Drizzles of Sunshine: Changes

1. Big news on the career front. I'm officially moving back to first grade! I couldn't be happier and I'm so excited for this move. For those of you who are new here, I have been a teacher for 8 years and have been bounced from first to high school to middle school, all thanks to the poor funding of our public school system. Happy to report that that is on the up and up and now I have the opportunity of going back to my one true love... First Grade. Now I must dig through my garage and find my flash cards and glitter.

2. Last week, I morphed into a pre-pubescent tweenager. I read Divergent. I have totally jumped on the Divergent train and have set up camp. I'm hooked. It's no surprise that I like my reading material to be easy, mindless, and not at all thought provoking. Why? Because I find reading as an escape, not as a way for me to build brain points. (I think I might've lost some friends by admitting this.) With that said, Divergent got the job done for me. It entertained me for 3 days. My personal best. I couldn't put it down. I have no idea WHY my mind was so wrapped up in this but I fully enjoyed my brain vacation.

Now I really want to watch the movie because I'm interested in how they adapted it for the big screen and because the actors are GORGEOUS. Holy musculos! Four, Eric, and even Tris. Googly-eyes worthy for sure.

3. Joaquin is now fully walking on his own. I am both excited and terrified. I refuse to use one of those dog kid leashes on him because I think that is just plain WRONG but I feel like there is going to come a time where I am going to wish I could like the dog kid leashes like when we are in a crowded amusement park and he is jetting away from mommy and daddy. It's very hard to hold hands with a toddler that doesn't want to hold your hand. Sounds easy but it is damn near impossible sometimes.

4. I just got news that we are going camping in Yosemite this summer. I am trying my hardest to suppress my anxiety. I just imagine me struggling to get Joaquin to sleep in a tent, families of bears eating our food while I freak out with Joaquin in my arms, oh and sharing a bathroom with hundreds of campers. There goes my inner tweenager again. Man, I'm such a wuss. Tips on camping with a baby much needed. Tips on camping in general much needed.

5. I am officially a college student again. I'm taking 2 online courses where I have to listen to 14 podcasts about Children's Literature. I'm ok with it except for the fact that the professor's voice and semi-British mono-tone voice makes me want to kill myself. I'm on podcast 2. Pray for me.

Teaching and Eating

My two passions.

The fuel to my soul.

Teaching and eating.

 I wouldn't be who I am without these two things in my day. If you're new here, I am a middle school teacher. I also like to eat for pleasure as opposed to just for necessity. My ultimate dream job would be a food teacher but with elective classes on the chopping block (for shame!) I don't feel like that dream could be a reality right now. It'll have to wait.

So in the meantime, I find every opportunity to work food into my lessons. Language Arts Enrichment is the perfect place for that. We read awesome books and I find any mention of food and roll with it.

This month it is Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli.

I'll spare you the synopsis and steer you to where it mentions food. In the story, a popular food that the characters love is Zeps. In short, it's basically a sub sandwich. I rolled with it and transformed my classroom into a sandwich shop. I asked them all to bring in a sandwich ingredient and we built ourselves some stupendous subs.

My favorite part was naming our creations. I encouraged them to combine character names and important places with food names and they came up with creative labels.

Combo #1- Hamanda: ham, cheddar, lettuce and pickles.
Named after Amanda, one of the main characters.

Combo #2- Gobbles knot: turkey, Monterey jack, lettuce, pickles
Named after Cobbles knot, the town's impossible to untie knot.

Combo #3- Zepperoni: Pepperoni, mozzarella, Jalepenos
Named after Zeps, the name of the sub sandwich in the story.

Combo #4- The Maniac :All and everything listed above
Named after the main character, Maniac Magee.

So much fun!! The students enjoyed the lesson and I'm hoping they will always remember this fun activity and of course their amazing teacher. *wink*