When the buds begin to pop and the robin takes a hop

Spring is upon us, and time is flying by.

I’m at Rob’s work now, in an empty office, and we will be leaving from here at about noon for my friend April’s wedding weekend.  April and I have known each other for about two decades now, roughly 4/5 of our lives.  I’m very excited to see her and to be a part of her wedding.

Something that she’s gotten me interested in recently is paraprofessional work.  April taught elementary school for a while but then moved and took a paraprofessional (teacher’s assistant) job.  It sounds like it could be pretty perfect for me – putting me in an educational setting where I could provide one-on-one or small group attention to students.  So, I sent in my transcripts and a form to the regional superintendent of schools, and I now have a letter of approval and an educator’s ID number.  Very official sounding.  I applied to all of the openings in the area but didn’t have any luck.  Other than getting a couple of interviews for lunchroom/playground supervising.  I mentioned to the interviewing principals that I was hoping to get a classroom job, and I can understand why they didn’t want to hire me for a couple of months only to have to repeat the hiring process in the fall.  One of them called me back to say that she might have a teaching assistant position opening up soon, in which case she’d like to have me interview for it.  So that was nice.  April said that a lot of these jobs don’t come up until the fall, once schools have a sense of which classrooms and students need some extra help.  I’m hoping that something will work out for me then.

Rob and I recently got back from an early first anniversary celebration vacation.  We went back to the same place in Door County where we had our honeymoon, and the week was a great mix of hiking and sitting around watching tv and playing games.  Intense activity plus intense slothfulness.

We found a rock

Even more inspirational

One of the coolest things we saw: the spray from splashing waves would make rainbows!

We hiked through lots of pretty woodsy areas

And finally, a couple of three-word phrases that I’ve encountered recently.  Driving up to church each weekend, we pass the “Dead End Saloon” by the highway.  Its sign announces: Breakfast, Lunch, Fish.  And there was some flooding in the east several weeks ago.  I heard a report on NPR including impressions from an eyewitness.  I heard her describe the waters as “Wet.  Scary.  Russian.”  Oh, homophones.

Belated posting

(Written April 6th, 2010.)

Hello.

Well, for the fall session I taught a class of 13, about a week ago I wrapped up a class of 20, and at about the same time I started up a class of 10.  It’ll be nice to end the year with a smaller group again.  It’s always fun to see the way the kids portray themselves online through their posts and assignment responses.  Some of them are really eloquent and write beautifully.  Others do not use language quite so well, but sometimes those kids are great participants at our face-to-face class sessions.  Here are a few examples of the latter:

First, a forum response to the question of whether it is better to speak concisely or with lots of detail:

I believe it is better to use specifically chosen words because then you can get your point across easily. If the topic is hard to understand, a few words to generalize the topic. If you try to explain your own theory, the choice of words is not limited, but you have to choose them wisely. Depending on the given topic you have to decide which option to use. If your topic is a given idea you can give your point to the main problem or solution. Some benifits of the specifically chosen words are you have a word to start on and bring a conclusion to. Benifits for a given topic are all the different possibilities you have for choices. Some costs for both are, the limited resources and too broad of options that you can not find the answer. I tend to use the given topics and try to talk a lot about a given topic. I use a given subject with a broad generalization and expected to follow it.  I prefer to listen to the chosen words because it is easier understand or comprehend. I believe specifically chosen words are better to describe your thoughts on the ideas.

What, now?  And yes, the student’s vote was for conciseness.

Next, a few pictures that speak louder than words:

Excellent powers of observation. (Though apparently not so much for the page with all of the instructions.)

And the same kid, with what is my favorite instance of plagiarism so far.  This forum required both an original post about the reading and a thoughtful reply to a fellow student:

Surprisingly critical, considering he copied it (and removed some details).