate and can start all over again!

Pretty amazing, huh??  If only adults remembered a little bit of what it was like to be a teenager - not the narcissism part, but the forgetfulness and forgiveness aspect. The world would be a much happier place in which to work and live!

The Best and Worst Smells in the World...

As a follow up to my previous post (Best and Worst Sounds), I thought I'd post the best and worst smells - at least for me. I was thinking about this today as I was baking two pies in preparation for Turkey Day (apple and pumpkin). My entire apartment smells heavenly!! Don't you just wish you could smell it? I can say definitively: "homemade apple pie is one fantastic smell!!"  But it is my favorite??  Hmmm...

10 Best Smells in the World:

1. Old books... new books... okay, just BOOKS!
2. Freshly baked cookies
3. Freshly laundered clothes
4. Chocolate
5. Baking bread
6. Freshly brewed coffee (I hate the taste, but love the smell)
7. Burning wood - firepits, bonfires, fireplaces, etc.
8. Homemade spaghetti sauce
9. Freshly cut grass
10. Vanilla

10 Worst Smells in the World:

1. Poo
2. Sewage
3. Cigarettes/cigars
4. Wet dog
5. Bad breath
6. Used diapers
7. Skunk
8. Vomit
9. Rotting food
10. Roses (yeah, oddly I hate roses on so many levels - the smell being just one!)

I would imagine that decomposing flesh is probably the top of the worst smells list, but I don't believe I've had the "pleasure" of getting a whiff of that!  And I hope it remains that way.

What are some of your favorite smells??? Here's wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving - one that is filled with nothing but wonderful smells!

The Best and Worst Sounds in the World...

As I was heading home from a much needed Starbucks run this afternoon, I heard a toddler screaming at the top of its lungs and it set my hair on end!  I thought to myself, "that just might be the worst sound EVER!" I congratulate any parent who doesn't punch a child when they make that sound.  I guess it's a good thing kids are cute otherwise they wouldn't live through puberty.  :-)  As a result of that thought though, I decided to list the top 5 best and worst sounds for me.  I'm sure people will completely disagree with my list but here goes:

Best 5 Sounds in the World:

1. Certain types of music (I would blanketly say all music but I can't stand the sound of rap, hip hop, and heavy metal)
2. Non-American Accents - especially British, Australian, Irish, Italian, and French (in that order).
3. A thunderstorm/rainstorm
4. A baby laughing/giggling
5. The sound of the ocean

Worst 5 Sounds in the World:

1. A baby/toddler screaming/crying
2. Someone throwing up
3. Any scraping sound
4. Glass breaking
5. A really high pitched dog bark

I can just imagine: sitting on the porch near the ocean during a rainstorm, listening to my favorite music while chatting with Kenneth Branagh or Hugh Jackman.  Whew! We're talking heaven on earth!  

Of course, a baby crying at a high pitched dog bark while a glass breaks might cause my ears to bleed and head to explode! 

Music Doesn't Lie - Part 14 (Boston)

"Music doesn't lie. If there is something to be changed in this world,

then it can only happen through music." – Jimi Hendrix

It's been way too long since I posted about any new music or bands I've discovered. Today, I learned about another new (for me) band through a rather unique way - watching a rerun from the first season of The Big Bang Theory. (Yes, BBT is my latest television obsession.)  In the episode, Leonard, pining over next door neighbor Penny, is wallowing in self misery and enters the apartment singing a song that I had never heard before.  It sounded like a great song. So I did a little research and found out the song is called "Boston" by the band, Augustana, an American rock band from San Diego. 

"Boston" is from the band's 2005 album, All the Stars and Boulevards. The album "was released September 6, 2005 and reached #1 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart and #96 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. The first single from the album, 'Boston', was released in 2005...The album was made available exclusively at Best Buy stores, and the Best Buy website, where it was sold out by the following day. Their most recognizable song is 'Boston' which made it all the way to 34 on the Billboard top 100, as well as appearing on television shows Scrubs, Smallville and One Tree Hill. A cover version by Leonard also appeared on The Big Bang Theory." 

The entire album is fantastic and well worth the $10 I plunked down.  Posted below is the official video of "Boston."  Enjoy!

Wanted: Ghostwriter

I've been thinking a lot about the past 5 years of my life and I sincerely believe that within those years there is an amazing story which should be written. The problem is -- I'm an awful creative writer. "Creative?" you might ask. Yes, the story has to be presented as a work of fiction. Due to the complete ridiculousness of the past 5 years, no one would ever believe it was a true story. Therefore...

Wanted: Ghostwriter 

who can write amazing fiction!

Don't believe me? Well, look at the empirical data and decide for yourself. The past five years have all the earmarks of a great novel: survival of physical and mental diseases, love and loss, trust and betrayal, abject despair followed by rebirth and renewal, overcoming adversity, manipulation, ludicrous characters, and so much more. The only two items missing from making it a perfect story are: revenge and a 'happily ever after' ending. But then again, bucking the trend and making it an 'unhappily ever after' ending would be an interesting and realistic choice.

Seriously, this book will be a best seller -- providing I can find a qualified author to pen it. I can't write it myself because I stink at dialogue. Believe me, I've tried. Perhaps you think I am kidding. I'm not. I've already written the first three paragraph but then I got stuck. Bloody dialogue! Funnily enough, I know the perfect person to write it, but he is a large part of the story and not in my life anymore, which makes for a bit of a hindrance in authoring the story! Soooooo... Any out of work writers out there want to team up and write The Next Great American novel? We can split the proceeds and retire!

"I Do Not Love You Except..."

As I mentioned a few blogs ago, I'm presenting poetry to my Freshman class this quarter and have been coming across some amazing poems that I had never heard or seen before. I've never been much of a poetry fan, so for me to enjoy a poem enough to want post it, it has got to be pretty amazing.  Here's a poem I came across today when I was looking for love poems to present to my students.  This is pretty self explanatory:

                                             I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You

          I do not love you except because I love you;
          I go from loving to not loving you,
          From waiting to not waiting for you
          My heart moves from cold to fire.

         I love you only because it's you the one I love;
         I hate you deeply, and hating you
         Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
         Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

         Maybe January light will consume
         My heart with its cruel
         Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

         In this part of the story I am the one who
         Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
         Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

                         -- Pablo Neruda
                            Chilean poet, diplomat and politician (1904-1973)

Um... Wow!  That's all I can say.  Wow!  Just such a powerful and emotional poem that strikes at the heart of anyone who has been in this particularly situation! Just amazing!  

Romance Novels Have a Place...

Okay, I admit it - I sometimes wish I lived the life of a leading female character in a romance novel. I'm not particularly proud of this pronouncement but it's a fact I have to embrace instead of running away from it. Now, I'm not talking about the really trashy, kitschy romance novels, like the Twilight series, Shades of Grey series or Harlequin Romance novels. No, I mean the novels that are slightly more elevated than that, for example: Nora Roberts, Helen Fielding, Sophie Kinsella, Margaret Mitchell, and yes, Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë (I do love my classic romance novels). These stories have a particular pattern that I would not mind if reality mirrored them - at least a little bit:  boy meets girl, boys loses girl, boys finds girl again, and boy and girl live happily ever after. Yes, it's an archetypal trope, and as an English teacher/literature fanatic, I should have higher aspirations, but alas, the hopeless romantic in me won't be satisfied with anything less. And even though I know that this pattern does not resemble real life ... well, at least not MY life, I can't help but wishing that I could crawl into the pages of a book and take on the role of ... well ... Elizabeth Bennet, Elinor Dashwood, Bridget Jones, Jane Eyre, Scarlett O'Hara, etc. No, instead my life more closely resembles Miss Bates from Jane Austen's Emma. (Miss Bates is a middle-aged spinster without beauty or prospects, who is a sweet, generous, kind, and thoughtful woman who lead a rather unimpressive and unnecessary existence.) Well, at least I'm represented.

Career Change: I Nearly Quit Today...

I admit it - today I was completely at my wit's ends and thought "there is no way I can continue to do this career change!"  I spent a good portion of my lunch and two free periods in tears, wondering why I decided to change careers. I know the impetus was that I loathed my corporate job and honestly thought that I'd be perfect for a career in teaching. I don't deny my heart is in the right place, but I'm not sure I'm cut out for the realities of inner city teaching.

What brought this crisis on?  My students.  For 73 days (or 1752 hours, or 105,120 minutes, or 6,307,200 seconds), I've been dealing with certain issues that appear to be getting worse as the days march on. My students have behaviors that I cannot seem to come to grips with:  mostly they're lazy, whiny slackers who apparently could care less about their academics. Okay, that's not entirely fair. Out of 80+ students, I have about 15 or 16 students who are generally engaged in the material being taught, interested in their academics, and legitimately want to be in school. To sum up, 17% of my students are amazing!  The other 83% are the whiny complainers.  Today, I actually  had a student in my English 3 Honors class ask if we could watch the movie, The Green Mile in class. Ummmm... NO!  WTF?  Well, last year another English teacher let them watch the movie.  Yeah, as a comparison to a work of literature that they were reading!  Yes - this is my "honors" class.  I spent the past two days of that class reading the short story, "Rip Van Winkle" because if I assign it for homework, they won't read it. They complain that the stories that we read are boring and perhaps we could read 50 Shades of Gray.  Oh, yes, have I mentioned the chutzpah of these kids?  They actually tell teachers to their faces that: the classes are boring, the books/texts are boring, they have zero intention on doing any work, etc. One student told me today that she was content with the D+ that she currently has in my class.

This is definitely not what I signed up for when I wanted a career change.  I honestly thought that the 17% would be the slackers. Yeah, I am that delusional.  I stupidly thought that the students I would be teaching would not be all that different from the way I was in high school.  I'm not saying I loved every class in high school.  Ugh... chemistry and algebra.  But I would never have had the nerve to tell a teacher to their face that the class was boring and I wouldn't be doing any work.  No, I did my work because it was what was expected of me.  <sigh>  I honestly am wondering about the wisdom of my career change.  But I've made my bed, now I have to lie in it.  I can only hope that these next two years move quickly, and then hopefully I'll be able to find a school in which the 83% are the engaged, academically inclined students that I so would love to teach!  In the meantime, I get to try to teach Shakespeare's Othello and Macbeth to my English 4 classes -- if I don't blow my brains out first.

America at its Best!

Today is Election Day and I am so excited!

For me, Election Day is what makes America great and I am proud to have been born an American.  I know, pretty patriotic for such a snarky pessimist like myself.  

For the past 28 years, I have been a ritualistic voter.  My love affair with politics started when I was quite young.  When I was 10 years old, my elementary school had a school election for the Presidency in 1976 - Gerald Ford vs. Jimmy Carter - and I have been hooked ever since.  My first official vote as an adult occurred on November 6, 1984.  A young and still idealistic 18-year old Sandi stepped into a voting booth in Hamilton Square, New Jersey, in order to vote in her first Presidential election.  The choice was either Ronald Reagan or Walter Mondale and I felt fantastic when I pulled that lever for the candidate of my choice.  It was inspiring.  Of course, I got my first Election Day disappointment just a few hours later, when my candidate lost...  Um, perhaps "annihilated" would be a better word.  It was the first of many crushing blows in the political arena. I didn't experience the joy of picking a Presidential winner until 1996.  I suppose you can now guess my political affiliation.  

Even though I never live any place where my vote makes a difference, I still feel it's my duty as an American to step into that voting booth and vote my conscience.  Today, I walked into my new polling place here in Newburyport and got my ballot, filled the bubble for my candidates, voted on the issues, and walked out 10 minutes later.  It was fantastic! I hope that I never get tired of it.  Now I sit and wait for the results.  I suspect it will be a long night, but I have my hopes high and know that I did my civic duty today!  I hope everyone went out and voted!  Otherwise, you have no right to complain about the results!

This is Just to Say...

Today, I was writing a poetry lesson for my Freshman Scholars as we are working on poetry this quarter. I decided to have them write a parody of William Carlos Williams's "This is Just to Say" poem. They have to take the first two words from each stanza and create a new poem. I thought I would challenge myself to this task before having my students do it.  Here is Williams's original poem:

This Is Just To Say
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

   --William Carlos Williams

My rewrite:

This Is Just To Say
I have licked
the frosting
off the cake
for the party

and which
you were probably
waiting
for guests

Forgive me
it was inevitable
so yummy
and so good.

I had written about 2 more but they were snarky so I refrained from posting them. What do you think?  Think you can do better?  I challenge my readers to post their own parody in the comments section and let's see who can create the best rewritten poem!  Ready?  Set!  Write!

Career Change: Whatever Happened to Personal Responsibility?!

My school has just reached the end of the first quarter and I have discovered something curious. Wait, no! Let me correct that statement: it's not curious, it's annoying! Apparently, the fact that I have a few students failing because they don't come to class (or if they do, they sleep/chat through my class), never turn in any assignments, fail every quiz or test, etc., is MY fault that they are failing!  Erm, huh??

Of course, most of my students come to class, do their work and are passing - several with A's - which is attributed to the students' abilities, not the teacher's. That's reasonable and I agree completely. But I don't understand how an idle, failing student is the fault of the educator?! Whatever happened to personal responsibility?? I will agree that it IS the teacher's fault if the student is in class, attentive, completing their work, etc. and still fails. That scenario is an example of a teacher who is not invested in their students. But beyond that, at some point, the onerous for passing a class has to come down to the student, particularly in high school.

Yesterday was the end of the quarter. Consequently, I had several students who came to me asking why they were failing my class, which if they had checked the online gradebook at all over the past few weeks, they would have seen that they were failing.  My answer: "Um...you haven't turned in any work, you sleep or chat through my class, and/or have excessive absenteeism, and you still expect to pass?!"  Many of these students are seniors and they are planning on going to college next year, that is if they pass their senior year. 

The truly annoying factor is that students in my school are not held to ANY personal responsibility and haven't for a long, long time.  As far back as elementary school, these students were just passed through the system and never had to have any accountability for their education. I don't really blame the students, entirely.  This comes down to years of inaction on the part of previous educators and parents, and now those of us attempting to educate these students in high school are left holding the bag for years of apathy! Because my school is in receivership and is beholden to the state, these failing grades actually could end up with me losing my position, but I refuse to pass a student out of fear of losing a job. I have certain standards that my students must uphold and one of them is show up, pay attention and do the work in my class. I don't think that's a ridiculous request.  <sigh>  It's going to be a long year!

Sarcastic? Who? Me? Nnnnooooo!

Okay, maybe just a bit... or a lot.  I just had to share this story:

Today I was reviewing "irony" with my students.  [For anyone who is unaware, there are 3 forms of irony: verbal, dramatic, and situational.]  During the lesson, I asked my students: "What is verbal irony?"  To which, one of my students responded: "Sarcasm. Everything that Ms. Smith says is sarcastic."  LMAO!  Okay, my students have really gotten to know me over the past 10 weeks! I fully admit that I have raised sarcasm to an art form and it's nice to know that at the very least my students can recognize verbal irony because I model it on a daily basis.   :-)

Okay, okay. Perhaps I might be a little too sarcastic, but what do you expect from a 40-something single, lonely woman who lived for 17 years in New York City and has been burned by life time and time again. Actually, I'm probably not sarcastic enough considering my history.  

Speaking of sarcasm, I will say that I enjoy watching The Big Bang Theory for the copious amounts of sarcasm on that show! Nerds with witty sarcasm - what's better than that! Enjoy the sarcastic stylings of Leonard, Sheldon and Penny!