On cooking

I love the idea of making new recipes and trying new dishes. Many times when I do try a new recipe the result is successful and I end up making said dish several weeks (or more) in a row.

I have a tendency of falling into a rut. I get a taste for something particular and keep eating/listening/reading...whichever until I want something new.

On the cooking front I have the above to keep me in the rut and also my wariness of trying a new dish and having it turn out unsuccessful and thus waste the ingredients. I blame my frugal nature for part of that and then I don't want to fail as well.

I have this new dish that I want to try and was going to cook today but then both Mom and I goofed and got the wrong kind of beans... the kind that required three hours at least cooking time. (I wanted to cook this for supper and it was already five o'clock. Nice huh?)

We'll see how the attempt turns out tomorrow!

On lesson planning

One of the things that is drilled into a person going through any teacher training program is that the best of lesson plans will be altered due to unforseen circumstances such as fire drills or absences.

This week we had testing and the schedule was changed even from when the sixth grade team worked out a schedule. Because of this change things got pushed back. No big deal.

I am hoping that the week's worth of plans that I worked on today with my cooperating teacher and the other sixth grade social studies teacher will stand somewhat firm. :D

You never know though. When I got home today I checked my school e-mail and discovered an e-mail from the principal mandating schoolwide use of a particular program for the first twenty minutes of every class period. (I have to go back and check the e-mail now because I can't remember if that was every class or just a certain period. Not that that matters of course. :D) At first I had a "you've got to be kidding moment" but then I realized that we probably would have been doing some sort of catch up because the morning periods are behind regardless of the principal's mandate.

Nice huh?

On being a student and a teacher

Right now I am completing my Masters of Arts in teaching, specifically my student teaching. I started the program in the summer and am completing it in one year unlike some of the other people in the program who took a few classes last spring to lighten their load now.

While I am student teaching (aka unpaid teaching) I have assignments to complete for my other classes (Methods, Literature for Teachers and Middle School Reading). Separately either of things things are not difficult to do. Together they can be quite confusing.

Some of the assignments intertwine with the student teaching part while others do not. All of my assignments for my "outside" classes have due dates. In addition, there are deadlines like turning grades in that are applicable only for teaching.

For someone as forgetful as me this causes immense difficulty. Specific dates stick in my mind but unless I write it down I forget why the particular date is important. On the flip side having all of these due dates can make my hand bleed ink putting everything down on the page to make sure that I can remember it.

Sometimes though this intertwining doesn't happen so well. The past few days and weekends have been full of pushing forward to finish assignments that I could have been working on earlier but didn't realize that the due date or date for the execution of the assignment was as close as it is. (Take for instance a unit with a pre and post test that I have to complete for my Methods class. I intended to teach this unit when my University Supervisor came to observe. I realized when I left school yesterday that that week was coming up next week and I had done really nothing in preparation for that unit because I kind of forgot about it. lol)

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love teaching. I absolutely love learning. I don't love doing both at the same time. I want to be able to give my full attention to both and sometimes I don't have enough attention to go around.

After I start teaching I know that I will more than likely pursue yet another degree... such as teaching English as a Second Language... but I will take a maximum of one class while I am teaching or more during the summers.

That aside, I will plug along for the remaining 71 days of the semester and do the best that I can with God's help. Whatever happens I know that God is in control.

On... L. Frank Baum

I had most of Baum's other books on my want to read list and recently I have been reading the rest of his books and crossing them off of my list.

On one hand I wonder why these books were so popular because they are remarkably predictable and a little off the wall. On the other hand when I compare Baum's book to Gregory Maguire's books I much prefer Baum's innocent style.

While I think that some of Baum's books are critical to have in a library I do think that some of his books at least are repetitive and while they introduce rather remarkable characters unnecessary to read.

On meetings

Since starting my journey in the MAT program I have come to a realization. I suppose that I have always known this but it has become glaringly clear. Most adults love talking to each other even if that talking includes complaining about how much time we have to spend in meetings.

Now isn't that ironic?

Granted, there are many things on a teacher's plate, especially a teacher at a Title 1 school. The oversight superimposed on such a school is necessary but can be quite time consuming. Trust me I have seen this in action and actually heard more about it than seen it. Actually, that is not true but you know what I mean.

I think though that all of this work could be accomplished in a much shorter time if the teachers spent less time complaining about the world load and more time actually doing it. Please don't think that I am complaining but it is at times like this when I am most thankful that God made me a quiet person. :D

Something else that I have learned from all of this is how to approach meetings. First, I will make a list (mental or on paper) of what I need to find out to help me accomplish my responsibilities. Second, I will be willing to give of my time in order to listen to another person no matter how long they may wind on. (That's where the hard part is going to come in but I know that God will help me with it. :D)

Fall Into Reading Wrap up

I cannot believe that it is over already! I wish that it could keep going because I just arrived at the beach armed to the teeth with books to try and catch up from the few days last week where all I did was cross stitch and try to finish my sister's Christmas present by Friday when we celebrated Christmas.

Katrina suggested a few questions to answer so I will use those questions as the framework for this entry.

Did you finish reading all the books on your fall reading list? If not, why not?
For once I did actually finish all of the books on my original list. In past challenges either the library did not have the book when I needed to read it or I became so disgusted with the book that I chose not to finish it. Neither of those situations happened this time. (Perhaps because I got my requests in early this time. :D)

Did you stick to your original goals or did you change your list as you went along?
I did stick to my original goals and as always had in mind the idea of adding more books later as I read them and after I read all of the books on my original list. I got a little nervous towards the beginning of December when I hadn't finished everything on my list but as my reposted list at the bottom of this post shows I was indeed able to add books not originally on the list.

What was your favorite book that you read this fall? Least favorite? Why?
I would have to say that my favorite book that I read this fall was Backwater by Joan Bauer. See the question below for more info. I have a couple least favorites. The first of which was A Separate Peace by John Knowles. The second was The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I won't elaborate here on why I did not like them because I already did that in my review.
*Disclaimer* The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a strikingly beautiful book. I just hated how it ended.

Did you discover a new author or genre this fall? Did you love them? Not love them?
I actually did discover a new author this fall... Joan Bauer. I wish that I had encountered her books when I was in junior high and high school. Granted, I still thoroughly enjoyed the two that I read this fall but they are so good that I wish I had discovered them earlier. Great books!

What was your favorite thing about the Fall Into Reading challenge?
For me personally, this reading challenge kept me reading during a semester of school when I probably would have let it fall by the wayside in favor of other projects and things. Having the list and the internal motivation to finish by yesterday kept me reading.

Would you like to participate in another challenge here this spring?
Most definitely. I love these reading challenges. My spring list though will probably be even shorter than this fall list. I have to focus on real life and my student teaching after all. :D


Found by Karen Kingsbury (09/26/08)
Family by Karen Kingsbury (09/27/08)
Bachelor's Puzzle by Judith Pella (09/30/08)
Death's Door by Betsy Byars (10/05/08)
Disappearing Acts by Betsy Byars (10/10/08)
Randall's Wall by Carol Fenner (10/04/08)
The Ransom of Mercy Carter by Caroline B. Cooney (10/11/08)
Shattered Justice by Karen Ball (10/25/08)
The Great Bridge by David McCullough (10/28/08)
Blue Like Jazz by Donald R. Morris (10/18/08)
The Washing of the Spears by Donald R. Morris (11/06/08)
The Revealers by Doug Wilhelm (11/07/08)
Ice Story: Shackleton's Lost Expedition by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel (11/19/08)
The Living Stone by Jane Orcutt (11/08/08)
Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold by Jean Fritz (11/14/08)
Hitch by Jeanette Ingold (11/17/08)
Secrets of a Wildlife Watcher by Jim Arnosky (11/07/08)
My Face to the Wind by Jim Murphy (11/02/08)
Hope was Here by Joan Bauer (11/18/08)
Backwater by Joan Bauer (11/21/08)
The Haunting by Joan Lowery Nixon (12/04/08)
A Family Apart by Joan Lowery Nixon (11/25/08)
A Place to Belong by Joan Lowery Nixon (11/24/08)
Circle of Love by Joan Lowery Nixon (12/03/08)
A Dangerous Promise by Joan Lowery Nixon (11/29/08)
In the Face of Danger by Joan Lowery Nixon (12/01/08)
David's Search by Joan Lowery Nixon (12/02/08)
Nobody's There by Joan Lowery Nixon (12/05/08)
Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (12/11/08)
Last Shot by John Feinstein (12/10/08)
A Separate Peace by John Knowles (12/09/08)

Books added after the contest started
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini (12/09/08)
What Jesus Demands from the World by John Piper (12/09/08)
Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal by J. K. Rowling (12/10/08)
Social Studies in the 21st Century by Jack Zevin (12/12/08)
My Heart is on the Ground by Ann Rinaldi (12/12/08)
Rain Song by Alice J. Wisler (12/15/08)
A Rush of Wings by Kristen Heitzmann (12/16/08)
We Are Patriots by Kristiana Gregory (12/20/08)
The Edge of Recall by Kristen Heitzmann (12/20/08)
Little Wizard Stories of Oz by Frank L. Baum (12/20/08)

On... The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne

I had already added this book to my list before my Social Studies Methods professor highly recommended it so I added the book to my Fall reading list. When I heard about the movie coming out soon based on the book I definitely looked forward to reading the book.

Disclaimer: There is such a twist at the end that my review might be rather cryptic because learning about this twist would definitely ruin the rest of the book.

I knew that there was a twist at the end but thankfully had not found out the details. Unfortunately I kept trying to figure out throughout the book just what that twist might be. Boyne still managed to surprise me.

The main character, Bruno, narrates a move that he was none too happy about from the family home in Berlin to what he and his sister suppose is the country side. Bruno is more than disappointed when he learns that he has to leave his three best friends and that there seem to be no other children around for him to play with.

That's when Bruno meets a boy born on the exact same day and year and strikes up a friendship.

As I read I kept getting sadder and sadder as I realized all of the details of the book that nine-year old Bruno simply misses because of his innocence. Case in point: Bruno pronounces the name of his home as Out-With. It took me quite a while to figure out his mispronunciation.

Boyne writes a beautiful story even with all of the sadness mixed throughout the entire book. I do not recommend this book if you do not like sad stories. I do recommend the book to those who want to read good literature.

On... Last Shot by John Feinstein

I thought I would enjoy this book. After all I love college basketball and especially March Madness but this book disappointed in many respects.

At the beginning of the book I held out high hopes because Feinstein set up a rather intriguing premise. Now, perhaps I started to develop a little bit of antipathy towards him because of the main character's anti-Duke bias. Of course I don't mean that literally but anyway.

While this book is a mystery I do not condone the rather unethical actions that Stevie and Susan Carol took to solve the mystery. Added to that the resolution of the mystery took quite a cliche turn and rather farfetched turn at that.

I don't recommend this book.

On... a Separate Peace by John Knowles

I knew nothing about this book before I started reading it but it still managed to disappoint me.

Knowles enticed me at the beginning with well-written reminiscing about a long ago summer during WWII but as I continued to read I failed to discover Knowles purpose in writing this book.

The protagonist, Gene Forrester, narrated the story in a meandering, aimless manner that lacked the focus he supposedly had as a student. Even though at the end Knowles threw something unexpected in at the end I still could not see the purpose of the whole book. Gene seemed to make epiphanies throughout the book but sometimes those epiphanies contradicted each other and really made no sense at all.

On top of all of that Knowles felt okay with throwing in the occasional expletive although the frequency increased as the end of the book approached.

I do not recommend this book at all.

On... Joan Lowry Nixon

I recently read several books by Joan Lowry Nixon and after the first few which were part of the Orphan Train series decided to write one review rather than one for each book.

I have mixed feelings about this author. All of her books that I read that were part of the Orphan Train series disappointed me. The writing was not bad. In fact I actually admired Nixon for her ability to avoid sinking into cliche literary techniques. Unfortunately the plot ideas for all of those stories I have read before. Because of this disappointment I did not hold out hope for the other two books of Nixon's that I had yet to read.

These other two books, The Haunting and Nobody's There impressed me perhaps because the bar was set so low. Now I reserve judgment on the supernatural aspect of The Haunting but the story captivated me especially with the historical aspect of the old Louisiana plantation house.

Of all of the Nixon books that I read I enjoyed Nobody's There the best. Nobody's There is a simple young adult mystery with appealing characters such as crochity old Edna.

I definitely recommend Nobody's There but can't say the same for the other books.

Nanowrimo Frenzy!

I am so excited about nanowrimo this year and the novel just waiting to come out of me.

I will have this post at the top of the page throughout the month and will update each day with a running total of my word count, hopefully leading to the end goal of 50,000 words! (or more)

Underneath this post will be a chronicle of the path of my story as often as I get a chance to update. Lord willing, I will try and post each day. This will help get my juices flowing and perhaps help me work out all of the nasty kinks that keep me from flowing as fast as they should be in order to reach my goal.

So... the count begins...

Day One: 1676 words 8:59PM goal met
Day Two: 3789 words 9:00PM goal met
Day Three: 6195 words 8:56PM goal met and a little extra
Day Four: nothing... election day
Day Five: 8368 words 8:45PM goal met for days four and five
Day Six: 10109 words 9:21PM goal met with extreme difficulty
Day Seven: 11857 words 9:15PM goal met
Day Eight: 13758 words 9:28PM goal met
Day Nine: 15547 words 9:32PM goal met
Day Ten: 17362 words 8:54PM goal met
Day Eleven: 19177 words 8:43PM goal met
Day Twelve: 21207 words 8:22PM goal met
Day Thirteen: 23043 words 8:17PM goal met
Day Fourteen: 24732 words 9:44PM goal met even though I left my plot at home :D
Day Fifteen: 26492 words 8:24PM goal met
Day Sixteen: 28171 words 8:05PM goal met
Day Seventeen: 30139 words 7:50PM goal met
Day Eighteen: 32171 words 7:05PM goal met
Day Nineteen: 34010 words 4:48PM goal met
Day Twenty: 36029 words 5:18PM goal met
Day Twenty-one: 38038 words 6:20PM goal met
Day Twenty-two: 40102 words 3:27PM goal met
Day Twenty-three: 42171 words 4:30PM goal met
Day Twenty-four: 44565 words 5:20PM goal met

On Backwater by Joan Bauer

I think I have found a new favorite author.

Bauer enchants with this novel. I have to admit though that I felt an extra affinity for the main character, Ivy, because of her ardent love of history. Ivy loves history even more than I do and with a dedication that I would love to have.

Ivy Breedlove, a lover of history in a family of lawyers, attempts to create a family history for the birthday of a beloved aunt. She battles the expectations of her entire family that all Breedloves should become lawyers as well as an aunt who hold much for being efficient at the sake of preserving history. In addition Ivy is determined to find out what happened to her father's sister, Josephine, another "misfit" in the Breedlove family.

This is an amazing book. I love Bauer's clever wit and all of her beautiful imagery and definitely recommend this book!

On... Hope was Here by Joan Bauer

What a beautiful book!

Hope, the main character, lives with her aunt after having been given up by her mother. Hope's aunt, Addie, works as a short order cook and often moves around to help struggling businesses.

Every time Addie and Hope leave a place Hope writes the three words "Hope was here" in a place where it would last for a long time. Hope also keeps a scrapbook of her life divided into sections for each city that she has lived in with the hope of showing her father when she finds him.

While Hope thinks that Addie has made a major mistake when she moves the duo to a small town in Wisconsin it is here that Hope truly finds a home and her father, the one she had really been creating that scrapbook for all of those years.

When Hope writes "Hope was here" at the end of the book she writes the phrase with the knowledge that she will be coming back and that she has a home.

I absolutely love this book!

On... Hitch by Jeanette Ingold

I absolutely loved this book.

In Hitch Ingold describes the journey of Moss Trawnley in becoming a man during the middle of the Great Depression. Moss deals with a father who struggles with alcoholism and commitment issues of his own before joining up with the CCC Civilian Conservation Corps one of the alphabet soup organizations created during the New Deal.

Though as a fiscal conservative sometimes I cringe at how Roosevelt drastically increased the size and scope of government in order to pull the country out of the Great Depression (think Social Security for one) I actually admire efforts like the CCC which put men to work, thus decreasing unemployment, and at the same time helped hardworking Americans like farmers to conserve and protect land devastated by drought.

Though Moss at 17 is a bit older than my future middle school students and thus struggles with issues that might not affect my students I definitely recommend this book. Applications definitely could be extracted for the current financial crisis among other things.

On... Traitor: The case of Benedict Arnold

I had to double check on this book when I started reading because I assumed, rightly as it turned out, that this book is a children's book. This book does not read like any children's history book that I have ever read.

I enjoyed the book, do not get me wrong. I actually learned a lot about the man known as probably the greatest traitor in American history, though technically I do not think he actually was such.

The book is well written and most probably aimed at an upper middle school age child or underclassman student in high school. The average student though would not pick up this book unless extremely motivated or simply a history buff like myself.

I recommend the book although the cover disturbed me just a bit when I realized what it depicted.

On... The Living Stone by Jane Orcutt

I approached this book with bittersweet anticipation. For many years Jane Orcutt has been one of my favorite authors specifically because of two of her books The Fugitive Heart and The Hidden Heart which I have read many times. Just a few months ago Orcutt lost her battle to cancer.

I enjoyed this book and have a hard time criticizing it for the above reason. At the same time I do not agree completely with how Orcutt dealt with some serious issues. I guess that on different theological points I differ with Orcutt but not on the fundamentals of the faith.

Both Leah and Jacobo are complex and believable characters. I felt for Leah as she struggled with the death of her husband and son and all of the different ways that suffering can affect a family. Because of circumstances going on in my own family I understand how suffering can be perceived in different ways and how just because one person's loss may look on the surface to be more traumatic than the other that does not diminish either suffering.

I definitely recommend the book.

On... Secrets of a Wildlife Watcher by Jim Arnosky

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have no idea how this book made it on my to be read list but I'm glad it did.

Arnosky, a wildlife watcher, wrote a simple guide to wildlife for children complete with cute illustrations. I guess the text appealed to the nerd in me, the science lover in me but at the same time Arnosky wrote in a very "cute" style (for lack of a better word).

I definitely recommend this book!

On... The Revealers by Doug Wilhelm

I sit down to write this review not knowing whether I think positively about this book or hesitantly (notice that I did not say negatively).

Having spent two months with beautiful little seventh graders I think that Wilhelm did an admirable job at portraying life in middle school from a kid's point of view. I do think that all of the adult characters seemed out of touch or downright authoritarian but perhaps that was because Wilhelm did such a good job at writing from the kid's point of view.

Wilhelm's style made me want to keep reading even when I was thrown out by some pretty blatant profanity thrown in. To be perfectly honest I find such profanity offensive especially when used, albeit like it is in a middle school, so casually. Growing up none of the authors of the books I read resorted to sprinkling in and occasional curse word or two. Even one of my favorite secular authors, Mary Higgens Clark, rarely uses profanity in her novels and those are written for adults.

Although the profanity (around 10 words but 10 too many in my opinion) is the only negative I have about the book its use makes me hesitate to recommend the book. I would not assign this book to my students. There are better books out there.

On... The Washing of the Spears by Donald Morris

I give a warning at the beginning. This is a book for history nerds only. :D

While this book took me quite some time to read (because of the enormous length--614 pages--and because of Election Day interruptions) I enjoyed the book.

At the same time it was quite a chore to read. The only reason that the book seemed to make sense to me was because I took a class on the history of Africa and watched a video of the battle that took nearly three hundred pages to recount... or at least I think it took that length.

I found myself confused as the chapters progressed and Morris sort of backtracked when he switched to a new chapter to tell about another flank or division of the British army. I apologize if I confuse anyone. I myself found myself confused by this.

In addition, the small print and large paragraphs also made the book more difficult to read through my normal method. (I tend to in depth skim :D)

I do recommend the book for anyone interested in African history, specifically South African history. I find it intriguing to consider that the province with the highest AIDS infection rate in South Africa (or pretty close to the top) is KwaZuluNatal... or the Zululand of this book.
Unless you have a history fascination or the above mentioned fascination I do not recommend the book unless you need material to fall asleep to.

On... The Great Bridge by David McCullough

I love every book that I read of David McCullough. He crafts history in such a way that makes me want to read about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge or the Panama Canal. This book focused on the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

McCullough's language creates such vivid pictures that I could easily imagine how it felt and what it looked like when I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge six years ago.

Even though I did not completely understand the technical details of the sinking of the caissons and other engineering details I found myself completely fascinated by the details and taking a deep gasp of breath as McCullough described a fire underwater in the caisson that nearly derailed the entire project.

At the same time I must warn that this book is not for the faint of heart. At 562 pages it makes for a formidable challenge for even the avid reader.

I definitely recommend this book for the lover of history and good reading, with the above caveat.