on my bike ride

I passed a guy wearing a feather in a three-cornered hat walking a dog.
I smelt delicious honeysuckle.
I encounted Jessica on a run.

I saw Graceland one last time.

I passed a short plump man twice, as I was going in a confused circle.

I ordered a stray pup go home.
I yelled hello to a future student.
I never downshifted to first gear.
I breathed in beautiful fresh spring air through the seive of Claritin.

top priority of my new neighborhood is that I can bike ride in it.

Winston Churchill said

on words:
Eating words has never given me indigestion.

I'm just preparing my impromptu remarks.

In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet.

By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.


with poinancy to wwii:
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.

golly he said a lot of famous things-
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.


wise:
The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

Without tradition, art is a flock of sheep without a shepherd. Without innovation, it is a corpse.


and witty:
He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.

I always avoid prophesying beforehand, because it is a much better policy to prophesy after the event has already taken place.

I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.

If I was your wife Sir, I'd poison you!
-Madam, if you were my wife, I'd let you!

Mr. Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.

The length of this document defends it well against the risk of its being read.

I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
???


I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.

We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm.

I should have liked to have known him.

on teaching

Despite the fact that it is Sunday night, with the week of spring break looming up before me, I am thinking about teaching. But this is good, because I am thinking about how much I love it. And I am so excited about having this break from the regular day in the classroom, because time away is revitalizing me, and reminding me of how much I love what I do.

Last week was a good week. Two main reasons:

One, I gave a math test. I planned to give it on Tuesday, but I moved it back to Wednesday, and I decided I always should have 2 days for review because they did SO well! The test was on percent of change--discount, sales tax, interest...hard stuff! And I gave 11 A+ grades (total: 26). It was so thrilling, but mostly because of two grades. One student struggles in math and usually does poorly and has pretty low confidence in math. Her mother worked with her, and she studied a lot, and we reviewed together in the morning before school started. She got a 98!! I was so excited for her. That means she only got 1/2 off a question for a computation error. She got ALL the concepts. And another student who has great struggles in math and who sees a tutor several times a week took the test after reviewing for 3 days, and she got a ONE-HUNDRED. I wish you all could have seen her face when I told her that. Her jaw dropped to the ground and I think I had to pick it up. But I was smiling so big I didn't mind. And when I got to tell Noel her tutor, it was so wonderful being thrilled about it together.

I think this was my first real big feeling of excitement about teaching math and helping sixth graders. And the irony is that when I was in sixth and seventh grade I did NOT understand percent of change and I disTinctly remember hating it and failing that test and feeling like I was just a bad math student. And I really don't feel I taught it that well because it's just plain hard to understand. You have to have clear reading comprehension to see what the problem is saying and asking and then you have to do careful computation, usually involving decimals.

Two, we published a newspaper in the eighth grade. This was a wonderful feeling. First of all, I'd like to thank Ken, for coming to talk to our eighth graders about writing articles. I'd also like to thank Ruth and Radu for being generous hosts so that we could have such a good trip. I'd also like to thank Robyn for asking Ken to come in. And thanks to Phil who stayed an extra hour at work turning pages upside down and inside out so that it would print properly. You'll all be receiving your complementary copy shortly.

Actually, I should really thank Evay(husband of Obergina), because Obergina (3rd grade teacher) told me he was berating her, "Did you see the paper? You didn't get one? We've got to get one." like it was the daily news and they better not leave for spring break without it. He doesn't even know most of the eighth graders. A few minutes later he enthusiastically came down with his 75cents to get a copy. That felt awesome.

Seriously though, I want to tell how the germ of an idea got off the ground (for posterity's sake). This year I feel like I planned and was prepared for the Washington trip so much better than last year. I knew that I wanted to have the kids research before hand and that we should spend time after the trip digesting it. (Added to this desire, I also was actually on schedule in the curriculum, so we had time for this.) I came up with the idea of having the class put out a newspaper because it is always good when kids can get their writing in print, plus having them learn to write an article seemed a good thing. So, after DC we spent the two remaining days of the week talking about our paper: Ken gave a talk about how to write an article, we talked about what papers have, and what ours could have, and what articles should be included.
(And this was a Very lively entertaining discussion. Our paper nearly got called: In*own Out of Town and Monumental News. And we brainstormed a "Sports" section including the lively game of Four of a Couch at the Zuba's, keeping balance on the metro, frisbee on the Mall...)

I assigned them each an article and first they brainstormed what they remembered from the trip, and had each other help them remember things. Then they wrote and revised and edited (and quoted each other extensively). I used microsoft publisher to compile our paper: Capital News. That took about Forever. I don't think it would have gotten done before SB (spring break) if it wasn't for the 6th grade trip which gave me three days with extra planning time. Anyway, we included pictures, and we printed it out in color on the church copier (which is why we have to charge for it). and it is Bea-U-t-i-ful. They persuaded me to write the lead article. But their stuff is funnier. I can get you a copy if you want.

Most posts to follow. All this time to think gives me a lot to say to my blog. and I'm reading and learning such interesting stuff that I want to share.

of mice and men

I'm going to read that this spring break.

of mice...new guests in our house. It is a week full of guests actually. This weekend I hosted an international student. She was from France, studying abroad at USC and in town for the weekend sightseeing with the Culvers. (The Culvers' ministry is to foreign exchange students and they know the Hawkins. Trivia for you. Might be on a quiz coming up.)

Speaking of things on a quiz, in a recent post I wrote: "I found some wafer snacks like we'd eat in Slovakia."
The question: Where?
Well where are they now, that is the question. And I will tell you. A mouse (or mice) ate 2 of them. 2. and took some of the yellow cardboard with her too. and left the rest in chewed up bits on the ground as evidence.

So now there is a dab of peanut butter waiting at the end of a perilous trap, and I feel sorry for it. They are such cute things, and I can buy more Prince Polos. But mice also leave yucky droppings, and so even though my house guest is gone, I don't think I need the company of a mouse tonight. Besides which, two crickets were in my bedroom, until I took out the vacuum cleaner. They come every summer, dear friends they are. But I gave them a good talking to and told them if they show their ugly heads again, they will all meet the same fate...inside the vacuum monster.

On a more positive note, I will have a much better house guest tomorrow: my mother is coming to stay. And especially for her, I will try to rid my house of unwanted guests before she arrives.

of men...
well, that's the end of my tale.