Blunder of the day (written Nov. 27)

I just got back from running over to the mail room to stop a disaster. Well, I guess it's not a disaster but one wouldn't necessarily look to fondly on putting a test in a student's mailbox before the test has been graded, let alone even taken. oops! This is a student who missed a whole week of class and of course didn't try to catch up over the week long Thanksgiving break. She is so far behind I don't even know where to start. But anyway, I didn't hand out the graded test to the other students during class so I decided to put it in their mailboxes. The blank test with the student's name on it happened to be in the bunch. whoops!

As soon as I realized my mistake, which took place an hour ago, I ran over to the mailroom. I passed through the day-student lounge and guess who was sitting there on the couch??!! Yup, that very same girl and she had the test sitting right next to her. Feeling a bit like a fool, I kindly asked to have it back. Although she said she hadn't even looked at it, I could feel her sadness floating in the air as I took the top secret info from her hands. I'll be sure not to make that mistake again.

Brother and Sister bonding: "Paperweight"

"Paperweight" by Josh Radin and Schuyler Fisk

Been up all night
staring at you
wondering what's on your mind
i've been this way
with so many before
but this feels like the first time
you want the sunrise
to go back to bed
i want to make you laugh
mess up my bed with me
kick off the covers
i'm waiting
every word you say i think
i should write down
i don't want to forget
come daylight
happy to lay here
just happy to be here
i'm happy to know you
play me a song
your newest one
please leave your taste on my tongue
paperweight on my back
cover me like a blanket
mess up my bed with me
kick off the covers
i'm waiting
every word you say i think
i should write down
i don't want to forget
come daylight
and no need to worry
that's wastin time
and no need to wonder
what's been on my mind
it's you
it's you
every word you say i think
i should write down
don't want to forget
come daylight
and i give up
i let you win
you win 'cause i'm not counting
you made it back
to sleep again
wonder what you're dreaming

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So for some time now I've been trying to find a valuable way to interact with my brother Andy. Often when I'm home the deepest we go is to chuckle over some Arrested Development or watch some funny online videos from youtube.com (good site by the way!). He's an extremely bright person and I am so proud to be his sister. I just wish that we shared more of a consistent and dependable connection. Tonight went a little differently than previous home visits.Recently Andy's been teaching himself how to play the accoustic guitar. He's already got some Jack Johnson under his belt and tonight he wanted to learn this beautiful new one that's typed up above. So he searched the lyrics online and also found a live performance of the song on myspace.com (http://www.myspace.com/joshuaradin). I guess site does come in handy for more than just stalking. So as he was learning the chords I decided to look up the lyrics learn them. Within an hour and a half, he was playing and I was singing right along with his music. This is an unusual experience to report on because typically I need to find something convincingly interesting that will hook his interest and desire to talk or hang out with me. This time it came very naturally. There was no annoyance when either one of us messed up with what we were learning and no sense of eagerness to learn on one's own. we were patient and helped each other learn. Also this was a completely new, and therefore neutral, activity for the two of us. Yes, I sang in choir a while back but the only time I sang along to someone's guitar was at camp in Maine and it's usually blending in with a big group. Point is that it was a fun, new, spontaneous experience that we both enjoyed thoroughly. I'm really grateful to have connected in that way with my brother. ¿quién sabe? maybe you can expect the Hatch twin Cd coming out soon.....

http://www.searchkindly.org/

Looking for an easy way to help the world? A friend told me about this website that's a great alternative to the average google site. Well actually it still is Google but every cent made from advertisers goes to a different charity organization each month. This months charity is INVISIBLE CHILDREN (http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php) . My computer battery is about to run out so I will write more later about the organization as well as their incredibly informative and moving documentary.

I am a contribution

n the book Art of Possibility, the authors have a chapter called "Being a contribution". The main idea is that we should go into our days with the attitude that you have something to contribute, something of value that will positively affect the day. well, I've been just about fed up with how I've been feeling recently when preparing and teaching classes. I've been going to class with the attitude that I'm going to fail, or that they won't understand me,or that I am too incompetent in my knowledge of Spanish to be able to teach it. Point is that I have been knocking myself down and limited my potential. It's been really easy to be like this because the attitude has been pretty negative around here. I know this is contrary to what I wrote at the beginning of the year, pretty much saying that life was perfect. well this still is a very special place, but what's happened is that there is a lot of change going on here and change makes people unhappy and uncomfortable. we just adopted a block schedule, there is a lot of reconstruction and construction changing the look of the campus, old traditions are being altered, there's new faculty, yada yada....point is that many people are uncomfortable with the growing pains and not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. So recently I've been really affected by their attitudes. Every day someone has something negative to say about the schedule or the construction outside our office, or the alertness of the students, etc.

Well I'm fed up with it. I'm tired of feeling like i'm going to vomit before or during my class. I'm tired of complaining, I'm tired of feeling like a downer and so it's time for a change. I want to declare myself a contribution each day, whether big or small. I need to keep it all in perspective and try to see that light at the end of tunnel. My housemate here gave me a good thought: Getting somewhere hard to get to takes a lot of work. Seems like an obvious statement but it's so true. I need to remember that I will not become a super amazing teacher in one day, two months, or even a year, or two years....the point is that any goal is going to take some work to reach and i just need to suck it up and get through the growing pains.This said, there is still the possibility for good each day. that is where the contribution comes in. i need to declare myself a contribution each and every moment of every day or else I will be bound to fail. I know deep down that I have something to offer these girls.It may not be perfection as a teacher but there is always something positive that i can bring every day. I don't like how it feels to dig my own grave and put myself down after every failure. I need to challenge my/the general conception of reality and deny that failure always has to be something negative. Instead failure is a sign of growth, improvement, advancement.

I'll let you know how it goes.

All school fieldtrip to Boston to see Dr. Gunther von Hagens "Body Worlds 2"

www.mos.org/bodyworlds