Death by Testing

Everyone hates taking tests. I don't know a singer person who wakes up in the morning and says, "YAY! It's TEST DAY!" or anyone who thinks, "Hmmm I'm bored, why don't I go take a test?" It just isn't done.

Yes, testing is a necessary evil, I know. As a teacher I test for many reasons. I may test as a placement tool to see where to begin instruction. I may test for achievement reasons to see how much growth a student has made. Or I may give a diagnostic test to see what is going on and what I need to do or change to better help a child. Lots of testing going on in schools.

But how much is too much? This week alone, my 6th graders had a test EVERY DAY! All this testing wasn't because they have a mean 'ol teacher either. Because this mean 'ol teacher didn't want to give about 1/2 of them and won't even see the results of many of them. Let me list the tests:
Monday - Selection Reading test (graded, on the story and skills we finished and reviewed for on Friday- instructed to be given and scores are recorded and sent to the principal on a weekly basis)
Tuesday - District Writing test (If I'm lucky I may get these scores back in a few weeks but rarely get to actually see what the kids wrote)
Wednesday- End of the unit Math test
Thursday-Vocabulary and Spelling Test (done on Thursdays now due to the Friday Weekly tests that are required every week)
Friday- Reading Weekly Test, Math Weekly Test (These are tests provided by the school, that cover random "grade level" skills that may or may not have been covered in class and we may never see the results of these tests or at best we will see an average of the grades in a month or so at our grade level meetings)

I really can't blame my kids for shutting down. As an adult, I would have a hard time with a test every day...now imagine you are a child with a learning or emotional disability, and most of the testing material is over your head to begin with because you are below grade level due to your disability. When is enough really enough?

I don't remember being tested to death as a child and I turned out OK. Am I preparing my students to be lifelong learners and successful members of society, or am I preparing them to be good test-takers? I often wonder...

Sidiki Conde

Today my school had a very special treat... SIDIKI CONDE! Who is Sidiki Conde you may ask (I know I did). Sidiki is a dancer, singer, and musician from Africa. However, unlike most dancers (and singers and musicians too), Sidiki contracted Polio and lost the use of his legs at the age of 14.


Polio, or any contagious disease, was considered to be bad luck so Sidiki had to go live with his grandfather in a remote village in Western Africa. Upset by the fact that he wasn't going to be able to participate in the Coming of Age Ceremonies if he couldn't dance, he taught himself to dance ON HIS HANDS! Since then, he has formed a group called Tokounou All Abilities Group that travels around the world singing, dancing, and playing music for children and adults encouraging them to overcome any adversity life throws at you.


His performance was nothing short of AMAZING! I have never in my life seen someone so truly happy with how they are despite what could have been a debilitating disability. He spoke to the students about loving yourself the way you are and not giving up on your dreams just because people think you can't accomplish them.


The translations of two of his songs particularly hit me and I'd like to share them with you.


“Dounougna”

In this world we are many different people We are fine
Some people have no eyes, we are fine
Some people have no ears, we are fine
Some people have no voice, we are fine
Some people have no legs, we are fine
Some people have nothing
Some people have everything
We are fine.



“N’na”(Mother)

I know you carried me twice:
Once when I was a baby
and again when I could not walk
Thank you Mother
Mother do not cry and do not worry
I am going to make you happy
I am not handicapped
Handicapped is in the mind I can sing and I can dance

Zombie Attack!

My hubby and his buddies all have bug-out gear in case all hell breaks loose and we suddenly need to trek across the state (or country) with only what we can carry on our backs. It's the military in them I suppose :) One of the things they constantly make sure they are prepared for is a zombie attack. The theory is, if you are prepared for a zombie attack, you are prepared for anything this world can throw at you! This comes, in part, from the book World War Z by Max Brooks, which I am told chronicles a zombie apocalypse (I haven't actually read it, but Hubby has).

I saw this quiz on another blog and had to laugh, immediately bringing thoughts of my Hubby and his best friend sitting on the floor of my living room (and the BF's living room too)surrounded with all sorts of survival equipment packing and re-packing their bug-out bags until they are just right. I answered these questions according to me as I know I am. The me that would react if hubby or his friends weren't here, but still knowing what I know based off of either my own experience growing up as a "redneck" child, as well as from my husband's instruction. Some of the questions I know (or at least think I know) what the "correct" answer was, but I also know me, so I put what I would probably naturally do. 56% chance of survival isn't too bad I suppose. I figured it would be higher with "Hubby and Company" around to check and secure the perimeter for me so I then went back and I answered the questions the way I think Hubby would answer them, suddenly I had an 84% chance of survival! haha Yup, he's living longer than me in a Zombie Attack!

Find out how well YOU would survive a Zombie Apocalypse at

http://www.oneplusyou.com/bb/zombie

Tuesday Teaser

Well, I got sucked in. This must be what a drug addic or an alcholic feels like. Where is my air? Why can't I function straight? What is this!!!???

I finally finished Brisingr and one of my students talked me into begining the Twilight series by Stephanie Mayer. Day one- I start the first book, Twilight. I get one chapter in before heading to work. I'm hooked. It's like the first free sample that they know is going to get ya to come back. I stuck the book in my school bag and went off to work. 8:00 rolls around, sixth graders are coming in, and here comes Lisa.

her: "Did you read it, yet?"

me: "I just started this morning, I got through the first chapter, she's just finished her first day of school."

her: "Did you get to the van yet?"

me: "What van?"

her: "Guess not."

me: "So if Edward is a vampire, which he is because it says so on the back cover, how is he out in the daytime?"

her: >smirk< "Mrs. A., I'm not telling you, you have to read it yourself!"

So I did. On my lunch break, on my planning, after school when the kids left but before teachers are allowed to go. Luckily I'm all caught up with my paperwork by some miraculous miracle. By the morning of day 2, I'm 1/2 way through the book. I would have gotten more done but I had things to do that night that couldn't be changed or avoided so not much reading. But, again, I can't seem to get enough of it! So I read every spare second I had on Day 2. By the time I went to bed, I was done not only with book 1, but also with book 2, New Moon, as well! I didn't like book 2 as much as book 1 but I read it quickly because I was anxiously waiting for the one event to happen that I knew HAD to happen for me to like the book again...and of course it did happen. In fact, Stephanie Meyer suggests on her website that readers should read New Moon twice, because apparently many people do the same thing I did and rush through so much of the first part of the book trying to find out when "it" happens. She suggests reading it twice because the second time, you know how it is resolved and can take in more of that beginning.

But now, I don't have books 3 and 4! ACK What do I do??? I HAVE to know what happens next! I need my "fix!" I'm wondering if I can make it to Wal-mart to get them without being late to work...

Here are my teasers for both books one and two:

From page 376 of Twilight:

"Their sharp eyes carefully took in the more polished, urbane stance of Carlisle, who, flanked by Emmett and Jasper, stepped guardedly forward to meet them. Without any seeming communication between them, they each straightened into a more casual, erect bearing."

and from page 295 of New Moon, more than 2 sentences but they are short sentences and are needed for comprehension:

"There was no cult. There had never been a cult, never been a gang. No, it was much worse than that. It was a pack."

Menu Plan Monday

I (almost) stuck to a menu plan last week, but that is only because most of my week was non-committal with "leftovers or something" while I was on my own. Since hubby is often either deployed or gone for some training or some such, I really need some single-gal recipes. I hate making a full thing of anything knowing I won't eat it all. I'm very picky about leftovers. If they taste like leftovers I tend to not eat them and I don't want to be wasteful so when it is just me, I tend to go with cereal, sandwiches, I had just a bag of popcorn one night. Please, please, please, if anyone has any great single portion meals/recipes... share them?

I did manage to make the cheesy chicken and rice casserole..but I altered it a bit to use what we had here. I had a package of knorr Broccoli Cheese Rice so I used that instead of regular rice, and instead of regular mixed veggies (ya know the kind with peas, corn, carrots...) I had a thing of vegetable gumbo which included corn, okra, celery and red peppers. Of course, there was also the broccoli from the rice as well. It turned out REALLY well. Hubby and I loved it! Super easy too.

I didn't make the dip for my spa party because I didn't have very many people who had committed to coming. I had a fruit tray, some trail mix, and a bowl of left over Halloween candy out for everyone which seemed to be plenty.

I went home this weekend and while I was there picked a large bag of oranges from my family's grove. I love to peal and eat an orange but I'm going to have to do a bit of research and see what yummy things I can find to make with them! If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them. Until then, they make a greak snack just the way they are now (well, peeled of course)

I'm again not so sure about this week. I don't want to go grocery shopping again and I'm not so good at creating my own things with what I have yet so I'm going to have to do some digging and thinking.

Monday - Out to dinner

That's all I know so far. The rest of the week will be CORN (Clean Out the Refrigerator Night) as I try to empty the pantry and fridge a bit. This is going to be interesting because as I have gotten better at following a recpe, but using what I have and "creating" something with the stuff already there isn't my strong point. We'll see what happens! While I'm asking suggestions for single serving meals and oranges I guess I may as well ask for this too... Any tips on doing with what you already have or does it just come with time?

I'm heading over to Orgjunkie to see what theyare planning, maybe I'll get inspired!

Thanksgiving Comes First!

A few days ago, I posted a blog complaining about the Christmas decorations going up before Thanksgiving. This post is going to be very similar to that one.

I was directed to another blog about this very same issue and decided that he was on to something! Many of his reasons for being outraged about this insulting epidemic of Christmas-before-Thanksgiving-itis echo mine.

Here is a list of why it bothers me so much to walk into a store, or even down the street and see Christmas decorations put up so early.

1. Too much of a good thing is just too much! I love Christmas. Unequivocally it is my favorite holiday. However, if the Christmas music starts mid October, by late December I'm SICK of it and just ready for the holidays to be over rather than reveling in the joy of the season. I will admit, while in CVS prior to Halloween, I did buy some Christmas socks - I run in special toe socks due to a funky pinky toe that likes to "hide" and gets blistered easily. Well, I happened to see Christmas toe socks with bells on them and knowing that I am signed up fo a "Jingle Bell Run" where everyone puts bells on their shoes, I couldn't resist them...but I didn't go in there looking for them, and they are tucked in my drawer NOT to be taked out until December!!


2. Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Sorry to all those who love Christmas yet aren't Christian, but, without Christ, there would be no Christmas...we shouldn't forget that! With the stores putting all the materialistic and commercialism aspects of the Christmas season out so early, people are less likely to focus on the real meaning of Christmas and rush right into the "my-tree-is-bigger-than-your-tree" syndrome. Oh and lets not forget that one relative or friend that we all have that uses Christmas gifts not as a symbol of love and appreciation but a show of look-at-how-much-I-spent-on-you. Please don't cheapen my favorite holiday!


3. Thanksgiving seems to get pushed under the rug. Thanksgiving is a time for reflection on the blessings we have received and a time to spend with family and loved ones, yet it is slowly becoming the forgotten holiday. Costumes and candy are out for a month before Halloween, then right after the costumes come down, the Christmas trees go up... where are the cornucopias to remind us of our bounty and the Fall foliage to remind us of change?


4. Since we are on forgotten holidays...Let's not forget that my birthday is November 30 which falls between Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Perhaps I should have joined the cruisade a little earlier, but better late than never!

To show that I do not have Christmas-itis yet, here is my Thanksgiving table :)

Space Shuttle Endeavor Night Launch

I'm very fortunate. Fortunate because I live very close to a place like nowhere else in the country. When the space shuttle launches, it is always an awesome experience, but when it launches at night....it is spectacular. No, more than spectacular, magnanimous perhaps. The whole night sky lights up and you can see the shuttle from miles and miles away.

Knowing that the streets and all the good viewing spots are crowded and busy, I decided to stay home with the TV on and step outside and watch it from here.

The video doesn't do it justice what-so-ever! The sky over my house went from pitch black to very bright in just a matter of moments. I could even hear the rumble of the boosters as they lifted off! Many people wish they could see a shuttle lift off or drive for hours to come see it. I am lucky enough to step out of my door and see it in my backyard! We've been told that this is most likely the last night launch ever.

I remember being young and watching the shuttle launch from my home in Central Florida. We were told how lucky we were to be able to see the small dot in the sky that our parents and teachers informed us was a space shuttle. I believed them. However, I now know that I wasn't so lucky then, that was NOTHING compared to what my students get to see here. At home it was a small dot in the sky that was easily missed if you were looking in the wrong direction. Here, you can HEAR the shuttle take off and can't help but see it in the sky, especially at night. Also, when the shuttle comes home become a totally different experience here. At home it was a sonic boom that made ya jump a little, but even if you were outside you couldn't see anything and didn't know it was coming unless you had the news on. Because of this, I never thought about trying to see the shuttle land. I got to see my first shuttle come home last year during school. Another teacher ran though my class and told me it was about to land and we all filed outside. We saw the white shape in the sky coming in and heard two distinct booms that did more than make you jump, they rattled the windows! I was on the cell phone with a friend of mine on the other side of the state once and reminded her that the shuttle was coming home any minute. Apparently it isn't as big of a news item as it is here because she had no idea. All of a sudden she says, "I think I just heard the boom" I laughed. Here, you don't think you hear it, you KNOW you hear it, and a little while later, I KNEW I heard it... and so did my cat who took off running to hide under the bed!

Spa!

I had my Body Shop at Home party last night as part of my fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Not very many people showed up though :( I understand however, it was on a Thursday and lots of my friends have kids and other things they have to do during the week. That's OK, the four of us that were here had a blast!

I could still use some fundraising dollars to put towards LLS, and Christmas is coming up soon, so if you'd like to check out the web page and perhaps buy an item or two for yourself or as a gift, a portion of every sale will go towards funding cancer research and directly helping patients! Just mention my name (Nicole A) in the notes section during checkout!

It isn't Christmas yet!

Has everyone forgotten about Thanksgiving? It seems that as soon as the Halloween decorations come down, up go the Christmas decorations! What happened to Thanksgiving!? 100 Days to Christmas reminded me today that it is only two weeks until Thanksgiving and 42 days until Christmas. Pssst... that means, folks, that Thanksgiving comes first; it is prior to or before Christmas. Why oh why does everyone seem to forget Thanksgiving until the day or two before.

With all of the Christmas decorations up, people are starting to get Christmas gifts (my mother informed me she bought mine, the last one she has to buy this year, yesterday and is officially finished with shopping). We even filled out our "Secret Santa" slips for school yesterday and one of my students wore Santa earrings this week too!

Thanksgiving will creep up on you this way! The day before Thanksgiving people will be scrambling around trying to get ready for Thanksgiving because they have been so focused on Christmas. That is, of course, unless you have been following 100 days to Christmas who, although she is counting down to Christmas, didn't forget to prep us for Halloween and is currently reminding us to prep for Thanksgiving so we can enjoy our day in 2 weeks rather than running around like a chicken (turkey?) with our heads cut off!

My opinion? The sequence of events is Halloween, Thanksgiving, my birthday, THEN Christmas. Don't skip those holidays in between - and yes, my birthday is a holiday! I refuse to pull out my Christmas tree and decorations until at least the day after my birthday (Which would be December 1 since my birthday is Nov 30).

Genetics

Nurture vs. Nature. That has been a popular question for years among scientist. I too have often wondered about it for my own reasons and purposes. You see, I was put up for adoption by a very young mother who understood that she was unable to give me the kind of life that she wanted for me. Therefore, I was raised by an amazing family who does not share any biological DNA at all.

Growing up, I knew I was adopted but it didn't bother me other than the occasional thought or wonder about why my parents looked like or what they were good at (Did my mom hate math as much as me? Was my dad a swimmer too?).

Growing up, many people would comment to me that they could tell I was my (adoptive) father's child because I looked "just like" him. Daddy and I would just look at each other, giggle, and say thanks. Funny thing is, I did/do sorta resemble him. Dark hair, brown eyes, and we are both pretty tall - he's 6'4" and I'm nearly 5'9" which is pretty tall for a woman. The funniest thing is that we coincidentally have matching moles on our temples! My (adoptive) mother and I don't resemble each other as much. She has very fair skin with red hair and blue eyes and is only 5'2". However, she is my "mommy" regardless.

When I was 18 I suddenly had contact with my biological family. I was adopted through a lawyer who happened to be a family friend. My biological paternal grandmother contacted him and gave him her name/number/address/info in case I ever started looking for my biological family. Being a family friend, he told my mom and dad, who decided to bring the information to me and let me decide what to do with it. I began writing to my biological mother on a fairly regular basis and eventually met her along with her family and my biological father's family.

It was amazing to look at them. Each one, in a different aspect, was like looking in a mirror. I could literally see myself in them. Perhaps it is because I didn't grow up seeing them everyday and was looking at them for the first time with more mature and critical eyes. I have my biological father's straight brown hair, my mother's hazel eyes and face. Both are tall.

But physical traits isn't were the similarities ended. The day I met my biological mother, we were wearing almost the same outfit. Red long sleeve shirts, black pants, and black Christmas vests. Weird and completely unplanned. Then not long afterwards, I was in a restaurant with my boyfriend (of the time). A woman I had never met before in my life walked up to me and asked me if I was {biological mother}'s daughter. Surprised, I answered, "Yes, but I'm sorry, I don't remember you," thinking it might have been one of the many relatives I met. This woman laughed, then told me we had never met but just KNEW who I was because when I walked in, I not only looked like her, but I have her walk and was eating the EXACT same thing she had ordered the last time they had been in this restaurant together. She even added that I sounded just like her too now that she has spoken with me. It was my biological mother's former sister-in-law with whom she is still friends.

Once, in college, I was told by someone who didn't know my family or situation that I have an "engineer's logic" - my biological father is an engineer, but I have always despised math haha. Even though I don't like math, I do have to have things in a logical order and am able to figure out logic puzzles fairly easily. Geometry was my favorite branch of math because I could "see" it whereas algebra just annoyed the crap outta me (Who put letters in my math problem?!) because I couldn't picture the numbers and letters getting along together in my head. My bio dad said he was always the same way. He can picture how things piece together in his head, but his somehow included the more abstract math such as algebra.

I answered my biological mother's phone once, it was her mother. She had a 10 minute conversation with me before she realized it was me and not my bio. mom. Apparently, people used to confuse the two of them on the phone all the time. One of My mother's boyfriends even once asked Granny on a date, not realizing who he was talking to! Now, people confuse me, my bio mom, my half sister, and Granny! All four of us sound identical on the phone. Another thing all four of us do identically is sneeze. Everyone laughs at my sneeze and have my whole life. It's a teeny little who-just-stepped-on-a-mouse type of sneeze. All four of us have the same giggle-inspiring sneeze. Most of my life people have told me that it wasn't a "real" sneeze and to "just let it out" or not to try to hold it in. They rarely believed me when I would tell them that I wasn't doing it on purpose and I would love to sneeze "normally" if for no other reason than to not be laughed at.

My half sister (bio. mom's daughter), and I often think the exact same thoughts at the same time. Now, I know best friends with no relation can do the same thing, but it is usually because they spend extreme amounts of time together. Unfortunately, my sister and I don't. I didn't know her until I was 18 and she was 7, then I was off to college and from then on, I see her a few time a year and that's all. But still, we have adopted the motto of "Get out of my head!" for the times when we do this to each other, such as recently we called each other out of the blue at exactly the same moment.

Even now, 13 years after my first meeting with my biological family, it is amazing to discover which of my traits are learned from my mom and dad, and which are probably genetically encoded into me.

With this comes some negative things also. I now worry that my maternal grandmother's Alzheimer's may be genetic or that my father's hearing loss may one day find me as well (at least I already know American Sign Language LOL). Diabetes is also a huge factor that I will have to keep an eye on.

So what prompted this blog? One of those sneezes of mine that sends my students into fits of giggles! For some reason when I sneezed this time I remembered that my biological sister, mother, and grandmother all sneeze the same way, and smiled.