I love my CSA! A friend/colleague and I have purchased a share of Community Supported Agriculture from a local farm for the summer. She and her husband and I and my beloved will share a family size serving of farm-fresh produce every week for 15 weeks.
We picked up the first share of veggies last night and were blessed with a bountiful harvest of lettuce (two kinds), radishes (still dirty!), arugula, chard, beets, and something called a garlic snape! The first few bites of the lettuces were incredible last night. I refused to douse it with ranch and went out of the way to make fresh lemon vinegarette to lightly moisten and bring the flavors together. It was the best salad I had ever eaten.
I spend a ginormous amount of our budget purchasing organic fresh and sometimes local produce. The amount we spent to receive our first harvet was pittance in comparison. Plus, we know we are supporting a local farm and the family who owns it.
A double blessing or a good karmic act if you ask me. Plus, it's delicious!
CSA's, you simply must try it.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Yea for Tech in the Classroom
This year has been a very difficult struggle with my chorus. It is a tough situation for all of us, half the group wants to sing, half doesn't want to be in band so they choose chorus. We rehearse 26 kids in a room built for about 10, after recess, needless to say it is generally physically uncomfortable and mentally taxing.
With the concerts for the year almost officially over, we have had three classes to make a 180 departure from our singing. The students are researching music from a variety of era's from the 1940's-1980's and creating power points to present the information to their peers.
I have seen these children completely change. For the most part, they are motivated and focused. They are realizing how much work they have to do before our last class on Thursday, when they present.
They used the tech lab (thanks ABD!) and today my puny room became a tech lab with laptops and wireless for them to work on their projects. I was able to monitor their progress by watching the documents saved to the shared folder. They all had the chance to request music from my itunes library and if I didn't have it, I bought it for them (the best three bucks spent all week).
The last two months have created a world of possibilities for how I can improve my teaching and use technology to help kids learn and experience music. I have become almost possessed with the desire to use "it all right now". Given the reality that school ends in 5 days, I think that I will just have to get all the ideas down and look forward to a great year next year.
I am taking Orff this summer. It is a standard and time tested pedagogy for teaching music. I am really looking forward to it as I think it will help me understand the process for musical knowledge acquisition on a deeper level. I hope, however, that I will still find a way to integrate my new love for using web 2.0 tools in the context of classical pedagogy.
I have never left a school year so exhausted yet at the same time very excited to return and start anew!
With the concerts for the year almost officially over, we have had three classes to make a 180 departure from our singing. The students are researching music from a variety of era's from the 1940's-1980's and creating power points to present the information to their peers.
I have seen these children completely change. For the most part, they are motivated and focused. They are realizing how much work they have to do before our last class on Thursday, when they present.
They used the tech lab (thanks ABD!) and today my puny room became a tech lab with laptops and wireless for them to work on their projects. I was able to monitor their progress by watching the documents saved to the shared folder. They all had the chance to request music from my itunes library and if I didn't have it, I bought it for them (the best three bucks spent all week).
The last two months have created a world of possibilities for how I can improve my teaching and use technology to help kids learn and experience music. I have become almost possessed with the desire to use "it all right now". Given the reality that school ends in 5 days, I think that I will just have to get all the ideas down and look forward to a great year next year.
I am taking Orff this summer. It is a standard and time tested pedagogy for teaching music. I am really looking forward to it as I think it will help me understand the process for musical knowledge acquisition on a deeper level. I hope, however, that I will still find a way to integrate my new love for using web 2.0 tools in the context of classical pedagogy.
I have never left a school year so exhausted yet at the same time very excited to return and start anew!
Friday, May 11, 2007
If you're too busy to pray, you're too busy
Driving home past 10pm last night from a concert, I passed a church on a very busy street. As many churches do, it has posted a witty "proverb" to stimulate the thoughts of rushing commuters. "If you're too busy to pray, you're too busy".
This is definitely me, this month. I feel like I am currently at mile 18 of a marathon and I am running out of steam. No amount of GU or gatorade is going to help me at this point, it is all fight or flight.
I know that exercise and eating right will help fight illness and fatigue, but where does sleep and low stress play into it? Where is the happy balance of those four things in the midst of complete chaos? Perhaps it IS in prayer. Perhaps the fatigue and illness are God's way of intervening in a life of busy nothingness, pushing us to idle everything. So why is it that I (we?) ignore sickness, stress, restless sleep, eating habits and forsake exercise and press on in our busy life of activity? Is it because when we truly have the time that we feel overwhelmed by the void of inactivity?
How can we change the world if we are so busy that we let it overwhelm us?
In the vast expanse of internet, the google search "busy prayer" gets over a million hits, but this link was just the answer, for right now.
Prayer for a Busy Day
In the midst of this most busy day,
I want to offer to you, most patient Spirit of God,
the poverty of my time. I always feel so rushed
and pressured, and it sometimes seems as if I think
that only the hours of this one day are limited.
Yet I forget that the hours of a lifetime are limited too.
So please slow me down, you patient God,
and help me to be aware that every moment is precious,
and that the sum total of my moments
on this earth are limited and so to treasure them
each and every one.
-- from the sermon " In Praise of Poverty"
by The Rev. Margaret B. Gunness.
This is definitely me, this month. I feel like I am currently at mile 18 of a marathon and I am running out of steam. No amount of GU or gatorade is going to help me at this point, it is all fight or flight.
I know that exercise and eating right will help fight illness and fatigue, but where does sleep and low stress play into it? Where is the happy balance of those four things in the midst of complete chaos? Perhaps it IS in prayer. Perhaps the fatigue and illness are God's way of intervening in a life of busy nothingness, pushing us to idle everything. So why is it that I (we?) ignore sickness, stress, restless sleep, eating habits and forsake exercise and press on in our busy life of activity? Is it because when we truly have the time that we feel overwhelmed by the void of inactivity?
How can we change the world if we are so busy that we let it overwhelm us?
In the vast expanse of internet, the google search "busy prayer" gets over a million hits, but this link was just the answer, for right now.
Prayer for a Busy Day
In the midst of this most busy day,
I want to offer to you, most patient Spirit of God,
the poverty of my time. I always feel so rushed
and pressured, and it sometimes seems as if I think
that only the hours of this one day are limited.
Yet I forget that the hours of a lifetime are limited too.
So please slow me down, you patient God,
and help me to be aware that every moment is precious,
and that the sum total of my moments
on this earth are limited and so to treasure them
each and every one.
-- from the sermon " In Praise of Poverty"
by The Rev. Margaret B. Gunness.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Be careful, its addictive
Our incredible, amazing, and talented tech teacher at school has just given me a new reason to be off-task, but in an thoughtful and forward thinking way. Ninging I have now found yet another way to connect to the global community through technology, but this way just happens to be purposeful and meaningful (unlike, I feel, the social/teen focused MySpace).
In the last 18 hours, I have joined three ning communities: Global Education, WeAreTeachers, and NextGen Teachers. Each with its own purpose, but a common theme of reaching across the digital divide and making connections to improve teaching and learning in a global way. Woo Hoo. That sounds good to me.
I often feel isolated in my little sweet cubbie of a classroom, but I realize now that if I reach out through this global community that perhaps I will find others out there who wish to use technology, new methods, or just make human connection as best possible through fiberoptic cable.
I'm thinking I need to start my own ning...music teachers unite perhaps?
Beware, ning connections might cause global advancement of teaching and encourage you to become a better teacher and a more open minded individual....Use with caution.
Peace.
In the last 18 hours, I have joined three ning communities: Global Education, WeAreTeachers, and NextGen Teachers. Each with its own purpose, but a common theme of reaching across the digital divide and making connections to improve teaching and learning in a global way. Woo Hoo. That sounds good to me.
I often feel isolated in my little sweet cubbie of a classroom, but I realize now that if I reach out through this global community that perhaps I will find others out there who wish to use technology, new methods, or just make human connection as best possible through fiberoptic cable.
I'm thinking I need to start my own ning...music teachers unite perhaps?
Beware, ning connections might cause global advancement of teaching and encourage you to become a better teacher and a more open minded individual....Use with caution.
Peace.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Will I ever go back?
This weekend was all planned out Friday night with husband, Saturday race with kids, Saturday night with sister, Sunday morning ride/run and then church. I made it through to Saturday night and then illness took hold. To the point where I slept like a teenager in a growth spurt, until 10:30. No bike ride/run and definitely no church.
It has been a long time since I have been to church on a regular basis. Of course, I went for Palm Sunday and Easter to my Mom's church, but it is not my favorite place because of years of baggage. We spent some of the winter month's attending the Catholic church, but I cannot get over some basic tenets of Catholicism that I think are plain wrong. Plus, husband did not really want to go there, it was just what felt comfortable as the worship of his youth.
I love God. I know that when I seek out God through prayer and worship...through study and song that I am a stronger, more focused individual. So why is it that church has such negative feelings or lack of initiative for me right now? Our experiences as a pre-married/married couple at our parish ended up being so negative that dear husband may never return to the Episcopal church. I was so hurt by his hurt by so-called Christians, that I certainly do not want to return to that parish. But starting a new is such a tedious process. You simply must want to do it in order for it to be accomplished. Church is not going to come out and get you. You have to go out and knock. Jesus said "Seek and ye shall find" He meant you have to seek. It won't just drop on your doorstep. A relationship with a church community doesn't just go poof.
And once again, the burden lies upon us. We must take time, effort, and courage to walk into the doors of a new place. We will be self protecting, of course, to not be drawn into a community only to see its horns of racism, elitism or fundamentalism. But, at the same time, we must open our minds to worshipping in a community that will not be uptopian. To find a community in which we can rejoice in God's goodness, fellowship with others, and serve for the greater good while at the same time acknowledging and accepting its flaws.
The journey of faith is not finite. The love of God does not cease because one does not walk into a house of worship. This particular stop on the road, or hover, is not an end point, but merely a new beginning. I will go back to church and I will take the first step on the new road.
I'm just not there yet. And it is ok.
Peace.
It has been a long time since I have been to church on a regular basis. Of course, I went for Palm Sunday and Easter to my Mom's church, but it is not my favorite place because of years of baggage. We spent some of the winter month's attending the Catholic church, but I cannot get over some basic tenets of Catholicism that I think are plain wrong. Plus, husband did not really want to go there, it was just what felt comfortable as the worship of his youth.
I love God. I know that when I seek out God through prayer and worship...through study and song that I am a stronger, more focused individual. So why is it that church has such negative feelings or lack of initiative for me right now? Our experiences as a pre-married/married couple at our parish ended up being so negative that dear husband may never return to the Episcopal church. I was so hurt by his hurt by so-called Christians, that I certainly do not want to return to that parish. But starting a new is such a tedious process. You simply must want to do it in order for it to be accomplished. Church is not going to come out and get you. You have to go out and knock. Jesus said "Seek and ye shall find" He meant you have to seek. It won't just drop on your doorstep. A relationship with a church community doesn't just go poof.
And once again, the burden lies upon us. We must take time, effort, and courage to walk into the doors of a new place. We will be self protecting, of course, to not be drawn into a community only to see its horns of racism, elitism or fundamentalism. But, at the same time, we must open our minds to worshipping in a community that will not be uptopian. To find a community in which we can rejoice in God's goodness, fellowship with others, and serve for the greater good while at the same time acknowledging and accepting its flaws.
The journey of faith is not finite. The love of God does not cease because one does not walk into a house of worship. This particular stop on the road, or hover, is not an end point, but merely a new beginning. I will go back to church and I will take the first step on the new road.
I'm just not there yet. And it is ok.
Peace.
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