Books I Am Reading, November 2015

November came and went so quickly that I forgot to do my monthly post on the books I was reading!

I did some rereading in November. I started with the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series by Ann Brashares. I enjoyed the first book when it was first printed in 2001. The story is of four girls who find that one pair of jeans amazingly fit them all, even though they all have different body types. Bee, is a jock; the star soccer player who is always moving. Lena is a natural beauty but is painfully shy. Hispanic Carmen has a spicy personality and speaks her mind. Libby is the wild child who live her own way, no one else's. The first book is about the first summer the girls are apart; the summer they are all 15 going on 16. They all find that they hit some rough and hard patches in their journeys and they all handle them differently. Each book after the first touch on the next summer in the girls' lives. These books hit some tough concepts: family member suicide, the death of loved ones, grief, depression, romance, anger, self-control, bad choices, consequences, etc. I really enjoyed rereading them...again. I think this would be the 4th time I have read the series.

Ann Brashares later wrote Sisterhood Everlasting. The setting is ten years after the fourth Sisterhood book; the girls now women around 29 years old. I think this was a great way for closure for those who waited each year for the next Sisterhood book to be published. How often do we read a book in our teens and later wonder if the characters grew at all? Though these books might be considered "light reading" or "feel good" books, they do touch on some very hard and very real life issues. Questions the women face are faced by so many women each day. I found it once to see that the book was realistic. Is there something wrong with me that I am not married? Is this man the one for me, because my friends don't like him and have valid points? Is this really what I want for the rest of my life? Why am I sitting here waiting for someone who may not even remember me? These are just a few of the questions that the women face. This book showed that people do not have perfect lives, no matter how it looks on the outside. Not only that, we need others to help us through the tough times.

Continuing on my theme of the Maze Runner series by James Dasher, I started the third book in the series, The Death Cure. I have yet to finish it at the time of my writing this post. I can say however that this book is INTENSE. There are so many twists and turns and just when you think life is going ok...BAM! another plot twist hits you in the face! Thomas just cannot win. Just when he thinks he is rescued, he finds himself imprisoned again by WICKED. He cannot tell who is lying and who is telling the truth. He finds himself faced with tough choices and once again thinking on the fly.

During the month of November my family watched Summer Magic, an old Disney movie starring Haley Mills. I noticed that it was based on Mother Carey's Chickens by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin. I found it for free for my Kindle! I love classics and I greatly loved this one. There was one reference in the book that I did not understand so I had to look it up. The reference is to Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies and they reference this multiple times in this book. If you find yourself a little lost to these references I suggest you read a synopsis on the book (if you don't want to or cannot find the book itself). Summer Magic is about a family whose father passes away and they must make due. They move to a small town called Beulah, where they live in a large yellow house that is too fancy for the town but just right for them. Reading about the simple life of the past makes it easier to shun the drama and fuss of the nowadays for me. The book is, of course, different than the movie Summer Magic but I really enjoyed going through the book and seeing what was different and what was the same and seeing why they changed it for the movie (smaller cast, too much info for the time allotted, etc.).

December will be bringing more books, both classic and modern, new reads and rereads.

Choice Technical Academy

My friend Sara works at Choice Technical Academy in Owatonna, MN. I used to work with her at another school and we became friends. This week I decided to go visit her so here I am.

This school is in its first year. Technical Academies of Minnesota is expanding and Choice is the second of four schools they are opening in coming years. Earlier this summer I came down and was at an open house for the school. I met prospective students and students who already knew that this is where they wanted to be. It is really cool that some of the students here recognize me from this summer.

We arrived at the same time that 2 students arrived. The students immediately decided to vacuum the room where school is held. It was awesome to see them take initiative to clean their community.

We started off the school portion of the day with Advisory. Sara's Advisory introduced themselves to me and told me a little tidbit about themselves that was new since starting here. We also all shared one fear that we had; ranging from the brave who claimed to fear nothing, to silly (Humpty Dumpty), and real (of graduating and what the future holds). Being a Friday, the students were a little more rammy than usual but were all at ease and curious as to why I was here. It seems shocking sometimes to teens that their teachers actually have friends and a life outside of school. *wink*

Math came next. I worked with a student on decimal place values, fractions with exponents, and some algebraic equations. I greatly enjoy working on math.

After math, some students went to a teacher led seminar. Others stayed behind to work on their individual projects. I went around to students in Sara's advisory and spoke with them about what they were working on. I saw projects on Australia, a personal Atlas using PowerPoint, Slipknot (as in the band, music, and psychological effects), tornadoes, cells, computer programing, foreign languages (German, Russian, Spanish), the Holocaust, photography, what colleges a student was looking at attending when they graduate, calligraphy, and more! Most were very excited to talk to me about their projects and books they were reading and using to research.

A few students needed to go to the library so I tagged along. The group grew to 8 students when others heard of the outing. While we were at the library a boy expressed his interest in reading Manga books. I learned last year from a student that you start Manga books from the back and read from the right to the left. (I found an example.) A couple of the students took him over to the Manga section. Pretty soon there were about 6 of the students in the section. I was standing right by them and I listened as the students all encouraged the boy and explained to him how to read the Manga books. He said it seemed confusing and they told him to come sit down, they would teach him. Five of the students went to a table and proceeded to teach him how to read the Manga and they gave him advice on what books he should try, what series were good, what ones might interest him, etc. I found this very cool and encouraging. A fun note on the trip is that a girl was VERY disappointed that the librarian would only let her check out 11 books. This reminded me of myself when I was a girl. I would check out 20 or so at a time.

After we came back from the library, we had lunch. Everyone, including students bring their own lunch. The school is too small (39 students so far) for a lunch program and there is no kitchen for them to prepare lunches. Sara had brought homemade chili for us. The only thing missing was avocados. 2 years ago she was eating her chili with avocados. I love avocados but had never tried them in chili. I tried it and LOVE my chili that way. But alas, there were no avocados today.

After lunch we had reading time. Ah, the quiet. Everyone was engaged in a book or in a reading group. I got a few chapters of The Death Cure by James Dashner read. No matter what school, reading time never lasts long enough!

Finally there is personal project time, which is when I am typing this. The last 40 minutes also include an optional fitness activity. Today was soccer and most of the students are signed up to play.

I greatly enjoyed my day at Choice Technical Academy with Sara and her students.

Selfie: Myself and Sara

Books I am Reading, October 2015

Last month I posted on the books I was reading that month. My intention was to write a post each month, near the middle of each month. I did not have time to do so this month so I am playing catch-up a little here. I am still reading On Writing, Firewall,  and It Takes a Witch. I have added a few others though.

One of the students that I get to work with enjoys ghost stories. We searched online and found Ghost Stories of Minnesota by Gina Teel. We searched together on Amazon and ordered this book. We don't get to read it every day but we try to do a short story from it once a week or so. It will probably take us a little while to get through it. It is full of short stories about ghosts and unexplainable things in the state of Minnesota. Some of the towns are even towns that are near us so we find those ones the most interesting.

Another of the students that I get to work with is very into vampires. This student had been reading fan fiction online because they had not been able to find many teen vampire books to read that they had not read. I went shopping at Barnes & Nobel during their Teacher Appreciation Days and I was able to buy a bunch of books at 25% off! That is an awesome thing in my life. I found a few books for this student, but the one we are starting with is Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead. We have read about 2 chapters and it has been very interesting so far. The books starts out with 2 girls, one being a vampire and the other is basically her guardian. From what you gather at the beginning, they ran away from a vampire school and have been running for a couple years or so. They don't want to be found for some reason and it has to do with the protection of the vampire girl. The books starts off with action and a foot chase! This one will take a little time to read because we are reading it together and we only get to do this about 1 time per week.

My husband bought me The Scorch Trials because I was enjoying The Maze Runner. The book is nothing like the movie. It is completely different. After being rescued from the Maze Trails, the Gladers wake in a dormitory that they arrived at the night before. Their wake up is jarring and scary. The realize that Teresa is missing and a new boy is in her place. Nothing is what it seems and strange things happen. They are eventually told that they all have The Flare and that they must make it to a place in the mountains called Safe Haven and they will be given The Cure. The entire book is action packed. Running, dodging, fighting, blood and gore; this book has got it all! Unexpected twists and turns are in each chapter. This book is not for the week at heart, nor it is for small children. There is a lot more violence in this book than the first in the series. I finished this book last night. I can't wait to start the third book!

I could not resist Cinder by Marissa Meyer. It looked so interesting that I just had to buy it! Cinder is a part girl, part machine girl. Basically, she is a cyborg; less than a person, but more than an android robot. She is s second class citizen and has no real rights, but she is also a gifted mechanic; the best in the land. She was adopted by a man who died of a mysterious disease that shows up randomly to the citizens of earth. She has an evil adoptive mother, and 2 adoptive sisters, though one is sweet to her. Her best friend is an android that her adoptive father programed. The Prince of her nation comes to her, asking her to fix one of his androids. Through dangers, illness, and the dreaded rival of the vicious Lunar Queen, Cinder makes surprising discoveries not only about her adoptive father, but also about herself. I am about half-way through this book and am greatly enjoyed.

These are the main books of this month. I will post November's books more timely next month.

A Week Off

The entire school had last week off!

You read that right, I had a whole week off. Whether you want to know or not, I will tell you about my week.

Just Kidding.

I had a busy but good week off. I ended it on Friday by going to a book sale and the Aurora Public Library. I bought 2 1/2 boxes of books. I am very excited to keep filling my bookshelves.

The new week has started and I hear rumors of a new adventure awaiting us in the next couple of weeks. I wonder what the will be?

Turkey Butchering

You read that right. Turkey. Butchering.

As I was getting ready for work my friend Stella sent me a text:

Sometimes we start our day this way...usually because it is so hectic in my house

she starts the conversation.

This is how the conversation progressed:

So see? You are not alone in thinking that I have a strange job.

The day progressed and we butchered turkeys. I did not take photos of any of the blood and guts, so do not worry about seeing that. I might go into some details though. If you are someone who does not believe in eating animals, please read no further.

The farm we were at raises their own food to feed their own family. They are also Ojibwe Indians. At the start of the day we all came together while the adults of the family explained why they raise their own animals for meat. A few reason are:

• Hormone Free
• Antibiotic Free
• Fed non-GMO food
• Raised in a wonderful environment with plenty of room and food

As they hatched at bought their animals they would explain to the animals why they were raising them. They told their animals that they were going to be their food and then they thanked them. The Ojibwa belief is that the animals are happy to give up their lives to feed those who care for the properly. So this farm practices this with their animals.

We went outside and students were sent to grab some turkeys from the shed where they had been led to the night before. Then the turkey was held and calmed, it's head was placed into a bucket (5 gallons maybe") with a hole in it. Most of the body was in the bucket but someone held the feet and the part of the body that was out. This seemed to have a calming effect on the turkey.

The farm adult then slit the throat while thanking the turkey for being willing to feed them. The turkeys were surprisingly calm. They did not injure themselves and they did not beat around wildly like you hear about in the expressions "running around like a chicken with its head cut off". After the turkey passed, the head was cut off.

Then the turkeys were brought to the garage to be dipped and de-feathered. This is where I was working that day.

Here they were dipped into very hot water. This loosened the feathers so we could de-feather them. We hung them from ropes by one foot and started pulling feathers off of them. My hands were pretty sore from this. We did about 30 turkeys and 10 chickens!

The above turkey is almost completely de-feathered.

After de-feathering (listen, this word sounds so much better than plucked, ok?), the turkeys were taken over to another table. At this table we had a vet! Really! A vet came and gave the students a bird anatomy lesson! They learned about the heart, intestines, gizzard, and more. She then emptied their cavities and took the feet off. 

During this part of the process one of the farm dogs, a pug (who is rather large), kept stealing the intestines. At one point she was eating the intestine of a turkey and backing away slowly. The owners had said that she would be sick if she continued to eat these. (I am sure we would be ill if we ate intestines too.) As she backed away an intestine, about as long as she is, was hanging out of her mouth and she was swallowing it whole. I walked up to her and pulled it out of her mouth. It seems to keep coming out. Ryan talks about it as one of the grossest things he has ever seen.

Some of the above have been gotten some not.

After the last of the feathers were gone we bagged them up and placed them in the freezer.

When we ran out of bags we used freezer paper. The farm adult showed us how they wrapped meat before we had plastic bags.

That is a chicken. This chicken seemed so small compared to the turkeys!

Though I had butchered chickens in the past I had never done turkeys. They were very large! I did learn some thing that day. I enjoyed learning about the way the Ojibwes treated their animals they keep for food. I learned that it was much cleaner to slit the throats of the turkeys than to just chop the head off. It also seemed much more humane. I learned how to pluck a turkey (I had skinned the chickens I butchered so I had never pluc...I mean de-feathered before). Finally I enjoyed how so many people helping made the work seem less like work and made the day less tedious. This was a great way to demonstrate the saying, "Many hands make light work."

Books I am Reading, September 2015

I read multiple books at a time, all the time. I always have at least 3 books going at any given time. I am including links to Amazon for each of the books. Amazon does not pay me to do this. I just like buying from Amazon. Some books I did buy at Barnes & Noble, because I cannot go there without buying something. They don't pay me either. I must say that someone should pay me to read. That would be my dream job.

Right now this is what I am reading:

On Writing by Stephen King

In the first half of this book, Stephen King writes about his early history with writing. He includes his childhood as well as his break into the world of a novelist. The second half of the book he talks about the rules of the road; what to do, what not to do, how to write this way and that. So far I have found this book to be very interesting and have found it enjoyable. I am a little over halfway through this book. I typically only get to read it on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I am in Warba, however it seems that lately I have not had time to read and Reading Time because I am off doing other tasks. This is a huge bummer to me, as I LOVE reading.

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I usually have a rule that I do not watch a movie until I have read the book. I am pretty firm o this rule and usually make it apply to my children as well. However, I broke the rule with this book. I watched the movie first. I enjoyed the movie so much that I started the book. The book is MUCH different than the movie. I completely see why they changed the movie to be the way that it is. I am really enjoying the book. The premise of the book is a group of boys who are one by one placed into the center of a maze. They do not know why there are there, or how they got there. Thomas comes along and everything seems to change. I am also a little over halfway through this book. I typically read about a chapter each night. Though I would love to read more, I have learned through the years that I need my sleep to function. A couple of nights have found me up too late and I paid dearly for it when my alarm went off at 6 AM.

The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery

Oh The Story Girl! How I love this book. I have read this book many times. L.M. Montgomery is one of my favorite authors. She is the author who wrote Anne of Green Gables. This book takes place on Prince Edward’s Island in Canada. It starts with 2 brothers traveling to stay with their relatives on their farm, located on the Island. They meet relatives they have never met before, have adventures and learn life lessons. I completely recommend ANY L.M. Montgomery books you can find, though I did find the later part of the Ann series to be tougher reads that dragged a bit. It is free for Kindle on Amazon!

Bait and Swtich: Life with a Two-Faced Narcissist by Lisa Carlson

This book is the true story of Lisa. She is an adventure-loving gal who finds what seems to be a loving man. She marries him and finds herself in a controlled and abusive relationship. She basically finds herself in a cult. This is a very hard book for me to get through. I am usually a fast reader and if I have down time I can read a book in a day. I have to read this in very small doses though. Lisa’s story mirrors mine so much that it is very tough for me to read. I know Lisa through a friend so I know somewhat how the story ends, but the road to get there is full of hurt and at times despair.

Firewall by DiAnn Mills

I started this book and became distracted by other books. It is still by my bed, waiting for me to pick it up again. The premise of this book is a gal who marries the man of her dreams. They are headed to their honeymoon and are in the airport, she has just headed to the woman’s bathroom when a bomb goes off. She wakes up in the hospital and finds herself the center of the investigation. The FBI and Homeland Security think that she may have planted the bomb. Her husband is missing and they suspect him as well. That is as far as I have gotten! I really need to pick it up again! It is free on Amazon right now!

It Takes a Witch by Heather Blake

This is one of my “light reading” books. If I am feeling down and blue, I pick up humorous books. This is the one I have actually been reading since May. I guess that is good because it means I have not been down or blue much at all since May, seeing as I have not finished it. Darcy recently found out that she is a type of witch who can grant wishes; a Wishcrafter. She has some funny adventures but there is also a mystery: the murder of a gal no one in town seems to like at all. Her aunt’s new boyfriend is accused but her aunt insists that he is innocent.

The Sinking Boat Story

I did a poll on what I should post about this week. This is the top choice by the people who voted (only 4 voted...Chad's Advisory, I expected more around 11 votes if you include Chad and Lori). More of you should vote next time. No, really, you should.

This school year has been short so far but I have had some pretty memorable adventures.

One is the day I was on a sinking boat.

You see, I was with a student I had never worked with before because another para was on vacation. Yeah. You read that right.

The other para got to take a camping trip and left all the rest of us behind!

I was pretty disappointed too, just like you are. Anyway, back to my story...

I was a slave driver. I mean, man did I work my student HARD. I made them set up projects and work on them and I cracked the whip like I was driving a stubborn mule...and maybe I was.

You never will know.

So back to my story...The student was a wonderful slave. They did everything I expected from them and worked extremely hard. Part of this is because they are a wonderful student and the other part is my awesome set of skilz, yo. You got that right.

I have SKILZ!

This student had asked me multiple times the week before if I would be willing to go in the row boat with them and the other para, who as I mentioned before had left us all behind while they went camping. I decided that since this para abandoned me, why not go in the row boat without them? You see my logic there? Actually, I decided that since the student did some really great work, that was very hard for them and very taxing, we should burn off some energy. I asked the student to take me out in the row boat.

The lake was GORGEOUS!

The day was beautiful and even though I am TERRIFIED of the water...wait! Did I forget to mention that?! I did! I am scared of the water. I really do not know how to swim. I grew up in the desert. Drought, no water and all that. So I have had a couple of what I feel were near death experiences (ok, so actually they were traumatizing experiences but hey let me hold on to this fear, ok?) So going out on a lake in a boat is a HUGE thing for me. 

(Emergent vegetation)

Now, please forgive me for not having pictures of this next part. We are going along and the student tells me that I should row some. Hey, I have a life jacket on, things are going good, why not? We trade spots, very dangerously I might add (at least in my eyes). I start attempting to row. It was TOUGH. I think I need more muscles in my arms, but I digress.

The student, bless their heart, laughed at my attempts, but I need to tell you that I really think I was doing a great job for the first time ever rowing a boat. All of a sudden I notice that there is

WATER

in the bottom of the boat! Yes! Water! I mentioned it and the student turned and said, "Oh no! There is a hole in the boat! I need to tell my dad so he can fix it! This is bad, it is very bad!"

The water is rising, rising, rising.

I am feeling a little, well, to be honest, I am feeling rather panicky. This is not good!

Pretty soon the water was about 3 inches deep. All of a sudden I realize that the student has a PLUG in their hand.

A PLUG! THE FREAKING BOAT HAS A PLUG!!!!!

WHAT THE CRACK!?!

Not only does this boat have a plug, but the student had pulled it and was now laughing at me. I told them to put the plug back in and they bent over to put it back in. Please note that they were tricking me here. I made the student trade paces with me and row us back to shore. How did I do this, you ask? I told you. I have skilz, yo. Mad skilz.

I realized after we traded places that the plug was still in their hand so I took it from them and put it in the drain hole (because that is the only thing that I can think a boat with a hole and plug would need it for). 

Note to self: Do not let the student sit by the plug ever again.

We made it back safely to shore. That is how I am able to tell you the story today.

I survived.

I AM A SURVIVOR!

I learned a lesson that day. Go camping on your days off and you will not drown.

Blogger Practice

Today the students and I have been working on their blogs.

We looked at layout and templates.

We watched the tutorial video that Chad had posted about on his Advisory blog.

Now we are practicing posting. Now how is that for an easy and fun day of school?

Busy Week

Last week was a busy week for me.

I helped in the garden, which is more like a small farm.

I picked beans; yellow beans, green beans, purple beans, large beans, small beans,

beans, beans, and more

Beans!

We filled that laundry basked and 2 LARGE silver bowls.

We snapped them.

We french cut them.

We blanched them.

We put them on cookie sheets to pre-freeze them before we put them in bags.

This process took all day long but was enjoyable.

Instructables.com

One of the students I work with is doing a Harvest project. PowerPoint is a popular way to do projects but I know that Chad and other Advisors have wanted to get away from that. So I told my student about Instructables.com. Today we spent a few hours working on the student's first Instructable. We really enjoyed it. This is what the student came up with. AND we were able to enter it into 2 contests!

Instructables.com has some really cool contests in which you can you can enter your Instructables. Sometimes there are prizes and sometimes you get recognition. It is a very cool website where you can learn how to do projects in a step-by-step process. Check it out! Sign up and start Instructing others on how to do things!

Blogging Assignment

When I am in the NLCS building I work in Chad's Advisory. He has asked that the students in his advisory each make a blog.

What an awesome idea!

I decided that if the students had to do this assignment, I should as well. Besides, it will be fun and this will be an excuse to blog...it's homework for work, right? Right!

So Let's Go!