WHERE OH WHERE HAS MY BIG BLOGGER GONE?

Life is running at full tilt these days, what with graduation out of the way and a big boy job having started. I'm finding out just how hard it is to work all day then come home and blog. It's not so easy, but I'll try to keep it up.

I've so many thoughts lately and not near enough time to write them down. I'll give you an idea of some of the things I've considered:

1. I think it is ridiculous for any news agency to harp on the first lady's shorts. Why do we care if she wears shorts. Women can't catch a break. I mean really ... come on.
2. Health care is a good thing. Health reform is necessary. All the silly misinfo needs to stop in order for us to have healthy debate. We should have healthy debate.
3. It's okay to disagree with the President. Dissent is good. I just wish it was for reasons that were not entirely made up by a bunch of crazies. I'd rather dissent came from legit facts.
   
4. I am really enjoying my job, but it is hard.
   
5. I'm tired. I got to bed about 9:30 p.m. and sleep until 6 p.m. I'm at work at 7:15 a.m. and leave at 4:30 p.m. I usually work a half-day on Saturdays. I'm still happy.
   
6. My father is retiring as I am entering a new career. Weird, huh?
7. I wish my garden grew better. It's frustrating.
8. I didn't realize how many huge pieces of significant legislation that Ted Kennedy had led. Wow! It's staggering. The ADA is a big one in my book.

Sorry for the lack of posts. I make no promises.

HOW'S YOUR GARDEN, MARY?

We've made attempts to grow gardens before, with disappointing results. I'd almost given up hope for my thumb. Then the wife found the Earthbox. Our onions did terrible, all but one dead, but all is not lost. The peppers are doing fine as are the cucumbers, squash and cantaloupe. I don't think we've recouped the money we spent, like many claim, but we have had fresh, organic produce.

The summer isn't over yet, either. I'm hoping it really gets going soon, exploding with fruit. The squash, cucumbers and cantaloupe have blossoms a plenty so I anticipate some good eating very soon. I did notice our first cantalope today. It's a cute little guy, about the size of a Nerf baseball.

If it all works out well, I may purchase more Earthboxes next year and plant me some maters. I have decided to forget the poblano peppers from now on. It's easier to buy them in the store. I'll replace them with more red, yellow or orange bell peppers.

ANOTHER GARDEN ADVENTURE AT THE HOUSE OF JACK

I cannot seem to grow plants. I've tried, but it is a seemingly fruitless effort every time. We stumbled onto the Earthbox gardening system on HSN. It is highly recommended there and on Amazon, so the wife and I decided to give it a try. It uses less fertilizer, less water and doubles the yield and it is perfectly suited for organic gardening.

Enjoy the comic detailing our adventure.

Classrooms Designed for Success: Missouri Summit on Inclusive Education

The Missouri Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities is hosting a summit for educators interested in inclusion of children with disabilities into the regular classroom.

Classrooms Designed for Success!
October 15-16
Hilton Garden Inn Conference Center
Columbia, MO

Participants will take home tools, resources, and information that can be used in their classrooms. As well, a Call for Investment (grant) will be available for school districts that wish to implement collaborative teaching methods district-wide. In order to be eligibile school districts must send at least three team members (regular ed, special ed, administrators and parents) to the summit.

Check Out The Japanese Festival

It's going to be a soggy weekend for the Japanese festival held at the Mizumoto Japanese Stroll Garden (at the Nathanael Greene Park, 2400 S. Scenic). If you've never been, it is a great time. There are plenty of places for kids to run and play and be outdoors as well as special booths and events just for the kiddies. There is also Japanese drummers, tea ceremonies, Iaido demonstrations (samurai sword), and martial arts demonstrations.

If you are at all interested in the samurai, then the Iaido demonstration is particularly interesting. Mark Boisse, the Iaido instructor, lived in Japan for a couple of years and studied the art of the samurai sword from the masters. What you see is real art and swordsmanship, as opposed to Hollywood's version of swordplay.

The tea ceremonies are also authentic and beautiful. The last couple of years, they have had a booth of Japanese candies, snacks and drinks. This is always a big hit. It is an interesting cultural event. Despite the weather, plenty of people had fun last night, according to the News-Leader.

Whatcha Readin’? Whatcha Doing?

Besides vast amounts in my History text, a biography of Ronald Reagan, and an interesting education text, I also have a belly full of children’s literature to read this semester:

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White (just finished)
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (just finished)
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Becoming Naomi Leon by Pam Munoz Ryan
Beauty by Robin McKinley and
Kids at Work by Lewis Hine (non fiction)

I have never read any of these previously, although I should have come across Charlotte’s Web and The Secret Garden before now. Charlotte’s Web was okay. Just okay. I am not enthralled with it. People (come to think of it, it’s been mostly women. How curious.) seem to be so in love with this book. It’s being turned into a live action children’s movie released this fall. But as animal books go, I think there are so many others of higher quality. Where the Red Fern Grows and The Tale of Despereaux are two that come to mind.

Other students inform me that this instructor chooses Charlotte’s Web and The Secret Garden every semester. The other books change but not these two. Maybe I should have kept my classroom criticism of Charlotte’s Web to myself the other day? Jack doesn’t do that too well, especially when it comes to literature. I've finished The Secret Garden and am very irritated by the overt racism and multiple sterotypes found inside. I do not find it to be a sensible book for the 21st Century classroom. I'll discuss this in a later post. For now, let's get back to my Children's Lit class.

This class consists mostly of future teachers, the majority of us being focused on elementary. The teacher knows this, as this is the only class she has been teaching for three years. Just by looking at the required books, the reading list for the class, can you make any predictions or form any questions? I know I have one serious question in the back of my mind. How will this class, this reading list, affect elementary students in years to come? Is there a bias? I’m wondering.

I’ll give you a hint where I’m going. I cannot speak for her other classes, but just based on this class I raise a question, and it’s just a question, about gender bias. Are we teaching literature for children or are we teaching literature for girls? Research is starting to show that girls are testing higher than boys. This didn’t used to be true. We used to prepare girls to become inferior, home-bound, baby factories. No more and I’m glad for that. I'm for girl power.

I have no research to back it up, but I might hypothesize, in general, that girls in upper elementary read novels (chapter books) for enjoyment more than boys. Therefore, as a teacher, I might try to tap into that lack of male entertainment reading and find a way to engage those boys in reading. What kinds of books might they be interested in? The Secret Garden? Charlotte's Web? Beauty (which is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast)? Generally speaking I would say probably not. At this age, gender differences are what define the social structure. X item is a girl or boy oriented item. We can argue, and rightfully so, that this is not good, but it is true. So I might question a college instructor’s choice of books in a children’s literature class geared for the elementary teacher, if those choices have a gender bias.

It will be an interesting experiment to read these books and discover for myself if there is, indeed, a gender bias in my opinion. Even if there is, that is not to say that the future teachers in this classroom will only choose books that are gender-biased or gender-specific or gender-bent. But that is not to say that they might not unintentionally, as well. Seems to me the best thing to do would be to have a discussion on the subject, if it’s appropriate.

Just for sake of clarity, I do not define a boy as boy or girl based soley on the main character. I base my rating on questions such as: "Would a girl (or a boy) find this book interesting or engaging?" I consider Charlotte's Web more of a girl book. It is a book about how we feel and about language. I consider it a book geared toward girls and I think many boys might find it lacking. Notice, I didn't say all boys. That's just my opinion.

As a future teacher, I would argue for books that have do not have a gender bias, or that have less of a gender bias. I would advocate for books that both girls and boys are attracted too – books that have strong characters from both genders – books that most children can relate to. I will prefer books that do not have racism and stereotypes. Or if the books do, that there is some resolve of those stereotypes or racism at the end, such as in Mark Twain's classic tale, Huckleberry Finn. So far, I’ve read Charlotte’s Web and The Secret Garden and I am sorely disappointed. Just as a point, they are both girl books. Not that a book is bad because it is a girl book or boy book. Our world needs both girl books and boy books. But our collee childrne's literature class, teaching future teachers, should not teach rely so heavily on girl books.

… You Might Be a Redneck

If you fight an Independence Day fire without a shirt or shoes, you might be a redneck.

In fact you may very well find yourself in a group of drunk hillbillies who, after setting an drought-ridden field a blaze, run through the field with a hose and a garden watering can to fight a fire, never taking heed that they are nearly naked and shoeless. But for my friends, that just adds to the excitement.

Now my friends have more sense than to shoot off fireworks in the middle of an brittle, overgrown field. Well, I guess I should say that it was our party hosts family that beat us to the fireworks idea. Inevitably, us’in dunderheads probably would have done the same we’ve would have waited we had consumed plenty of alcohol. But as it was, my friends were gathered in the pool and Shelby’s family were in the backfield igniting bottle rockets and the grass.

The burn site was probably 30 feet in diameter. I was in the pool with Sophie when the buddies took off toward the smoke. I however clothed my body before heading to the scene. I was stopped by one of the ladies who handed me a garden watering can. Off I trotted, armed with a 2-gallon watering can and a camera, to fight a 30-foot diameter burn.

We burned nothing down and controlled the burn within minutes. We’ve decided that Shelby’s Aurora home is the new party palace. He has a pool, which the kids love, and he owns the movie Princess Movie Theatre in downtown Aurora. Seems whenever we go there, something eventful or embarrassing happens. Either way, it’s always a good time for us’in Rednecks.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

… with peppers and maters and cilantro galore. I planted my first garden today, April 22, 2006, which just so happens to also be the 36th anniversary of Earth Day.

I don’t much like yard work. I have no interest in digging in the Earth nor for growing things, although I am a Hobbit in almost every other way. All of this is much to my grandmother’s chagrin. Gardens and growing things bring her so much happiness, probably because they put up with her pissing with them constantly without any fuss.

But this year my daughter is five (six in a month) and she brought some plant home from Sunday School for Easter (I have been informed that it was an Easter Lilly, so I don’t know need a gush of emails informing me of such, thank you very much.) She watered it everyday and loved watching it grow. That is until she got bored with it, but that’s just how kids are. I can’t really fault her for that. There are other ways to spend time with your child than watching movies and reading books. So this summer, Sophie and I are tending garden.

Thus the vegetables. I got vegetables because we are soon to be down to one income and I’ve been told that growing your own veggies is much cheaper and healthier than the store bought variety. Although I am wondering about that seeing how much I spent doing all of this (and I bought cheap.) Plants, pots, steaking sticks, potting soil and manure, gloves, a watering hose and spray nozzle. Some of this are items that a household needs anyway, so I can’t baulk too much.

I will say that I refrained from the high priced soil with fertilizer in it. I went granola and bought plain potting soil and mixed it with manure. By the way, that is very cheap. Sophie and I mixed the manure (manure, can you believe that … shit?) That’s right, I told my daughter that it was manure, which is cow poop. And she said it was gross and stuck her hands in it anyway. I was so proud.

We planted our veggies in pots and put them out by the back fence. I choose potting them rather than a tilling the Earth because I am lazy and it’s a small garden and I don’t’ have a tiller, and I’m lazy, and I don’t really like gardening anyway, and I hate weeding and I am lazy.

We planted six bell pepper plants: yellow, red and purple. (I’ve never heard of purple bell peppers. They also had chocolate peppers too, but I didn’t get those.) We got five tomato plants: four roma and one beef steak as well as one poblano pepper, also known as ancho. She and I also planted a pot full of cilantro. The poblano is the pepper used to make chili rellenos and is one of the most popular peppers used in Mexican cooking.

So help me God, if those hairy, lop-eared little bastard bunnies get into my plants, I’m going to shoot them with my .22 and have us some roast rabbit with veggies. That sounds good, I might do that just for the yumminess of it. I may see if What-A-Crock has a slow cooker recipe for rabbit.