List of things I want to do in life

This fall the list is including:

learn to cut hair, work at a bakery, bee keeping/honey farming

Who else has big dreams?

Cocoa Cookies: The Short Film

In my blogging class, I gave the kids an assignment to make a DIY video.  They're so great!  There's a few on how to do nail designs, how to make a duct tape wallet, and even how to play "The Entertainer" on clarinet!

I needed to make one myself before all these tech-savvy 11-year-olds showed me up.

DIY: How to make cocoa cookies

Giuliano Rap

I found this written on the bottom of a paper an 8th grader turned in...

My name is 'big G' from the Medici
I have a big brother and he's quite wealthy
His name is Lorenzo and he's my bro
I got stabbed to death and I fell on the floor.

Spiced Pear Cookies

Recipe from Judy Daudt

This has been a very good week at school.  All my classes are going well, kids are staying out of trouble and being as entertaining as ever, and there are only three days of classes!  For the kids anyway- I have teacher in-service to learn how to UbD-ize my units.  But today felt like a Friday, so I came home, watched a movie, slept for an hour, and decided to bake something.  I have guests coming over Friday and I think I'm going to try for a pear cake since we have so many pears we need to eat.  But I didn't want to bake a cake and have it sit for two days, so I decided to start small with a batch of spiced pear cookies.  One of my dear friends and mentors from university gave me a cookbook she had compiled and it's full of Midwestern deliciousness.  While I'm quite experienced baking apples, I've never tried pears.  So here are the results:

 Absolute success!

Giving the house a nice, spicy aroma

So without further adieu, here is the secret recipe:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar (I used white sugar for the half cup- brown sugar is a precious commodity here!)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 pear- peeled, cored and diced
Suggested: 1/2 cup raisins or Crasins
I omitted the walnuts, because I don't believe in infecting baked goods with nuts, but whatever floats your boat.  I have similar feelings, though not as strong, to raisins.  Crasins I might have tried if only for the festive color.

Preheat oven to 350*F/175*C.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth.
Beat in egg and vanilla.
Mix in flour, baking powder, cinnamon and ginger.
Stir in chopped pears, and others.
Bake 15 mins (more like 12 in my oven)
Cool

Optional:
Frost with 1 cup powdered sugar mixed with 2 Tbsp lemon juice.  I don't think they need it though.  They're sweet enough!

Very sticky to put on the baking sheet.  I was worried, but they turned out just fine!

metro, metro

On the way to a friend's girls night birthday dinner & movie, I got on a near empty metro car.  So I pulled out my camera.

And then I took a bunch more pictures.  As long as I keep loving the metro, I can live here.

Two Views of Barack Obama

The assignment was to create a timeline that included major events from your life.  It was given to 8th graders, who were mainly born in 1998.  "Major" events they chose span from the super-disaster in Japan and earthquake in Haiti, to the death of Michael Jackson and when Steve Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple.

Many students chose the election of Barack Obama as a major event.  Here are the unedited paragraphs written by two of them.

One:
On November 4th 2008 Barack Obama was elected president of the U.S.  Barack Obama became the forty forth and first black president of the U.S. after a long campaign that lasted nine months.  He was running as a democratic candidate against republic candidate John McCain, in his campaign he promoted change and hope for the American people and the world.  When he got elected he started to make an impact immediately by helping U.S. and British forces in Iraq and making sure everyone in the U.S. got healthcare.  He has helped in many global problems such as the Iran Iraq war, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the civil war in Libya.  He is currently running for the 2012 presidential election as well.  This was a major global event because he has made so much impact on the world and helped so many different nations and not just his own.  He has also prevented global disasters such as ordering the death of Osama Bin Laden.  He also continues to have new ideas to help the world and make it a better place, which is beneficial for everyone.

Two:
November 2008- a recent event that has shaped the United States was when Barrack Obama was elected president.  This was a very historical event for the country because he is the very first African American president.  This was not an event that shaped the world but it did shape in some way the United States, because it may encourage other African Americans that want to run for political office.  The presidency has been a difficult one for Obama while it has nothing to do with his race, perhaps he was not qualified enough to take on the huge responsibility of being president and the country has since paid the price for his inexperience.

Rain by Shel Silverstein

I opened my eyes
And looked up at the rain,
And it dripped in my head
And flowed into my brain,
And all that I hear as I lie in my bed
Is the slishity-slosh of the rain in my head.

I step very softly,
I walk very slow,
I can't do a handstand--
I might overflow,
So pardon the wild crazy thing I just said--
I'm just not the same since there's rain in my head.