Thursday, April 15, 2010
Juniors in a League of their Own
Being that this is my first year to teach juniors, I made a serious effort to anticipate troublesome areas and make this paper as crystal-clear as possible, but today, when I answered the "what is documentation?" question for the thousandth time, I began to wonder...and came up with a few examples of typical students during research (it should be noted that all listed examples are ones I truly encountered this week).
Example 1: The clueless overachiever.
This student has decided that they are not doing ANY of this project outside of class and works hard. Unfortunately, they oversimplify and are NOT happy when they hand you a copy of their paper and you remind them that it needs to be highlighted, and in a folder, and submitted to turnitin.com. They have a breakdown.
Example 2: Emotional researcher.
This student panics through every stage -
Some examples from this week:
"Oh my GOD, I can't find my book!"
"Someone STOLE my folder!"
"My computer spontaneously became unplugged and I lost a day of work!" (this particular student had a full-on meltdown with tears and everything until I showed her that MS word autosaves).
Example 3: The 11th hour researcher.
On Monday, after 3 weeks, they had nary a notecard to be found. Now? They are done. Basically, I wasted 3 weeks of my life worrying about them, furiously e-mailing their parents, and making ridiculous deals with them (I'll buy you a snickers if you make 3 notecards!!) all for naught. They just wanted to freak me out.
Example 4: The double-checking researcher.
The student who wrote a paper so good you want to publish it and frame it in your classroom. Somehow THEY are the ones whose parents respond to your frequent reminders about the paper ("just wanted to make sure they were on track" - Um, ma'am I just changed a student's title from "Slave on the Block" to "Slave on my Cock"... your student had one comma error). They want to conference, discuss each comma, and make sure that every sentence adequately proves their flawless thesis. I'm thrilled they know to do that, because I sure as hell didn't teach it.
Example 5: The prayer.
These would be the five students who, today, I finally patted on the back and said, "I am just going to have faith that you are going to turn this in - please don't prove me wrong". They looked back with an evil grin that tells me this may not be the case.
Example 6: The time-wasting researcher.
This comes in many forms. The student who looks up pictures of himself on the school's baseball website and requests that I make a statement on how "totally ripped" he looks. The one who takes advantage of my allowing ipods while typing (better than talking) by spending 30 minutes setting up his playlist. The one who spends over half the class adjusting font, size, boldness, etc. though told it was supposed to be a 12pt. TNR. The ones who made up a game to see who would use the computer lab webcams to catch a picture of Mama L with the strangest facial expression. And finally, the student who asked me today how many points would be taken off if he didn't add a conclusion. Upon hearing it was only 10 or so, he said "sweet!", handed me his paper, and headed to lunch in the middle of second period.
I would be happy that it's due tomorrow, but joke is on me: I am the one who has to grade 85 shitty papers.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Holiday Shots with the Wilberts
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
A muff by any other name....
Muffuletta sandwich 1906 Central Grocery New Orleans The tart smell of olives and lemon juice to me meant the long days of endless summer heat had arrived and that it was time to escape Arlington, Texas for a cooler destination. Signaling the rapid approach of a spontaneous trip to scenic Lake Ouachita, Arkansas, or any town nestled in the valleys of the southern Rocky Mountains, my parents would spend one night furiously assembling olives, cheese, lemon juice, peppers, and olive oil in vats of large plastic bowls. Affixed with sentiments verging on giddiness at the prospect of vacation, the tangy smells of marinating Muffuletta permeated throughout the entire house, aided of course by the overworked air conditioner on a hot August night. Eventually my sister and I would be compelled to join in on the festivities occurring in the kitchen and spend the next hour or so packing the marinated olives and veggies into slender glass jars not realizing at the time that we too were about to be packed into a different kind of jar. This jar of course would be our parents’ old Chevy Suburban, and we would be sharing it with coolers, luggage, books, cd players, and any number of combinations of childhood friends, due to the fact that we always traveled with at least two other families. One could almost say that the success of the entire trip depended on this critical night of cooking because relying on McDonald’s or Taco Bell entirely for sustenance on the road was simply out of the question. Our recipe for Muffuletta came from the loving cooking tradition of my father’s parents where they discovered the savory goodness of the sandwich in their New Orleans Church community. How then, could a fast food chain compete with two generations of parental care for the nourishment of our band of adventurers? It couldn’t, but Muffuletta could because one mouth watering bite of the colorful olive mix and I could hear my Nana’s sweet Southern accent telling me about the church potluck where she first had it, or I could see the bright smiles on my mom and dad’s faces as they worked on juicing the fifteen lemons that it takes to make Muffuletta. I wasn’t the only one who felt this connection too. A little olive filled sandwich would almost always incite questions from my parents’ friends pertaining to the well-being of my Nana and Pop Pop, or instigate amusing stories from previous vacations. So there it was, a simple recipe transformed into an event where adventure, comfort, and history melted together under a hot broiler, or between two cold buns to form my favorite sandwich of all time.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
So you want to be a magnolia....
We have had a few years off, so we were delighted when the faculty of Friendswood high school put on a production of Steel Magnolias. We all met in Galveston for a Saturday night in a high school auditorium. Erin played Shelby, a newlywed who loves pink and is known for her postive outlook on life. Not really much of a stretch for one Miss Erin Lynds. We all KNEW she wasn't going to make it to the last scene. We KNEW about the armadillo shaped groom's cake, we KNEW that Truvy wears a size 6 shoe, but a 7 is so comfortable she buys an 8. We KNEW time marches on, across your face. We KNEW Weezy wasn't mad, but had just been in a bad mood for 40 years. We KNEW about the diabetes. We KNEW she shouldn't put her body through a pregnancy. Did that stop the bucket of tears in our row? Not for a second.
Shooting the Bird
What a glorious fall we’ve had this year in
Au Revoir lovely fall. You were too beautiful for this world. Well, maybe just too beautiful for Grand Prairie
Sunday, August 17, 2008
One Man Gathers What Another Man Spills
A) Improved our living quarters.
B) Saved the environment.
C) Stimulated the local economy and created jobs.
D) Created a spirit of community that transcended race and socioeconomic barriers.
E) Began to explore the possibilities of running for public office.