Meal Plan, 4/7-4/12

Posted by Jackie in cooking, meal planning and tagged with , , ,
green beans

green beans (Photo credit: Chasqui (Luis Tamayo))

Kid Lunches: mini-deep-dish pizzas and peanut-butter rice-krispy treats with mini-chocolate chips on top

They also have yogurts, apples, juiceboxes, and snack packs of pirate booty to pack; I just note here what I’ve actually made for their lunches. I get everything together for them on the weekends, and then during the week, they pack their own lunches, picking form what they know we have available. Sandwiches have been almost non-existent this year, because in their new school, they are allowed to use a microwave to heat up their lunch.

Jackie Lunches: pizza potato skins, I will also be packing apples for my own lunch

Dinners:

Monday: I had planned to throw something in the crockpot, but forgot! So we had leftovers/sandwiches from the weekend.

Tuesday: Peach BBQ Chicken Sandwiches with cheesy mashed potatoes I threw together; I had the innards all baked and ready to go after making my lunch potato skins. Sadly, while it smelled absolutely delicious, I think I had this in the crockpot for an hour or two too long, and the sauce/meat tasted really burnt. I’ll be giving it another try, but probably on a weekend.

Wednesday: a rare split menu, with ham slice, applesauce and Annie’s mac-and-cheese for the kids, green-bean bundles and breaded tilapia fillets for the husband and me. I decided to do this because I wanted to try this meal for myself before I made the kids try it (and hear them complain), and because I don’t like boxed mac-and-cheese!

Thursday: Chicken Parmesan casserole with tri-color rotini; I think the crouton topping will make this a family hit.

Friday: homemade pizza night!

Notes:

I made the potato skins, mini-pizzas and krispy-treats during the weekend to get ready for the week; cooking/baking ahead has probably been one of the biggest changes I’ve made in this meal planning journey, and one of the most helpful.

Two of the girls’ regular weekly activities are over for the year, so that has eased up my meal-planning schedule some, as there is only one day a week now where I won’t be home by 5, ready to start cooking. Lucy has ballet on Thursdays until June, so that will be my new easy/leftovers night!

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Help Me Choose!

Posted by Jackie in poetry, writing and tagged with , , ,

Now that the Pulitzer Remix project is over, our fearless leader Jenni B. Baker is assembling a manuscript to pitch to publishers. Due to the sheer number of poems, we are all choosing what we think are the best of the work we produced, to help her sort out some early candidates. After some personal/family factors, I do not have the entire 31 poems I hoped to have, but I do have a good amount of poems to choose from–if I could make a decision.

That’s where you come in.

Please go see all the poems I wrote during the project (click on each book cover to reveal the poems), and let me know here in the comments which poems you like the most. The project will be hidden from public view after May 19th, while Jenni assembles the manuscript, so if you could look sometime soon, that would be great. While you’re on the website, feel free to look around; there’s an incredible amount of interesting work posted, and I’ve read some amazing stuff from my fellow remix poets.

Thanks for your help!

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MOOCs, Redux

Posted by Jackie in education, personal goals, technology, writing and tagged with , ,

After making a strong start with Modern Poetry (nicknamed ModPo) last fall and feeling really enthusiastic, I ended up crashing and burning midway through the semester. However, since it was completely a falling-down on my part and not at all related to the course, I’m giving Coursera another try this summer, as well as enrolling in ModPo again for the fall. This summer I’m signed up for:

Latin American Culture: hoping this will help prepare me better to add more history and culture to my Latin American fiction course next spring

The Fiction of Relationship: not totally sure I will be able to complete this one, as there are several books on the reading list I’ve never read and don’t own! But I’m very curious about the class, and what they will discuss for the books I am familiar with, like Beloved and Ficciones.

This time around, I’m planning on taking more of a cherry-pick approach; I’m definitely aiming to complete the Latin American class, but if I don’t get to every assignment, I’m okay with that. With the fiction class, I’m planning to start off as more of an interested observer, and if I get hooked, then I will do my best to complete what I can. I think this is probably the most realistic approach for me, and I think it will also help ensure that I do feel I’ve gained something for the hours I end up investing in the class.

The next big Coursera development that intrigues me is their entry into professional development courses for K-12 teachers; I’m especially interested in this course on Brain-Targeted Teaching because I’m familiar with some of the professor’s work, and she is the former principal of the elementary school my daughters attended until this year. I also added this course on museum teaching strategies for the classroom to my “watch list,” so that Coursera will alert me when future sessions are scheduled. I have no idea whether MOOCs are a good venue for effective professional development, but I’m fascinated to see how this unfolds.

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Evaluating A Course: Latin American Literature

Posted by Jackie in authors, poetry, teaching and tagged with , , , , ,
Cover of "The Feast of the Goat: A Novel&...

Cover of The Feast of the Goat: A Novel

What I wanted: to see what the students thought of my Latin American Literature course, which I created myself and taught for the first time this spring. The course had a list of five texts, all of which I had never taught before: three novels, a collection of poetry and a collection of short stories.

What I used: a Course Evaluation form I designed specifically for this purpose, but I think I could use for any senior elective I teach (feel free to use it yourself!)

What I suspected: that five books were too many, as I think we’ll only end up watching the film adaptation of the final book; that they may have only really enjoyed one of the books we read

What I feared: that the class had been uneven, seemed randomly arranged or not engaging enough; that I had made at least one poor choice in texts; that they had not enjoyed the course (always a fear of mine!)

What they said:

  • only one student found the pace too fast, but several mentioned wanting to go more in depth with the books they liked, so I think next year I’ll drop the novel we didn’t get to this year and look again at the schedule of readings
  • Our work with The Essential Pablo Neruda: Selected Poems was a hit, and they really enjoyed The Feast of the Goat: A Novel (as I suspected might be the only book they really liked), so those two units will stay; I may incorporate more poetry alongside Neruda as well
  • several mentioned wanting to know more about the culture (yes, including food), so I have to think about how to integrate that more
  • none of them particularly liked the text I thought was a poor choice (Ficciones (English Translation)), so I’ll be dropping that and looking for a replacement

What surprised me:

There were a few positive comments, but also some strong recommendations to drop One Hundred Years of Solitude , which I didn’t expect. I can’t imagine teaching a survey of 20th century Latin American literature without including this book, so I don’t think I’ll drop it, but I do think it means I need to do more work in scaffolding the book and engaging the students more thoroughly as we study it. It’s a challenging text, but I think it is so rich and valuable that I need to challenge myself to do it better justice next time. Perhaps placing it at the beginning of the course was too intimidating? Maybe I should have eased us in with some short stories first? Need to think more about this.

What pleased me:

  • Several comments about how different the course content is from what they’d been exposed to previously in school, which is exactly why I thought we needed to offer this course
  • comments about me being a tough grader, but also “reasonable” and never unfair, and always paired with comments about the class being engaging, enjoyable, and “welcoming”
  • comments about enjoying discussions and how I guided or conducted those sessions; this semester was a small group, so I tried to run it like a college-level seminar (with spring seniors, always tricky) and think that was useful

Notes for the future:

Need to replace at least one text; thinking about using The Oxford Book of Latin American Short Stories

Need to reconfigure the schedule of assignments better so that they are more evenly spread through the semester

Need to ask specifically about the assignments on the course evaluation next time

Need to rethink assignments; they wrote one 4-5 page essay and one short timed explication, completed blog posts for one unit, were responsible for leading class discussion once and will write a personal essay (which probably will not do next year, due to changes in text, and will need to be replaced)

Need to go back and turn scribbled notes into more formal lesson plans

Need to choose film (perhaps Il Postino, which I know our library owns) and think about how to integrate more cultural aspects/information

*Explanatory note* this class is pretty male-author-dominated, but that’s mainly because there is another set of electives at my school called “Hispanic Women Writers,” so I have to steer clear of any overlap when I choose books

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Desk Shrine

Posted by Jackie in all about me

Desk Shrine

Next to my desk, in my classroom, is a little bookshelf, full of books I teach and have taught, and the top of that bookshelf has become a little shrine, the most personal corner of my room and one that makes me smile every time I see it. From left to right, here’s the stories of what you see:

  • top left: this sign is left from last year’s senior class, who turned our school into Hogwarts for the day
  • top right: my room doesn’t have windows, so I made some “faux-windows” with flowered wrapping paper, and added a lovely Nikki McClure poster (get your own here)
  • bottom left: this giraffe is made from strips of soda cans, and my sister bought it for me at the Smithsonian years ago
  • behind the red water bottle: a mini-plush version of Fawkes, the phoenix from Dumbledore‘s office
  • Card from my sister, reads “SRSLY” on the front, because we send each emails and chat throughout the day, and sometimes our emails consist of abbreviations like this (or WTF, or OMG, or LOL–more text speak than I use when actually texting, even)
  • whale: this came from our trip to Luray Caverns last summer, and I bought it because it reminds me of a little donkey in the same stone that my father bought me there, as a souvenir when I was very young
  • parrot mug: this came from my grandmother’s house, and reminds me of her flamboyant spirit and attitude
  • colored notes: for the past few years, our advisory activity in mid-November has been writing thank-you notes to different members of the community, and these are the ones I received this year–I love this activity, and treasure the notes
  • white notes: these are the cards that came with bouquets of flowers my husband has sometimes surprised me with at school
  • sunflower card: a wonderful thank-you note I received from the GSA president this year, a girl whose manners are only exceeded by her energy, enthusiasm, brilliance and leadership
  • gold picture frame: these are baby pictures of my own dear girls in these little knitted hats a grad-school friend made them, so one looks like an apple and the other a lemon
  • silver picture frame: I have two pictures in this one, one at the zoo when my girls were in preschool, and the other down at the Baltimore harbor when they were only a year or two older

It’s a hodge-podge of colors and memories, and while I didn’t put a lot of formal planning into it, it’s evolved into an important visual part of my daily routine, reminding me why I do what I do and why I am who I am.

Summer Schooling

Posted by Jackie in education, teaching and tagged with , , , , ,
The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written i...

The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in alliterative verse and paragraphs, not in lines or stanzas. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Instead of choosing some professional development books to read this summer, I’ve got enough new units/courses that I’ll be plenty busy with reading and planning. Here’s what I’m looking at:

  • start mapping out lessons and assessments for Beowulf
  • start mapping out lessons and assessments for Persepolis
  • read and annotate several texts for new senior elective on reading/writing nonfiction
  • start mapping out lessons and assessments, based on workshop format
  • read new summer reading texts for 9th grade, including The Pearl and plan mini-unit
  • condense 9th grade Bible-as-literature unit to form new introductory mini-unit on recognizing allusion

As you can see, we’re making some exciting changes to our ninth grade curriculum to make it more global, and I’m tackling a new senior elective in addition to one I’ve only taught once before. So instead of doing big-picture pedagogical thinking, I’ll be immersed in nuts-and-bolts curriculum planning. I do truly enjoy both, but it’ll be a shift for sure, and should be plenty to occupy my summer hours.

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Ooh Ooh Child

Posted by Jackie in all about me

Ooh Oooh child, things are gonna get easier

I’m always surprised by the music my students know; I hear girls humming the Beatles in the hallway and they know all the words to “Thriller,” but then last year an earnest senior student said to me, “My college essay is about Kurt Cobain; do you know who that is?” He died when I was your age, I said, and I remember so many of my friends crying that day. We bond over Beyonce and they introduce me to Odd Future and we all get excited when Anything Can Happen comes on.

Some day, yeah
We’ll get it together and we’ll get it all done

Lately, “Oooh Oooh Child” has been a popular one; almost any mention of words in the lyrics will start off girls singing, sometimes under their breath, sometimes just one, but other times a duo or a trio will sing in harmony, and more than once a girl has just busted it out, unconsciously and louder than even she expected.

Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter

There are so many reasons, it seems, to see darkness lately, and as always, it’s these girls who lead me to the light and remind me of my place in the world and the possibilities that they represent. They are changing and growing almost by the minute; they are tender-hearted and selfish both, and they teach and surprise and frustrate and inspire me. I feel so lucky to spend my days with them, and to have my nest in this community. This has been such a tough year, in so many ways, but I know I am stronger for it, and I know even more clearly what I value and what I hold closest to my heart.

Ooh-oo child
Things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child
Things’ll get brighter
Right now, right now

Hobbies: a List

Posted by Jackie in writing and tagged with , , , ,

Inspired by this post, a series of lists:

Hobbies I’ve Had Pretty Much My Whole Life That Are Big Parts of My Identity:

Reading
Writing
Thinking About Stuff
Daydreaming
Listening to Music or Going to See Live Concerts
Watching Movies

Hobbies I’ve Tried to Get Into But Failed Because I Have Bad Eye-Hand Coordination:

Playing guitar
Knitting

Hobbies I’ve Attempted to Get Into and Still Own Some Materials For:

Embroidery
Jewelry-Making

Hobbies That I Never Thought I Would Have But Are Actually Awesome

Baking
Blogging

Hobbies I’d Like to Acquire Someday:

Quilting
Sewing
Making Clay Stuff or Ceramics
Painting

Hobbies I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Get Into But Hey, You Never Know

Gardening
Ice Hockey
Martial Arts

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One of Those “I’m So Busy” Posts

Posted by Jackie in all about me, writing

It’s April:

  • the point in the school year where so much is behind you, and yet so much still looms ahead.
  • Day of Silence time
  • keeping track of 50 different student extra credit projects for National Poetry Month
  • making sure I’ve got a poem to post every day for the Pulitzer Remix project
  • my husband and daughter are acting together in a production of Midsummer’s Night Dream, as Puck and Moth the fairy, respectively; the show opens this weekend, which means they’ve got dress rehearsals all week, and while I’m thrilled to see the show, I’ll be happy to have my husband back too!
  • everyone seems to be dreaming summertime dreams already, as we slog through the spring showers
  • the seniors are making plans for a world that seems so close and still so far away; some of them are still pushing ahead with some focus and energy, but many are not, and it’s hard to blame them!
  • I start to think about all the things I did wrong this year, or didn’t do, or want to change for next year
  • the spring sunshine streaming in on certain days shows me just how cluttered my house has become
  • I make new resolutions about all the exercising I’m going to do once the sun comes out for good
  • Unbloggable Stuff that seems to add new complications to every day

Thank goodness I’m feeling better, because otherwise, I’m not sure how I would push through the rest of the year!

Recipes and Life Lessons

Posted by Jackie in cooking and tagged with , ,
Tuna casserole

casserole (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Way back in January, I tried a chicken and rice casserole that didn’t go too well; I pulled it out of the oven too soon and the chicken and rice were both undercooked. We gave it a good try, but it was just not good. This has been one of the hardest parts about resolving to try new and more varied recipes, because it’s so frustrating when you put hours of time into preparing something and it falls flat, especially when you’re counting on it for dinner. Seeing the looks of disappointment on my family’s face is my least favorite part of trying to be more adventurous with food.

However, I think it’s also an important lesson: failure is part of cooking, just like it is part of life, and trying again until you get it right is an important skill to have. So today, I tried that chicken and rice casserole again, waiting patiently until it looked just right, adding a layer of shredded organic Mexican-blend cheese and then popping it back in the oven until the cheese got good and melty. And it worked! The casserole was classic comfort food, and a hit with 3/4 of us (Lucy was the lone dissenter, as she often is). I’ll be taking it for lunch a few times this week, and am looking forward to it.

I suspect baking will always be more pleasurable to me, but as I add more dishes to my dinner repertoire, I believe even more strongly that continually challenging myself as a cook is one of the best things I can do for myself and my family. Setting aside questions of health and nutrition (though that’s a big part of it), cooking teaches such valuable ideas about patience, persistence, confidence and discipline. I cook because we need to eat, because it’s one of the major ways I show my family I love them, and because it makes me a better person, one plate at a time.

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