We went into Chicago this weekend to go to the Michigan/Northwestern game on Saturday. We got in on Friday night just in time to meet Shark and Jane for dinner at Messner's (Mmmm, tater tots with my turkey reuben...) in Wrigleyville. By just in time, I mean that we were able to watch the Cubs on tv clinch the National League Central Division! Even though the game wasn't in Chicago, there were enough people celebrating to warrant a helicopter to hover over the neighborhood after they clinched it.
Saturday we got up early to go to the game in Evanston. What a beautiful day for college football! A blue-fall sky with wispy clouds. Shark, Jane, Chris, Mike, Patty (Patty, you made the blog! Yeah, you wish you did.), Sarah, Scott, and our nephew Alex were all going to the game. We were going to take Patty's boat up there, but the waves were too high. So instead we jumped in our cars and headed north.
Since we got there right before the game started, we didn't have time to tailgate and just walked to the game. Our seats were on the second level, but ended up being great seats. Since there weren't people behind us, we were able to stand up and stretch our legs if we wanted. Plus, we weren't squished like we normally are in Michigan Stadium. It was great to catch up with everyone who we haven't seen in a while. We always have a lot of fun with our good friends from Chicago. Michigan pulled out the win, after another nerve wracking performance.
After the game, we walked to a restaurant/bar near the stadium. We figured that we needed to eat and also wait for traffic to die down. A lunch of spicy buffalo calamari, steak and chipotle quesadillas, and Miller Lite was just what the doctor ordered. The traffic dying down plan didn't work, however. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to make a trip that normally takes 20-30 minutes. Needless to say, when we got back to Patty's boat to regroup, we were crabby. But the beautiful breeze, a red-orange sunset and a view of my favorite skyline cured the crabbiness almost instantly...
That night we went to the Oktoberfest at the German parish of St. Alphonsus. Or we tried to. When we got there, the line was down the block. Shark and Jane were already in the fest, but it was really crowded and we didn't want to wait in line. So we talked to them through the bars of the fence while they finished their drinks. We walked down to a bar near the festival and had some drinks and food. Chris, Stein and I were home by 11:00. It was a long day!
This morning we got up and went to breakfast with Chris and Alex. One of our favorite spots for breakfast is McGee's which is near DePaul (where Alex is a freshman). McGee's has really yummy options for breakfast including a make-your-own bloody mary bar. We didn't participate in the bloody mary option, but we had some great food. Chris had a turkey club with waffle fries, Alex had a breakfast plate with eggs, bacon, ham and sausage with a biscuit and gravy, Stein had eggs benedict with steak, and I had the "Mexican Haystack" which was eggs, hashbrowns, chorizo, green onions, and eggs served with tortilla chips. It was so yummy. So yummy that Stein couldn't stop eating my leftovers!
I kind of forgot about football Sundays in Chicago. It's all about the Bears. I don't know why I forgot about this since I grew up going to the games and watching them on TV, but it struck me today as we were eating breakfast. McGee's has a ton of TVs in the bar (including little TVs at each booth) and each TV had a different NFL game on it. Groups of friends were gathering for brunch to watch football and talk about the night before. After breakfast, we dropped Chris off at a bar to meet Mike. They were going to watch the game together. We decided to go see Patty at her boat before we left town, so we drove over to the harbor. On our way, every bar (and if you know Chicago, there are lots of bars!) was packed with people clad in Bears gear.
When we got to Patty's boat, she and Paul had the game on the TV on the boat and she was frying up perch on the dock. Another gorgeous day today, too bad we had to get on the road. After a piece of yummy perch and a coke, we were on our way.
This evening we were too tired to cook, so we ordered a pizza and watched football on TV. A fitting end to a fun, sports-filled weekend.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Comfort Food
I called Stein on the way home from school today and asked if he needed anything from the store. "Nope, I have everything I need. I'm already making dinner." I came home to a house full of rich beef stew smells. He made me beef stew along with fresh Zingerman's bread "because he knew I needed comfort foods today." And that, ladies and gentlemen, is reason #246 of why I married him.
Comfort food. It definitely comforts the heart and the soul. And it tasted damn good. Here's the recipe if you want some comfort too:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_33091,00.html
Comfort food. It definitely comforts the heart and the soul. And it tasted damn good. Here's the recipe if you want some comfort too:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_33091,00.html
A New Day
I was really upset last night at my bad day yesterday (Stein can attest to this. He had to listen to me boo-hoo all night). I think I was upset mainly because I didn't get the break I was so looking forward to. I try to think of myself as a spontaneous person, but really, I am my mother's daughter. I am a planner.
I went into school this morning with another plan. I was going to have a talk with the class about how we all felt about yesterday. I was going to be more calm about my reactions. I was going to be proactive in stopping situations from escalating. I found that I didn't need all of those things. I was feeling really confident going into lunch. In fact, I had a breakthrough with Mr. Crumpled Paper. (He even said to me at one point when another kid was throwing a tantrum, "Sometimes I feel like that, but I never get like that." I didn't say a word.)
Then we went to recess.
When the sub from my room checked on the kids and everything was okay, I started talking to a fellow student teacher. In a matter of a couple minutes, another teacher came walking over to me saying, "Are those your kids?" Yes, those are my kids, I thought. The ones who were wrestling and pretty much beating each other up. Those are my kids that I wasn't watching. Nice job, student teacher. She called them over and gave them a yelling. They were just yelled at yesterday when they were doing the same thing. Apparently that wasn't effective.
When the kids got back from computers, I used my mad teacher's voice to lecture them. I told them that I hated to use that voice, and I know they hated hearing it. We talked about the "3 B's" of our school - Be Safe, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible, and how we broke all three. I told them that they are fourth graders and they should know better. (I think this last statement was told to me a couple times in my youth, either by nuns or my mom.) Then Mr. Crumpled Paper slammed his desk top down when I asked him to put away his paper and read and said, "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME READ!!!" I said to him calmly, "I thought you don't act like this." I probably shouldn't have said this, but I couldn't help it. He not only got on my last nerve, he rode that nerve to next week.
Looking back on the day, I don't feel nearly as bad as I did yesterday. I felt like again they were trying to get away with a lot because Linda wasn't there. I can't feel that bad about it. This happens all the time.
Tomorrow I have a workshop from 12-3, so I'll need to leave school at 11:00. I can handle it. Linda will be back, and the subjects I'm supposed to teach are scheduled for the afternoon. Yes, I can handle it really well.
I went into school this morning with another plan. I was going to have a talk with the class about how we all felt about yesterday. I was going to be more calm about my reactions. I was going to be proactive in stopping situations from escalating. I found that I didn't need all of those things. I was feeling really confident going into lunch. In fact, I had a breakthrough with Mr. Crumpled Paper. (He even said to me at one point when another kid was throwing a tantrum, "Sometimes I feel like that, but I never get like that." I didn't say a word.)
Then we went to recess.
When the sub from my room checked on the kids and everything was okay, I started talking to a fellow student teacher. In a matter of a couple minutes, another teacher came walking over to me saying, "Are those your kids?" Yes, those are my kids, I thought. The ones who were wrestling and pretty much beating each other up. Those are my kids that I wasn't watching. Nice job, student teacher. She called them over and gave them a yelling. They were just yelled at yesterday when they were doing the same thing. Apparently that wasn't effective.
When the kids got back from computers, I used my mad teacher's voice to lecture them. I told them that I hated to use that voice, and I know they hated hearing it. We talked about the "3 B's" of our school - Be Safe, Be Respectful, and Be Responsible, and how we broke all three. I told them that they are fourth graders and they should know better. (I think this last statement was told to me a couple times in my youth, either by nuns or my mom.) Then Mr. Crumpled Paper slammed his desk top down when I asked him to put away his paper and read and said, "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME READ!!!" I said to him calmly, "I thought you don't act like this." I probably shouldn't have said this, but I couldn't help it. He not only got on my last nerve, he rode that nerve to next week.
Looking back on the day, I don't feel nearly as bad as I did yesterday. I felt like again they were trying to get away with a lot because Linda wasn't there. I can't feel that bad about it. This happens all the time.
Tomorrow I have a workshop from 12-3, so I'll need to leave school at 11:00. I can handle it. Linda will be back, and the subjects I'm supposed to teach are scheduled for the afternoon. Yes, I can handle it really well.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
It Won't Mean a Thing in a Hundred Years
I just wrote this in the comments on Karen's blog. It's a line from a Blues Traveler song that we used to listen to in college. We would say this line to each other when we were having a bad day/week/test/relationship. She's having a tough go of it this week, and I have to say, I'm feeling the same way today. Today was my solo day, and it didn't go so well. People have been trying to tell me that it's the weather, a full moon (coming or going) and that the kids just felt the change of having me in charge. They were feeling something, that's for sure.
The day started out great. I got there early, had everything ready. I greeted each cherub at the door as Linda does every morning. I even remembered to hand out a pencil to each kid, the "treat" they got for all bringing in their math homework yesterday. Then I let the kids who had breakfast eat their breakfast, and we had our morning meeting. It went well, and I was feeling positive about the morning.
As we got up from our morning meeting and started the math lesson, all h*ll broke loose. I must have told a handful of kids to be quiet about 5 times each. One boy, who has some challenges, crumpled up his worksheet in a tight ball and threw it across the room in frustration. Each time I would make any kind of pause, the kids felt the need to fill that time with chatter. The sub who was with me tried to help out with damage control, but the kids were on a roll. I lost all thoughts about what we were supposed to do, eliminated some important parts, and finally gave in to giving them a math game to play. I was calling out the reserves.
After math I did our snack and story, which seemed to settle everyone down. (Except for the crumpled-paper boy who felt the need to rip up the paper towel that held his pretzels because "he only got six." Somehow it was my fault that he only had one pop-tart for breakfast, and that his normal supply of waffles at home were gone.)
I then went right into the writing lesson which also went pretty well. Crumpled-paper/ripped towel boy refused to write and spent most of the rest of the day in his own world. I figured, let him be.
The afternoon went a little better. We had Reading, Science (I showed a movie), Recess and Computers. My kind of afternoon. I was so relieved that the day was over at 3:42 p.m. I could just go back to observing most of the day tomorrow and get my bearings back and see what I did wrong. Linda could give them a talk and it would all be a new day.
Not.
Linda came into the room this afternoon (she had to be back for a staff meeting) and told me that her son had a 103 degree fever and her husband had already took 2 days off this week. If she decided to not come in, she would call me. Sure enough, while I was out to dinner with a friend, she called. "Hey Kelly. I'm not going to be in tomorrow." That's all I needed to hear. Visions of today came rushing back, and I just wanted to crawl into a hole.
Tomorrow? Well, I'll be there. The good news is they'll have art at the beginning of the day, and computers toward the end of the day. I'll let you know how it goes. Can a math game take up the rest of the day?!
The day started out great. I got there early, had everything ready. I greeted each cherub at the door as Linda does every morning. I even remembered to hand out a pencil to each kid, the "treat" they got for all bringing in their math homework yesterday. Then I let the kids who had breakfast eat their breakfast, and we had our morning meeting. It went well, and I was feeling positive about the morning.
As we got up from our morning meeting and started the math lesson, all h*ll broke loose. I must have told a handful of kids to be quiet about 5 times each. One boy, who has some challenges, crumpled up his worksheet in a tight ball and threw it across the room in frustration. Each time I would make any kind of pause, the kids felt the need to fill that time with chatter. The sub who was with me tried to help out with damage control, but the kids were on a roll. I lost all thoughts about what we were supposed to do, eliminated some important parts, and finally gave in to giving them a math game to play. I was calling out the reserves.
After math I did our snack and story, which seemed to settle everyone down. (Except for the crumpled-paper boy who felt the need to rip up the paper towel that held his pretzels because "he only got six." Somehow it was my fault that he only had one pop-tart for breakfast, and that his normal supply of waffles at home were gone.)
I then went right into the writing lesson which also went pretty well. Crumpled-paper/ripped towel boy refused to write and spent most of the rest of the day in his own world. I figured, let him be.
The afternoon went a little better. We had Reading, Science (I showed a movie), Recess and Computers. My kind of afternoon. I was so relieved that the day was over at 3:42 p.m. I could just go back to observing most of the day tomorrow and get my bearings back and see what I did wrong. Linda could give them a talk and it would all be a new day.
Not.
Linda came into the room this afternoon (she had to be back for a staff meeting) and told me that her son had a 103 degree fever and her husband had already took 2 days off this week. If she decided to not come in, she would call me. Sure enough, while I was out to dinner with a friend, she called. "Hey Kelly. I'm not going to be in tomorrow." That's all I needed to hear. Visions of today came rushing back, and I just wanted to crawl into a hole.
Tomorrow? Well, I'll be there. The good news is they'll have art at the beginning of the day, and computers toward the end of the day. I'll let you know how it goes. Can a math game take up the rest of the day?!
Monday, September 24, 2007
One Down, Two to Go
I had my first observation today and it went really well. the kids all acted appropriately for the most part. I'm just glad that my university supervisor had already left before one of the kids said that he was going to "write about the time I hit ___ in the privates." I told him that wasn't appropriate and he would need to think of another story. "Can I write about playing soccer with him, then?" I told him that was perfect.
I thought the lesson went well and the kids understood what they had to do. It was a pretty simple concept that I had to get across to them, so it wasn't very complicated to write the lesson. There was only one part that I sensed their boredom, but honestly I was getting a little bored too. Live and learn. Now I just need to make a switch when I can see I'm losing them.
I met with my supervisor later in the day, and, not to boast about myself, she had nothing but great things to say. I was really pumped up and enthused about my teaching.
Now we have curriculum night with the parents tomorrow night, and teaching by myself on Wednesday. I hope the positive streak continues. At least until Wednesday night!
I thought the lesson went well and the kids understood what they had to do. It was a pretty simple concept that I had to get across to them, so it wasn't very complicated to write the lesson. There was only one part that I sensed their boredom, but honestly I was getting a little bored too. Live and learn. Now I just need to make a switch when I can see I'm losing them.
I met with my supervisor later in the day, and, not to boast about myself, she had nothing but great things to say. I was really pumped up and enthused about my teaching.
Now we have curriculum night with the parents tomorrow night, and teaching by myself on Wednesday. I hope the positive streak continues. At least until Wednesday night!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Catching Up
Forgive the lack of posts, but I have been pretty busy with school this week. Things there are still going well, but I am getting more and more added to my plate. Friday night I came home and was exhausted! I was in bed and asleep by 9:15!
This week is going to be filled with all kinds of activities. Tomorrow my university supervisor comes to observe me for the first time. I'm not really nervous about that, since the lesson is pretty straightforward and I like the subject (writing). I just hope the kids behave themselves! Tuesday night is curriculum night, so it will be interesting to meet all the kids' parents. And then Wednesday Linda will be gone all day, so a sub will be in the classroom (I'll be able to sub for her starting the beginning of October). But Linda said that the sub will be a "warm body" and I'll just teach the whole day. The whole day? By myself? The. Whole. Day. By. Myself. Gulp.
This weekend Chris and Mike came in for the Michigan/Penn State game. Julie, Chris and the boys also came down, so it was nice to hang out with everyone. We went to Matt and Anne's to tailgate, and there was quite a smorgasbord of food there. We brought marinated shrimp, and then there were quesadillas, meatballs, pork sandwiches, caramel corn puffs, and chips and dip. Yum! Julie and Chris went home before the game. The game was good (U-M won)- but a little too nerve wracking for Stein's taste. I agree - it was very tense! And it was like a carnival around us. Penn State fans getting reprimanded for being obnoxious and U-M fans falling down the stairs from intoxication (two different people). These kinds of things never happen in our section.
Chris, Mike, Stein and I went to Conor O'Neil's later after the game and had dinner. Then we went to the Arena to meet our friend Shane. He was in from California (He went to U-M business school, and now works for Kraft. He was in for a recruiting weekend). It was good to see him and to be at the Arena. This used to be our stomping grounds, but we haven't been there in about a year. It's also been a while since we've seen Chris and Mike and it was good just to hang out and catch up.
We got to catch up more this morning when we went to Cafe Zola for breakfast and then went to the Cider Mill so they could get some goodies to bring home. We will see them again next weekend when we go into Chicago for the Michigan/Northwestern game on Saturday.
This week is going to be filled with all kinds of activities. Tomorrow my university supervisor comes to observe me for the first time. I'm not really nervous about that, since the lesson is pretty straightforward and I like the subject (writing). I just hope the kids behave themselves! Tuesday night is curriculum night, so it will be interesting to meet all the kids' parents. And then Wednesday Linda will be gone all day, so a sub will be in the classroom (I'll be able to sub for her starting the beginning of October). But Linda said that the sub will be a "warm body" and I'll just teach the whole day. The whole day? By myself? The. Whole. Day. By. Myself. Gulp.
This weekend Chris and Mike came in for the Michigan/Penn State game. Julie, Chris and the boys also came down, so it was nice to hang out with everyone. We went to Matt and Anne's to tailgate, and there was quite a smorgasbord of food there. We brought marinated shrimp, and then there were quesadillas, meatballs, pork sandwiches, caramel corn puffs, and chips and dip. Yum! Julie and Chris went home before the game. The game was good (U-M won)- but a little too nerve wracking for Stein's taste. I agree - it was very tense! And it was like a carnival around us. Penn State fans getting reprimanded for being obnoxious and U-M fans falling down the stairs from intoxication (two different people). These kinds of things never happen in our section.
Chris, Mike, Stein and I went to Conor O'Neil's later after the game and had dinner. Then we went to the Arena to meet our friend Shane. He was in from California (He went to U-M business school, and now works for Kraft. He was in for a recruiting weekend). It was good to see him and to be at the Arena. This used to be our stomping grounds, but we haven't been there in about a year. It's also been a while since we've seen Chris and Mike and it was good just to hang out and catch up.
We got to catch up more this morning when we went to Cafe Zola for breakfast and then went to the Cider Mill so they could get some goodies to bring home. We will see them again next weekend when we go into Chicago for the Michigan/Northwestern game on Saturday.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Making Contact
Today was an exciting day at school. We actually communicated with the International Space Station (ISS) as it flew over Michigan! A local Ham Radio operator put our school in some sort of a contest and we won! Actually, our school is a NASA Explorer School. This means that in 2004 we were chosen by NASA to be an Explorer School. We received a large grant from them to purchase equipment like weather monitoring and GPS equipment. Even though we're no longer receiving money from them, I'm wondering if our "status" got us an extra vote. Regardless, it was pretty cool.
A student from each classroom was picked to read a question to the astronauts aboard the space station. The tech people had all of our classrooms hooked up to receive a live feed from the room where they asked the questions. So we watched from our classroom as they made contact and then talked to the astronaut.
At first I was a little nervous, because the Ham Radio operator wasn't getting connected. He kept saying, "NA ISS, this is Tango 3 ..." and some other radio jargon I couldn't understand. He must have said it about 10 times before the astronaut called back. It was really exciting when he did! There was only time for about 3 questions to be answered before we lost contact again. It's not surprising - the ISS moves fast - it only took them 11 minutes to get from Alaska to Michigan!
It was a great experience for the student in our room who asked a question (he got a t-shirt too!) and also for the rest of the kids in the class. I mean, how often do you get to talk to a real live astronaut - who's talking back to you from space?!
A student from each classroom was picked to read a question to the astronauts aboard the space station. The tech people had all of our classrooms hooked up to receive a live feed from the room where they asked the questions. So we watched from our classroom as they made contact and then talked to the astronaut.
At first I was a little nervous, because the Ham Radio operator wasn't getting connected. He kept saying, "NA ISS, this is Tango 3 ..." and some other radio jargon I couldn't understand. He must have said it about 10 times before the astronaut called back. It was really exciting when he did! There was only time for about 3 questions to be answered before we lost contact again. It's not surprising - the ISS moves fast - it only took them 11 minutes to get from Alaska to Michigan!
It was a great experience for the student in our room who asked a question (he got a t-shirt too!) and also for the rest of the kids in the class. I mean, how often do you get to talk to a real live astronaut - who's talking back to you from space?!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)