Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

Most of the outdoor stuff got done yesterday. At least, the more pressing things. The deck furniture is next, but the outside water is turned off, hoses packed away, and the garden boxes cleared out. G picked a few pears, too-- I don't think I'll be making gallons of pear sauce, but maybe a little pie or something will happen. We've given a lot of pears away-- which is a great thing-- because people need/want them, and I just do not have the time to focus on a big pear project.  Today, though, will be a relatively slow day. Amen. I have not had one of those for some time. Holly is here today all day, but we are both still in our pjs -- exactly what I want. She needs a quieter day, too-- her pre-birthday celebrations have both wound her up and wore her down a bit. We will bake muffins today for her school "party" and maybe go for a ride. Maybe. I'm not pushing string one bit today.  I do need to sweep/vac/wash floors-- they are grimy from all the traipsing in a...

UP, and it's just starting to get light out. It's chilly; 29 degrees. October in full swing, eh? We had a fun celebration (early) for Holly's birthday yesterday; the food was good (as always), and Meg made some nice cupcakes. We'll keep the party going for the next few days-- her actual birthday is on Tuesday. O, what fun to be four! Today, after church, I am hopeful we can get the outdoor stuff done. It might not be all of it, but some must be accomplished. We have to put away hoses and so on, and probably the deck furniture. We may have a couple of warmish afternoons, but it's time. It's always a hard decision: put things away while it's still sort of warm, but also-- isn't it nicer to do that work when it's still warm?  I should pull up all the dead tomato vines, pea vines, green bean plants. I will put away the folding pea fence (that thing worked well!), and so on. Time to put garden stuff away. I'll store the little bits, things like the ga...

I think I may have figured out at least part of the AP website conundrum. We'll see. The youtuber I found was somewhat helpful, but clearly, the website has been changed a little since the video was created. So, we'll see. I set up a 55 question practice "quiz" for the kids to do next week.  One thing that is troubling me a lot is the way some teachers are using AP Classroom material as graded assignments. Not in my school, but the people yammering in the social media groups. We were expressly told, over and over and over again, that the AP material was never to be used for a test grade; the most we could do is use it for a "completed" assessment. Yet these yahoos are using the multiple choice questions, etc. for grades-- and are complaining that the kids are not doing that well, so O Woe, what to do about the grades in their high-stakes classes? Seriously. Do your damned job. If you are a teacher, please create material that reflects what you are teaching. ...

Huzzah! We finished Macbeth, and we started the conversation about what the play suggests about leadership: what is a good leader, and what happens when obsession+ambition+greed+unfettered opportunity+ violence happens. They liked the play!  In other schoolish stuff, the freakin' AP Classroom platform is giving me a real pain in the butt. No lie. It has a lot of options and stuff you can do, but since I have received zero training in the platform, it's all a muddle. We have a PD day tomorrow, so I think I might invest some time in figuring that damned thing out. I've been to the summer training, I sat through three boring hours of a webinar, and both times, no one has run us through the website and all its wonders.  And I'm wondering why.  There's probably a youtuber out there somewhere. Dare I say, maybe there's a cheat sheet online. There's little hope in finding anything twice on the dang website; it's pretty jam-packed, but not as user-friendly. At ...

Theatre abounds! My students should finish Macbeth today, easily. We have just Act V to do! And they've been busy creating coats of arms for themselves to hang across the white board-- that is a fun little side project, and they are looking good. I hope they have had a good time; they seem to have been enjoying it! G and I went to Weathervane to see The Producers -- the live performance is more bawdy and raucous than the movie, but it was really good and really funny. It felt good to laugh. I got to bed late, though, so I'm a little foggy this morning. And on the sports note: the Bruins won their opener and the Yankees are now playing golf.  All good things.  I hope you have a wonderful day. Hold on to those you love. C

My Brit Lit kids read, in parts, aloud, the first two acts of Macbeth in under 80 minutes. Not that we are trying to set any sort of speed records, but let's be honest-- this crew has a very spotty foundation for all things English-y due to their having such a (poor? incompetent?) teacher last year. We are having fun! We are reading it at about the rate it should take to put on the play itself! And that's always my goal. I stop occasionally to "decode" what's what, but they are getting it pretty well, even without my glosses. Yes, we've been diving into Shakespeare in preparation for this: sonnets, the "insult day," we saw The Tempest live and watched Henry V (Branagh version)-- but this is their first real foray into reading it aloud, themselves, relatively unaided. I'm super pleased.  If anyone ever tells you that a/ it's too hard, or b/ it's not relevant, send 'em my way. The play is a commentary on the fact that the insidious po...

Today, we finally get to start Macbeth . What with field trips and homecoming, it got moved a full week-- but today, we should get right into it. There's a lot to be learned about temptation, misplaced loyalty, and madness in the play. I wonder if it will occur to them that there are connections to be made, that Shakespeare is timeless. Just wait'll next week when we get into Julius Caesar ... At any rate, we'll have fun.  Sorry for a short note again; the day gets rolling at 5:30, and it's a rocket on rails.  C

I'm not going to lie, I'm going to be next to useless until coffee hits (and likely after), but it was the pick-me-up I needed to watch the first half, then listen to the second half, of a really good football game last night.  Yes, I finally went to sleep around 11:30 (two hours after my bedtime!), but it was worth it. I hope you have a super day, and please, hug your loved ones. Keep us all safe. And enjoy the little "victories" when they come. C PS: the Blue Jays are walloping the Yankees, too...

Today's first reading in church is incredibly apt: The prophecy that Habakkuk the prophet received. Habakkuk’s Complaint 2  How long,  Lord , must I call for help,      but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!”      but you do not save? 3  Why do you make me look at injustice?      Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me;      there is strife, and conflict abounds. 4  Therefore the law is paralyzed,      and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous,      so that justice is perverted. The Lord replies, essentially saying, hang in there, that "the vision still has time," and if it's late, "wait for it, it will surely come."  Words to hope by. C

Today is the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.  This is his prayer for peace: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. I hope you all have a peaceful day. And please, hug your loved ones--pets included!  C

So, here's a poem from Robert Frost. Today, after my regular work day, I get to go to the Frost Place, peak foliage, and teach some poems and prompts to a group of visiting middle schoolers. I am excited about the opportunity; not only do I get to spend a couple of hours in the most breathtaking places in my neck of the woods, but I get to forget (for a time) all the high drama and dudgeon of the news cycle.  In keeping with that mood, here's one of my favorite Frost poems. I hope you like it, too. Stay safe, hug your favorite people, and keep your eyes open. C October By  Robert Frost O hushed October morning mild, Thy leaves have ripened to the fall; Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild, Should waste them all. The crows above the forest call; Tomorrow they may form and go. O hushed October morning mild, Begin the hours of this day slow. Make the day seem to us less brief. Hearts not averse to being beguiled, Beguile us in the way you know. Release one leaf at break of day; At noon...

Well, I got an unexpected/unlooked-for afternoon and evening free. We didn't go to the movie. Holly was melting down because her mom was going somewhere, and who needs the drama? With Meg's schedule, Holly doesn't get to see her as much as she'd like, so-- I kicked the can all the way down the road. I pre-ordered the DVD (release date is Nov. 11), and I'll watch it in the comfort of my own home, without trying to plan anything.  Plans don't seem to go the way I'd like most of the time, so maybe I should try to figure out how to do things spontaneously instead of being stressed/disappointed.  That all said, it's Thursday. School will be fraught with homecoming mayhem (thank goodness I don't have to be there for the pep rally-- it gets awfully chaotic). I'll teach exactly one class all day. The rest of the time will be float-building. I think I'll go to the bank (not my primary one) and close out that tiny account. It's all that's left ...

I finally (almost) got my plan book figured out, both for the near future and for the semester. It's late coming, lemme tell ya. I do mine in pencil, and I've been wearing out erasers like nobody's business. Too many changes each week-- none of them of my doing-- and it's getting kind of tricky to get all the stuff in that I need to. Sigh. But I think I have it nailed down, so that's one thing off my brain.  Honestly, I've been so tired and feeling way behind for weeks. I don't know if it's extra work at work, more duties at home, or I'm just getting older and tired of the go-go-go. Probably some of all three, and who knows what else. What I truly want is a day to sleep. But when I do get a little flexible time, I fill it with more stuff that has to be done. And I'm not creating those things-- they literally are there. But this week, I will not have to pick tomatoes. Or much else. The garden clean up will happen over the "long weekend" ...