November 16, 2005
The Gettysburg Address (Inbox Ideas)
November 15, 2005
The Ideas section for this week’s Inbox focuses on The Gettysburg Address. Okay, I know. It probably seems like a stretch to some of you, but in actuality, it worked out fairly well. The entry includes some information on primary and secondary sources as well as some resources on Gettysburg-era Doublespeak.
And speaking of Doublespeak, I found out today who is receiving the Doublespeak Award at Annual Convention later this week. It’s such a badge of honor for this recipient. Really. It’s not a negative thing at all for them. I’m so tickled :)
I spent much of the day noticing that it was pouring rain (not pouring, pounding), working on last-minute details for Convention, and, this evening, working on the War of the Worlds lesson plan. I need to get it online tomorrow for the content report.
November 14, 2005
The additional blade for my cute little Change-a-Bowl arrived on my front porch today :) When I ordered the extra blade, the operator suggested it could be quite a while because they weren’t even in the system yet.
This was a binge buy in the first place. I saw the commercial on Sunday the 30th and ordered it moments later. I don’t do many binge purchases like that, but I wanted it. I had it by the end of the week, though I didn’t order super-speedy shipping. Sadly, however, I ordered the wrong one; so I only ened up with one blade instead of two.
Oh well, I called the number and ordered the extra part; but the operator was so discouraging that I really didn’t expect to see it before Christmas. What a surprise :) Now I can make krinkle cut things and finely grated things. I already chopped up all the onions in the house yesterday. I need to go shopping tomorrow so I can chop even more things.
November 13, 2005
I’ve decided to pretend everything with be okay with Thanksgiving, even though I get daily reports on oddities. Today’s news, the washing machine has been broken for months. Sigh.
Trying to pretend, I’ve created a tentative menu for what I want to cook. Some of it I can do in advance before I leave. I’ve already baked 2 batches of the chocolate cookies and 1 batch of the peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Those are all in the freezer so they’ll stay fresh. I figure they can thaw on the drive. More cookies to bake this week. I’m also going to prepare the finger foods. They’re all things that can be prepared (or partly prepared) and frozen then taken out, thawed, and baked off.
I may end up scaling back, but at least I have the plans and the recipes. Actually more recipes than I need. I don’t really need a recipe for mashed potatoes or gravy; but they looked lonely without links. At least I have a starting place. Now we just have to all cross our fingers. Sigh. The stove and oven better not be broken.
November 12, 2005
I’m not completely sure why I did this, as it only tells me what I already know. I hate myself and never try hard enough. A quiz wasn’t really necessary to figure out things like I have no love.
| This Is My Life, Rated | |
| Life: |  4 |
| Mind: |  4.8 |
| Body: |  2.6 |
| Spirit: |  5.4 |
| Friends/Family: |  2.8 |
| Love: |  0 |
| Finance: |  4.7 |
| Take the Rate My Life Quiz | |
New gutters
November 11, 2005
I don’t really understand myself today. Maybe I’m just really depressed. I stayed at home today. Lisa and Sharon both had kids out of school, so they were staying home with them. I was well over 40 hours, so I figured I’d skip out too. I didn’t really get anything done though. I found that my new gutters were being installed around 11, and I did some work on a lesson plan on audio dramatizations. There were random work issues to deal with as well. I guess all that was normal.
I made a shopping/errand list. Got dressed. And went back to bed. I keep thinking about things that haven’t worked out. I never really wrote about my Thanksgiving plans because I was afraid something would go wrong. Naturally, something did. Most of my family was going to come to Illinois. I was going to get to cook for everyone. A lot of people would think that was crazy, but I was really excited. Last Sunday though, I got word that some people didn’t want to come for one reason or another. And the one person who couldn’t come because he was working was disappointed that people were all decamping. So I said I’d just go home to avoid their unhappiness.
So for the last few days, I’ve been wandering around thinking of things I don’t have to do (don’t bother to clean that table; no sense in putting that stuff away; don’t bother buying that extra food). When I’m not doing that, I’m noticing stupid things that I already did. . . . why did I bother buying and freezing that extra sausage? why did I waste paper printing out that recipe? what kind of idiot am I for gathering up that stuff? what made me order these puzzles for them to put together?
When I originally planned to take today off, I thought I’d get a jump start. I figured I could cook some things ahead. I stupidly thought I’d bake and freeze some family favorite cookies and appetizers so they’d be ready to go. And I thought I’d start rearranging some things in the kitchen so all the cooking would be easier.
Instead, I’ve done little. I made a normal, weekly shopping list, but never gathered the will to go any further. I’m such an idiot, and I seem to just sit around and hate myself. Why bother going to the grocery store? I should be eating air anyway. Why buy anything? And damn those baby pandas. They always make me feel so sad and lonely. I’m such an unholy mess of a girl. There’s really no hope.
November 10, 2005
My dear technical support friend at the MCI Foundation had the site back up by 10:30. We still don’t know quite what caused the problem. Which means that we don’t know whether it will come back or not. The highlight of the day, however, was a class of students who were supposed to use one of the interactives, and when they found that the site was down they sent us less-than-scholarly e-mails (which we had to reply to in a “professional” manner). Here are some unedited samples:
- i am pissed offf
u guys suck - you suck i need this site and it sucks you assholes
- as far as i am consirned u can shove this site up ur asss
- you dawm morons eat shit try not to get any on your lips
- asses.y couldnt u just keep your sight on it was fine i was just on it yesterday .dickheads.eat shit
- fuck you suck dick bitch (that one from someone named “Bob Dick”)
- shit faces cock master (from “u suck”)
- i hate you i had a progect due tomorrow n now im going to fail because of you.so now im going to get in trouble by my teacher n my parents. so now i cant get a 4 wheeler if i dont get it done n if you dont have it up by tomorrow u can shove this site up ur asss.fuck you
Good Times. Good Times. Of course, my question is where the devil was the teacher. Why wasn’t anyone noticing that these kids were having so much trouble, let alone that they were sending out all these messages?
I could describe the rest of the day, but what could top these messages?
November 9, 2005
This has been one full day. A conference call. Lunch meeting. Team meeting on some lessons and odds and ends. Work on the PowerPoint for the ReadWriteThink Advisory Board meeting. Finished the rough specs on the Book Cover interactive and sent them off to the developer.
Course all that is nothing compared to the fun I just had. Microsoft released some patches, which I diligently installed and which just as diligently shut down the SQL server. The site is down, and nothing I can come up with is fixing it. This is not really the way that I like to end an evening, and it means tomorrow is going to be stressful till the problem is resolved. Thank goodness the MCI folks can help with this sort of stuff because I’m lost on what’s wrong. I may as well get some sleep now. It’s going to be an early morning.
Writing Process Strategies (Inbox Ideas)
November 8, 2005
The Ideas section for today’s Inbox focused on modeling and exploring writing process strategies. It’s full of lesson plans for K-12, and a couple of articles for college.
I also finished editing and published Susan Spangler’s lesson on pop culture. You’re the Top! Pop Culture Then and Now asks students to explore present-day pop culture by updating Cole Porter’s song “You’re the Top!” to use modern references. One great lesson from IATE! Willie Bobbie, are you jealous yet?
Tags: English language arts | K12 instruction | lesson plans | NCTE Inbox | ReadWriteThink