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I have had one hell of an aggravating time dealing with my website host. Couldn’t find their ass with both hands, a map, and a dumbass-to-English dictionary. That said, I’M BAAAACK! It feels great to be up and running again. I am sorry I haven’t kept up with you all very well in dealing with the mess that has been PlanetHuff.
Basically, my host decided to upgrade servers. The email they sent informing me of this wonderful event went into my junk folder, which I only check every few days. They dumped my old server literally two days after they sent the email. For cripe’s sake, I could have been on vacation! What was I supposed to do? I have been emailing back and forth trying to get them to help me out, but I don’t think they know how.
Here’s a short list of problems I encountered:
There were some days when the thought of working on this blog made me want to bang my head in frustration. But I did it.
I have lots to say about school…
Continue reading “Nobody Knows the Trouble I Seen”
My wonderful host decided to upgrade servers. Only thing is, they didn’t tell us. I have been working very hard to try to reconstruct my blog. It wasn’t easy. In fact, I was ready to ditch the whole thing and start over — except it isn’t like owning your own domain is free. So. That’s where I’ve been.
School is starting soon, and when I am more awake and less frustrated, I will share some things.
My site looks like hell in Firefox right now. It’s a CSS problem, but I haven’t identified it yet, so hang tight with me until I do. It looks normal in Internet Explorer. It would seem I lost a few entries, but considering I thought I was going to lose my whole blog and my mind, I consider myself lucky.
I am so pissed at my host. You don’t even wanna know.
I am not high maintenance. I have never had a manicure, a pedicure, or a massage. I’ve never been waxed by another person. I very rarely treat myself to a professional haircut (which is probably not a good thing), preferring instead to trim my own bangs and save $30. My one indulgence has been higher-end bath products; however, since I discovered Yardley’s English Lavender soap and lotion was available at Wal-Mart for less than $4 a bottle, I’ve abandoned that, too. I prefer Yardley’s stuff to the stuff I used to use. And they discontinued lavender. What were they thinking? Quick tangent here — they need to redesign their website. It’s not user-friendly, even if it is fancy.
So… why do I suddenly have to have salon shampoo? I mean, I will use the other kind. I’m not a diva. But I will buy it if I can afford it. It just smells so good. You know what I mean. You might not have it at home, but when you go and get your hair cut, they use it when they wash your hair. Maybe it is the association with good hair days, hmm? After all, most of us aren’t gifted with the ability to duplicate the hairstyle we get in the salon. Okay, well, I know at least that I’m not. I can’t quite get the back not to flip out when it should curl under.
A couple of years ago, my colleague Barbara and I took our respective classes on a field trip to Oglethorpe University to see a Shakespeare play. I can’t even remember which one it was. That’s terrible. We went to Lenox Square Mall so the kids could have lunch. Barbara and I went to a department store, where she purchased a tube of department store lipstick. You know the stuff. I thought to myself, now why would she spend that much money on a tube of lipstick? Then I thought, she must be rich. Yeah, she’s a teacher, but her husband’s a veterinarian.
Soon after this event, I shared the story of the high-dollar lipstick with Cerelia, another colleague. This story would be a lot better if I could remember how much the lipstick cost. Anyway, I told her I just didn’t see the point in spending so much money on department store makeup, even if you could afford it. It seemed wasteful. Cerelia smiled a rueful smile and told me to wait until I was on the other side of 30. I scoffed then, but now I admit I linger at the makeup counter when I go shopping. It’s only a matter of time before they’ve sucked me in.
It must be amazing stuff, right? I mean, movie stars and rich people wear it. There must be something magical and special about it, right? Well, yes and no. Lancôme is owned by L’Oreal. That said, I am continually in search of a good foundation. So far, this is the best stuff I’ve used. Oh, shut up. Like you never bought anything you saw on an infomercial. Wherefore did the George Foreman Grill and Orange-Glo become so popular they were sold in Wal-Mart? Or the Turbie Twist! Yeah, you got one of those items at home. I know you do. Anyway, Victoria Jackson (no, not that one) wasn’t lying when she said her foundation was great, and neither were Ali McGraw and Meredith Baxter. I suppose there is some foundation lurking in the department store that is as good or better, but there is nothing to match it in the drug store. Trust me. I have been looking for about 10 years.
Maybelline discontinued my favorite shade of lipstick, those bastards. I am not picky about blush. Well, I am and I’m not. It can’t be too… colorful. I have very pale skin, and I have to be careful not to look like a clown. I’m not picky about eye shadow, but then, I don’t have crow’s feet yet. That day is coming. Mascara is mascara to me. I liked Coty Airspun powder, until I read this. And it’s not even the worst brand! I will say I never liked Victoria Jackson’s other products as much as her foundation. Her lipstick was pretty good. I could toss rest. Her powder wasn’t any good at all.
So if I’m not picky about most of the products I use — I mean, I wash my face with generic Noxema, for crying out loud — why, oh why does that makeup counter lure me so? Is it the garishly painted dragon ladies in their lab coats? Is it the fact that it is locked behind a counter where I can be sure no one’s cracked it open and tried it (ew, germs)? Is it the bright flourescent light and magnifying mirrors that highlight my flaws? Or is it the idea of spending money on such a luxury, making me feel like a star? I don’t know, but I do know I’m on the other side of 30 now, and it’s only a matter of time before I crack.
Dammit, I’m already on salon shampoo. Will there be hope for me once I’ve tried the really hard stuff? I’m thinking that there’s no way back once I start down that road. After all, I’m so fair-skinned. It’s hard to match my skin-color… Oh, to match my skin color! If I could do that, I might actually wear makeup on a regular basis.
When I can get it together, I will post my review of The Color Purple. I am too tired and foggy right now.
Instead, I placate you with a recipe of my own concoction — possibly the only one, since I’m not gourmet, as I have said before. I can follow a recipe, but this is pretty much the only one I’ve invented. That’s why you’ll have to forgive me for the lack of specifics regarding amounts of ingredients.
Margarita Chicken
Three large or four average boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Margarita mix (liquid works best, but powdered works okay)
Minced garlic
Fresh ground pepper or coarse ground pepper
Margarita salt
First of all, you need to marinate the chicken in the other ingredients. I pretty much use them to taste. I love garlic, so I use about two tablespoons. I pour the margarita mix into a 13X9 glass baking dish, add the garlic, and then put in the chicken. The reason I like liquid mix better is that it is undiluted. You can use the powder mix, but just don’t put as much water (or tequila) as the mix directions say. I use no water in this recipe. Then I grind pepper over the chicken on both sides. If you are using coarse ground pepper, I guess you’d sprinkle it over the chicken to taste. Now, since I bake the chicken, I just put the whole shebang in the oven at 350 degrees until it’s done, and it turns out very moist and flavorful. You will want to turn it over once or twice. However, if you plan to broil the chicken, you might not want to do that, since the marinade will boil away and become one with the pan. If you want to grill the chicken, you can baste it with the marinade. I prefer to bake it, because I think the flavor of the marinade settles into the chicken better. After the chicken is done, I sprinkle margarita salt on it.
That’s what we’re having tonight, if I have enough margarita mix. I don’t use any spirits in cooking this — tequila or otherwise. I don’t know if the chicken would be good that way or not. I’m kind of a teetotaler, and Steve is, too. Most of the time when I get a real margarita, I order a virgin. Tequila hurts my stomach sometimes.
I have been so fortunate to be on such a “good book” run right now. Truth be told, much of it is due to the fact that I’m going to be teaching some books I ought to have read already (shame on me). But like Nanci said, you just can’t be sorry you haven’t read all the good books, because there are just too many.
Of course, there are two other reasons why I’ve been reading so much and choosing such good material. Did you ever have an English teacher you wanted to impress with your choice for a book report? Mrs. Patzel was my 11th grade teacher. Right before I moved to Georgia, I went up to her and asked her to give me a list of books she’d recommend I read — you know, so I could get ready for college. After she picked her jaw off the floor, she said she’d definitely get me a list. I didn’t understand until I became a teacher just why Mrs. Patzel was so obviously pleased and taken aback by my request. Or why, instead of a list, she actually gave me a box of books, most of them classics. But now that I’m a teacher, I know the joy of having a student who truly loves to read in my English class. And kids like the one I used to be are pretty rare. I wouldn’t be afraid to say Mrs. Patzel still remembers the big-eyed, dark-haired girl who tucked that box of books under her arm and left the classroom. Who am I trying to impress now? Well, there’s All Consuming and BookCrossing. Okay, so I have some questionable reading material on my bookshelf alongside some better selections. Ignore that for a moment. I have been reading more this year than I have in… I can’t remember when. And it has been so enjoyable.
The last book I finished was The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. I picked it up this morning and finished it by 11:00 P.M. I do not read fast. In fact, I’m a pretty slow reader. I think I learned to read slowly because I tend to savor the words. I can read more quickly, if I have to, but I prefer to take it at about the same speed as if I were reading it aloud, if that gives you an idea. So finishing a book all in one day doesn’t happen often for me. In fact, this was only the fourth time. The other three books I read like that were Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody, The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds, and Home is Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts. I have decided that what it comes down to is I love character-driven novels with a Southern flavor. With the exception of Not Without My Daughter, which is just extremely suspenseful, the others all fit that category.
I absolutely loved the characters in this book. Taylor Greer is smart-mouthed and tough. I would like to be like her. She kind of reminds me of Anne. I’d like to say it’s deeper than the fact that both Anne and Taylor are Native American. Well, Anne is. Taylor’s Cherokee pedigree is that negligible 1/8 that so many people claim. But I think it’s because they’re both so sassy and strong. I really get the impression that Anne could do just about anything, and Taylor made me think of that quality of hers. Taylor eschews glamor in favor of down-to-earth practicality, and Anne kind of seems like that to me. Then there’s Turtle, who is so smart. Had I not had a Maggie running around, I wouldn’t have thought a three-year-old as smart as Turtle could have existed. I just ached for her — she was so tough. I also loved Lou Ann. She was a bit like me. She worries constantly. I’m thinking Barbara Kingsolver nailed a typical OCDer. I wonder if she realized that? I wanted to see what would happen to everyone. I had to keep on reading. I think one of my litmus tests is does a character seem real enough and likable enough that I start feeling like he/she is a friend and I want to follow him/her to see what happens? If the answer is yes, the book always winds up a favorite.
The “accidental” ways the characters seemed to meet each other just when they needed to meet someone special to fulfill their needs reminded me very much of Where the Heart Is. Some people might say that’s contrived. I don’t. I think God hands us sychronicity just like those instances in these books.
Besides the well drawn characters, the writing was so fresh and funny. How can you fail to appreciate this:
She got off at the Roosevelt Park stop, which was a half block from the park itself. Sprawled over the large corner lot was a place called Jesus Is Lord Used Tires. You couldn’t make a mistake about the name — it was painted in big, cramped blue letters over the door, with periods inserted between the words: JESUS.IS.LORD.USED.TIRES. On the side of the pleated tin building there was a large picture of Jesus with outstretched hands and yellow streamers of light emanating from His head. There was also a whitewall tire, perhaps added to the mural as an afterthought and probably meant to have no direct connection with the Lord, but it hung in the air below His left hand very much like a large yoyo. Jesus appeared to be on the verge of performing Around the World or some other fancy trick.
Top-heavy, chin-high stacks of Firestones and Michelins at the edge of the paved lot formed a wall between Jesus Is Lord and a combination night club and pornography shop next door called Fanny Heaven. There was no mistaking this place either. The front windows were whitewashed, and large signs painted over them declared GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS on one side of the door and TOTAL NUDITY on the other. On the front door of Fanny Heaven was a life-size likeness of a woman with long red hair and a leopard-skin bikini. Public art of various types was popular on this block.
I mean. Come on. How can you not love that? I laughed out loud. I must have read it three times before I could move on. I had to read it to Steve.
Another favorite passage ties in the theme and title of the book. Turtle is something of a savant with plants. She’s fascinated by them. Lou Ann points out some dead looking vines in Roosevelt Park and declares that they are wisteria. Taylor is doubtful, but sure enough, they bloom. Probably looking something like this:
Later, the flowers turn into beans:
When Taylor and Turtle are in the library, they find a horticulture encyclopedia. Turtle recognizes a black-and-white picture of wisteria — bean trees. Taylor reads the article about wisteria to Turtle.
But this is the most interesting part: wisteria vines, like other legumes, often thrive in poor soil, the book said. Their secret is something called rhizobia. These are microscopic bugs that live underground in little knots on the roots. They suck nitrogen gas right out of the soil and turn it into fertilizer for the plant.
The rhizobia are not actually part of the plant, they are separate creatures, but they always live with legumes: a kind of underground railroad moving secretly up and down the roots.
“It’s like this,” I told Turtle. “There’s a whole invisible system for helping out the plant that you’d never guess was there.” I loved the idea. “It’s just the same with people. The way Edna has Virgie, and Virgie has Edna, and Sandi has Kid Central Station, and everybody has Mattie. And on and on.”
The wisteria vines on their own would just barely get by, is how I explained it to Turtle, but put them together with rhizobia and they make miracles.
There’s nothing I can really add to that. The people in this novel are all bean trees. And they’re all rhizobia, too. I really loved the symbolism of that image. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. It’s now on my favorites shelf. I am excited to teach it.
I have spent the last two days working hard with Nanci and my new colleague, Sparker. Her first name is actually Sarah, but I can’t call her that here, because I already have a Sarah. I think this might be the first time someone ever asked me to help design rather than simply implement a curriculum. It is rewarding to feel like I have so much input into what I’ll be doing, as well as ownership over the whole deal. I’m worn out. Nanci is so energetic. She makes me feel tired. In a good way.
My task over the weekend is to scope out the bookstore for any books I’d like to get either as novel selections or supplemental materials (oh, twist my arm). I have never had the luxury of actually getting everything I really want for my students. In fact, I’ve rarely had the luxury of getting everything they need. I feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven.
I also need to do a draft of the CP 2 curriculum. Daunting. But I have some examples of the regular CP and Honors curriculum as well as the ones Randal wrote.
I am supposed to finalize a list of novel selections, plays, anthologies, and supplementary materials. So far, this is what I’ve decided I would like:
9th Grade Novels
10th Grade Novels (American Lit.)
Supplementary Texts, Professional Literature, Teacher Guides
I have also decided which plays we’re doing in each grade. They’re all in their text books, except The Crucible, Arthur Miller. The other two plays not included in their texts are required summer reading, so I didn’t bother counting them here. I’m doing Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare, and Antigone, Sophocles with 9th and The Little Foxes, Lillian Helman and The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams for 10th.
My brain hurts. I need a bath.
I have been playing around with MT tags — that would be Movable Type for those of you unfamiliar with the acronym. I decided to see how I like doing without the Blogrolling blogroll and found out how to create a simple one using a template module. Good instructions can be found here and here. The only thing is I had a graphic — — that was appended to links of blogs that had recently updated, pinging one of the sites Blogrolling takes data from (including its own). I searched, but couldn’t find out how to do that with my MT blogroll. Anyone out there know? I guess it isn’t a big deal. Half the blogs I read didn’t ever ping anyway, but I admit I thought it was cool. Don’t you know I spent a bit of time working on that graphic to make it match my site. But the main reason I wanted to ditch the Blogroll is that I couldn’t figure out how to make it work with the XHTML Friends Network, which I found on Nighthawk and rather liked. Go check it out and see if you might be interested.
My free email service provider said that the account I use for all my blog-related activities has been reported to their abuse entity because I have allegedly been spamming folks. As much as I hate spam, I can only imagine I ticked someone off, and they decided to mess with me and try to get me in trouble. May even be the person who hijacked my identity to get a bank account recently. I have said a couple of times that I’m not sure how they got their information. Maybe they know I’m linked to that email address. Of course, it could be a mistake, too.
I think Maggie has finally fallen asleep. I actually have to work tomorrow. Curriculum and planning. So I’m going to bed. Just as soon as I get that sweater I need to wear tomorrow in the dryer.
To return to my To Do list of yesterday:
Write something for The Pensieve.
Whew! Go check it out if Harry Potterica is your thing.
I searched through my entries, and I cannot find a reference to the Georgia teachers who will lose their licenses because they bought bogus advanced degrees online (free registration required). How could I have been so remiss in not telling you, gentle reader, all about this unbelievable example of a severe dearth of ethics in my profession?
What basically happened is that these teachers, who were mostly middle school teachers, many of whom worked in my former system, bought masters and doctorates from a diploma mill known as St. Regis University located in Liberia. None of the teachers was known to me, nor did they work at my former school. The Georgia Professional Standards Commission voted nearly unanimously (11-1) to revoke their teaching certificates. Without a teaching certificate, no public school is able to hire them to teach. I would be very surprised if a private school did, either, considering the circumstances. I doubt they would be able to move elsewhere and be certified. Should they lie, I am unsure what recourse the injured school would have. I have been told that someone who lies on a job application for a public school system can have action taken against their certificate. If you have no certificate, though, perhaps some sort of criminal charge of fraud or something of the sort could be made.
When teachers complete an approved education plan at an approved/accredited university, like I did, and have passed a certification test (or two, as is now required), we are eligible to apply to the GAPSC for a teaching certificate. Every five years, we must submit proof that we have taken college coursework or professional development courses as required to keep our knowledge of the art of teaching and our subject matter current. When we complete advanced degrees, we submit the information in much the same way, although we are not required to take further tests. The GAPSC then decides whether or not to grant us a certificate at a higher level. Mine is, for example, a T-4, which means I have a bachelor’s degree. Someone with a master’s degree might hold a T-5 certificate. Someone with a specialist’s degree would hold a T-6. A person with a doctorate would have a T-7. Leadership degrees are the same, but they are listed as L-6 or L-7. I’m not sure if you can have an L-5. Pay goes up as your degree level advances.
Basically what these people did was to sacrifice their careers in education for monetary gain. I guess we all get into teaching for the big bucks, don’t we? Granted, I believe teachers are not paid enough, but I find it appalling that my colleagues would feel it is okay to defraud their school system, their students, their students’ parents, and the state of Georgia into thinking they had earned an advanced degree. Advanced degrees are a badge of honor. They represent hard work. They represent specialist knowledge. I’m happy that this case demonstrated that those things cannot be bought.
You can still work in private schools in Georgia without a certificate. And you can work in other industries, too. But I can’t think of an employer who would, in good conscience, hire someone who had done this. I’m sure it was tempting. It looked so easy. And why do the work if you can get away with not doing it? What a lesson to teach one’s students.
Even though this effectively ends the careers of these educators, and might seriously damage their prospects in another field, I think it was important that the GAPSC took the hard line and did not allow this travesty to be punished lightly. I agree with their finding that purchasing these degrees “and using them to obtain raises violated ethics rules on misrepresentation or falsification, misuse of public funds and property, criminal acts and professional conduct.”
A Ben Hill County parent said of David Mims, a principal who bought a phony degree from St. Regis: “‘The stars get doctorates for not even going to college, stuff they have not done. If he has been doing fine with our children let him be,’ says parent Elaine Hubbert.” It is much more complicated than that. This parent clearly doesn’t understand the difference between an honorary doctorate and a real one. Lots of people with no degree at all might have all the makings of being an excellent teacher and a way with kids, but you learn things to further your expertise when you get a degree. Ultimately, the measure of it is this: do you want a liar and a fraud teaching your child? I would hope the answer is “no.” It’s a pity that these eleven educators didn’t ask themselves that question before they bought those phony degrees.
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